Geocaching Adventure #14

In our own own little town, hidden away near a place we go frequently, we discovered our 14th treasure trove. It has been a while since we geocached, having babies, moving, car troubles- the stuff of life has intruded. Today's find took us a whopping 16 minutes total- we do plan to go back and explore the fountain more closely, but we had visitors looming!

From the looks of things over at the official geocaching google map we got or caches laid out for us!

Check it out in your area http://www.geocaching.com/. We also enjoy letterboxing, for more info visit http://www.atlasquest.com/ or http://www.letterboxing.org/

Increasing our sign-abulary

Yesterday my 16 month old finally did something I have been waiting for. You know how you can't wait for them to start crawling and when they do you suddenly remembers that means they won't just hang out peacefully chillin on their boppy anymore?

Well in the Baby Signing process, I have now hit that mark. My little one has learned to ask what the sign for something is- and she wants to to know what everything in her big, exciting world is. Her little hands were fairly flying as she ran from the TV- barely pausing to flip her hands palms up and raise her little brows, before she scurried off to the kitchen.

At first I thought she was hungry, but after she signed "open", and I obliged, pulling open the cupboard she was standing under. She kept repeating "what?" insistently so I signed "where?" and she countered with "up". I lifted her and she pointed to the bag of pretzels she has been loving lately. I signed "eat?" to which she shook her head emphatically. Her tiny shoulders got involved with the "what?" sign and her big eyes begged me to give her the label for her beloved snack.

Faced with the decision to give it a general label she already knew (like "cracker") or run look it up- I opted for the easy way out, but she wasn't going for it. She shook her head so that her blonde curls were still bouncing when she stopped and very seriously signed "what" one last time. She knew they weren't crackers! I realized that as adorable and thrilling as this was, it means she is ready to learn more signs and my current lexicon is limited.

While I am looking forward to gathering a group together and coaching other moms and their little tykes- it is a bit daunting. There are so many words out there! The immersion and being able to practice with others will refresh my memory (I can't believe it has been 13 years since my ASL classes in college- and ya know what they say about not using it...) so for now I have bookmarked my favorite online ASL dictionary. http://www.lifeprint.com/dictionary.htm

Focus brings clarity

A nice visit with an old homeschool buddy brought to light a new idea-it is called eHow. I love to write, but get weary of my blog being just a summary of what we do each day-those of you who follow my private blog, which I have been publishing for several years now, know that of which I speak!

Suzanne (Housewifeinhollywood) is my friend who has successful focused her writing into a content based website. She told me about eHow and it seems like a fit for my scattered scratchings. A collection of magazine style articles on "How to" do just about anything fill the pages, and the writers of these articles get paid (we'll see how that goes!) for the amount of traffic they drive to their articles. It costs the reader nothing and the writer is given a venue for sharing their wisdom and wit.

After publishing my first article today (How to choose a compost method for YOU) I am excited to get more involved and see where it leads. I have many more ideas in the works- how to... make homemade low sugar soda, ...start a compost pile, ...start a worm bin, ...start signing with your baby, ...control the clutter before it controls you, etc. It is thrilling to have "assignments" to finish.

On another note, Barefeet & Happy Hands, my beginning baby sign language classes are going to start in the fall, although I will be setting up a playgroup and an online group before then- keep your eyes peeled! I'll also be offering Backyard Composting as soon as I get a location sorted out with the Community Recreation department.

One of my greatest enjoyments in life is the growth that occurs as things change and I am happy with my new endeavors!