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She is my Poet, He is my Writer.
Complain as I may about over-reliance on testing and “no child left behind” and Common Core and what have you, my children have been blessed – blessed I tell you – with phenomenal teachers and headmistress/principal that put heavy emphasis on the act of writing. At a very young age both my children were encouraged to write, write, write, punctuation and spelling be damned, the focus should be with getting them comfortable with getting the words on paper (as punctuation, grammar and spelling will come in time.) I have always loved to write, but it was never a skill I was pushed to develop in the manner they have. The encouragement…
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River Cruising: On to Avignon, Pont-du-Gard and Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Tuesday morning of our river cruise holiday on the River Royale found us in Avignon – from our stateroom, we could see the walls of the old city. This morning, our goal was to visit the Palace du Popes. The cobblestones in the streets were lovely (and a bit treacherous for my poor foot, and I was tempted to find a walking stick like Marty’s. Yes, it turns into a stool. No, I’m not 60. I will apologize now as you will soon discover my love of windows and archways. I really could have played with these and edited them but I’m too lazy I’m liking the images without filters.…
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River Cruising: Bienvenue a Arles
No longer lost in my laundry room, hidden in laundry, I’m quite missing the River Royale and the first class service we received. I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and pick through the gazillions (that is a real number) of photos I took and have a little look back over the trip, as well as write a few notes – wishing, all the while, that I had journaled more while on board. I meant to (just like I meant to post every day) but while I normally would tuck Pea into bed next to me and start writing, over the week of the trip, I found myself crashing…
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River Cruising, Family Style
I am an avid cruiser. In my late twenties, I started cruising with a group of friends. We took our first few trips on Carnival, but shortly moved on to Royal Caribbean. I introduced my soon-to-be husband to cruising a year or so before we were married, and then took a hiatus while we started our family. Last year, we introduced our kidlings to cruising a-la-Disney style, and they were hooked, too. This year, however, we opted for something different: River Cruising. Traditionally, the river cruise is populated primarily by senior citizens, and (if you were to base your information on feedback vehemently expressed on Cruise Critic) not a place…
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Anchors Away!
My bags are packed, the dog is at the kennel, the house sitter has the keys, and I’m ready for some sunshine. Tomorrow we head off to the (hopefully) sunny south of France for a different sort of holiday: a river cruise. I am sure some fantastic online French lessons (click here for more information) will come in handy on this trip. Admittedly, this will be nothing like the Disney Cruise we did last year – to the point where I’ve explained that to the kids that it’s not so much a cruise as a hotel that floats – there is no pool, no fireworks off the bow, and no…
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What To Do On A Rainy Summer Day, or, “Sugar Anyone?”
This morning, as it rained buckets, I wasn’t much in the mood to leave the house, so I baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes. When they had cooled, I set out frosting and pretty much every sprinkle, jimmie and Smartie I had in the house, and told the kids to have at it. I knew those paper liners that go between the foil cupcake liners could be used for something: I filled them with sprinkles and such that came in a bottle with no shaker lid!! I suppose I should have supervised a tad bit more closely, as they went a bit overboard, but they sure are pretty!!! I think…
