Dazzling Snow Day Daze!
Category: Primary
Coffee and a Happy New Year!
Hello, friends, and welcome to a very merrily met 2022!
Wow, it has been a season, huh? I have so many things that I’m excited to share with you this year! Things I’ve made and experienced and, especially, tasted!
And with that segue, coffee.
Coffee! Where to start?! I have so many to try!
Today, I decided to start with one that was brand new: the Intelligentsia Silver Stars!
Ten out of ten, would recommend! What sorts of new things are you wanting to try in the year to come?
Let us know in the comments!
With Peace and Passion,
Ta!
Happy Yule and Merry Solstice Tide!
Yule for us is a day of joy, of family and of hygge. We share treats and we have lots of snuggling! We play games together, sing carols (paganized of course! XD), and enjoy time making handcrafted gifts for family members. We get to pick one gift from under our tree to open but the gift opening is very much secondary to the time spent together. I made us a wonderful lunch that we sat down at the table for and we did crafts like making a homemade Lego snow globe!
Of course there are special magical things that we do to honor the return of the Sun. Along with our sparklers, we ring bells to harald in the return of the light. We see the long night, not as a time of darkness but of necessary rest and recuperation, of reflection. We think on the trials of the year and of the new adventures spread out ahead. We remember those that left us but also rejoice that we can still keep them in our day to day as our Ancestors, our beloved dead who never truly leave us.
Clean crisp air, the child almost burning your lungs. The smell of smoke from the fire and the warmth of snuggling beneath a big blanket together while we watch a movie or play a game. Getting to feel your heart grow two sizes at the joyful exuberance of a little one when they bite into that tasty treat or unwrap a gift you made our picked out just for them.
Yule is the first day of the cold times, the lean times, but also a day of joy to share with those you love. That is what this season means to us. What does Yule mean to you? Do you have any traditions for this time of year, whatever way you may celebrate? Let us know in the comments!
With Peace, Passion, and Joy to the World.
Share the Light, Sisters and Brothers.
Ta!
Minecraft Cliffs and Caves Part 2Gameplay Pt.1
So I didn’t add any commentary over this just because… I really dislike the way that I sound on camera. XD That’s literally the only reason other than it was late and I didn’t want to have to figure out logistics with the mic before bed. I didn’t, however, realize that there was NO SOUNDS AT ALL. Don’t worry, I’m going to figure that out before the next one!
If I get enough likes on this post and you guys actually want it, then I’ll add commentary so let me know down in the comments if that’s what you prefer to have with your gameplay. Little Maxwell loves to watch gameplay before bed and a lot of times it’s just more relaxing to not have the commentary.
I hope you enjoy it though! This blog has always been about doing things that I enjoy and talking about things that I am passionate about and, to Daddy Maxwell’s great regret, Minecraft is one of those things. I was sold on this new cliffs and caves update when I heard the words ‘fireflies, toads, and tadpoles’ so I definitely am excited to find a swamp! Let’s see how it all goes together!
With Peace and Passion,
Ta!
Papyrus and Hieroglyph Activity – ResearchParent.com
https://researchparent.com/papyrus-and-hieroglyph-activity/
This activity was so cool and the kids loved getting to see their names in the ink cartouches! 10/10 definitely recommend for your ancient Egypt lesson plans!
A New Game That’s Brought Us Together: A PKXD Review
So Little Maxwell is always asking if she can download this new game or that new app. I’m pretty particular about what kinds of games I won’t let her play. For example, I don’t let her play the “match-three” style of games like Bejeweled or Candy Crush. Is Bejeweled even still a thing?
She got an ad for another game in one of the apps she was playing one day and begged me to download it. I checked it out and agreed but under one stipulation: she only played with me. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the fact that it’s a sort of social game that doesn’t have the option of offline play. The game is called PK XD.
Hopping in to the game, I was blasted with the neon and sheer… Well. Childishness. It definitely is made with it’s target audience in mind. It’s bright and accentuated with catchy music and sound effects. There are regular community events and an arcade of mini games that allows each player the opportunity to collect in-game currencies without having to spend real money. In fact there are quite a few opportunities to do so which I was rather pleased with. The game has admins that regularly run my paces through the two floating islands that the PKXD universe consists of.
As for communicating with other players, there are predetermined, pre-selected scripts and responses, even Emojis with sound effects like laughing or crying, that the player can select but speaking freely with players one-on-one outside of that doesn’t seem like an option that is commonly used if even available. I found myself put at ease a little more by this realization. Little Maxwell isn’t really reading fluently yet but I doubt it will be a long. I like knowing that anyone she might become friendly with in-game is relegated to the many, though very PG, communications.
The more I played with her, the more I’ve come to really enjoy the game itself. What I love the most though is the fun and engaging quality time that I get to spend with my daughter now, doing something that we both really enjoy together! As a gaming family, we are all often enjoying the latest video game, table top or board game. But, though they may enter set with other family members like when I play Diablo with my sisters and Dad and Minecraft with my brother and bestie hetero life partner, those don’t always necessarily include little Maxwell or her dad. So it’s always nice when we have a game that we can play together especially when it’s one that she so adamantly enjoys.
It’s very easy to add each other 2 your friends list and once you are linked as friends, the game gives you the opportunity to jump in to the servers that your online friend is playing from so you can literally play together. We have had a very big time helping each other decorate our houses and bouncing around the parkour Pet Week course. Visiting other people’s homes to see how they’ve decorated as well. The game boasts a sort of trophy/achievement system by way of stickers that can be collected from literally anywhere and anything. Today, I unlocked a hidden sticker no I received by drinking milk 10 separate days. Another I got from adding items to my house or even finding hidden pets throughout the world.
While it isn’t the most graphically complex game I’ve ever played, I can definitely recommend PK XD or anyone looking for something to do with their kids that don’t be mind-numbingly dull. There is no end to different events, achievements, and fun things to do when you’re spending time with the people you love.
What do you think? Are you going to give PK XD a try with your little ones anytime soon? Let me know what you think in the comments!
With Peace and Passion,
Ta!
Words Go Up, But Thoughts Below
Asar, Lord of the Duat, take him into your shining fields.
Anpu, Protector of the Dead, guide him through the winding dark paths and places.
Setekh, Warrior of the Way, protect him as his spirit finds its way.
Nebet-Het, Mother of Mourners, be with us as we grieve.
Aset, Lady of Life, give his spirit breath again into his next life.
Hewet-Her, Comforter of Comforters, hold him fast as he travels into the lands of the West.
Tehuti, Writer of All Wisdom, give me the knowledge and strength to comfort and give guidance to my family in this time of loss.
Today, after a painful battle with a rare form of cancer, we buried my grandfather. I ended up at home alone after the wake and found myself with a terrible problem. No matter what I did or tried, no matter how much I wanted it, I could not make my brain focus on anything. I wasn’t overcome with sadness, nor were constantly shifting thoughts stealing my attention. There was no depression and all I thought about the wake itself was that I hated to leave my grandmother Ruby to go home alone. I didn’t want her to have to go back to an empty house that would never feel like a home again.
National Novel Writing Month was in full swing but the words wouldn’t come. What was wrong with me? Maybe it was the headache that was working itself out. Maybe it was fatigue. Grief? All I had in me was busy just processing the day, trying to let go of all of the hundred conversations and people. The casket, the coffee. The bowl of mints, the director’s nametag and my mother’s tears.
I found myself writing out, instead of my poor NaNo novel, just an unpunctuated, long single stream of thought with no rhyme or reason. Then, my hopes and prayers for my granddaddy as his spirit passes on. It gave me a sense of…peace. Something like happiness but less than joy. Like he was standing there watching the proceedings and seeing how there wasn’t just tears but there were smiles and humor too. Seeing how the family shored together despite differences and even, in some cases, not even knowing one another. There’s support there and there’s love. I could see him there. He’d probably be wearing navy and looking kind of sheepish with his hands in the pockets of his slacks, his watch on and his chin scruff and he’d be smiling because I think he’d be happy with what he saw.
Afterwards, I still felt like I’d been hit by a truck but on the inside, it felt like finding peace.
Moss Garden Mystique
So if you’ve been following my blog for a long time you may have noticed something.
I L O V E moss. It is my favorite plant, hands down. I would rather have a pretty moss than flowers any day. 2 weeks ago I noticed that my Moss garden container had rusted through the bottom and had started to fall in so that the soil was actually falling through it onto the ground.
Rather than risk it damaging the moss garden itself, I decided to relocate it into a different container but also into my backyard instead of in the front of the house. Mostly because the only container I had for it that would be big enough was my daughter’s old kiddie pool. So I took an afternoon and moved it. It’s new container doesn’t look the nicest and because there’s actually more room now then there was before, the Moss is going to have to grow back together to cover any bare spots.
Nevertheless, it is another step on our journey. 🙂 I have several different mosses in my garden that I collected from our home forest. Several of them came from our forest school spot that we don’t get to visit much anymore since Daddy Maxwell and I got Lyme disease. The ticks out here in Tennessee are outrageous and keeping them off of you 100% is a pretty impossible feet. I’ve been too nervous to go back into the forest sadly but at least I still have my little moss garden to look at and to remind me of the beauty that can be found there.
These are some of my photos my little garden that I wanted to share with you today! Maybe it will brighten your day as well. Most of my photos are taken using a camera app called Foodie that my sister introduced me to for photographing cookies that I sell. It takes the best pictures I’ve ever taken and even has the ability to edit those pictures in the app.
Moss isn’t just pretty though, it’s pretty fascinating! Did you know that even though moss is a plant, it doesn’t have roots? That’s why you often see it attached to rocks and the sides of old stone stairs, etc. It gets its moisture and nutrients from the air and from the water that falls above it. That’s why moss is always so bright and green and lush after it rains. It’s color often tells you how much moisture it’s had. Even though it might be brown, it may not be dead, just dehydrated! Kind of like a rows of Jericho but to a much lesser degree of extreme.
This time of the year, the home school method we use for our nature school has a whole week dedicated to mosses, mushrooms, lichen, and fungi. It’s one of my favorite units!
Already my garden is filling in really nicely and the moss is settling. I also collect abandoned birds nests after their particular species has finished with them (if they don’t come back the following year) so I added two of them to the garden just for something extra.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this up close view into one of my favorite things! Maybe next time you see a little moss patch, you might stop thinking ‘bleh’ and start thinking ‘awwww’! You never know what you might come to think is adorable when you stop and take a closer look!
With peace and passion for the natural world,
Ta!
What Lies Above
Today, I found myself irresistibly fascinated by the shapes, colors and textures of the clouds as a storm front made it’s way into our local area.
They were beautiful and strange. Remarkable and wonderous. It led to conversations about the heights that certain clouds sat at and the colors that some had taken on.
It just served as a potent reminder of the wonders all around us in the natural world, in our world, if only we took the time to look.
I hope that at some juncture in your schedule, you take the time out of your day to just stop for one moment…and look. Look up. Look down. Look at all the wonders that can be found in the things that we overlook everyday.
Those things that we see but have become so much the norm that they are easily passed over. Look at the clouds or the rain. Even the soil beneath our feet and how it teems with life. How we would not be able to survive without it. How sick much of it has become…
Without these small, oftentimes considered insignificant things because of their regularity, our world but not be the amazing place that it is today so take a moment to just appreciate it.
With peace and passion,
I bless you with clarity, friend.
Ta!
A Field Trip To The Nashville Zoo!
I know, I know! It’s taken a year and a day to get this post out! Honestly, it’s taken me this long just because this post is a long one (I took a lot of pictures!) and I just didn’t have the spoons in me to dedicate to it.
But here we are! Finally!
We visited the Nashville Zoo at grassmere at the beginning of this month had a wonderful time! If you’re planning on visiting Nashville Zoo yourself, see you the end of this post for some of my tips to help you have the best trip you can have!
I found this really interesting fungus scattered underneath a bush by one of the enclosures! It was fun getting to show it to the kids and explain what it was and how it worked! 
Run away!! 
Meerkat Rumble! 
You can actually walk through the kangaroo enclosure and even pet them if they’re on the walking path! There were several babies that we got to see! 
This ostrich is looking like it has murder in its eyes. 
I see some tiger stripes! 
This smol bean it’s called a Pudu! You can probably tell based on the number of pictures that I took of the enclosure, that it was one of my favorites! 
Guinea pigs! 
There are not words for the insane amount of bamboo in this place. 
This thing haunts my nightmares. 
This bizarre looking thing is actually the base of a cut down piece of bamboo! How wild looking is that?! 
I wanted a nap by the time we hit the flamingos too. 
I seeeeeeee you! 
The giraffes are going to be getting a new male addition to their herd! Once he finishes maturing in a year and a half or so, they’ll be able to start breeding giraffes! 
Along the walking path in the zoo, there are different animal footprints to spot! 
Here’s the elephant footprints! 
This is the rhino enclosure but unfortunately the rhinos just weren’t feeling it today. 
Snack time! 
We rode the carousel three times! 🙂 
Over by the skylift, there’s a large field where the zoo hosts events like the Boo At The Zoo during Halloween. During the off season though, it’s a great place to let the kids unwind and run amok for a little while or even have a nice picnic! 
Just watch out for the free range peacocks! XD 
Also did you know the trashcans are made from milk bottles?!
Do you see why it took me so long now?
But, as promised, here are some of my tips that I have picked up from the few trips I’ve made to the zoo at this point!
- Don’t forget the sunscreen, especially if you have little ones.
- The Nashville Zoo does allow you to bring snacks and such in so definitely don’t forget to bring some treats for your walk and maybe even think about a picnic! Zoo food can get expensive, especially if you have more than one child! 💲💲💸💸
- If you have one, take a wagon. They’re invaluable for curtailing tired and whiny small children and carrying bags.
- Take extra money for the carousel or special treats!
- Consider a season pass if you’re a person who likes to visit the zoo more than a time or two. It also gives you special perks for things like ticket costs and the carousel. 🙂
I hope you enjoyed this gigantic post on our field trip to the Nashville Zoo! Please like and consider following for more posts to come!
With Peace and Passion,
Ta!
Little Journeys Everywhere 