Slices of Life

 It's Wednesday and that means Hodgepodge with Joyce!  1. April 22nd is Earth Day...what's the most 'out of this world' place on earth you've ever visited? Tell us something about it.  The most "out of this world" place I've visited so far is Haleakala on the island of Maui. We truly felt like we had walked out onto a different planet. You can't see it much in the photos but we could see a whole rainbow of photos in the various sand colors. Though volcanoes national park was a close second- that cracked lava black ground hardly looks real and we happened to catch the park on a day the volcano was erupting too.  2. A favorite quote, verse, or song lyric with the word earth in it?  copied from OneTreePlanted (here) - they have some neat quotes about Earth/nature! 3. What's the most trivial thing about which you have a strong opinion?  This is actually quite a list-- but probably the most trivial is... squeezing the toothpaste tube from the botto...

*Originally posted April 24, 2024 when my boys were 6, 8, & 10  I love that I can rely on my boys to teach themselves! We had a super busy morning and I knew we wouldn't have a lot of time to sit down and work together on school.  I told the boys I wanted them to do some schoolwork and pretty much left it at that. They all picked out a science video called Really Wild Animals; Animals of North America to watch.  They piled onto Ian's bed to watch the movie.  I loved that they were watching something educational and all getting along! The older boys took their math minutes with Alec starting on his 8 times tables.  Ian then worked on a multiplication page in his book that was "so easy!" Evan wanted me to sit with him while he re-read me P is for Pancakes and then worked on an alphabet dot- to- dot page.  I thought that would be too simple for him but he made a few mistakes and sang the alphabet song quite a few times through.  He then declared hims...

We had the most wonderful weather last week! I was so very glad to have brought some warm and sunny weather home with me from Asheville... even if it didn't last and we had another pretty cold weekend. These glimpses of summer (because it was in the 80's!) keep me going. Alec came home for the weekend and put in a few job applications for summer work. He's hoping to switch gears and spend his summer learning more about plants working for a local nursery. It's all part of his farm to table plan.    We had a wonderful link up last week and I thank you all for your well wishes; I had two great flights home last Monday. Thank you for continuing to come back week after week to make this party so special.    Most Popular Posts from Last Week:    Catching Up! By My Seventies Split   Some Others that Caught My Eye:    Chicken Caesar Crispy Pasta Salad by Our Tiny Nest     Exploring the Enchantment of Ireland by Thrifting Wonderland ...

I have wanted to see The Biltmore Estate for as long as I can remember. We even debated about tacking a day onto our Smoky Mountain trip and taking a side trip (about 5 hours) to head there. I was all for it but the rest of my family thought that was a bit much. So when I heard our blogging weekend was going to be in Asheville I was hopeful that I might finally make it there... and I did!  Some fast facts about the Biltmore; it encompasses 8,000 of the original 125,000 acres the gardens take up 75 of those acres and there are 22 miles of trail to explore  the house is 175,000 square feet of living space with 250 rooms those 250 rooms include 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms (with indoor plumbing- not usual at the time of construction), & 65 fireplaces it was built with 288 electric light fixtures, 2 electric elevators there is a gym, a swimming pool, a bowling alley and more it is the largest privately owned home in the United States  Construction of the house took 6 years ...