Wordless Wednesday: Make Way for Geese

I am not one of those people who stops to take pictures of wildlife in the Smokies, but this just cracked me up. We were headed up to take a short hike and play in the river with friends last week, and about halfway up we had to stop and let a family of geese cross. (That is a goose, right, not a duck?) A Friday in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, where 8 million tourists visit each year, and all traffic stops for this family of 5. (Dad and the others were already safely on the side of the road.) I love the power these little creatures have over us in our vehicles, love that moment that reminds us that we are in their home.

Linked to Wordless Wednesday, Seven Clown Circus, and 5 Minutes for Mom

On the Menu

This week a college friend posted a link to a Food Network recipe that looked delicious (thanks, Angie!), and I ended up getting all my menu items from there. Between Food Network, Pioneer Woman and her Tasty Kitchen, Rachael Ray, and then weekly idea blogs like Menu Plan Monday and Tasty Tuesday, I should never have an excuse for wondering what's for supper. But I still do. Some days we end up ordering pizza or eating fish sticks. Lame.

But I'm excited about what's coming up this week, thanks to the Food Network and its various contributors:

Grilled Chicken Pitas
Margarita Chicken Skewers
Black and Blue Burgers
Bacon and Tomato Pasta

Tonight we're having salmon, for my nearly vegetarian (fish only) son who is returning from a 4-day music festival at which he's been eating little but granola bars and peanut butter.

Next week the kids have Vacation Bible School all week—which includes supper each night— so I may not cook at all. Or we may eat things they hate all week, like smoked salmon, tofu, and big salads. We know how to live around here!

Linked up with Tasty Tuesdays and Menu Plan Monday.

Weekly Wrap-Up

We're done. I've graduated the first one. It's time for a long summer break. Here are all the things I'm going to do this summer. Or at least 10 of them. Mostly, I just want to hang out with family and friends and sit by the pool and the river a lot. Like today.


I need a break. They need a break. I like long, lazy summers. We don't do any book work over the summer, but that doesn't mean they aren't learning. I don't really get the whole "they'll forget everything they learned over summer break" argument. I've never found that to be true with my kids. They always seem sharper in mid-August when we resume.

I think it's all the good, fresh air.

Linking up (for the last time for awhile) at Weekly Wrap-Up

30 Things I Vow to Do This Summer

1. Paint the guest bathroom.
2. Move Duncan's room upstairs.
3. Turn Duncan's current room into an office.
4. Go sailing with my brother.
5. Go camping at least twice.
6. Hike weekly.
7. Clean the sun porch.
8. Buy a cover for the light switch in the dining room.
9. Put pictures up on the walls of the dining room.
10. Exercise 4 times/week.
11. Go to the pool regularly.
12. Wear sunscreen.
13. Weed the flowerbeds.
14. Keep all the plants living.
15. Prune the jungle at the side of the house.
16. Prune the jungle in the back of the house.
17. Prune the jungle at the front of the house.
18. Sit around and chat with friends.
19. Have people over for dinner.
20. Play kickball.
21. Play croquet.
22. Plan AHG for next year.
23. Make a photo album of Jesse's senior year.
24. Have girls over to do AHG badges.
25. Sit on the bench in the evenings with Dr. H.
26. Do co-op lesson plans for next semester.
27. Do lesson plans for my kids for next year.
28. Finish grading essays from this past semester.
29. Visit my parents every day.
30. Enjoy my oldest before he goes off to college.

What's on your agenda for the summer?

Linked to Writer's Workshop at Mama's Losin' It.

Back in the Yard

I'm so excited to get back to my yard. All our Big Events are over now, and the flower beds are beckoning. I've got loads of pruning to do. I intended to get out first thing this morning, but a huge storm rolled in. I folded laundry instead, which is not nearly as gratifying as taking down a big branch.

Here's what happening this week in our flower beds, besides all the annuals:


Right now just a few black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers are blooming; within a week, my main flower bed will be a mass of yellow and purple. The bee balm and a couple more varieties of lilies are due to burst in the next couple of days.

I've put my nine-year-old to work this year watering my flowerpots, and they are flourishing thus far. It's well worth the few dollars each week to have someone else be responsible for them!

What's happening in your yard this week?

Linked up at Just for the Joy of It and Outdoor Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday: My First Graduate

We have pictures of him with his friends, with his grandparents, with his fellow graduates. We even have pictures of his feet and of his tassel. How can it be that we have absolutely NO pictures of him with us or with his brother and sister or with his other grandmother, who drove 250 miles to get here?

Sigh. Regardless, we did it! My homeschool graduate is ready for college to begin.

Linked up at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom.

Blog Trot: The Knoxville area, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee: third largest city in Tennessee, home of the University of Tennessee Vols, site of the 1982 World's Fair, and once known as the Underwear Capital of the World. (It's true; I read it on Wikipedia, which is always right, right?)

Knoxville lies in the shadow of the Great Smoky Mountains and the Cumberland Mountains. It is the hub for three major interstates: I-40 from North Carolina to California, I-75 from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and I-81 from Canada to Knoxville. More than 60 million Americans are within a day's drive of Knoxville.

I don't actually live in the city of Knoxville but am part of the Knoxville Metropolitan Area, which includes five counties and has 655,400 people. Knoxville itself is too busy and crowded for my tastes, but we do enjoy the variety of places to visit there. So what does Knoxville offer? Here are just a few ideas:



Outdoors: Visit the Knoxville Zoo and Ijams Nature Center
Inside: Visit the Knoxville Museum of Art (but don't touch anything, trust me); the Frank McClung Museum (it's free!); the American Museum of Science and Energy (in nearby Oak Ridge and while you're there, visit the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge); and East Tennessee Discovery Center
Historical: Try James White's Fort, Marble Springs Historic Farmstead, Blount Mansion, Ramsey House Plantation, East Tennessee Historical Center. Or take a 30 minute drive to visit Fort Loudoun and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum.

Most people, however, don't come to our area to visit the city of Knoxville. Most come for what we like to call Our Big Backyard: the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). The Park, which was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, consists of 510,030 acres of beautiful ridges, hollows, river gorges and coves. With over 8 million tourists each year, the GSMNP is the most visited national park.

And that's why we live where we do. You can read all about the Great Smoky Mountain National Park on this website, which provides lots of great links and information. But let me just give you a selection of photos from some of our favorite spots:






Those are just a few of my hundreds of photos that we've taken on our many hikes and camping trips. If you want to see some truly spectacular photos of the Smokies, please visit my friend Lynn Freeny's website. My photos might make you think, "Hey, I might like to go there." His will make you pack your bags and head out the door.

Cades Cove is the most visited spot in the Smokies; click on that link to take a tour with us from a couple of years ago. And before you come, check out my post In the Smokies: Selected Reading.

I would be seriously amiss if I wrote a whole post about the Knoxville area without mentioning Gatlinburg. I am convinced that 7.8 million of the 8 million tourists who visit the Smokies each year spend 99% of their vacation time actually in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. And there really are lots of fun things to do in that area:


Here are just a few of the more popular spots:
Titanic Museum
Wonderworks
Dixie Stampede
Dollywood
Splash Country
Miracle Theatre
Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies

You can read more things to do in Gatlinburg, Sevierville, and Pigeon Forge, including all the information about places to stay and the fantastic outlet shopping.

But if I were coming to visit the Smokies, I'd stay in Townsend. Around here we call it "The Peaceful Side of the Smokies." You can get to Gatlinburg in 30 minutes or less from there if you really want to, but there are plenty of things to do right in Townsend (if hiking in one of the most beautiful places in the U.S. isn't enough for you). We love Tuckaleechee Caverns and the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center. And if you're coming in the summer, tubing on the river is a must.

There is no doubt that the Knoxville area has something for everyone, from shopping to amusement parks to museums to hiking and camping. You could spend thousands of dollars on a vacation filled with rollercoasters and hot tubs, or just a couple of hundred of you like to camp and hike.

Knoxville is the featured destination today on the virtual tour at Blog Trotting. You can get an insider's view of all kinds of cities across North America every week at Blog Trotting—it's a great way to plan a vacation!

Done!

You can't actually see him in the picture, although you can see his green Converse. But he's there, tossing his cap up in the air.
Three years, 25 credits, 14 hours of college credit already tucked under his belt.
We did it.
He did it.

Linked up with Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky

My Homeschooled Graduate

High school graduation is a big milestone for any parent. The pride, the joy, the tears shed for that little guy who once carried his crayons and glue sticks in a Matchbox-car backpack, now proudly accepting his high school diploma and moving his tassel from one side to the other. Sweet success—he did it!

A momentous occasion for any parent. But for those of us who have homeschooled, this event takes on epic proportions. Not “he did it” but “WE did it!”

We learned to sing the ABCs, to form letters, to sound out words, and ultimately to enjoy the sweet reward of the world of books. …

[I'm over at The Homeschool Classroom today. Hop over there to read the rest of My Homeschooled Graduate!]

Wordless Wednesday: Brothers in Arms

My Dad came across this photo of himself and his Dad, my granddad, taken in about 1943. My Dad is about 18 and Granddad is an old man of 42. I can't believe I've never seen this photo before, and now I'm madly in love with it. I'll be searching for the perfect frame.

Linked up at Wordless Wednesday and Five Minutes for Mom.