Explore
You'll find my monthly post published today at Simple Homeschool. I've written about two things we enjoy very much; reading and the outdoors. The combination of these is a post titled, Great Books for an Outdoors Education.
Reading is something that inspires us to get outdoors more; to experience this great, wide and beautiful world we've read about. Then, after we've been outdoors and want to research what we've discovered for ourselves (ie: identifying the bugs, leaves and forest floor wildflowers) books are where we turn to find our answers.
Just this morning I read Henry David's House to the kiddos. Reading this very edited and richly illustrated (oh I just love children's picture books) version of the American classic Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau inspires me to follow my dreams for simpler living, leaves me pining to return to the woods (only 4 more days till our next hike) and has piqued my curiosity to read the original.
If you'd like to find more outdoor/nature type books to read with your children you can check out my nature study shelf at Goodreads.
This winter Damien upped the nature-book ante by reading outdoor adventure books to our family during the evenings. These are stories about people truly being in the outdoors, not just studying it from the comfort of their heated living rooms or well equipped science labs. He's got a booklist going also at Goodreads that you can see at the bottom of the AdventureinProgress mainpage.
Have any of you read Walden, or Life in the Woods? What did you think? Would you recommend it?
PS. I know there's been a lot of posts lately on FIMBY about the outdoors. This blog reflects my life, it's not an abstract writing project, and we've been reading about, talking about and spending lots of time outdoors. And we hope to do more. It's a good thing but I do plan to post about other more "homey" subjects. Maybe hopefully spring gardening, with some pretty photos.
Contentment does not describe my feelings after yesterday's family time sledding at a local state park. Combine physical activity, lots of belly laughter, winter's beauty and spending time with my favorite people and you start to get a sense for how I felt about the day. Contentment scratches the surface but profound joy comes closer to the truth.
The photos speak for themselves but if you want to find out more about our family's weekend adventure you can read all about it here. Want to be inspired for more adventure in your own family? We're having a book giveaway over at ADVENTUREinPROGRESS.
Friday night around 8pm we pulled into our snowy driveway, home at last after 2 weeks away. The first week and a bit of our trip was to Nova Scotia to celebrate Christmas with my family. The second part of our trip was to visit the Gaspė peninsula of Quebec with my parents.
It was wonderful to be away, it is equally wonderful to have slept in my own bed for a couple nights. Now of course there is the tree to take down, heaps of laundry to do and fresh fruit to buy. But that is nothing in light of what happened to our neighbors while we are gone. Our very next door neighbors, whose house is right along our driveway, had a house fire 2 days before Christmas. I would be remiss and very insensitive if I shared our trip with you without sharing this painful loss also.
I am devastated for our neighbors, no person was hurt in the blaze but they lost one of their dogs and of course their house is inhabitable. We found out while we were still in NS and watched live coverage on the internet (now that was surreal). In light of this I am even more thankful for a house to come home to.
Because there is so much to say about our travels around Gaspė I'm going to simplify it a bit and give it to you by the numbers.
- One -Child coughing and blowing their nose. Just Brienne thankfully, now my job is to feed this family top notch healthy to boost our immune systems once again.
- Five and a half- Average hours spent driving per day, over 5 days. It seemed like a lot some days but there was just too much to see and experience to stay in one place. This includes the getting to and from the peninsula.
- Two - East coast/maritime winter storms we drove through (very cautiously).
- Daily - Stops at boulangeries, patisseries and cafės. Eating healthy was a bit challenging with fresh from the oven croissants lining the counters. When in Gaspė...
- Very high - Velocity of the wind coming off the St. Lawrence river and Baie des Chaleurs for most of our trip. This was too hard to measure, but let's just say it was very windy and cold.
- Daily - Trips to the épicier (grocery store) or supermarchė (super market) to pick up easy-to-prepare, healthy foods for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
- Two - Hours the children spent swimming at a hotel pool on New Year's Eve. Brienne progressed to an unassisted swim at this pool thanks to Nana's instruction and encouragement.
- One - Feast of (home grown) turkey, squash, potatoes, salad, tourtière and apple crisp prepared for us 7 travelers by perfect strangers.
- Five - Restaurants closed on New Year's Eve in Campbellton, NB (where we stayed our last night). Thankfully a take out pizza place was open.
- Two - Individuals and families (who were strangers) who welcomed us into their homes, shared their floorspace, their tables and their hearts with us. But when you count all the friendly people they introduced us to the number seems much higher.
- Three - Movies children watched on our laptop in the backseat of the car. These were saved for the trips getting to (through NB) and getting home (through NB and ME) from the peninsula.
If you'd like to read more about our time in Gaspė and how we met some amazing people, shared in old fashioned hospitality and saved big time on our accommodations & food please read my couch surfing post at ADVENTUREinPROGRESS.
