The Animals at Pickleball for Paws Tournament

I can't share about the tournament, without sharing some pictures of the animals that we were raising money for.  They were so sweet and so mild mannered, I saw quite a few I'd have loved to take home with me.

 This guy cracked me up.  I can just see him thinking, Pssstttt...hey you.....wanna help me break out????

Living the life in warmer Florida!

Look Once, Look Again...More Free Books

Here is the second set of books I have to give away.  This is a set of "Look Once, Look Again" books.  Again, these are hardcover with library bindings.  I have a set of five of them: Mouths, Tails, Feathers and Fur, Leaves and Eyes.  They are recommended for ages 4-8.  You can take a peek at one of them here: Amazon

Exploring the Science of.....Freebie Books

I'm still wading through our storage shed and sorting through the hundreds of books we have left.  I have a few sets of books that I'd love to pass along to someone that could use them.  The first set is a Science series that says it is for ages 9-12.  They are hardcover books, with a library binding on them and they are in great shape.  The set is of the four seasons and fire and sunlight.

Just leave me a comment if you would like them, and I'll email you for your address.  If there is more than one person that would like them, I'll do some sort of drawing for them.  I am guessing we will have a few more sets to give away so keep your eyes open for more.

Do you Digi Scrap?

Today I am trying to do some more digital scrapbooking pages while we are traveling.  I am making some basic templates to use later.  It reminded me of my friend Eileen who is also learning digital scrapbooking.  I thought I'd share one just in case she or someone else out there does digital scrapbooking and loves freebie templates.  It is a layered template made in photoshop (PSD).
You can grab it here: Freebie Template

Here is the preview of it:

Helping at the Horse Refuge

Today we all went to the Sixteen Hands Horse Sanctuary , which is the refuge that we came across yesterday. Ambir and Santos drove up and met us there so our entire family was able to spend time there together. We went to volunteer some of our time, but I think we took away far more than we gave.

One of the things I hoped for my children to experience when traveling was to see that we can all make a difference. In a society where the stars can draw most of the attention, I wanted them to know that it is important to do what you can to help, no matter how big or small. I hope they saw some of that today.

We were honored to meet and spend time with people who demonstrate this principle in their lives each and every day. These selfless heroes, Robin and Dutch, run a horse refuge and have rescued most of the 30 some horses here. They have provided a "forever" home for these animals and have also provided a safe place where they are not only cared for, but deeply loved.We were humbled to see how much work they invest each day in order to commit to this mission of theirs. It was also fascinating to hear some of the things they do using a natural method developed by Pat Parelli to handle the horses.

I was impressed with how hard Austin, Lauren and Josh worked today. Austin never stopped working the entire time we were there:

Rambo isn't sure what to make of Miss Royal. They were intrigued with each other:The guys working hard, pushing a wheelbarrow of horse manure:Another gentle soul, thriving under their care:I think out of all of us, Josh amazed me the most, he worked as hard and as long as the grown ups did:The horses seemed to love Nathan:Austin seems right at home here, doesn't he?What could be sweeter than horse kisses:Feeding one of the newer arrivals some apples:
We had a great time here today!

Please consider donating to this great place. You can click on the link at the top of this post to get more information. They are a non-profit organization and can use funds, items on their wish list or if you live close enough-volunteers. You can make a difference too! It doesn't have to be some huge thing. Just consider what you can give and then do it.

Sixteenhands Horse Refuge

While driving home from the Lippizan horse show, we saw a horse sanctuary, Sixteenhands. We stopped to check it out. I can't recall her name now, but the sweetest lady came out and talked to us for some time.

We decided this would be a great place to volunteer our time so we are coming back tomorrow.

Capucine and Edurelief

As if I didn't adore Capucine enough already, she is now working on a project to raise money for a library. Go here and here for details.

Pickle Ball

When we were in PA, the couple next to us told us all about Pickle Ball and let us know that we had to learn to play. It sounded fun to us so we tucked it away in the back of our minds to look into later.

Yesterday, while doing laundry, we met a sweet lady named Barb who invited us to come over to the courts to learn how to play. So we headed over this morning and sat and watched them play to get a feel for the game. After they were done, Barb and another sweet lady named Vicki spent hours helping us learn the game. We LOVE it! I played so much today that I doubt I'll be able to walk tomorrow.

Limehurst Campground in Williamstown VT

This was such a beautiful campground, and the staff was incredible! We were very late in arriving and someone called me on my cell phone to make sure we weren't lost and to give me directions. Then when we arrived, they escorted us to our sites and helped us park to make sure we were good to go. We did another RAK while here today.

Projects Day

Almost every time that Liv and Gabe would visit our house, we'd ask what they wanted to do and 99% of the time one of the requests would be "projects". It didn't really matter what kind, although glitter was the ultimate favorite so any craft with glitter reigned supreme. I will have those memories locked away forever because it wasn't just that we did crafts together, but that it became our talk time. There is something about a little one busy with creative work that unlocks their jaws and they fill you in on their most important thoughts and secrets. We have had tons of fun and I think I've gotten to know each of them better with this shared time.

I was feeling a bit sad that I'd miss Gabe and Liv's first day of school, so with our projects time in mind, I decided to make them a back to school bucket. All of the pieces are printed from digital scrapbooking kits.


Then I filled the inside with back to school goodies. This is the kind of project that I normally do with them and it wasn't nearly as much fun doing it by myself. I hope they love it!


Then I made matching composition notebooks. Again, made from digital scrapbooking kits.

Now normally when I do these kinds of projects Nathan humors me and says oh , that's nice. Which is code word for I know I'm supposed to say something here and usually a compliment works well with you so I'll try that. This time he said, "I want one of those". I made him repeat it three or four times just to be sure. Yes, he really did want one. No, not the bucket-the notebook. So I went to work and made him this:
And since I was on a roll and had all of my supplies out, I made one for my best friend and my sweet nephew.Since this, as all projects, took far more time than I had planned-this is pretty much all I did today. It was fun! We did a RAK today, but this one is private so I'll just post it without details.

Recreation Day

We didn't really plan to hang out at the resort all day long. We were thinking of heading into Lynchburg to see what was there. But, Austin is the type of person who thinks if something is there, then it should be experienced.
And given how much "something" there was here, it took us all day long to experience it. If we would have had our traveling buddies with us, we'd have played some sand volleyball. Austin made friends with one of the rangers named Dick and he was so kind to him.

Of course, if we are going to be here having fun, some work must be squeezed in also. We also squeezed in another Bookcrossing RAK.

You can't tell from this picture, but there is a mini golf course behind this. There are also tennis courts and a pool, which we did not use.

This might have been Austin's favorite thing to do, go out on the lake. We didn't use the canoes. We used the paddle boat they had along with the canoes.

It is so pretty here. Nathan went out for a walk on the nature trail and a lab joined him for his walk. He came back and told me how much he was looking forward to getting a dog and that hopefully Auburn would get one that would take walks with him.

Our first RAK

It hasn't really hit me yet that this is real. And that is most likely because we are still in our home state and at our campground that we've been at for the past year. We are still wrapping up business, meaning amongst other things selling the few things like ATV's and our kayak, that we hadn't sold yet. Today we went to do our week's worth of laundry and it did hit me just a bit that this is our life now. We aren't doing laundry here because I don't want to haul laundry home. This is my only option. It was great to do a week's worth of laundry in just a few hours so I think I'll be ok with that part of our new life. While we were there, we had a neat experience. I always carry Bookcrossing (Bookcrossing.com) books in my car so I can leave them in places we encounter. I normally carry adult books, but had the thought that when we do laundry there will be children that are there, bored and looking for entertainment, so I stuck some children's books in my box. I saw a young girl yesterday that appeared to be hanging out with her mother who was the attendant. I went and grabbed some books, brought them in and asked her if she liked to read and would she like the books. Yes and thank you! Neat, I thought and didn't think another thing of it. When we went to leave we saw that she and her mother were reading through the books together. If that wasn't enough to make me grin, I realized that she was actually teaching her mother to read English by using the books. Made.My.Day. I hope to have many, many moments like that in our travels.