Things to Do - This Untamed Life (Nature) & Random Links

This week on This Untamed Life we're posting nature photos. I'm not sure if our family dog walks really count as "nature", but I'm going with it.

Happy Monday everyone!! If you have a chance, don't forget to click on over to This Untamed Life to see everyone else's images.

RANDOM LINKS:

* 20 of the world's best photos taken with a camera phone. wow.

* An easier approach to summer fitness.

* 3000 miles with no screen time for kids. "Instead of memories of a crazy long car trip where they escaped the dullness in videos and games, they’ll have memories of a crazy long car trip where they formed a more complex relationship with each other and with me. They got a sense of the country, its vastness and variety, its future and past, and a sense of themselves at the same time, what their minds are capable of when allowed to roam in the deceptive bleakness of boredom. The perfect road trip."

* Turkey is so cool.

* Disturbing vintage advertisements.

* America's Top 50 Playgrounds. #2 is in DC and I can't find anyone who has ever been there. Anyone? Anyone?

* Strong is the new pretty. Love these images and love the message that goes with them.

* The Smiling Victorian. The funny thing is that very few of these people, under a modern definition, would be considered "smiley".

Things to Do - Mornings & This Untamed Life (Messy)

The theme for this week's post on This Untamed Life is "messy". And when I think about messy, I picture weekend mornings. I'm usually the last one to wake up, so by the time I arrive downstairs the kitchen is full of cereal boxes and dirty dishes, with newspaper pages scattered on every surface. And, most importantly, everyone I love. So over the past few weeks, I decided to document our laziest hours - before plans are made and our days take shape.

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!! Don't forget to click on over to This Untamed Life to see how everyone else photographed messy.

Things to Do - This Untamed Life (Anticipation) & Random Links

This Untamed Life is posting "anticipation" images today. So I thought I'd share some photos from Peak Experiences, the climbing gym outside Richmond that the girls and I visited while spending the weekend with their grandparents.

I find some climbing gyms rather snobby, as if catering to children is somehow beneath them. But this one was wonderful, the people were so friendly I wish I would have climbed myself (hopefully next visit).

I figured I'd switch it up this week and post links on a Monday. Because Mondays sometimes need some randomness.

And don't forget to click over to This Untamed Life - lots of great images and stories this week.

RANDOM LINKS:

* Speaking of climbing gyms, has anyone ever been to Climb Zone? It looks awesome!

* Masters of photography with their most famous images (so cool)!

* This looks so so healthy/yummy. As do these easy crockpot meals.

* I want to be . . . (love these quirky photos of kids being kids).

* SO. MUCH. AMAZING. INSPIRATION (so excited to see Cherish This Day photographers on the list).

* I'm in love with this house.

* Mothers and daughters.

* A Year in Trees. Isn't this the most peaceful, beautiful image? I wish I could make this my screensaver.

* YES! "And I wouldn’t redo my life in any way, even if I could. I think it’s important for people to know there are all kinds of paths, and all kinds of ways to live a life, and all kinds of things you can begin as you age. And so here I go, leaning toward my fifites, hair greying, wrinkles gathering, experiences accruing, insights accumulating, joy abounding."

* A book tank (literally).

Things to Do - This Untamed Life (Silent)

This Untamed Life has a whole new look, if you have a chance click here and check it out.

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!!

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Cold

I apologize in advance, as this week will probably be low on posts (but new things are coming! new things are coming!). P's home sick today with the flu, the same flu Dan had in December and T had in early January. I'm starting to live in fear, especially since this virus really knocks everyone out. Recovery takes weeks.

Oh well, it's January, what did I expect? And at least I'm walking again. That alone feels epic.

This week, This Untamed Life is featuring "cold" images. I haven't taken many photos lately (that sentence alone seems odd). Call it a rut. Though I did finally update my website. Check it out here, isn't it much better? And my goal for the year is to keep up a professional blog. Fingers crossed I can make this work.

Anyways, despite the icky, rainy days (yes, I said rain, as snow remains rather elusive this year), F keeps insisting we go to the park and play basketball. This is odd for me as I've never really played basketball. My sole experience involves feeling claustrophobic in high school gym as tall people hovered above me. Anyways, I'm supposed to add on that F doesn't really like this photo as her hands are positioned wrong. She'd like everyone to know this is due to movement that occurred after the ball was thrown and that she DOES know how to properly throw a ball (for that, you'll have to trust her because I DO NOT know how to properly throw a ball). Oh well, the shot really captures January, so I'm going with it, hopefully F will forgive me.

If you have a chance, click on over to This Untamed Life to check out other "cold" images.

Happy Monday everyone!!

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Bedtime (Oh, the Sleepover)

As an only child, when we decided to have three children ("decided" being somewhat of an iffy word choice, but I'll go with it) I assumed they would play with each other. Isn't that the point? But life is always throwing me surprises.

During a period of random happiness, I told F that her best friend could sleepover. I didn't even think about it. They're good kids. They're in 3rd grade. Sleepovers are pretty easy by this point. BUT within seconds my other two children started whining and complaining about my unfairness (oh the curse of unfairness, which always seems to cling to me).

And I believe in equality (or, at least I used to).

So this is how, on a seemingly innocuous Friday night, I ended up with 7 children (YES SEVEN!!) sleeping over at my house. Three boys. Four girls. All in the basement. Ages ranging from 5 to 9.

Things started out swimmingly. We stayed at a friend's happy hour until 8:30 pm. We walked home. We changed into PJs. I rented Maleficent. Everyone snuggled into their own sleeping bag, so cute and innocent-seeming. P's best friend fell into a deep slumber. Life was good.

Then, around 11 pm, all except one found a second wind. I didn't know what to do (Dan was busy hosting a rather large poker game in our outdoor party room), so I photographed the chaos - mainly kindergarten/1st grade boys vs. 2nd/3rd grade girls. The boys used toy swords and life sabers. The girls countered with Dan's old crutches.

Finally by 12:45, I had them back in sleeping bags. I fell asleep upstairs at 1 am, so the rest of the night remains a mystery to me (did they sleep at all? reports vary).

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!! Just wondering, how does the rest of the world handle sleepovers when you have multiple children? Do they all take turns hosting or do you end up with nights like mine? Any advice would be appreciated. Now don't forget to click over to This Untamed Life to see everyone else's bedtime images.

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Thankful & Random Links

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? We hosted all the grandparents for a big turkey dinner (Dan cooked, I "helped"), which made for a lovely Thursday. Dan roasted a Kelly Bronze turkey, which sounded like an incredibly prentenious piece of poultry, but it tasted fantastic and only took 2 hours to cook. F's addicted to Apples to Apples Junior , so we played a few rounds of that; though I think I prefer Qwirkle . And we spent a lot of time just reading and vegging on the couch.

Today This Untamed Life is posting "thankful" images and I think this photo says a lot: family, turkey hats, sunsets, and photo bombs. What isn't there to love?

I couldn't get it together to post random links on Friday, so I'm posting them today (because after a 5 day weekend, we all need a little randomness to start our week).

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!

RANDOM LINKS:

* Buying the farm, building the subdivision. These photos are fantastic.

* Yay!! And Super Yay!!

* I just started listening to Serial (thanks Where the Watermelon Grows for the recommendation) and now I'm all about podcasts. Here are 7 others that are supposed to be pretty good.

* A 1970s letter from Lego to parents (link via Miss Moss).

* Have you heard about Arthur the dog yet? His story (of course) made me cry (happy tears).

* Ice crystals on bubbles. So so pretty.

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Evenings

Don't these late fall evenings seem LONG all of a sudden? Especially with the absence of soccer and other seasonal activities, we seem to have so much time. Some nights these extra moments are such a blessing, as we play boardgames or watch a weeknight movie. But some nights, especially when the kids come home tired and cranky, the hours seem to linger forever.

How about everyone else? How have you been spending your evenings?

Don't forget to click on over to This Untamed Life, to see the rest of the group's recent photos.

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Dinnertime

This week This Untamed Life is posting dinnertime images. I didn't have a recent photo and assumed I'd have to skip this Monday, but then, on Thursday night, we picked up sandwiches from Taylor Gourmet (love that place) and T walked around with the bag on his head, which pretty much sums up our dinnertimes as of late.

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!! Don't forget to click over to This Untamed Life to see how everyone else photographed their night (lots of great images this week).

*One quick thing - just a reminder that there are still 3 days left to enter the Papirmass giveaway!!

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Afternoon

Dan's aunt, Ann, has undertaken the somewhat daunting task of cleaning out the house of Dan's grandparents. When Ann visited a few weeks ago she brought along some of their deceased great grandfather's cufflinks and tie clips. T had a blast going through all the old heirlooms and seemed especially excited about a tie clip with a sword. There's something heartwarming about such little things remaining in the family, generation after generation.

HAPPY TUESDAY EVERYONE!! Now click on over to This Untamed Life to see how everyone else photographed their afternoons.

Things to Do - This Untamed Life & The End of Summer (I know, I know, we're already knee deep in autumn)

This week for This Untamed Life we're posting lunchtime photos, which challenged me as now that all three kids attend grade school I don't have many recent mid-day photos. So I searched through my summer files and found these photos from the Building Musuem's maze, which (sadly) no longer exists. Did you visit the maze? The cost was somewhat steep, but we all enjoyed the experience of circling back in, over and over again.

Is it me or did the end of summer sort of become lost? Maybe because the cooler temps arrived early this year, but it seems like September escaped any real notice. And now when I see all the trees changing color I feel discombobulated, almost like jet lag after you step off the plane.

Regarding this summer, on the upside, for the first time ever, we managed to complete EVERY CATEGORY OF THE 2014 BUCKET LIST, granted, I made the categories pretty wide reaching, but still I feel accomplished. We learned that geocaching is HARD (despite navigating to three caches, we never managed to find a single one) and that nobody in our family likes Mama Mia (though we all enjoyed watching a movie under the stars). We also discovered that Potomac Overlook park makes for some wonderful kid-friendly hiking and that we all love a day trip to the beach.

Oh well, onto fall and soccer games and searching for the perfect costumes. And before you know it the kids will be begging for hot cocoa while I'll still be asking - but how have we gotten here so soon?

Now click on over to This Untamed Life to see how everyone else photographed lunchtime.

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Mornings

Late last Sunday night, T woke with a fever. So he skipped school on Monday, too sick to even watch much TV. Luckily, his two best friends kept him company.

Most days, the dogs drive me insane, but moments like this make it all worth it. By Tuesday T returned to his normal self. But the dogs stayed on the couch.

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!! Now click on over to This Untamed Life to check out how the rest of the group's mornings went.

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Breakfast

This week for This Untamed Life everyone is posting breakfast photos - a tough subject matter for me. I'm not a morning person. The girls usually wake 30 minutes to an hour earlier than I do. And they make their own breakfast. But last Friday I managed to drag myself out of bed and take a few photos, which made me realize what I've missed lately. Turns out mornings are actually pretty fun/crazy/unpredictable around our house. Maybe I'll try to see more of them in the future.

Now click on over to This Untamed Life to see how the rest of the group documented their mornings.

Things to Do - This Untamed Life - Our First Evening on the Lake in Vermont

As I mentioned on Friday, two weeks ago we vacationed with friends in Vermont. For the first few days, we stayed in a hotel and then, on Sunday night, we checked into this beautiful cottage on Lake Champlain. The weather was iffy, but the kids couldn't wait to kayak on the lake and Dan started fishing before we unloaded the car.

Now click on over to This Untamed Life to see how everyone else photographed their evenings.

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Dinnertime

This week's theme for This Untamed Life is dinnertime, so a trip to T's absolutely favorite restaurant - Silver Diner - seemed necessary. T loves waffles for dinner. I love their locavore menu, esp. quinoa with veggies (so so yummy). Dan likes the beer menu. Both the girls can't stop drinking the free milkshakes on Tuesdays.

During the school year we rarely go out to dinner as a family, but this summer has us eating out at least once a week (lazy mom). And each restaurant the kids follow their usual patterns - F ignoring us all while she settles in with a book; T pretending to be our waiter, thus taking orders over and over again; and wild card P - sometimes telling us awesome stories, sometimes begging (as in PLEADING) for our iphones.

And somewhere along the way, all the children manage to talk with Siri for awhile, asking her random unanswerable questions about the wonders of the world.

Now click on over to This Untamed Life to see everyone else's dinnertime awesomeness!