Learn Nothing Road Trip

Our Learn Nothing Day Extravaganza

Preparation

Shelby and Wendy decorating the moving "house".

Wednesday evening was spent at Ren's house. We decided to cram as much learning into that day and night.. thinking that might have an effect on our Learn Nothing Day ( learn a lot one day, then we'll really excel at learning nothing the next day ;) As we were driving we would point out everything cool, like we do all the time ... "look at the donkey, or would those be burros??" "hey, look at the mountains... or are they hills since there are so many trees?" "oh.. valleys.. and waterfalls!"

And we arrived at Ren's:

Shelby wanted to check out the bees

Kelli, OK... I couldn't stay away from the zinnias. Aren't they beautiful!

Ren and Wendy discussing gardening.

Pure joy

And how about some dancing? Well, of course!

We even got an impromptu belly dancing lesson from Mindy. How wonderful is that?? Now if I would have gotten a picture of it... but of course I couldn't since I was dancing! :)

Here are some reasons why living in Georgia will be just peachy! :)

Now, do you thinking learning a lot on Wednesday helped us to take a break from learning on Thursday? Nawwww... it just kept going, and going... and going. You know like that annoying Energizer bunny. The learning keeps going and going.

On the day, Ren took us to a park that had a swimming hole.... and lots of humongous (I used that word for my mom) trees! Canopies of trees for this tree lover. I felt right at home. Tuck me away in trees and I'm a happy girl.

I think some others were pretty happy too!

Could the look on their faces be any more similar?? hee hee

Minnesoooota girl, lovin' the COOOOLD water... other southern kids are...not.

Just how cold is it Alex?
"It's SOOOO Cold!"

Bubble girl... aka Kyra


Tree hugger girl ... aka Abbi

Jalen and the MEGA marshmallow roaster

the trees I just loved

Which included some awesome gigantic rhododendrons. If you look hard you can see the white blooms.

The fallen blooms decorated the paths and woods.



Beautiful canopy



And path with Jessica and girls

Laura and lots o' kids

The Fire Starter Goddess



Thanks so much Ren, for going along and making wonderful my "let's get together!" idea. It was an amazing time!

Learn Nothing Day

It's here! Can you believe it!

We decided to go on the road with some other unschooling families, just to make sure we don't learn anything! ;)

With cohorts like all of these.. how could we learn anything??? Oh, and we'll be meeting up with some others too that I've never met before. Ren thought we'd just make sure and invite more unschoolers!

Pictures to come from the big day.

And be careful out there, you could learn something!

Time for campaigning... and Tim is really excited about it...

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It's OK

The piano, that is. And we're happy about that.

Let me explain.

After the movers left, we sat down to play the piano and discovered that the left 1/3 part of the keyboard was locked up.... I was so upset. Why didn't I test it better before they left? What's wrong with me?? I heard someone playing it so I thought it was fine, but I didn't test the whole keyboard! Ahhhhh... so, yeah, I was upset.

We talked to some friends who have a grand also and they thought we shouldn't worry. Something similar happened to theirs when it was delivered and a piano tuner guy was able to fix it. I took some deep breaths.

Later I called a man that I found through google who restores and tunes pianos. On his website it also said that he's worked on Knabe pianos, that's what ours is, so I felt pretty secure that he'll know what he's doing. I talked with him on the phone and he tells me not to worry, he thinks he should be able to fix it.

He came over yesterday. Took off a few pieces from the front, gently pulled on the keys... and voila, it was just like it was before. Yay!

Now we just have to decide if we want to put some money into it and restore it. I guess it's possibly around 100 years old and it will take a LOT of money to make it really pretty. He said the keys would practically glow in the dark, after he gets done with it and the wood.. well, it would be really beautiful if we decide to do that.

We'll see, we have to think about it for a while.

Right now I'm just so happy that it's working :)

A peek out our front and back doors.

Here's out the front. Nice woods, but I've been told they will be developed. I don't think it will be any time soon though with the housing market the way it is.




Here's out the back door. We can see lots of trees. Most of them aren't on our property but it's still nice looking out our windows. There's a little gully and stream back there that are just calling to Saddi, so we've had to really keep a hold of her. People have told us that there are some people around who won't be treating a stray dog too well. We're planning on putting up a fence soon.



And look who I found out on the front porch. We don't have a screened porch anymore but the wicker worked nice out here. Kyra was doing some carving in a piece of driftwood that she found the day they all went to Poole's Mill Park and played in the river.


I'm glad to say that we've had a lot of rain since we've moved down here. I think we brought a bit of our 10,000 lakes with us and they (the rest of the Georgians) are mighty happy with it.

We're in Georgia!

Yep, we're in our new home and working our way through boxes.

We had a wonderful transition into GA with Mindy and Wendy's help. We stopped at Mindy's house as we crossed the Tennessee/Georgia border, spent the night and couldn't even get the 2 girls to leave! No, Mindy was her super energetic self and offered to take kids for the night if they wanted.. and of course they wanted! And she took on the dog too!

Here's some happiness for y'all (look... I put in y'all for y'all ;)




The boys waiting .. ahem.. "patiently" :) for Mindy's caramel rolls.



And they were delish... just as everything else was... Yum! Thank you Mindy and John!


Alec came with us to the Gainesville/Cumming area the next day, where he decided to stay at Wendy's for a night. It worked out perfectly since we had an early morning walk through of the house and then closing later that morning.

As Tim and I finished up the details with closing on the house and getting our animals into the house, Mindy/Wendy and crew went to this great place. I'll be going next! Mindy shared about the day here.

After the kids had their fill of swimming and rock climbing we all met up at our house. We hung out, ate and pretty much just reveled in this coming together.

Just wonderful.







And... can anyone guess as to what these crazy people are doing?




A BIG thank you to Wendy and Mindy's families for the welcome and help through this time of transition. It was a happy joyous time for all of us!

A New Discovery

An earth shaking discovery....

powered sugar actually tastes OK in coffee~~ OK, not earth shaking, but who knew? hehe..

Yes most of our stuff is packed up and in a moving truck...including the raw sugar and regular sugar. Kept out and still in my presence, of course, is my coffee and coffee maker.

Sooo, there's 3 bags of powered sugar left in my pantry... weird. Why did I keep buying powered sugar? Do I have a neediness for sweetness or did I have reoccurring thoughts of making a LOT of frosting? Or hot fudge??

What ever may be the reason, I have sweet coffee this last morning in our Bemidji house.

Have a great day!

Something's Rotten in Bemidji??

Is this a sign?

Our backyard this afternoon.

I think it's time to hit the road.

Matt's still Dancin'

Sharing some joy this morning as I procrastinate :)

He's still dancin'!






Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

How much do I love this guy? Let me count the ways!

Wow..

our house sold today!

Just as we're packing it up.. the boxes, that is, we get a call.

It's the same people who wanted it back in January, but I guess they finally felt the pressure.

I'm glad they're getting it. They love it and they really want to live in our neighborhood.

Our Bemidji chapter is coming to a close. I can't believe it.

We begin our drive down south in 3 days. First stopping in Minneapolis/St. Paul to say good bye to my bro and sis. Then on to celebrate the 4th in St. Louis. Maybe we'll watch fireworks over the arch... or maybe we'll watch them on TV.. heh.. we'll see how we're all feeling.

After that, we overnight in Nashville and then Chattanooga, yes, we'll be visiting one of our favorite belly dancing goddesses, Mindy! :)

Let the adventure begin~

Learn Nothing Day is Coming!

Mark your calendars.

Artwork by Holly and Sandra Dodd

It's time for a break :)

And as Alec and Abbi would say "good luck with that!" (not learning something for a day ;)


Now back to packing for me.

Mississippi River Residents

Kyra brought along a camera and here's some of what she saw on their canoe trip.

Nice wildlife shots Kyra!

Blue Heron

Loons






and a turtle

Canoeing the Mississippi

This morning I waved good-bye to 3 of our family, as they paddled down the Mississippi River.



Alec's been wanting to canoe a river ever since he did a bit of canoeing over Memorial weekend. That weekend he canoed with his cousin on a lake near Brainerd, MN. He really enjoyed it, but he really wanted to canoe a river where you see different scenery and not just go around on a lake. So today he's getting to do that.



We rented a canoe from a local outfitter. The guide was great, as they drove to the launch he told them about the current happenings along the river. They're going to keep their eyes open for baby otters and baby loons.

They, (Alec, Tim and Kyra), will go about 15 miles today and it should take about 6 hours. It's a beautiful day for it, it'll be in the mid 70's and mostly sunny. ahhhh....














Abbi didn't feel like being in a canoe that long so she opted out. She and I will spend an Abbi/Mom day together, possibly going over to the state park and biking or watching some Buffy, or walking the Bog Walk at Bemidji State Park. The bog walk is so cool. Right now we can look for Lady Slippers that are probably just starting to bloom now. Yes we have wild orchids up in Minnesota. It's our state flower and it's so pretty.







We also love looking for some of the insect eating plants that are there, no venus fly traps.. only pitcher plants, which are cool in themselves.

From a Minnesota Wetland Tour site:

" Pitcher plants, beautiful and carnivorous. To counter the low availability of nutrients in bogs, some plants have evolved a carnivorous habit to capture insects or other small organisms and "digest" them for nutrients."

Have a great Saturday everyone~~ we are!

Transition for Alec

We ended up with these. I think Locks of Love will love them.

And he started like this:

The process

Eeeeeeeee!

And that wasn't the only thing he wanted to do.


He let me take pictures too. Our stylist kept saying what a good sport he was. Yeah, I kind-of like him ;)



















It was a wonderful day. Calm, peaceful and joyful. Transitioning on his own schedule, just wonderful.


Some things stay the same.

Raiding on WoW.


Isn't he cute? :)

Saying Goodbye to northern MN

My view this morning

I'm having a hard time with the thought of leaving my tree filled green northern MN. Yes, I know I'm crazy back and forth when it comes to my home state, but the woods right now are heavenly.

The trees, the green, the sounds. The cool air as I step out into my porch, yeah it's 50 right now. I love Minnesota in the summer. (well, except when it's 90-100 ;) Like I said, I'm crazy.

Each morning when I'm out I hear the loons calling. I'll miss the loons. A lot of mornings water will be dripping off the roof as I sit there, I hope GA gets more rain. The crows are cawing and the blue jays are squawking, some other bird is chirping good morning. There are lots of birds in GA too. :)

A new chapter is about to begin in our lives and it is hard to say good bye. But there will be new greenness and new happiness too.

Here's to you Minnesota, good bye for now.

A House!

We found one!

It's not exactly what I want to be in for the long term but there's a bedroom for every kid and rooms for Tim to work in and for the piano. Those were things that we were having a hard time finding. We have an unfinished basement so Tim can be the tool man again and a big yard with sun to grow things. Yep, we want some fruit trees.

We got a great deal on it so we're excited about that too.

And another plus, we're only about 4 minutes to the Stonebrakers, Yay!

Now we're heading back to Minnesota to clean, pack and say our good-byes.

House Hunting Quotes

Some thoughts and voices from the last week...

"Wow, there are a lot of houses for sale."

"Man, I wish there were some different houses for sale."

"Yeah, I like that house." "It has an awesome backyard!"

"There isn't a closet?" "Where are the computers gonna go?"

"Do you really need an office?" "What about the piano?" "There's no room for Kyra's drums." "We need another bedroom."

"ugh, I really don't like that house."

"Oh my gosh, yes, let's make an offer." "Wait.. termites?" "ahhh, alright."

"what? They want that much money???" "We don't have to take that one, do we?"

"That house?" "No...." "There aren't enough trees." "Wait, we love it!" "Yes!" "Are we sure?"

"I think we're crazy.."

"I love the lake!" "I can grow fruit trees or a pecan tree!!"

"I love you."

I think we're narrowing it down. But who knows, it may change in the next minute.

And... "It's hot outside."

Said with some happiness, some tiredness and some craziness.