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Daily Life Fitness & Recipes Homeschool Mommy Diaries

Attempting Some Sort of a Schedule

IMG_20150113_145916We are really fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of people. While we generally have routines for our days, we haven’t been strict at all. If there was something fun to go do, we did it. School for the kids was pretty loose and flexible. Some days we did a lot, some days we did none. This type of “schedule” has worked great for the last year or so, but lately I’ve been wanting slightly more structure to our days.

Mostly so I can have a regular time to exercise.

Selfish? Possibly.

Many people ask how I get any “me” time in. The short answer is that I don’t. Not really. Home school supervising in the morning, breakfast, lunch, activities outside in the afternoon, laundry, grocery shopping, dinner, and then finally blogging after the kids are in bed is a pretty full schedule. While there are hobbies and other interests I have put aside for now, I really need my workouts. Both for physical and mental reasons. I’ve posted a few times about exercising on the road (here and here), but the short is I have fallen in love with Beach Body workouts and Shakeology. I just needed a regular time to get it done.

My solution?

I bought a cheap paper planner from Target.

Gasp.

I know, right? PAPER. Inspired by a friend, I also purchased a colored pen for each person. Along with the purchase, came the excitement and encouragement to schedule our days a little better. My planner has three objectives: Meal Planning, Home School Record Keeping, and Workout Accountability. That’s it. Super simple and so far, I love it!

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We do school first thing after breakfast (usually starting around 8:30am) and I’ve designated 11am as “Recess” aka “Mommy work out time” and they have to leave me alone for 30 minutes and just play outside. After that I can mix up my shake, take a shower and we have lunch around noon.

We also designated a specific day of the week for certain subjects that we’ll do all together. Writing on Monday & Friday, Family Fitness & Science on Tuesday, Unit Study on Wednesday, and Geography on Thursday. By doing these all together, we’ll actually DO them, and I won’t feel so much pressure to come up with a science lesson at the drop of the hat.

We’ve also designated Saturday as “Make Up” day for the weeks when we go out exploring together in the middle of the week (which is preferable). If we explore on Tuesday, we’ll just do Tuesdays assignments on Saturday instead.

Yesterday, we finished up our last subject, Science, after lunch and then played games for an hour. It was perfect! The kids also had some tablet time in the afternoon, and I got a blog post written. Other days we could go on bike rides, exploring, or visit a museum in the afternoons.

Will this work everyday? Not likely. There are days will we be moving the house in the morning or days we want to spend all day hiking.  But as I told a friend just the other day, “We seem to work better if we make a plan and then just stay flexible.”

Categories
Musings of Sam

There is No Place Like Roam

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We had the pleasure of celebrating Christmas and the New Year with friends and family in the Greater Salt Lake City area. It really was a pleasure. We chose to just pack the truck and drive up, leaving our Airstream in storage in Las Vegas. Leaving our house behind required us to stay as guests with those we visited, and our time spent visiting was richer because of it. Had we brought the house, our time would have been shorter as we attempted to get back home at a reasonable hour, and it would have required more time spent driving hither and yon each day.

We spent the bulk of the time with Jess’s parents in Sandy, UT which is actually where our legal address is. Amid the celebrations were dentist appointments, truck maintenance, and drivers license renewals, and other logistical activities.

Our drive back to Vegas to pick up the house seemed shorter than the drive away from it. It took a shockingly short amount of time to mount the bike rack and bikes, tow to a nearby RV park, and shuffle all the stuff.

I woke up in my own bed, listening to the sound of rain on my little tin roof. It is good to be home.

I have a few observations from our time visiting friends and family, and I’ll share one here:

Of all the time we spent at home, the time I felt most comfortable was when were were out adventuring or running errands. For some reason, errands in particular had this effect. I had a few moments walking around a grocery store, in Target, Costco, or Walmart where I forgot that we were not out traveling. I forgot for a minute that it was below freezing outside. I forgot that we haven’t been on a hike in a month, and that most of the recent days I hadn’t seen my kids for but a few moments here and there. Those moments could have happened in any city and the country, and I missed them.

There is no place like Roam.

For our family, it is the activities, not the places, that make us feel ‘at home’ and comfortable. Though we enjoyed our time over the holidays, I’m glad to be back Roam.

Categories
Utah

Tubing at Gorgoza Park, Park City UT

We arrived in Utah just as the weather turned cold. It was chilly, but it had not snowed much before Christmas. On the 20th of December we found a tubing place at Gorgoza Park near Park City, and headed up with some family for some fun! We purchased 2 hour lift tickets and secured a tube for each of us.

The tubing place had plenty of groomed runs, and two lifts: the first was a ‘magic-carpet’ style, and the upper lift was a tow rope style. Little Cara had a few stumbles learning to ride the magic carpet, but did just fine after a few tries.

The upper tow line towed you sitting on your tube, for a relaxing ride to the top, where it dumped you over a small hill and dropped the tow line. When we got there the lines were short, and we made quick work getting our early runs in.

Rachel and Andrew did really great, being big kids and even going solo on many of the runs. Little Cara need a little more help, but paid us back with cuteness and fun.

 

Cara threw her buzz wings into the truck before we left, and wore them the entire time sledding. I’m so grateful for our friend that gave us those wings, as they’ve seen plenty of country in plenty of different weather. Tubing was no exception, and we appreciate the extra speed from her boosters as we rode down the hill.

Jess was much better with the camera than I was with video, but here is a Wandering Update video, with some darn adorable video of Cara right at the end!


Toward the end, some freshly falling snow slowed the runs down and the lines began to back up. We were glad we showed up when the lines were short and the runs were fast! By the time we left, riders coming down the runs were only making it half-way down before coming to a slow stop.

We had originally planned to take the kids skiing for this Christmas, but opted to save that for a later time when we could line up a series of visits and lessons and maximize the experience. We did still want a snow adventure, and tubing allowed family to participate, and it turned out to be a much better option. Travel has taught us to be flexible and change our plans to better fit our needs. This was no exception, and our adventure was very fun and maximized time with family.

Categories
General Information Video

Catching Up – Wandering Video Update – Not home for the Holidays

We have clearly been distracted and not updating the blog on a regular basis over the holidays. It has been fun with the family, but this next week we will be heading south after some doctor and dentist appointments.

I have a few video updates that I’ve been meaning to post, so I thought I should get caught up before we hit the road again! Here is the first, in which we put the Airstream in Storage before driving up to Sandy, Utah for the holidays.

Categories
Holidays & Bdays

Merry Christmas from the Currently Wandering Crew!

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We loved sending out our Christmas postcards this year, and had so much putting them together. We chose to print them through moo.com so we could use 10 different photos on the front. It was so hard to narrow it down! Each photo reminds us of a special place, story, or adventure and we are extremely grateful for the support of our friends & family that we’ve had along this crazy journey of ours. If you haven’t read it yet, here’s the link to our 2014 Christmas Letter as well!

Which card did you get in the mail? Let us know in the comments below!

Cascade Head Hike_13 Hiking Cascade Head (blog post) along the rainy Oregon coast last October. Its amazing the views we can get when we rise above and conquer the challenges that come our way. The kids were awesome hikers on this trip, including dodging Elk droppings and some muddy sections of trail.
Crater Lake_67 We decided to do the boat tour at Crater Lake National Park – making it one of our most favorite experiences (blog post). The amazing blue water lacks both a major inlet and any major outlet, leaving the water undisturbed and amazingly clear. In the middle of the tour, were were dropped off at Wizard Island, a small cinder cone within the lake itself. We hiked to the top and ate lunch before hiking back down for the rest of the tour around the lake.
Point Reyes Seashore_037 Point Reyes National Seashore (blog post) in Northern California. This picturesque lighthouse requires a long drive AND a long stair walk to enjoy. The day was perfect, and we even got to look inside the lighthouse at the lens and turning mechanism. We stayed in the redwoods at the nearby Samuel P. Taylor State Park, where we enjoyed the trees, some good rain, and used our generator for the first time. Sam visited this lighthouse multiple times as a kid, and it was awesome to return here with our kids.
Redwood Forests_02 After leaving Camp Noyo (blog post) and a wonderful time with family, we enjoyed our freedom from a schedule with a 2 week meander through the Redwood National & State Parks. This area is beautiful and has so much to explore! One of our favorite spots was along the Avenue of Giants near Humboldt Redwoods State Park. We loved the giant trees, fungus, and generally lack of anything better to do or anywhere to be.
Redwood Forests_09 Our only vertical image was the ONLY way to try and represent the majesty of these wonderful trees. This was during one of our walks to see the majestic trees! We love this photo because it always reminds us to look up and enjoy the world around us. We had a great time here and earned many Jr. Ranger Badges (blog post) but after two weeks were ready to go inland out of the coastal fog.
Trinidad_16 Trinidad State Park was one of our stops along the Northern California Coast (blog post). One evening we ventured out to hike around Trinidad Head and found this beach just as the fog was rolling in off the ocean. Not one to miss a perfectly opportune photo moment, Jess had the kids race along the beach yelling “Come get me!”. Well, they did.
Utah Salt Flats_13 Driving home from the Bay Area last April, we had a lot on our plates. We had received an offer on our house and were racing home to make sure we still wanted to sell it. Our only concession along the route was an epic photo shoot with the Airstream on the Bonneville Salt Flats before we drove into Salt Lake City the following morning (blog post).
Crater Lake NP_29 Another photo from Crater Lake, but this one from the rim! We spent three days in this park, and could have easily spent weeks more had we a better internet signal! We enjoyed hiking along the rim and enjoying the views of Wizard Island from up top as well as down on the lake.
IMG_0588-Edit Late in October we spent some time along the Oregon Coast. This was a beautiful afternoon spent at Cape Disappointment State Park (definitely did NOT live up to its name) on one of the few clear days we had. We spent many afternoons all along the coast flying our kite in the winds kicked up by the volatile coastal weather. The day after this epic afternoon, we had one of our worst mornings when we discovered the raccoons had gotten into our truck (blog post).
John Day Fossil Beds_09 We desperately needed a break from the Oregon coastal rain, so we took a chance and drove inland via Bend, OR over to the Painted Hills and the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Although we drove many more miles than normal, the drive was worth it as the national park turned out to be one of our favorites!