Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is a great place for a field trip! The 59,020 acre refuge is a piece of the past. Here natural grasslands escaped destruction during the days when the west was being plowed under. The mixed grass prairie survived because of the plentiful rocks. Just try to run a plow over that! Mount Scott is worth a visit. I recommend going during colder months so you can feel safe rock climbing. There are plenty of rattlesnakes to avoid in warm months. Elk, bison, deer, longhorn cattle, cliff swallows, and prairie dogs are some of the animals you're almost certain to see.

 Bison (American Buffalo)

Longhorn cattle

Prairie Dog

Bluebonnets are from the lupine family

 White-tail deer

Wheat fields

Dear Nanny - Dear Benji

Dear Nanny,


I miss you so much. I will see you very very soon. After my dad's birthday, we'll wait a few days maybe, and then we're gonna come to Orlando. Then we're gonna drive to Clearwater to see the O___s. Then we're gonna drive to Uncle Charlie and then to Oklahoma. :)
When my dad is home we're gonna have his birthday. I love you Nanny. Bye!


(Ben dictated and Mommy typed)

Dear Sweet Benjamin,

 

  I'm so glad to read your itinerary. That is to say; when you will be traveling and where. It sounds like you will have a very busy time here in the USA. Pappy, Aaron, and I can't wait to see you, but especially your Nanny, ME!

  I was making your dad granola for his birthday, but I'm worried it may not get there in time. I really don't imagine he will mind. He's an awfully sweet daddy, isn't he? Your mommy is the most wonderful too! I'm so glad God gave you the parents He did. Best of all so that I get to have YOU for my grandson!!!!!

  I miss you so very much too. I was sad when I lost the nice phone messages you left for me. But I REALLY don't like to miss your phone calls because it makes my day so nice to hear from you and the rest of your family. I'm so glad we will see each other SOON. Pappy is planning on some things for you that I think you and Lucy will like. Your Nana and Papa B, my mom and dad, are anxiously awaiting your coming too. We will blow bubbles, play in sand and water, see that submarine on dry land. It will be great!

Have a wonderful sleep and an even better day!

Love from your,
Nanny 

P.S. Here's a photo of the submarine. It's really too bad we can't take a ride on it like you wanted to do, but it stays on dry land. This was taken in 2004. Your mommy is the one right over the anchor.

 

Pioneer Woman!!

I started looking at Pioneer Woman's Blog way back at her beginnings. I think we were even a part of the same online homeschool support group. I was so excited to finally MEET HER!

Her wonderful chicken spaghetti!

She was very personable and sweet. I told her that I also am a photographer and homeschooled my son. She said we had a lot in common. I totally forgot to tell her I'm an Okie too!

Told her all about my precious daughter, living in Germany who would have loved to meet her.

LOOK! It's the Ree Drummond Groupies!

I love her normalcy, her humor and her cowboy boots!

The Old Vinson Home Place

Last summer I went with my brother, Charles to visit the old Vinson farm. I was just a baby when grandma moved from the farmhouse into Mangum, so I have no memories there, but I love hearing stories from my family, from siblings and cousins who talk about the farm and grandma and grandpa Vinson. I never knew my grandfather so the photos, pages from his personal journal and stories about him are precious to me. I learned that he was something of a poet, so I know where my yearning to write poetry of all sorts came from. The town of Vinson, 20 miles west of Mangum, OK was named for Henry Benjamin Vinson, townsite owner and my great-great grandfather .

Wonderful, lonely, old house nestled in amongst the rattlesnakes and mesquite bushes

When I excitedly showed my aunts, uncles and mom the photos on my laptop it was so sad for them to see it as it is now,
but I love the layers on the old roof, the sagging boards, remaining windows and the rusty tin.

A roost for huge turkey vultures now. I'd like to tell you that they're hawks, or bald eagles...something majestic,
but they serve a purpose and they have pretty nice digs. 

I'll post more pics another day from when we saw great uncle Parker's house.

A bloom in the dry soil of West Oklahoma 

Kinda reminds me to bloom where God's planted me

Sister Weekend!!!!

 My sweet sisters and I had a wonderful weekend together! We haven't gotten all of us together since our kids were little, and I don't think we've had a weekend together alone since when WE were still kids playing twister and monopoly. Ah yes, monopoly, the game Jana always won. We let you win, girl, that's all. ;)

How do you like our toes?

We went to the Dallas Arboretum, and I have to say it had to be close to the experience of the Keukenhof gardens in The Netherlands, and a tiny taste of Heaven's garden. It was GORGEOUS! The day was gorgeous, the flowers were gorgeous, and I got to spend the day with gorgeous sissies! You big Sissy!

 

We had fun last weekend re-bonding, eating, watching a movie, soaking in the hot tub and 
left with promises to do this every year from now on. 

We women need our sisters, whether they are blood or just best friends who resemble what we'd hoped for in a close sibling. 

I am so so blessed to have sisters and a couple of friends who put on the sister skin for me. Who else but they can listen without needing to fix it,  just be there for you...hopefully non judgmentally with unconditional love like the Father above? They squeeze you...and pray for you...and...love you. Thank you God for my blessings-my sisters and sisterfriends! If you don't have a close sister - then be one to someone. If they  come to your mind, they probably need you!

I think this verse speaks about being that kind of friend. We can think "woman" as we read it:

"A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."  -Proverbs 18:24

Fun Inside Activities for Young Ones

So here's Benji boy enjoying one of the activities I mention below from the
Preschool Activities in a Bag.

Yucky weather or a busy momma makes for restless children, especially the smallest. Sometimes the cheapest fun is the best fun. I used to make a little boy happy with something as simple as tractors and trucks cut out of old magazines, or a ball of yarn that the kids could wind around table legs, doorknobs, anything that wouldn't fall over and break, turning the whole room into a giant spiderweb. The only rules were that the big kids had to watch out for the littles and it all had to be cut off and thrown away before dad came home. I'll post that photo when I find it.

We had the regular blanket tent creations and giant box caves, but also couch cushion castles and bed pillow tunnels. I once or twice let the kids, nieces and nephews included, use an old foam twin mattress to slide down the stairs. Well, okay....I slid once too, but only because they begged and said it was such fun, and it WAS FUN!

Other ideas for bad weather:

• Go outside anyway. They do where the weather is rainy or snowy a lot.
  
• Games- charades, board games, hink pink, hide & seek, hot & cold, red light/green light, gossip (a good time to discuss gossip with your kids), Mother may I? Simon says....
  
• Go to a museum or the library.
  
• Make & take cookies to the fire department, police station, or post office. (call first)
• Scavenger or treasure hunt.
• Get out your favorite Bible kids songs DVD or CD and move or make up your own motions
• Have a puppet show (stuffed animals work for this)
• Play dress up
• Make playdough or Bread dough creations like we did here (play dough recipe coming)
  

Starfall is a free, interactive website for littles learning their alphabet sounds, and for those beginning to read.

Tumblebooks are ebooks for kids, sometimes narrated by the author. You can get a trial subscription, or access them through a public library with a subscription like this one: Tumblebooks at the Portland Public Library.

One of my favorite sites for littles is DLTK kids Craft page. It has printable paper crafts, alphabet tracer pages, songs and rhymes, mini books, online puzzles, Bible crafts, coloring pages.....

Preschool Activities in a Bag are wonderful fun for preschoolers to do on their own while you work with older children or need an uninterrupted moment for Bible study or housework. Even if you are very crafty and make learning things and games for your kids as I did years ago, these books are great tools to help you plan and do a swap. What's a "swap"? You invite other moms, babysitters, grandmothers...anyone with little people in their lives to make an educational activity in a bag for each participating family, and set a time to get together and swap! That means if there are 20 participants your family will receive 20 different activities! Maybe when you meet and swap you'll have a picnic lunch together as a group, go on a field trip together, or some other extra to get your preschoolers together for some fun. I participated in one my friend, Marsha, organized and then my daughter did one with friends where she lives, in Germany. Here's Benji's stash.


Made by Joel is the blog of a crafty, creative dad. Make sure to check out his printable creations like the paper city, thaumatrope spinner, and easy homemade toys like his branch trees toy and box dollhouse. His blog is chock full of neat, cheap fun, like Cheerios box crafts, simple marionettes, slotted building disks.... well he also has a book, Made to Play.

Silly Octopus

Tell me, O Octopus, I begs
Is those things arms, or is they legs?
I marvel at thee, Octopus;
If I were thou, I'd call me Us.  ~ Ogden Nash

Poor thing, he couldn't wait for his snack.

Seven feet long, thirty pounds and he squeezed himself through a 2 inch hole!

Putting on support hose has got to come in a close second to that squeeze. ;)

Octopus gets inside lunchbox at Boston aquarium - Boston.com


The Oklahoma Aquarium near Tulsa is a great place
to observe sea and lake creatures.

The next two homeschool discount days are April 21, 2009 and May 18, 2009.
You have to pre-register, but what a fun field trip!
It's one of my favorite places.

Here's an octopus I photographed there.

When we were there last I took photos of the jellies. My favorites! I made this composite photo of a jellyfish swimming. They are so amazing.  

How awesome is our God to think of such interesting creatures?!
Click the photo to see it larger.


By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars ;
he puts the deep into storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the people of the world revere him.
For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm. -Psalm 33:6-9