Yesterday, I shared part of the excitement that I had with my family on my birthday. After hanging out at the National Building Museum and then our food truck adventures, we had to drop hubby back off at work and decided to go to the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History. It had been closed for renovations and re-opened last year.

As homeschoolers, I love trips like this because often they can serve to bring home a learned message in another format that creates an aha moment for the kids. The First Ladies’ exhibit is beautiful with all of the inaugural gowns and jewelry. Even though many like to create a stir about Michelle Obama’s one shouldered outfits, Nancy Reagan wore a one shoulder inaugural dress as well. Nancy was a hot mama!!! Surprisingly, Grace Coolidge was another hot mama. I think the roaring 20′s inspired her but she had quite a few swanky outfits in the museum that I had to admire for their beauty.

While exploring the president’s, there is a podium for the kids to share their platform. One of mine would need a stool to be president.

Another one of my highlights was seeing Julia Child’s kitchen. If you have been reading my blog or know me, you know that I love food! Also, I have always liked Julia Child. When I was a young girl, I would watch her on public television because I liked to hear her talk and she always made cooking look fun. Seeing her kitchen up close was amazing! I just wanted to remove that protective glass out of the way and sit at the table, smell the chopping board or something. The Princess has developed a liking for Julia as well and is always saying Bon Appetit – she almost sounds just like Julia.

Her copies of The Joy of Cooking were well worn and you know my love of that book. She had lots of other books as well as a victory garden cookbook. The exhibit also has videos of her old PBS shows airing and other memorable items. A must see if you find yourself in DC.

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So, a few weeks ago was my birthday and I had a ball. No, I didn’t ask for time alone even though I probably would have enjoyed it. I decided to head to DC with the family and do some tourist stuff – so pretty much they all had to do what I wanted, which is surprisingly similar to any other day.

Our morning started out with a trip to the National Building Museum. They have this awesome exhibit of Lego creations that I really wanted to see plus I thought the Professor would be inspired. Here we are outside of the NBM.

On the first floor, there are some hands-on fun and the kids and my dad decided to join in the fun of trying to build an arch out of these rubber blocks. As you will see, it was a team effort although in the end not as successful as some would have hoped.

For the Lego exhibit, we were allowed to take pictures, so here are the buildings that were re-created.

Of course, I can’t remember all of the buildings, but the tallest building is the one from Dubai and took over 400,000 Legos, there’s the Empire State Building, WTC, Sears Tower, John Hancock Tower, St. Louis Arch and more. Truly amazing to see what can be done with Legos and imagination. There was also a play area but as you can see from the picture, there were adults at those tables as well.

I convinced my family to eat lunch via a food truck. They of course looked at me like I was crazy but the food was delicious and the next day it’s location was close to hubby’s job, he went and took a co-worker to eat from there again. There are a few other food trucks I want to try in the city, but they will have to wait for another day of adventure.

We went to the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History and I’ll save those pics for part 2. Hint, I saw Julia’s kitchen.

Thanks for reading!

Every year, my hubby’s family holds a reunion and he and his siblings take turns with the planning. Last year, was ours and everyone had fun at Wintergreen and thankfully this year it was his younger brother’s turn. He and his wife chose Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks for this year’s family fun. We had a great time being together and here are some pics as captured by our resident photographer – The Professor.

A few weeks ago, a dear friend of mine’s hubby gave us tickets/passes to the air show at the local base. The kids were super excited and thankfully my father agreed to take them as hubby and I had something else to do….plus, I knew my father would enjoy it as much as the kids.

As you know, the Professor loves to take pictures and wanted to take the camera. After reviewing the *rules* about camera usage, off he went with my camera. They had a great time and my father said that it was hard to get pictures so he wasn’t sure what the Professor had taken…imagine our surprise when I reviewed the pics.

Here is the air show through his eyes:

Lots has been happening now that the weather has started to break. After so much snow this winter, it has been great to see the grass again. I have been wanting to be a chicken girl for some time now but everything in moderation as I also want bees, more fruit trees, and a host of other things. My hubby is quite fascinated by all of this being that before we moved into this house, I rarely did anything outside.

So, here are pics of the wonderful coop that my Darling Daddy built and my new girls…

I have started and stopped many posts over the last few days…..lots going on in my mind and just taking a general reassessment of life. This winter was far colder and snowier than I can remember for my neck of the woods and that led to a lot of hunkering down and staying put. Now that spring is beckoning and warmer temperatures have begun to tempt and tease us, a time of renewal and emerging has begun in me, my home and our surroundings.

I feel the need to renew my relationship with my children so that I can emerge a better mom. As a mom, I have a tendency to raise my voice especially if I have asked them to do something more than once. The odd think is my mom raised her voice and I hated it and it really eats me up that I am now doing the same thing with my children and they don’t like it. The other day, I was reading my daily Proverbs 31 devotion and it spoke of the dignity that clothed the Proverbs 31 woman. Ouch…talking about a devotion stepping all on my toes as if I was wearing open toed sandals. I shared it with my husband and asked that he would pray for me in that area and I also asked my children to pray for me and I have been constantly reminding myself throughout my days – d-i-g-n-i-t-y so I would keep it in the forefront of my mind before I speak and act. I have a long way to go but any journey worth taking starts with a first step.

Another area of renewal and emerging is in what I do outside of the home. I am blessed to be able to stay-at-home and homeschool our children and wouldn’t trade it for the world. However, I also would like to contribute to the home and used to do that before children. I shared here how I started with The Pampered Chef. I just finished my first 30 days and I must say that I am truly enjoying myself. I did 2 cooking shows and my sister-in-law did a catalog show. I qualified with my mom’s show because she and her guests were super buyers. I am finding that the time spent out of the house and the interactions with adults is refreshing and being that I love to cook and love the products, it feels good to be able to do something that helps my family but also allows me an outlet. My hubby is too cute as he said it is my hobby because hobbies are far different from jobs and I don’t have to do it. I want to honor him and remember what God has for me in this season and the flexibility of the hobby helps a lot.

We still have snow on the ground in places but I am excited about the crocus and daffodils that are bursting through the soil letting me know what is just around the corner. I have garden plans ready and quite a bit of work to do outside over the next few weeks. This is also the year that I add chickens to our farmette so coop building will begin soon as my self-imposed deadline is the end of the month for its completion and for the gals to be in their home. It means some reconfiguring of the grounds but that is just another piece in the process of renewal and emergence.

I am excited about this time of the year and I hope you are experiencing your own season of renewal and emergence in your life.

My mom informed me of this special that was on NBC Today – Secret Filth Exposed. There are several videos but this is the one that really caught my attention. They purchased underwear from several well-known stores (Victoria’s Secret, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Gap, etc.) and removed all of the tags and protective stuff, then returned it and surprisingly even though the tags were all removed and they had put dots on the garment tags – the items were put right back on the shelves. Shockingly, this even occurred when there was an obvious stain. You must watch and beware.

Seriously, when you pay that much for lingerie, who knew you should definitely wash before wearing!