“Are you sitting down?” my husband asked over the phone a few months ago. “Is something wrong?” I answered, panicking slightly. Daniel and I usually communicate via text or google chat during the day, so I was curious to see what kind of news merited a phone call. “No, it’s good news. Just…you should probably sit down. I found out that the Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota is … [Read more...]
This Week’s Miscellany: Vol. 135 (Home at Last!)
This has been one of those weeks that feels like it's been a month long. Not because we've been bored but just because SO much has happened! It's hard to remember what day we were where but we went to the Grand Canyon and it was AMAZING. I wasn't really expecting much. For some reason I got it into my head that it was hyped up and would be disappointing. Or that one of my kids would fall … [Read more...]
Our Secret Weapons to Keeping Young Kids Happy on Long Car Trips
We just wrapped up a 6.5 week road trip around the United States with three kids ages 6, 3, and 2. The almost 8,000 miles of driving was definitely an education in what works and what doesn’t work for keeping young children happy on a long trip! I thought I'd share a few ways we made it easy on ourselves and held onto our sanity. Planning the Trip For our trip of visiting friends, cities, … [Read more...]
This Week’s Miscellany: Vol. 134 (Last Week of the Trip!)
It's strange to think that in just four days we will be arriving at the final destination of this crazy road trip: Waco, TX. This has been life-changing trip for our family. We've gotten so much closer and I'm grateful that we'll have the memories of the past six weeks forever. We spent all day yesterday at Zion and it was incredible! I think it may have been my favorite national park that … [Read more...]
The Weird Thing I Do to Beat Insomnia
I've had a hard time falling asleep for as long as I can remember. I used to lay awake for hours as a little girl staring at the ceiling because I just couldn't shut my brain off. And now, even when stress levels are low and I'm not consciously worried about anything, I'm still THINKING when I get in bed and it's hard to fall asleep. photo source And it doesn't matter how tired I am, I … [Read more...]
Why I Could Live in Boise
While we were planning our six week road trip around the U.S. we knew we needed to make a stop to recover from several nights of camping at Grand Tetons and Yellowstone before driving on to Bend, Oregon and Crater Lake National Park. Boise was the perfect distance. But we'd never been to Boise or knew much about it at all. We definitely weren't expecting to absolutely love it. After five … [Read more...]
This Week’s Miscellany: Vol. 133
Happy Friday! Life has been wonderful and wild during our crazy road trip. We're FIVE weeks in (what?! How did that happen?) with just a week and a half to go before we arrive at our final destination in TX! We're currently enjoying our first trip ever to California. The beaches here are so different from Florida beaches! We had fun finding sea glass at the Glass Beach. And we've … [Read more...]
Things to Love About Louisville, KY
I've wanted to visit Louisville for a long time and the stars finally aligned when we were planning our six week road trip around the country. We knew we were stopping at Mammoth Cave National Park and the Abbey of Gethsemani (because we believe in taking children all kinds of places). The Abbey is just over an hour away and we couldn't pass up the chance to spend some time in Louisville before … [Read more...]
Every Story Has a Bellybutton
While we're on our adventure across the country, my friend Tyler is sharing a post on the blog today. Enjoy! - Haley Image source By Tyler Blanski Everyone has a story, and every story has a bellybutton. In the shadow of Planned Parenthood and what has been aptly called abortion’s Wilberforce moment, it could be said that bellybuttons are the most natural and prolific pro-life bumper … [Read more...]
This Week’s Miscellany: Vol. 132 (3 Weeks on the Road!)
That Gwen. Girl knows how to Cracker Barrel. Well we've officially been on the road for our road trip around the US for three weeks....with three weeks to go....and three kids in the car. (I know! We're crazy!) But it's been SO awesome thus far. There's no way I can catch you up in one post so I'll just tell a couple of stories from the road and then eventually give the big events their own … [Read more...]
