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First Family Hike | North Wilderness Loop in Sam Houston National Forest
It’s been a long winter! It’s been far longer since I’ve done any hiking, last May when we were at Nails Creek State Park and I was six or seven months pregnant. We’ve had some nice stretches of weather these last few weeks intermingled with cool spells, but this last week we were in the middle of a beautiful stretch so I mentioned to Chris that I wanted our first Valentines Day as a family to be a hike. I decided early on I wanted to carry Forest in the Ergo carrier but then I got to thinking that I thought he might be big enough for the Osprey Poco…
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Life in Words | Sunshine
I went for a jog at lunch yesterday. We’ve had some great weather recently and I have been missing all of the good running days. Either I was sick or Forest was sick or something was up and I just never got out for a jog during my lunch break in the last few weeks like I had been wanting. Finally, though, the weather was still nice again and I was feeling good, so outside I went. Luckily where I work is tucked next to a neighborhood. The neighborhood is comprised of larger, wooded lots with small houses or mobile homes on them, the quality and upkeep ranging from not-very…
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Life Snippets | 3
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Life in Words | Ode to Coffee
It was on the Appalachian Trail that I realized just how much coffee was more than a morning elixir of caffeine. It was a symbol of morning congregation, of talking and laughing, of slowly waking up, enjoying sunrises and dreary days, and of savoring the warmth radiating off of the mug. By the time we’d started the AT I was a coffee addict but I’d made the decision not to carry instant coffee for a morning cup, mostly because I didn’t want the hassle of needing to stop to find a privy or tree every twenty minutes after leaving the shelter or campsite in the morning. Plus, I knew how…
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Life Snippets | 2
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Life In Words | Musical Association
My other themed post for the week is strictly writing based. It’s going to be mostly stream of conciousness/free writing/whatever it becomes. Not necessarily looking for comments or input, just want to be present and give my brain a creative workout. I’m driving down the road exiting off the main strip to the side road, heading to the grocery store. The grocery store is my little bit of solitude these days. For weeks it was Chris who made our weekly grocery store runs and I’d stay home with Forest. Of course there were instances when we all made the trek together but in those early days with all three of…
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Life Snippets | 1
I’ve definitely felt the need to be quiet here lately but am slowly emerging from that. In an effort to be a little more present here I’m trying with two themed posts a week, hopefully Sundays and Wednesdays but I’m flexible. This will be in addition to the every couple of weeks Forest updates and the occasional random post I feel like throwing in here. The theory with these Life Snippet posts will be that they are photo only, generally, and are capturing random moments throughout my week….people or not. I’m liking the black and white thing so that might be present here quite a bit—we’ll see. Also, I’m trying…
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Current Favorites
A random photo from one of my Flickr photo albums taken in the Keys…’cause you know, photos are nice! +Can you Homestead with Kids? from NW Edible Life +Thoughts on Busy from Elise Blaha Cripe +My Favorite Organizational Tools from Natalie Creates +Just You Wait from Elise Blaha Cripe—FYI, never say this to a parent, or at least rephrase it if you are trying to bond/looking to vent about a certain period of parenting. As much as I am looking forward to certain life stages with Forest, I try to live in the moment with him as much as I can. I get each day once. +Post Trail Depression from…
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Mushroom Log Update
Almost a year ago I wrote over on Sprout Dispatch about starting a mushroom log. Yesterday I took a walkabout in the yard with Forest as it was our first bit of sunshine in nearly a week. I spotted that the mushroom log had sprouted mushrooms. Unsure if they were from the plugs or if they were just random mushrooms from the yard I mentioned it to Chris who confirmed they were the edible kind. Unfortunately I caught them past their prime and they were still quite small, however I’m happy to know that I may be eating mushrooms on a semi-frequent basis in the near future. And it only…
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Mindful: My Word for 2015
It’s been two years or so since I last chose a word for the year. I didn’t opt for one last year because at the time I knew that it was really going to be ‘baby’ and didn’t want the hassle of trying to focus on something else. However, this year I need a word to get myself out of the baby fog. I’m chosing mindful for a lot of reasons that I’m not going to elaborate on here. I’m not doing this word up big here on the blog but there will be some background work going on that I want to keep track of for myself. The word…