Welcome to Florida, Juice at the State Line!

I know just about everyone in the world thinks palm trees and beaches when they think of Florida, but that's just not right. If you want to consider a masterpiece of orchestrated landscape here, you must experience the orange groves. Not the south Florida ones, but the mid to northern Florida groves, ones that gracefully rise and fall over slight hills near Ocala. The sweetest flower is that of the citrus tree, there is just a hint of the fruit that is to come. In the rush of tourism, the classic Florida orange grove has been passed by, the interstates taking up less arable land, and the real estate on it's edges turned over to cultivate Starbucks and McDonalds.

Stop at the State Line Welcome Center, take a cup of complimentary citrus juice (and darn it, even the grapefruit juice is good). Look at some of the brochures for Walt Disney World, Busch Gardens, Miami Beach and possibly even the Keys. Spare a glance too, for the traditional Weeki Watchee, Silver Springs and my favorite, Cypress Gardens. At the Welcome Center they had displays for children to pose as a skier or southern belle for pictures.

By the way, this wayward child is hanging by his left hand, you can see his fingers at the top, which makes his head look a bit odd. He is only exceedingly dirty because he stole all the oreos from his siblings' stash as they exited the car, then crammed them ALL into his mouth.

Horse Riding Hairstyles for Girls

Being of a modest home, riding lessons is not an endless line of checks dashed off. It required a bit of thought, review of budget and a long talking to with the horse obsessed child.

Currently it had come to her attention that her hair usually looked messy. Why? I sent her to lessons with her hair up in a ponytail with a cute homemade bow wrapped around. It seems that the ponytail was yanked downward in order for her helmet to fit properly and much snarling ensued.

Ever the internet mom, I searched riding hairstyles and came up with nothing useful. So, I am going to post some experiments and post them here. It's better than a whole lot of nothing, right?

First, side braids:


Single Back Braid with Rubber Banded Bow:

This is what it looked like before I added the helmet.

Happy Easter

Easter Mass was wonderful, children were well behaved -ish and the Easter Bunny visited while we were there.

Sweet husband went for pancakes and Sunday paper. Yay, who knew this normalacy could be so fantastic!

Bottle Biology - at home science

You know one of the big parts of science is observation .... and this plan of using bottles makes it easy! Bottle Biology makes observation accessible.This was on Pioneer Woman first in a Mrs. G. post, I admit it. But I LOVE it! How fun to do at home? Take an empty couple bottle, dump some stuff in it and watch it! I mean, Observe.

Down the Trail

I love my state. We have amazing beaches, stretches of soft sand, rocky outscoppings, peek-a-boo bays and islands, crystal springs, low hanging branches draped with lacy moss ... fauna, flora and water you wouldn't believe. I mean really, how many orchid hunts can you have in Oklahoma? But, we do not have waterfalls. Not ones like in Georgia. My kids were wowed by this "small" set of falls in Gwinett County. And, I have to admit, so was I.

How Much Does My Husband Love Me?

I know my husband loves me. Not just a little bit but a lot. "A lot, a lot"(Parent Trap). Not only did he groan when I excitedly held up my cell phone to the box on the passenger seat, not only did he grumble hauling heavy bags from the car ... he built me a Taj Mahal in my backyard. My chicken coop. It is a thing of beauty. It matches with our fence, was engineered with great thought, consideration and love for me.

That was last year. How do I know he still loves me that much? I brought home new chickies ... they are so cute. Then just asked me how many we were keeping. He loves me, he really really loves me.