This time of year is all about the berries. Blueberries! So yummy. (Sorry – the photo is a bit blurry – though not bad for a cell-phone snapshot in the rain while holding my berry bucket in the other hand, LOL!) Chokecherries! We have a huge tree that doesn’t produce much fruit. They take a […]

This morning as I was perusing some blogs, I wandered, and clicked down a few paths, found a couple rabbit-holes and ended up discovering this fun challenge: Share Your Desktop What’s on my desktop this month? This photo: It’s been my desktop photo for many months. Frankly, it’s been there since March (when I shared […]

It’s my favorite day of the year. Mud Wallow Day!! Each year, usually the last weekend in July, Nature Rocks Homer hosts a mud wallow and invites all kids – and kids-at-heart – to come play. It began 11 years ago as a way to try to encourage kids (and their parents) to get outside […]

The way our schedule is working out this summer with activities and programs, I get a chance to do some hiking each week with just my bigger kids and separately with just my little guy. (I try to spend time with them individually anyway, but sometimes the schedule makes that more challenging. It’s great to […]

Outdoors! This Sunday Stills topic made me smile, of course. Anyone who has spent any time with me or perusing my posts can see that we spend a LOT of time outdoors. To be fair, when you live in a small abode on a river in rural Alaska, it is pretty darn easy to be […]

This is Skye. This past semester, my kiddos participated in a read-aloud challenge. The challenge? Read aloud 10 minutes for 25 days. They each selected a reward for when they accomplished this goal. (The days did not need to be consecutive.) They got to mark off on a chart each day they read aloud for […]

Dinosaurs! When we lived in Colorado, we lived a stone’s throw from Dinosaur Ridge. I loved walking the road and hiking the ridge. It was a total delight to bring the kids there and to explore the dinosaurs with them. The place has surely grown – from the expanded gift shop and exhibition center, to […]

Oh, this made me smile! I arrive back home after a few weeks away, intent to get some of my thoughts actually out into this here blog, and what do I discover but that the most recent Sunday Stills theme is: Vacation! I loved to hike at Mount Falcon Park, one of Colorado’s JeffCo Open […]

Oi, the last few weeks have been a roller coaster. But….deep breath. Begin where you are, right? Right. Here on the lower Kenai Peninsula, it is shorebird season! There is still a lot of snow and ice, but birds are on their way through. We participated in a shorebird monitoring session a few days ago […]

Last week, we tried something new to start our days. We did a “short” art lesson right after breakfast. It was a lot of fun to try a new instructor and to start each day with some new little tidbit about drawing or painting or sculpting. Of course, the 5-10 minute lesson always led to […]

If we were sitting having tea this morning, I’d be smiling because I finally got around to making a batch of instant chai! I am truly enjoying my cuppa chai latte. It’s perfect for yet another snowy Sunday. It’s a nice treat as I file our taxes. And it’s a good pick-me-up as I sort […]

Rain?! I had to think on this one a bit. It’s still winter up here and, for the most part, we did not get rain this winter! (This is coastal Alaska, and some winters are more rain & ice than snow!) Aside from a 24 hour period of RAIN in the middle of a multi-day […]

What a couple weeks it has been!! If we were chatting over coffee (or chai), I’d be telling you about the district Battle of the Books competitions, the spelling bee (and the state one to come), and the state Battle of the Books competition. We’d be shaking our heads at the weather, first sunny and […]

We’ve had a a small bird feeder on our dining room window for the past few winters. (We don’t keep it up in the spring/summer, because bears.) We have already gone through more birdseed this winter than we have in the past 2 winters combined! They are greedy little things this year! We see black-capped […]

Recently, we had a delightful dump of snow! Sledding, shoveling, snowballs…yay! Luckily, we also had snow moving equipment and a boy ready to put that equipment to use. 😀 Yeah, we have a lot of fun in our world. Linking to Our World Tuesday. Check it out – there’s always amazing things to see!

Whoa…okay, so ‘landscapes’ for a theme is a bit overwhelming!! Why? Because I have SO many!! I just can’t help myself sometimes. Every time I visit the beach near sunrise or sunset, I take the “same” photo. I know I’m not the only one!! (I swear, my husband has hundreds of photos of the same […]

Whoo-whee! The snow has arrived! And behind it, blue skies and amazing sunrises. Now, I’m off to go shovel some more. 🙂 Linking to Sunday Stills: Clouds & Our World Tuesday.

Upon finding out that my girls were going snowshoeing with their outdoor group yesterday, my little guy was adamant that he and I should snowshoe as well. Who am I to say no to that? 🙂 It was a gorgeous day: not too cold, not too hot. Mostly cloudy, no wind. Great snow. At some […]

‘Glacier Blue’ has fascinated me since I saw my first glacier and realized the color was real, and not a photographer’s trick! There is something just awesome about it. It’s hard to explain. And the color can shift and change with the light. (Maybe that’s why some see it as more blue, some see it […]