My Trip to Napa

Last week a colleague and I flew to California for an education conference on project based learning, called PBL World.  Our days Monday through Thursday were filled with learning from 8:30 to 3:30, and our evenings were free to explore the beautiful Napa Valley, which is actually her childhood home. We flew in early on Sunday and spent the day touring San Francisco with an old college friend of mine who was kind enough to show us all around. Here are photos from the trip:

In San Francisco, a whole alley of painted murals

My friend Dave, our guide around the city

Dolores Park, with downtown San Francisco in the background

An old time streetcar

The entrance gate to Chinatown

A cable car downtown in front of the Ferry Building

Looking out over the bay toward the Oakland bridge

The cottage where we stayed in Napa at the RiverPointe

The Wine Train passing by while we ate dinner Monday evening at the Rutherford Grille

Wild turkeys while climbing a hill on my Tuesday morning run

The sunrise at the top of the climb

Requisite tourist photo while driving up Napa Valley Tuesday evening

Pretending to eat baby grapes at a vineyard

Castello di Amorosa near Calistoga, a castle and winery

Tuesday evening picnic outside a vineyard with our Charles Hendricks wine

Watching the sun set over a lake on our way back to Napa Tuesday evening

The downtown Napa river front

Napa's refurbished theater

New Tech High, where our conference was held

At the conference I made contacts from around the world, including Australia

The river trail that ran near our hotel, good for running

Proof we were at the conference!

A burger from In-N-Out, their burger chain similar to Five Guys

The note I woke up to Saturday morning

UPDATE: I forgot to add a photo of the cool souvenir I brought back for Charles. A bottle of wine from Hope & Grace Winery, where the winemaker is Charles Hendricks, who named the winery after his daughters. He graciously signed a bottle of Riesling for me to bring home to my Charles Hendricks. He signed it "To Charles Hendricks, From Charles Hendricks."

My Quest to Minimize

For the last year or perhaps longer, I have been entranced, enthralled, and fascinated by a philosophy and movement known simply as minimalism. The basic idea is that owning a lot of things (material possessions) takes up our precious time and takes us away from the people and pursuits that we love. Our stuff clutters our lives; it takes time to manage it, to keep it tidy, to clean it, to keep it organized. Minimalism encourages people to reduce their possessions to those that are used and needed. This simplifies life and allows for MORE in so many ways: more time with loved ones, more rest and rejuvenation, more opportunities to spend time doing things we want to do instead of the drudgery of taking care of our stuff.

This approach and philosophy appeals to me, so I'm working this summer to attempt to declutter our lives a little bit. I've always been a person who likes to have things clean and organized, but since I've been introduced to minimalism I've realized that having a cluttered home makes me feel cluttered inside. It keeps me from being able to relax or focus on things that matter.

So we'll be having a yard sale later this summer. In the last week and a half I have gone through the bedrooms, bathrooms, and hall closets to rid us of unused and unneeded stuff. I fly to Napa, CA next week for a conference and soon after that will be our trip to Florida, but by the end of July I hope to have finished the rest of the house, garage, and outbuildings. Quite a task, but it will feel so good to have it done! Here are a few photos of the progress so far:

The "before" photo of the playroom -- what a mess!

We cleared EVERYTHING out.

Here's all the stuff we moved: in the library ...

... and the front foyer ...

... and the hallway.

I had two really great helpers!

They worked hard all morning on Saturday.

After sorting things, we moved them back into the playroom.

The "after" photo -- we added a dresser for their dolls and accessories

The hallway lined with bags and boxes for the yard sale!

For more on minimalism, I recommend the following blogs:

Be More With Less - Be more with less is about simplifying your life and really living. Here, you can learn how to create a life with more savings and less/no debt, more health and less stress, more time and less stuff, and more joy with less obligation.
Becoming Minimalist - Joshua Becker speaks from the heart sharing his experience with honesty and passion. If you ever wanted to know how minimalism can bring more value into your life, Joshua is the person to learn from as his message is not just inspiring but applicable.
The Minimalists - Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus write about living a meaningful life with less stuff for 2 million readers.

Sewing Class

Last week the girls participated in their first summer activity, a sewing class at a local fabric shop. The shop provided instructors, sewing machines, and their expertise to teach a group of 8-10 year old girls how to sew. Both Hannah and Sophie LOVED it!

The focus for this class was to learn how to use the machines and then to make various items for their American Girl dolls.  Here they are posing with their dolls and their classmates on the last day:

The first day they practiced sewing in a straight line, learned to thread the machine and the bobbin, and made a little pouch. We learned that day that there was "homework" each evening, to cut the fabric pieces needed for the next day's project.

The second day they made nightgowns for their dolls. Sophie chose pink and gray fabrics. Hannah's color scheme was red and white.

Wednesday was a busy day with a complex project, a doll-sized sleeping bag with a ribbon closure. Here is Sophie with hers:

On Thursday they made a pillow (you can see Sophie's above) as well as a bean bag for the doll. Hannah's bean bag is pictured below.

Friday's project was a comforter for a doll bed. Along the way they each experienced pricked fingers and burns from ironing fabric, but they loved the class and are anxious to do more sewing and creating. The final pictures below show them with their dolls and all the items they made over the course of the week. I would anticipate that they'll take another sewing class next summer!

Father's Day Tribute

To My Husband, on Father's Day

When I look at you being a dad to our children,
my heart swells with gratitude and pride,

I find myself sitting in a corner, admiring you be your natural self,
being in your comfort zone of daddy hood.

I feel so blessed to have a husband like you
I am so thankful that my children are blessed
with a father as caring, thoughtful, and supportive as you

It must be Heavenly Father looking out for me
He knew we would compliment each other
so he blessed us with each other

On this Father's Day here is a wish for you
I wish for continuous blessings from above
For God's guidance, protection, strength
For health, long life and prosperity

I want to thank you for always putting our children's interest first
We love you from the bottom of our hearts
We wish you Happy Father's Day
- Unknown Author

Father's Day gifts, books, and cards waiting to be opened

What they did while waiting (same as most mornings)

Reading his Father's Day book created by Hannah

Opening the box of goodies prepared by Sophie

We also gave him a plum tree and a reliance grape vine to add to the garden. Sophie's pick for Father's Day lunch was the buffet at Traditions. Charles enjoyed some fried chicken and his favorite dessert, strawberry shortcake.

Finally, this little poem also summarizes all that he means to us. We love you, Charles! Happy Father's Day to the greatest dad I know.

First Summer Trip of 2014: North Carolina

After squeezing in doctor and dentist appointments and finishing up year end meetings, the girls and I left Tuesday afternoon to head south. We realized that this first week in June is one of the only ones that both us and Kelly's family were available. Since I'm trying to soak up as much baby time as possible before Henry is no longer a baby, we quickly made plans for a 5-day visit.

Grandma's pool is currently out of commission due to a leak necessitating a new liner, so a chance to swim in the Keane pool was just icing on the cake. The girls swam everyday and had a blast with their first pool time of the summer season.

The first two days were brutally hot with thick North Carolina humidity. I went running both those mornings and came back drenched from head to toe, at 6:30 in the morning! Thursday we went to Pullen Park in Raleigh, which is a lovely little park with lots of kiddie play areas as well as an indoor carousel, a train around the park, and pedal boats on a small lake.

On Friday Kelly had to work, so we got to meet Carter's "manny" Aaron for the first time. He came to stay with Carter for the morning while we watched Henry. They went to the park for a bit and then got in the pool, which Carter is very hesitant of. He was skeptical at first but ended up having fun floating around in the red ladybug.

That evening Jon had a grand plan to camp out in the backyard with all the kids. Unfortunately the kids didn't think it was such a grand plan! So instead, we went out for ice cream.

Saturday we mostly hung around the house, and the girls had fun swimming with Jon in the pool. The other excitement was that Henry rolled over for the first time, and we all missed it! He did it a second time later on, witnessed by Kelly.  We made our own homemade ice cream Saturday night using a new bowl and attachment they got for their KitchenAid mixer. It was delicious!

Sunday morning they left early for church. After packing our things, we hit the road to head home to Virginia. I can't think of a better way to spend the first week of summer than relaxing and unwinding while enjoying my sweet nephews (oh, and my sister and brother-in-law too).

Here are a few other photos from the trip: