summer thoughts

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

"For most American children summer break is at hand, bringing with it the promise of cloudless, blue skies overhead, sprinklers spraying, and fireflies to chase before bed. There are ball games, freshly cut grass, and leisurely mornings to sleep in.

For their parents it may be a different story…"

Stressed over summer break? Feel like you should be doing more? You can jump over here for my take over at Tan Homeschool today. (hint – if your summer is looking anything like this, I think you're probably doing just fine.)

I hope you are scooping up joy by the bucketful this summer. : )

Feeding Grandma’s Chickens

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Where I come from houses are white and barns are red. Not always, but very often. It just seems the way it should be. My mother-in-law's farm is such a place, Wisconsin perfection with mown lawns and flowers planted near the barn doors. On summer evenings it is idyllic. The little girls loved peeking inside the big red barn with her and visiting the hens.

Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds,
Exhilarate the spirit, and restore
The tone of languid nature.
~William Cowper

Star Spangled

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

There was some debate over where to see fireworks this year, our first in Utah. Zach and Megan were in town and voted Park City since none of us have been yet so that's where we headed.

First stop while it was still light out was the Alpine Slide. One boy needed to think about a few minutes before committing. We don't push that sort of thing but do encourage when they are on the fence and seem intrigued, if a little unsure. We walked closer to the gondolas and slides and watched for a while and that cinched it. Tickets were ordered and up they went….

It was a loooong ride up. So long that they texted us selfies. Then let us know they were on the way down.

Down was awesome. At least until catching up with Tess. Then it became increasingly less awesome til the end. Cautiously spontaneous, she is. She was dead set on doing the ride but did it her way. (read: slow ; ))

Since we have had a stretch of scorching hot, dry weather we didn't consider that the cloudless skies would be anything else yesterday. All our years in the Rockies should have made us wiser than that. The wind picked up as we arrived and the Weather Channel app was warning of rain coming in right about showtime. We debated for a while, but having lived in the Rockies we decided to ride it out and see. Good call. With a change in wind direction the clouds went off course and all predictions were cancelled. We enjoyed a beautiful show.

A Presidential 4th

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

My story telling is out of order, which is par for me, but it seemed a perfect day to share the Rushmore visit. This group of our kids had not been before so we made a little detour in our travel plans to make it happen. We ended up visiting on a picture perfect day.

Some Rushmore and presidential reads for summer:

Who Carved the Mountain

Abraham Lincoln

George Washington

Meet Thomas Jefferson

Who Was Teddy Roosevelt?

So You Want to Be President?

Lisa’s retreat

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

It was flukey, this little detour. My friend Lisa and I have a knack for never being in the same place at the same time, yet we move in similar enough circles that the rest of our families have been. We have seen some of her clan at various camps. My husband and son even had brunch at her Las Vegas home not too far back when traveling through. Despite the fact both of us lived in Colorado for many overlapping years we were both so busy with homesteading and homeschooling and general child corraling that our paths only crossed online.

That changed this month when she arrived back to her new heartland homestead (after marrying off a daughter in Denver) just as we were coincidentally passing right by. Other women might have begged off but Lisa messaged me en route and urged us to stop on the way. The difference between a 49 year old husband and a 29 or even 39 year old husband? "Sure! Why not," says the 49 year old man. Yes, gone are the hurry hurry, stick to the schedule days. We have every bit as much to do as we ever had but perhaps enough perspective now to know we really want to make the time.

We were greeted out front by Penny, the Wonder Dog, who was a modern-day Nana of Peter Pan fame.

and strolled past the napping kitties…

to the place I had come to see….

Lisa is blessed with a bevy of ingenious and industrious offspring who had the vision and determination to refashion the old summer kitchen on the property into a mom's retreat, a writer's haven. It is cute as can be and screams Lisa from the minute you approach the door.

They had paid $75 to have a local electrician shore up the wiring. Then came the brilliant part for me. They found a local fence builder who happened to keep a large stash of old pickets. They repurposed them for pennies a piece to panel the interior.

Is this awesome or what?

There are whimsical Lisa touches everywhere you look. Just a feast for the eyes. She is all set up with coffee, wood stove, and enough reading to keep her out of trouble a good long time. Are you jelly? I am. : )

…and here we are finally, as we loaded up for the next adventure. I'm so happy to have been able to steal away an hour with this wonderfully witty fabulous redhead.

Saturday in the Park – Ogden, UT

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Before the road trip we hit the Ogden Arts Festival on a hot, sunny afternoon. Live music, great booths, and a fabulous vintage fashion fair. Back story – I was something of a hippie kid. Summer weekdays in Milwaukee were sticky, sweltering, grimy. If you hung on til the weekend you'd hit a festival – all summer long. And we did, my single 20 something mom and I. I can still feel the heat radiating from the fairgrounds cement and smell the hops from the brewery as we passed by on our way to the lakefront. (If you drove through in that era, you know exactly what I mean : ))

Summer of '15 in Ogden is uncannily similar, right down to the shoes and the stickered vans lining the streets downtown. If there was a soundtrack for summers like this it would be this. And for the record I heard them perform this live though not in'73.

I hope your summer is filling up with happy hot afternoons and sandals and sizzling food on paper plates.

on the road again

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

"Please call."

My phone was flashing this message when we stepped inside from the deck two weeks ago. That call set into motion a long road trip to the midwest where we buried my father-in-law's widow and have begun to learn how to disperse an estate. It's a new season of life, this goodbye-ing. Honestly my head is too full to put words to it all.

I have to smile now remembering packing up from England and musing about whether these changing seasons meant travel was over for us. Not so. We just logged some 45 hrs on the road with three very chill and cooperative passengers. (while their bigger siblings maintained the intricately pieced carpool routine back home.)

If I were a more ambitious blogger I would insert tips for packing or pacifying children. Truth is we travel pretty gimmick-free unless you count in the promise of a soda from the gas station each day. Truth is, I don't have tidy definitive lists of how to do all these things we are called to do. Success increasingly seems to me to be less about procedures and perks and more about carrying on in a forward motion.

Relentlessly. Peacefully. Cheerfully.

Trusting that everything is unfolding exactly as it should. It's contagious, that sort of trustful stepping out each day. We notice it spreading among us and we notice the rapid breakdown between us when one of us loses it. For the record we do and we did and we regrouped and gave do overs. Forward motion, even if its bumbling at times.

There have been very late nights and early mornings and lots of work in between but also so many surprises, new places, new faces. Easier to show than tell so here are the highlights from day one on the road…

Ending where we start, really : )

to abide

Posted on June 13, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

"Abide {stay, concentrate, give your full attention} in Me. Now part of this abiding means being focused on the example before us rather than being distracted and filling our eyes and ears with things that encourage what used to be called "our baser nature." Do you know what I'm talking about? I've found that some books, conversations, or films stir up resentments, impatience, or other sins such as bitterness or discontent. But other images or sounds we take in encourage the good, the pure, the life-giving."

For the Family's Sake

This from my morning reading has become something of a litmus test for me. She goes on to say,

"Not everyone is able to expend anything like the portion of time and energy on (homemaking) that she would like. In this case we have to choose what is most important and simplify unnecessary complications in our lives."

puppy love

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

We are in deep. Way deep, head over heels in love.

My husband had been begging talking about getting a larger dog when we returned to the States. Seeing how we tend to opt for "or not" given "ready or not" we went ahead and jumped this week.

Meet Archie, a 10wk old Standard Poodle. Affectionate, mellow, and all legs. And very likely the subject of an embarrasing number of 'baby pictures' in the coming months.

to accept equally

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

I explained to him that the penance Jesus wanted from him was complete obedience,; obey and that’s enough.

"Can’t I do some other penance?"

"Yes, you can allow yourself the penance of being patient with others and the unpleasant things of life; to accept equally the heat and the cold and the rain; to be cheerful when tired and not feeling so well and so on.”

“But,” said Dominic, “these things come to you whether you like it or not.”

“Precisely,” I replied, “offer them willingly to God; there is nothing that will please him more, and you will be doing real penance.” Thus reassured, Dominic was very happy and completely at peace.

– St John Bosco speaking about St Dominic Savio

Starry Sky Journal

Reflections from Starry Sky Ranch

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