FAMILY LIVING, First Aid
Every Sunday night, Bryant, the children, and I meet up around the kitchen table. And for what purpose? “Family Home Evening”. We align our schedules. We pass off whatever poem, quote, or scripture the children were memorizing that week. We give the children what moneys they had earned from doing their chores, and perpetuate a …
STOWE GARDENS, London, England
Situated just north of London, in Buckinghamshire, lies the beautiful Stowe Gardens. As National Trust members (yes…it’s worth the anual fee), we took it upon ourselves to visit many of the National Trust sites, while in England. And Stowe Gardens was our first visited. This 18th-century garden has 250 acres of lawns and lakes. 40 temples …
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands
Our family took the Eurostar train from London, through Belgium, and north to the Netherlands. Past windmills and colorful miles of rows of tulips – every kind of tulip you could never imagine – and into Amsterdam. This Spring holiday was arranged as a home-exchange, in fact. And we stayed just south of Amsterdam’s Vondelpark, off Noorder Amstelkanaal. WARNING: The mosquito …
Ireland
Primary school let out for one week. The children attributed it to Halloween. The borough attributed it to half-term. Either way, we packed up our backpacks and flew the family to Ireland. In E’s words, as she closed our day with prayer, I am off to “dream of all the things we can do and …
CONEY ISLAND, Brooklyn, New York City
The children’s Grampa and Gramma have been to New York City many times before, and are familiar enough with the typical tourist sites. So, for the grandparent’s most recent visit, the children and I planned a different NYC experience – a subway ride off the beaten track through Brooklyn, to Coney Island. In addition to the sandy beaches and small waves, what attracts 14 million …
PRINCETON, New Jersey
Early Saturday morning, travel-journals in hand, the whole family hopped on a New Jersey Transit train from Penn Station, bound for Princeton Junction. (Children travel free on weekends!) An hour later, we were on the Dinky train from Princeton Junction to Princeton University – our final destination. And the University campus was breathtaking. These Ivy League schools really know how to woo with …
MADISON SQUARE PARK, New York City
Several years ago, our three-year-old E attended her first punk rock band concert on the Madison Square Park lawn. The band was the Deedle Deedle Dees – apparently “America’s ultimate teaching band”. I must say, it remains one of the highlights of my New York City experience! We all danced to songs about ant-ranchers, a vegetarian tyrannosaurus rex, …
ROOSEVELT ISLAND, New York City
cherry blossoms high and low always make my mother glow as their perfume fills the air the sparkling petals fair a squirrel’s claws scrape up wood playing wind and waves with the dancing blooms following behind nature is very peaceful E penned her poetry, from her top bunk at home, the evening after our visit to see the ROOSEVELT ISLAND …