January Visit to South Mtn.

Climbing climbing


David, not too tired yet.


Resting.


Getting close!


Um, ya.


Gulp.


What a view!








Headed home in the sunset.

Visitor, Snow, Stomach Bug and the Flu

What a lovely blog title, heh? That's what I've been up to. After my great resolve to be out of doors with the children more, we had a big snow (for our area) that arrived with our visitor, Jack. It took almost twice the time to get to the airport to pick him up, and triple to get home. Which was partially due to my directional challenges in Charlotte, but I digress...

So all our lovely plans of taking Jack to our out of door spots, normally so accessible in January, were ruined. It's not that we weren't intrepid and adventurous, they were closed. Then people started throwing up. Then Kaley got the flu. And so the rest of our visit was spent hanging around the house. Which was fine, just not what was we envisioned. C'est la vie, non?

I did not throw up, so happy about that. But Jack did, big bummer. So did all the children and I have still not caught up with the laundry. After they all threw up, they got the flu. Max also got a sinus infection and an ear infection. Still dealing with that. And after everyone was done, I finally came down with the flu myself. Depressing. I am over the hump but still not quite myself.

So I do hope after this week we will be back to our regularly scheduled lessons and out of door life. The children are so restless and fractious. I am, too! It was 68 degrees here on sunday and I was sick. I did drag myself out of doors to sit/lay on my porch swing in the sun. And I had my reward.

Grace was digging around in the flower beds, moving leaves and what did she find?! Spring, reaching her green finger tips up through the soil in the shape of daffodil leaves. Reaching out to me, sending hope. I am so happy. Tomorrow is February. That means the beginning of daffodil spotting!

Our Out-Of-Doors Life, day one

Our day started with some cleaning work we needed to do. We are off school for two more weeks so it's a good time to get it done. Our days flow well when we work in the morning and then use the afternoon for outside, crafts, personal creative time etc. We were done by 11 and Curtiss and I began packing our backpack cooler. He made pb&j, I cut up two pomegranates and bagged them. I threw in tangerines, navels, bananas, baby carrots and a bag of pretzels. I also squeezed in our SE field guide and Audubon tree book. Unfortunately, I did not double check to see if the children remembered their own water bottles :( Kaley and I did grab ours. I also stupidly did not grab some extra diabetes supplies. Hmm, more about that later. We tossed all this in the van, grabbed the ergo baby carrier and were out of the driveway by noon. The weather was sunny and 45 degrees.

Everyone was excited and in high spirits. We headed toward the mountains to South Mtn State Park, right in our back yard. You can see them on the horizon from our town. It's a great 20m drive. As I pulled in the park, I stopped at the new welcome station to ask about a trail we were considering that would be new to us. Well, the beautiful huge center was empty and maps were located outside. The baby was asleep so I jumped out and snagged a map and we all agreed to take the Chestnut Knob Trail and hike up to the over look. 2.1 miles one way.

We parked in the main parking lot and piled out. A ranger was eating his lunch at a picnic table and watched us, amused. He asked me how many of the kids were mine. All mine, I smiled. Guess how many times I've heard that one? :) He was very pleasant and I was able to ask him about the trail we were considering. He said it was a beautiful walk but eyed all the kids as he explained the overlook was precarious and just some boulders hanging over a cliff. Now the boys definitely wanted that trail!

We made a potty stop at the beginning of the trail and pulled out our sandwiches as we started up the trail. Now Charlotte says:

Supposing we have got them, what is to be done with these golden hours, so that every one shall be delightful? They must be spent in some method, or the mother will be taxed and the children bored...They must be kept in a joyous temper all the time...they must be let alone, left to themselves a great deal, to take in what they can of the beauty of the earth and heavens... At the same time, here is the mother's opportunity to train the seeing eye, the hearing ear, and to drop seeds of truth into the open soul of the child...an hour or two should be spent in vigorous play; and last and truly least, a lesson or two must be got in.

Wonderful! Off they go up the mountain, blowing off steam. Max is happily strapped to my back munching on a banana and not even getting it in my hair. (Did I mention he weighs 30lbs?) I gave Maura a bolus of insulin for her pb&j, usually blood sugar spiking but then pondering that we will be hiking 4 miles and that really suppresses your blood sugar, did not bolus her for her banana even though they are high in carbs. (type 1 diabetics take so many units of insulin for so many carbs that they eat) Good call! I fed her all day long without insulin just to keep her from being too low. It was amazing. So off we all go, happily munching and walking through the forest ridge, up up and up. On a trail, on steps.

Whew! We stop to shed some pullovers and coats, we really warmed up. Woody the cowboy went into the backpack and we tried to switch it around so one person wasn't stuck carrying it all the time. Then we came to a very steep area and the going got hard. And guess what? People started to whine! It was shocking, I know, and amazingly it was an older child who whined the loudest. We kept climbing. I pointed out we had to be getting close. It felt like we had been climbing for over an hour. Now the forest was getting scrubby, more pines and less holly trees and hardwoods. And sunnier, we were now in our short sleeves. My knees were really starting to feel the effects of all those steps. Max was still happy but having bursts of feeling like, hey! why don't I get to get out? Right, I thought as I looked down down down the ridge we were walking along. Most of the walk was spent close to the edge of a drop off.

Finally I saw a sign up ahead at a T junction. I told you we were almost there, I yelled encouragingly! As I got closer I read the sign. Jacob Fork overlook 100 yard to the right, Chestnut Knob Trail to the left 1.5 miles. 1.5 miles!! We had only gone .7 miles??!! We collapsed in a heap. Kaley came trailing behind, graciously with Josiah and I gave her the news. It had taken us an hour to get that far. This is where I discover Kaley and I are the only ones with water. We sat for awhile and ate tangerines and pomegranate, shared some water and put it to a vote, go to the river overlook and call it a day and a good try, or press on. Unanimously everyone yelled to press on! Yay, they were exuberant, enthusiastic and positive. Right.

Now the terrain took at softer turn. Big hardwood, soft easy trail and lots of mountain laurel and some big patches of rhododendron. This was a lovely and fun part of the trail. We happily strolled along and felt so good about our perseverance. We also had a little botany lesson on holly trees. Some have berries, some don't. Maura wanted to know why. So we got to talk about male and female trees etc. Then we were moving up again. Aforementioned oldest son proceeded to whine uncontrollably about everything to carrying the backpack to how hard the trail was. Middle girl was decidedly negative to any encouraging thing I had to say, things such as, See how high we are getting, we have to be close, you guys are doing great etc. No we are not, we'll never get there etc came from her so I gave up encouraging and started threatening with things like, Fine, the next time I come you big kids can just stay home, to drill sargent things like, push your body harder--just suck it up and push. When I said I was going to get a t-shirt that said that someone pointed out for a midwife maybe that wouldn't be a good idea. At least Max was asleep.

Then I had to keep feeding Maura. Whew, thank goodness for her continuous glucose monitor that gives me a bg reading every 5min. Then I realized I should cut her basal insulin (the amount she gets automatically every 5 min from her pump) by half since she was exercising so much. Ok, proceed on. Of course now Josiah is tired himself and wearing his favorite rubber boots, not such a hot plan. I keep him going with telling him how impressive it is to be three and climbing a mountain. We do press on, although not very happily and finally arrive to another T junction. Overlook to the left! Hotdig!!

Still another difficult walk over big rocks on the edge, yes the edge, of the mountain and we come out to the overlook. And it was literally boulders.on.the.edge.of.a.cliff. I have 5 boys, folks. One asleep on my back. I collapse on a rock and feed Maura, again. They scamper around. I encourage them to perch somewhere and just be quiet and look at the view. They are not quiet, it is too exciting. And the view, breathtaking. We could see the skyline of Charlotte! To appreciate that you'd have to know how far we are from there, at least a two hour drive. It was clear and we were so high! I didn't even see where all the kids climbed till I looked at Kaley's pictures later, yikes! Dad wasn't too happy about that later. They were like little mountain goats.

We sat for awhile and snacked and then I asked for the time. Three o'clock. It had taken us 2 hours. I glanced at the sun, hmmm, two hours down that makes 5pm and dark on our heels. I head everyone up and we start back. No more whining from the big kids, which Curtiss insists he was not whining, just expressing his personal opinion over and over again. But now our little ones are really flagging.

Josiah has a blister, Maura needs to pee. So Kaley and Maura go find a potty spot, I give all the boys a drink and all the water is pretty much gone, great. The girls are taking forever so I let Max out to stretch his legs, we keep him away from edges and he nurses. Still no girls and now I am getting edgy about getting caught after dark. I send Grace to find them. Then no Grace so I had back down the trail to find them coming out of the woods. Well, while Maura was going potty her tubing that goes from her pump to her leg site (like a tiny iv line) got pulled out. Bad deal. I am on top of a mountain with my baby girl who HAS to have insulin for life and her site is pulled out. Now I am berating myself for not bringing extra sites, supplies etc. I have low emergency supplies, big red (a shot for extreme lows that cause unconsciousness) her bg meter and lots of food and juice boxes, but this didn't even cross my mind. Drats! At least she has been running low and we are walking so that will keep her down so I decide we just need to book it and I will stop feeding her. Max goes back in the pack and we go.

Going down is harder in a whole new way. They sun is going down and I keep watching that top ridge and how close the sun is getting to it. We all guess how long it will take based on how close it is. Another short lesson.

And Max is so heavy and my knees and back are hurting. Poor Kaley is having to put Josiah on her back! He weighs 40 plus pounds!! But we head down down down, feeding everyone but Maura pretzels on the way, she gets water as that and exercise help keep ketones at bay. But still her bg is headed up. Normal is 80-120. She has been 65-80 all day. Now she is 120 and heading up. ugg. We just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Kaley sings for awhile with Maura and Josiah, the forest ringing with Waltzing Matilda, This Old Man, She'll be Coming Round the Mountain, Christmas is Coming--we try that one in rounds. Then I ask Curtiss to carry Josiah for her and he does it very begrudgingly. Josiah wants Kaley and Curtiss is short with him which makes Kaley mad and they argue.

We are almost there! Kaley takes Josiah back. The kids run ahead, encouraged. Now we are so close you can see the main road down through the woods and how our trail snakes down. Curtiss tells Grace they should just slide down to the road. She points to a sign that says: Keep On Trails. Aww, he says, there aren't any rangers out here. At that moment they look down and our Ranger from this morning waves up at them and heads up the trail! Whoops! They run back to me, scared they are in trouble.

Actually, our ranger was hiking another trail all afternoon and got back, saw our van in the parking lot and had worried about us so headed up our trail. He was afraid he overstepped his bounds after he found us but I thought it was so nice of him. He was glad to see no one fell over and told us the sky line we had seen was Charlotte. It was his opinion that it was the best trail in the park and thought we were quite the troopers for having made it. He walked back to the main road with us and come to find out we live near each other and know mutual acquaintances! And so we couldn't just end without any excitement! After all that rugged terrain, carrying the baby all that way, don't I slip on the flat road and fall with him on back, on top of him! Bumped his head but he was mostly just scared.

So that was our day. We stopped by the potty and loaded up quick because now Maura was approaching 200. We fixed her up with a new site as soon as we got home and she was fine before dinner. All the drive home everyone raved about how great it was and could we please do it again with Kaley's friend or right away?! I am thinking, what?! Are these the same children? And then I remember something else Charlotte said:

All the time, too, the children are storing up memories of a happy childhood. Fifty years hence they will see the shadows of the boughs making patters on the white tablecloth; and sunshine, children's laughter, hum of bees, and scent of flowers are being bottled up for after refreshment.

Ahh, yes, in their happy child like way, the whole day was a success. They didn't remember the hard work as bad but felt triumphant! That helps me in the future to stay calm and patient in the moment. Because those hard moments are just moments and a small part of the whole picture of the day. It was real. It was wonderful.

Out-Of-Door Life For The Children

I went to my Charlotte Mason study group Monday night. We are studying Book 1 Home Education, and came away inspired. I always am. I have read this book, this chapter many times but CM never fails to catch me in some new way because life is always being lived in a new way. Once I was lamenting to another mother who had more experience and a bigger family than me. I was complaining that just as I had some sort of system working or a way of doing something figured out, it stopped working! Something changed or it wouldn't flow right anymore. Of course, she replied, life is dynamic and always changing, children get older and grow out of stages and enter new ones, you have more children, you move, etc etc. So true and now I don't look for a fix or for any permanent working system. And life changes and brings new seasons and the best thing to do is to roll with it, right? So here we roll.

Some things that inspired me:

People who live in the country know the value of fresh air very well, and their children live out of doors, with intervals within for eating and sleeping. As to the latter, even the country people do not make full use of their opportunities...For we are an overwrought generation, running to nerves as cabbage runs to seed; and every hour spent in the open is a clear gain...

Never be within doors when you can rightly be without.

I wish I had a nickle for every time I have quoted that last part to my children. But something new hit me between the eyes. Let me share it with you because I am quite challenged by it.

'I make a point,' says a judicious mother,' of sending my children out, weather permitting, for an hour in the winter, and two hours a day in the summer months.' That is well; but it is not enough. In the first place, do not send them; if it is anyway possible, take them; for, although the children should be left much to themselves, there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air.

Sigh. Did I not read that before?? I am that mother! I am very good at sending them out. But do I go, too?? Not so much. And what am I missing during those times?

And long hours they should be; not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October. (I'd venture to add CM would have said all year for our NC climate!)
'Impossible!' says an over-wrought mother (that's me!) who sees her way no more for her children than a daily hour or so on the pavements of the neighboring London squares.

Let me repeat, that I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced wonders are demanded of them.

I had a full night and morning chewing on just this, the first three pages of this chapter. How can I do this? Then I start telling Charlotte; you see, her books are so living I feel like she's my friend, I start telling her all the reasons that won't work in my life, this day and age, with a family of my size, etc. And I am always telling other people how her philosophy of education is timeless and how she would have employed modern technology and how she was cutting edge and kept up with all things new in her world.

But then I thought what if? What if I was free enough in my life to do this? I am a town dweller. Our yard is less than an acre and our local park leaves a lot to be desired. But Charlotte said this, too.

A journey of twenty minutes by rail or omnibus, and a luncheon basket, will make a day in the country possible to most town-dwellers: and if one day, why not many, even every suitable day?

Well, here I sit with some absolutely beautiful and breath taking sites within 20-30 minutes driving distance from my house. Every suitable day? How would I get anything done? What about laundry, dinner, cleaning and on and on the list goes. But what if I pared down my life some more. Gave my family more margin. Used my modern conveniences like my crockpot. Was a little more organized to finish school by 12:30 (which we do most days) Since I have taken a sabbatical from midwifery my life has been so free! I miss it, it will always be a part of me, but I am so free to be present for my family.

And being present is what God has been working on in me. A year ago one of our elders preached a sermon on being present where you are. God seared my heart with it. That is why I quit taking clients, for even when I was at home I was never fully present with my children and family. I have never had a school year where we have accomplished so much and seen so much progression in the children. And joy!

So could I give up more? Have days free enough to live as my heart longs to live? Free and fully engaged in the world as it happens, not looking at it out of glass windows as it passes me by?

It will be messy, life always is and it won't be rose colored. But I am so challenged to do it! So I gave up some more commitments, am praying about giving up others and took a leap yesterday. I'd like to journal as I do this. And be very real about it.

Yesterday I took a dive into it. Life is hectic this week. We are getting ready for a guest so of course are cleansing our house of clutter and Christmas stuff. But I was challenged to just do it because life with 8 kids is always hectic, right?! So it was really real and funny and breath taking and wonderful and I will write about it this afternoon.

Blessings