seven quick takes

Seven Quick Takes

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7 Quick Takes

Family Camping: The Sequel Edition

Last Labor Day weekend, we gave family camping another shot. After several years’ hiatus allowing our babies and toddlers to grow into preschoolers, the six of us tent camped for a weekend. You can read about our adventures with pit toilets and fish pedicures here, but all in all, it was well worth it.

This year, we chose better when it came to the facilities, more memories were made, more lessons learned.

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The “Facilities”  and Site Location Make a Difference

We went from putrid pit toilets and no showers last year to pristine bathrooms and showers this year. What a difference it makes! My camping bathroom standards aren’t ridiculously high. We are in the outdoors after all, and I expect a certain number of moths, spiders, and other creepy crawlies to make their way inside. But these bathrooms had next to none! My only quibble is the fact that no paper towels were available, only weak hand driers. (But that also probably contributed to the cleanliness factor.)

While this site was another previously-unseen walk-in, its steep incline from parking spot to tent site amounted to a matter of yards. No excruciating, back-breaking treks up and down with gear or to the potty. Speaking of the potty . . .

mossy trail

The mossy trail behind our tent.

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Seven Quick Takes

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7 Quick Takes

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Edition

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The Elderly Couple

When we moved into our first (and current) home eighteen years ago, our neighbors were an elderly couple. She’d been widowed twice. Him, once. She baked pies from the cherries grown on their tree. He told stories of his Merchant Marine days in WWII. They spent evenings sitting in the shade of two giant maple trees. When it snowed, the previous owner of our home often came with his snow blower. When he didn’t, we shoveled out the shared mailbox area in front of our homes. Continue reading →

Seven Quick Takes

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7 Quick Takes

Blogging from A to Z Challenge Edition

Blogging from A to Z April 2017 Challenge

Last month, for the first time, I participated in the Blogging From A to Z April (2017) Challenge. For each of the days in April (minus Sundays) you blog about a topic beginning with the day’s assigned letter. You’re encouraged to blog according to a chosen theme. Mine was my April book release, Rightfully Ours. You then share your posts on blogs and social media. (You can find the links to each of my  posts in my Letter Z post.) In early April, I realized I’d clearly over-extended myself. My book released April 1 and the Facebook launch party and blog tour soon followed. I had volunteer commitments to attend to, and my kids’ springtime sports and activities were gearing up. I persevered, and here are seven ways in which it benefited me. Continue reading →

Seven Quick Takes

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7 Quick Takes

The Blessings Crowding My Brain Edition

The early part of this week left me feeling as if I were suffocating under a growing list of “to-dos.” Each task I accomplished added three to the list as I realized yet something else that needed to be done. From meals to chores to decluttering to blogging and writing – I felt the weight of the many little straws threatening to break this camel’s back. I’ve tried to re-frame my discouragement with gratitude in terms of the blessings in disguise.

pushing boulder

Photo by gentlegiant27153 (Pixabay)

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Bills and Taxes

The bills never stop coming, do they? Online billing is supposed to simplify this process, but while I don’t have to use as many stamps as before, I find myself logging into and out of accounts, checking balances, scheduling payments, and discussing (via text message) with my husband where the money is going to come from. Top that off with the incomes taxes due, requiring multiple reports and paper shuffling, and I’m pretty tired of dealing with money issues. It’s my hope that the taxes will be filed before this blog posts, and I won’t have to worry about income taxes for another year.

Blessing: My husband has had uninterrupted employment. We have a roof over our heads and are able to afford all of the necessities and then some. Continue reading →

Seven Quick Takes

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7 Quick Takes

Farm Show Fracas Edition

While we live close to the state capital, where the Pennsylvania Farm Show is held each January, we’ve only been there several times, all more than a decade ago. It’s something like a local family tradition/institution, and I’ve been wanting to take the kids for years, but weather, basketball, or something else has interfered. Since my oldest daughter joined 4H, I decided this year we’d go. On Sunday, later in the morning than I’d anticipated, I took the three youngest children to the show. Here’s how it went down. Continue reading →

Seven Quick Takes

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7 Quick Takes

Keeping Sunday Special Edition

Inspired by Erin McCole Cupp‘s monthly Sabbath Rest Book Talk, I’ve been thinking about how our family does (or doesn’t) make Sunday special. I’m not too young to remember when most stores were closed on Sundays, which in itself set Sunday aside as different. These days, it’s business as usual, and I’m often surprised at how crowded the grocery stores are on Sunday mornings when we stop in to grab something.

In re-reading what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about the Sabbath, I was struck by these lines: “It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money.” Not much support from the culture on that one.

Here some ways we try to keep  Sunday special in our house and in my home growing up. Continue reading →

Seven Quick Takes

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7 Quick Takes

Autumn in the Park Edition

We took advantage of spectacular autumn weather and a day off of school by spending some time in a local park and on the adjoining walking/biking trail. (Never mind that I spent a small part of the afternoon scraping waterfowl feces from the treads of four pairs of shoes with a toothpick.) Our morning, in pictures:

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Autumn tree

A picture perfect day.

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Seven Quick Takes

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7 Quick Takes

Resumption of Camping Edition

My husband and I began tent camping together before we had children and continued with regularity for years with our young children. We toted babies and toddlers. We relished the outdoors. And then, around the time we had an infant and a toddler in addition to our two older children, it became a bit much. My husband feared an unknown woodsy calamity. I’ll admit, our last excursion, with only three of the children, was a bit challenging. My sole recollection is my toddling 10-month-old stretching out of her Bumbo seat to gather dead leaves from the forest floor to stuff into her mouth while we wrestled with tent setup. So, we took a break. Our youngest is now three, so on Labor Day weekend, we gave camping another shot. Here’s what I learned.

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All Pit Toilets Are Not Created Equal

We’ve camped in state park campgrounds with pit toilets before. Not recently and not often, but we’ve done it. My boy scout has done it fairly often. It’s not a big deal. At least it hadn’t been. The pit toilets at this particular Pennsylvania state park stunk. Sure, you say, pit toilets stink. No, I don’t mean “stink.” I mean eye-watering, gagging, covering-my-mouth-and-nose-with-my-shirt stink. Putrescence. Is that a word? I think that’s a word. Lesson learned: If you’ve smelled one pit toilet, you’ve smelled one pit toilet. (Since we like this park, I was relieved to learn they are installing flush toilets over the winter! Yay!)

Michael State Forest

Michaux State Forest

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