A Little Arkansas Adventure

We spent last week in Arkansas, visiting friends that Alex and Jack had made online.

One of Alex’s best friends, nicknamed Oof online, lives in a small town there and he asked a few months ago if we could find a way to go down and visit her.

I decided we all needed a vacation since it’s been years since we’ve taken a proper family trip, so I looked online and found a wonderful historic hotel with incredibly cheap prices that’s run by a local Baptist college.

We also found out that one of Jack’s online friends lives nearby and another lives in the same town as Oof, so we arranged to meet them too.

The hotel had all kinds of murals painted on the alley by the entrance so we had fun posing with those.

They also have a Beetles park because the Beetles famously hid out in the town once to try to get away from the public, so Daryl and Fiona had fun exploring that.

We had a wonderful time! This is the first time we’ve done a family trip with just the youngest three kids who are still at home. Toria house sat and pet-sat for us and Rhia watched over the arts center and the cats there. We’re making sure to plan a proper family trip with all the kids (grown included) soon.

This is the first time Daryl and the kids have seen Arkansas and I really enjoyed showing them the Ozarks. I lived in Arkansas for a year of my childhood (along with a ton of other states) and I am always happy when I can show our family places I lived as a kid.

We hiked, explored quite a few parks, learned about frog sounds and famous musicians, bowled, wall climbed, geocached, did Pokemon Go runs, ate lots of good BBQ, made new friends, learned about Arkansas, got fun souvenirs, read, watched documentaries, played games, did ropes courses, played arcade games, foraged, learned new wild plants, and so much more.

I can’t wait until the next adventure!

Captured Moments

A local arts organization in a nearby town had a fun opportunity recently. They asked community members to submit one or two cell phone pictures or poems from 2023 for an exhibit of captured moments. They printed them and matted/framed them for the exhibition.

Alex, Fiona, Daryl and I all submitted something, and last night we traveled for the opening of the show. 

Alex and Fiona decided to dress up for the event. Alex has a tux that he got at Goodwill a few years ago and he wears it ever chance he can get.

It was fun looking at everyone else’s photos, and seeing ours up on the wall and in the displays.

I submitted one photo (of Fiona dressed as a fairy in History Fest) and one poem, A Spell to Bring Back Loved Ones.

Daryl submitted a photo he took of Fiona looking at a sunset. We all remember that moment well, when we stopped on the way home from getting groceries to admire the sunset and run around a bit.

It was a fun evening! 

The pieces will be on display for a couple of months and then we get to take them home.

They’re planning on doing it again next year and we can’t wait to do it again!

A Little January Check In

Things have been trucking along here. January is always a slow season in our homeschool. We do lots of inside stuff — projects, games, reading, long baths and messy art.

As I type, Daryl and Fiona are in a nearby town for a daddy-daughter time with an arts center’s mad hatter poetry and tea time.

Alex has been busy with lots of projects, like these rings that he designed and made with copper wire he found inside a broken fan.

He’s also been doing a lot of ice skating, both at rinks and out in nature.

The kids have been taking part in a near-weekly art journal meetup at our UU church. We’ve also been doing swimming at the Y and the kids have been doing youth group, game nights and other fun.

I’m working on my latest book, a poetry book (Flower Girls) funded by a grant from a local arts organization to write poems using flowers as analogies for women and women’s experiences. The main part of the grant is paying local artists to illustrate each poem, and Toria and Rhia are two of the artists who have been contributing. I’m really loving the artwork they’ve created.

Here are two (first one illustrated by Toria, then one with art by Rhia).

We’re also planning a trip in March to Arkansas to meet up with some of the boys’ online friends and explore the area. We’re staying at a really cool historic hotel and it should be fun.

Other homeschooly things we’re doing — Fiona is still learning German on Duolingo. Alex is still obsessed with all things science. He also put in an application at a local grocery store and is under consideration for another employment opportunity that can’t be discussed online (sounds mysterious but it’s a cool program that Toria also took part in that is affiliated with the state and nothing shady! LOL). He’s been learning to cook more things from scratch, and made himself a pile of tacos with homemade refried beans and a frozen banana and peanut butter smoothie for breakfast.The older kids are all doing their various work and hobbies.

Toria will be having surgery yet again, for tumors at the site where their cancer was at 13. These ones are benign but it still makes 5 surgeries above the neck and we are really hoping this is the last surgery ever. That will be on February 1st. Good thoughts and prayers welcome!

Daryl is still busy with a billion projects — online readings, submitting his latest short film to festivals, acting in a murder dinner theater performance next week, and so on.

And with that, I’m off to go glare at my never ending to-do list and then get distracted by something shiny. ;) Till next time…..

50 Things We’ve Homeschooled Recently

(Note: I wrote this in early November and then somehow forgot to post it! Pretend this is dated over a month ago!)

Happy Monday! I’m just doing a quick little post for my own records and to remind myself that yes, we’re all learning and doing awesome things when I swear we’ve been slugs for months. 😉

So here are a random 50 things off the top of my head that we’ve done, discussed and played lately….

1. Alex is still teaching himself guitar.
2. Fiona got to play with two friends at church yesterday and did crafts, shared joys and sorrows, played outside with them, and so on.
3. We picked up Rhia from New Ulm where she’d spent the weekend with friends going to an ABBA tribute concert and heard all about friends she met from around the world and the musicians she knows in the concert.
4. We’ve spotted bald eagles, harrier hawks, swans and other cool birds lately. The pelicans have already migrated south and I miss them.
5. Fiona is learning German in Duolingo.
6. Alex has been watching lots of science videos. He especially loves learning about astrophysics.
7. We dropped off food to help a mom and daughter in a nearby town and made new friends.
8. Fiona plays lots of daily word games like Wordle and Connections.
9. Alex and I have been talking a lot about mental health, ADHD tools and neurodiversity.
10. I’m still working on the book project of my latest grant, and Toria, Rhia, Gabe and Lily are all contributing art to it.
11. Alex met up with a new friend from out of town and they made plans to start working out together.
12. The kids played Timeline, which is always a fun way to learn history.
13. We have some homeschoolers from a nearby town coming to the arts center Wednesday to meet for the first time and maybe start doing a weekly art/music/game meetup.
14. Alex has been longboarding a lot while the weather is still good.
15. Both Alex and Fiona have been cleaning out and redecorating their rooms.
16. Fiona has been swimming at the Y.
17. Alex and his friend Konsandra are doing weekly gym times at the local school. I love that he is so secure that he’s not at all intimidated about working out in a room full of high school students at a school he doesn’t attend.
18. Fiona has been doing a lot of digital art.
19. Alex is studying for his driver’s permit.
20. Daryl published his book, Making and Playing the Musical Spoons (aff link), and the kids have been helping him show lots of folks how to play the spoons.
21. Fiona is still very into fashion, spending all sorts of time planning outfits. I love her fashion sense and also love that all of her clothes are from thrift stores and yet she’s generally the most stylish person in the room (and I’m talking about the grown ups).
22. Alex has been gaming with friends from around the country, and IRL.
23. Fiona brought in catmint for the cats since it is still green and thriving despite it being November. I love how effortlessly she can identify so many plants, and that she knows how to use them (catmint is good for so much more than making cats high!).
24. Rhia’s fiance flew home after a month here. We all had such a wonderful time hanging out, playing games, and hearing about life in that part of the country.
25. Alex has been hoisting himself onto the top of the bell tower (safely) of the arts center (remember it’s an old church) at night to watch the sunset or the stars.
26. Fiona and Toria found bird’s nest mushrooms in the wood mulch at church.
27. Fiona’s been doing lots of puzzles.
28. Jack, Fiona, Toria, Daryl and I all downloaded the Finch self care app a few months ago and we continue to use it daily to keep us motivated for doing exercise, chores, fun things and more.
29. Fiona and I have had discussions about everything from plastic surgery to fake news on Tik Tok.
30. Alex is excited about homeschool ice skating starting up again, and that we can go to it in two different cities so he’ll get to do even more. He figured out the percent of extra ice skating he’ll get for fun, just because he loves playing with math like that (22% more, since it’s once a month in one town and once a week in the one we always used to go to, but a month isn’t exactly 4 weeks).
31. Fiona, Alex, Rhia and Jack helped me make all kinds of fun Halloween themed snacks for hospitality at church last week.
32. We have all done lots of housework, cooking, chores, laundry and so on together.
33. We got Netflix again for the 6 months of Minnesota winter after canceling it several years ago, as a treat to ourselves during the cold times. 🙂 Fiona and I especially have been having fun watching shows together. Most of them are not in the least educational, but part of my life lessons for my kiddos is that we find ways to take care of ourselves when needed and this is a little way to do that.
34. Alex and Daryl have done star gazing, meteor watching, storm chasing and other fun astronomy and meteorology stuff.
35. Daryl is doing community theater (a murder supper) again on Saturday.
36. Alex and Daryl helped fix Rhia’s roof.
37. Alex asked Daryl why the cordless drill had numbers and Daryl explained it was a clutch and showed how it worked. TBH, that was something I only learned that day too!
38. Fiona did a survey about her health and habits for a study we’re taking part in. She also earned $5 for doing it, which she used towards a new digital pen.
39. Fiona is doing a portrait of Gabe as a surprise. It looks so much like him!
40. Jack is busy with work, music and gaming with friends and family. He’s also working on a long-term writing project.
41. Alex and his friend Konsandra have been busy hiking, hanging out and going for rides in her new car.
42. Fiona and I are going on lots of walks while the weather is nice.
43. I got jalapeno juice in my eye and rinsed it with heavy cream, so Fiona and I had a long talk about oil based things like poison ivy and how water doesn’t mix with it or flush it, and how that applies to essential oils too. We talked about how you have to dilute them with a carrier oil so they really integrate or you can still get essential oil burns from most of them (tea tree oil and lavender are the exceptions that can be used neat or undiluted). We also talked about using something that cuts oil like dish soap instead of just water if you get into poison ivy for that reason.
44. We’ve all been talking about Israel and Palestine.
45. The kids have been having game nights at Jack’s house.
46. Fiona and I have made our own Wordle games for each other, along with our own Connections games. They are tricky and I love that they help with spelling and vocabulary whether you’re the maker or the puzzler.
47. We’ve been talking lots about healthy friendships and relationships, boundaries, and how to know when it’s time to end a relationship even if it’s a person you care about.
48. We have been introducing each other to new music in car rides. Alex takes charge on his phone and we take turns picking a song that will probably be new to the others in the car. We’ve all found new music we love and we often end up in conversations about the topics, music style, musicians, etc.
49. We propagated a bunch of houseplants that Tiffany gave me, rooting them in water and then planting them. 
50. As always, we’ve had oodles of discussions on everything from weather to politics to the ’80s to cat health to astronomy to Pokemon.

And now, it turns out that it takes nearly as long to type out 50 things you’ve done lately as it does to do 50 things, so I’m off to try to catch up on another hundred or so!

October Life

Hello again! Sorry I am so absent lately. I’ve been blogging here (or wherever — the first place went under) since 2007 so I think I get a pass for being flaky about keeping up sometimes. 🙂

So here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to…..

Daryl shot a short, short (short!) horror film and much of our family helped. Rhia did the digital videography for it, and otherwise it was shot on Super 8 film, which for those of you who don’t know, is super cool and retro. Fiona’s friend and her mom starred in it, and Fiona and Alex got to help as set crew. I did the voice-over at the start of the trailer.

We did History Fest again, which as always was exhausting and magical.

The boys taught old fashioned games like hoop rolling and the game of graces, and also took turns in other characters like a pirate and a plague doctor.

Fiona played Leonara D’Este (daughter of Lucrecia Borgia and a princess nun who secretly wrote a bunch of classical music), the Raven from Poe’s poem, and fairy on different days. She also hung out a lot with the temperance lady and the suffragette lady, both of whom are great friends of ours, and other old friends like Galileo and President Jefferson and many more.

I was the foraging lady this year instead of Lucrecia Borgia, and I read my alphabet foraging book (A is for Acorns — affiliate link) and taught kids and parents about all kinds of plants I foraged right there on the site.

Fiona also helped me and did such a great job reading the book and teaching kids about foraging. ❤

Daryl was the riverboat gambler again, doing all kinds of card tricks and otherwise entertaining everyone.

The kids also got to reconnect with old friends and make new, and had an all around magical time.

Alex taught himself the guitar (acoustic and electric). Because of course he did.

We’ve been doing lots of other stuff — art programs, discussions on current events, gaming, trips to Sioux Falls, church events, chatting and hanging out with friends, word puzzles, digital art, cooking, making inventions, computer programming, housework, redecorating, Duolingo for various languages, and so on.

And now, I should really get back to all my to-do items that I put off to do this update! 🙂

When Mama Gets the Blues

Right now isn’t the first time I’ve battled depression as a mom. Good grief, I’ve been a mother for over 25 years and have five kids. I’d have to be in a coma to never struggle. But I usually do pretty well these days. Usually.

Right now? Not so much.

My good buddy Cindy, whom I met years ago at a UU church when she was bringing her granddaughter and I was bringing my kiddos, has moved to New Mexico. I don’t blame her — it’s a fantastic new start for her — but I miss her.

She is just great fun, and a great person who is devoted to so many things that I care about too, like social justice and equality. And she’s just a hoot. And she’s been the biggest cheerleader for me — showing up at every poetry reading, foraging talk and other event I do in the public — even if she’s seen them three times before. ❤️

I guess this is an excuse for me and the kids to spend time in New Mexico, but I am a little lonely sitting in the church pews alone and not having my thrift store buddy or going to her house for supper.

I am also feeling lonely in general, and feeling a little lost. I miss having little ones. I miss breastfeeding and being pregnant and walking with a toddler whose whole little hand wraps around your finger while you walk at .02 miles an hour.

And it’s fall, which always makes my brain go back to being 8 years old and having to go back to school and bullying and throwing up in the morning from the stress of it all. And the end of garden season, and foraging season, and just being outside when your nostrils don’t freeze shut season.

So for now I’m modeling self care to my kids, which means I take a lot of baths with books and I do little things to pamper myself and I let myself be sad. I’m also taking supplements that I know help (for me, that’s SAM-e, making sure I get enough vitamin D, and adaptogens like ashwagandha and rhodiola) and making sure I get enough sleep, time outside, and exercise. And I’m working on making new friends and forcing myself out into the world.

All kinds of good stuff is happening here. I’ll write about all of that soon. But for now, I thought I’d write this in case anyone else was struggling, just to let you know you’re not alone.

September Ups and Downs

It’s a beautiful mid-September day, and we’ve had lots of good and a little bad here lately.

Fiona had an online friend come to visit from Massachusetts with her mom and little sister (okay, that was the end of August but I just now got a chance to post about it!). They stayed in the boys’ house across the street, since the boys aren’t in there yet (Jack is slowly moving in). We did all kinds of fun stuff, from going to the lake to throwing with the atlatl at the Petroglyphs to swimming at the Y. They also spent lots of time at the arts center where they did art, played games, did karaoke and even did a photo shoot with Rhia.

We also spent a week in Nebraska with Tiffany and her gang. It was me, Fiona, Alex and Alex’s friend Lucas. It was such a fun week. I need my regular weeks in Nebraska!

Daryl has been super busy, as always. He worked in a few more movies and arts/music events. The kids often go with him, so they get to be extras or attend free classes, listen to shows, etc.

I am doing a plank challenge all month. I have never done planks and could never manage more than 10 seconds, yet somehow I am keeping up every day. I have really amazed myself and the kids have started planking too because they’re inspired and encouraged that they can too. It’s been such a gratifying challenge! I’m so impressed with my old body. 😉 I’m up to two minutes, which is 1 minute and 50 seconds more than I ever thought I could do!

I haven’t done today’s yet because I am incredibly sore from yesterday, when we had a full day of day camping, hiking, walking around town at night and recovering from a mild illness (plus a two minute plank yesterday and all my usual exercises). I did a minute this morning with Fiona cheering me on and announced that I’d do the two minutes later when I’m a little less sore. I will do it though! I’m enjoying the challenge, even though it is so hard.

In less great news, we’re dealing with a kid going through heartbreak again. I swear, mothering big kids is so much tougher than little ones because you can’t just scoop them into your lap, pat them on the back, and say, “poor you, poor you, poor you” for an hour when they’re hurting.

Not that I don’t regularly hug my kids (who are often a foot taller than me now), pat them on the back and do that anyway. ❤

I tell myself (and the kids) that every bit of this hard stuff is to teach us how to handle it and to strengthen us for other hard stuff to come. I know this. Every loss of a beloved cat helps us know how to survive when we lose a grandparent or parent or spouse someday. Every young heartbreak teaches us how to get through the next one a little better, and teaches us what to do differently in the next relationship.

But boy is it hard on the poor kid going through pain, and all of us who love them.

10 Fun Ways We’ve Learned & Played Lately

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts! Here are a few ways we’ve been learning and playing recently.

1. Daryl and the kids have been doing a lot of atlatl pratice. Jack and Alex have made their own atlatls (spear throwers) and Jack experimented with making an oversized one, plus made a couple of different prototypes. Daryl has made many atlatls and darts (spears) over the years and they went out to the Jeffers Petroglyphs and a local park a lot this week to practice throwing. They’re all great shots!
2. Fiona continues to learn ASL. She finally learned how to sign forage, which is one she wanted to learn but is the most complicated sign ever (you have to finger spell it, then sign hunt, then gather, then eat).
3. Daryl, Jack, Alex and Fiona have been at rehearsals for the Wilder Pageant most nights. Alex’s photo was on the front page of the Marshall Independent, rolling his hoop during media night. Opening night is Friday!
4. Daryl filmed a small part in a movie a couple of hours away and Alex, Fiona, Rhia and a friend got to go with him and be extras. They had an awesome time. I’ll share details once they’re no longer bound by an NDA.
5. We made cherry ice cream with cherries from our front yard tree. Pictures don’t do it justice (ingredients: sour cherries, organic heavy cream, vanilla, organic sugar, and organic vanilla soy milk since I was out of milk). I also made a few batches of sour cherry pit liqueur, which is insanely good for not for the kiddos of course.
6. We watched fireworks from our front yard. Our city does their fireworks the last week in June for their Fun Days and they have a fireworks show across the street from us in the field behind the high school. It’s always so fun to sit in our lawn swing and chairs in our own front yard and watch such an awesome display!
7. Fiona has been swimming at the Y. We try to go to Marshall every Friday and she gets to swim and then we all go to Taco Bell for lunch and get our groceries.
8. Daryl and the kids have been doing lots of foraging. This week it’s been a lot of elderflowers and some mullein flowers for oil.
9. The kids continue to have game nights at the arts center. It’s usually every other Saturday night and they do a mix of party games, video games, board games and just general fun. They’ve had a couple of sleepovers, which have been fun. We’re hoping to start doing improv nights there soon, too.
10. We’ve had lots of great discussions, as always. Some of the topics we’ve had have been about the physics of the atlatl, nutrition, caterpillar host plants, song writing, religion, best ways to treat infected wounds, the science of silent fireworks, microplastics, ancestry, the sub disaster, LGBTQ rights, newly released games and much more.

Summer is always such a busy time for us. Daryl and the kids are busy with the pageant and Daryl tends to be involved in some sort of teaching or reenacting event every weekend — acting, playing old time characters, teaching how to play the spoons, making music, teaching the atlatl, etc. The kids often go with him and I tend to putter at home with my gardens and potions. 😉 I love all my flowers and birds and toads visiting the pond. I play hermit and they all run around hiking, biking, foraging, acting, playing, swimming and otherwise sucking the marrow out of the awesomeness of summer.

2023 Artist Retreat

Daryl and Toria have been taking part in the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council‘s Annual Artist Retreat for some years now. It’s a two day event in May every year. A few years ago, Toria was sick so Fiona went to use their ticket. She had so much fun she started going too.

This year I went for the first time and loved it. There were so many fun workshops, and the site is amazing. People can spend the night there if they like, especially if they come from out of town. It’s all very affordable and there’s food and company and it’s pretty awesome.

Daryl was a presenter this year and talked about how he makes films.

He just sent me this picture from their newsletter. Fiona was thrilled to be in it.

“From the June Newsletter: SMAC’s Annual Artist Retreat was held again at the Danebod Folk School in Tyler the first weekend in May. Thanks for joining us for a day and a half of arts workshops and networking, as well as learning some Danish Dance moves at an event that was open to the public on Friday evening. We look forward to providing more opportunities for classes and networking again next May!”

A Little June Check In

Things have been hectic but good here. Here’s a little update on what’s going on in our little corner of the world.

Daryl, Jack, Alex and Fiona are in the Wilder Pageant again this year. I have lost track of how many years our family has been in it, but it’s nearly 20. They have changed the script this year and are telling a new story, still based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s time in Walnut Grove with her family, but focusing on some other details and stories. They always include some actual history of the area and the time too, and things like dances. Daryl calls the dances.

They have rehearsal most weeknights and the shows start in under two weeks. They run on Fridays and Saturdays in July, for three weeks.

Daryl, Fiona and Rhia went to a fun event at a historic house out of town so Daryl could teach people how to play the spoons. Fiona got to do things like sack races and she got to see some old friends and new.

Daryl is acting in a movie in Iowa. It’s a historic film based on a true story of the klan terrorizing a Catholic French Canadian family to try to drive them out of town. He plays the sheriff.

Rhia has been going with him and they stopped to meet a woman they passed on the highway to make sure she was okay. It turns out she’s running from Mexico to Canada to raise money for food banks in all 50 states. They had a good talk and she took their picture and posted it to her FB page of the day’s updates.

Daryl also shot a short film that the kids got to work on. Rhia did the video camera work, Alex was the boom operator and even Fiona helped out. It’s a very short (one minute!) horror movie that he got a grant to make called Goodnight Billy.

I published my alphabet foraging book! It was a lot of work but I love how it turned out.

Toria and Gabe did the illustrations. Toria did the large center, color drawings, and Gabe did the small ones of other wild edible and medicinal plants that start with each letter that are in the borders. Some letters have way more plants than others! 🙂

I got a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to write and publish the book, and I included in the grant a really good wage to pay my artists. I love how much Minnesota prioritizes the arts, the environment, education and other issues that are important to our family.

You can find it here on Amazon (affiliate link) or at sites like Barnes and Noble, or ask your local library to carry it!

We’re also busy with lots of other little things…. Jack is still working at the local grocery store. We’re hosting game nights at the Arts Center every other Saturday. Daryl and the kids have done a lot of foraging, as always. I’m busy in my gardens. Alex has been swimming, playing, hiking, gaming and having sleepovers with friends. Daryl and the kids have been volunteering at the Jeffers Petroglyphs and helping people learn to throw with the atlatl (they’re there right now, as a matter of fact). And so on! Lots of fun stuff.

What are you and your kiddos up to in your corner of the world?