2014 Resolutions

I peaked back at last year's. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't manage to get many of the kids' resolutions/wishes for the year completed, so I am going to try harder this year. Chickens, zip line, treehouse.

I always have a number of things I resolve to do - and last year, I think I resolved much of the same things I am resolving for this year. Write more - and this year, figure out a way of making more money doing it. Write articles with Hans, in that regard. (He's started what.mattersmost.us.)

I want to provide a rich learning environment for our kids. More deep-to-the-marrow learning tools, more vibrant experiences - life, more sparkles.

Which brings me to a resolution that won't get completed until 2015. I have started saving for our cross country cycling trip. I hope to have $6000 by this time next year. Plus everyones bikes and trailers. Really, in order to do that, we are going to have to be bringing in income from other places, so I'm still trying to figure out how.

I resolve to continue my community development work, despite how frustrating it is sometimes. More Repair Cafes, more MakerSpace opportunities, more small business fairs and more Sustainable Hilltowns gatherings.

I vow to be more loving to my kids and my husband. He is, and will always be, the most amazing, funny, smart, inventive and creative person I have ever had the great fortune to know - may I live in a way that honors him.

Bikeschooling?

Some biking related links not to miss:

Currie tech bikes - met a guy on the Walkway over the Hudson last week and asked about his bike.

http://www.currietech.com/electric-conversion-kits/

REI has a this cool looking recumbant thing -

http://www.rei.com/product/839312/weehoo-igo-pro-trailer-bike?cm_mmc=sm_email-_-share

ad they also sell a Mountain Train:

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/town/recreation/pedal_trailers/mountain_train_201/#/us/en/model/reviews?url=us/en/bikes/town/recreation/pedal_trailers/mountain_train_201

There is also the Trail Gator, but I'm not sure if it is designed for longer touring.

Music, dance and theatre

Needing a list.  Not much going on at the Egg.  Ditto for Capital Rep.  Will try the Palace and Proctors.

Note to not forget: Zari was thinking of trying rock climbing - will email Marla.  And we really want to do the Y this year.  ** An update: we are going to try to get to the Edge: http://www.theedgehalfmoon.com/  Sunday is family day and kids are half-price - we might try going up then.

The Adirondack Animal Park is only 1.5 hours away, too - might be a cool thing to do before they close for the season.

Everyone would really like to go to the Saratoga Children's Museum.  Wish they were part of the reicprocal program.  There's lots going on - http://www.childrensmuseumatsaratoga.org/documents/Calendar_Sept_2013_004.pdf

Hopefully we'll stay incredibly healthy for a while!

Sundays off

...but where to go with 5 active kids?

So wish I knew.

I am leaning towards the lake, even though Zari's pretty anxious to get us back to Saratoga to the Children's Museum.  I'd like to us to get to any number of interesting locales - Poughkeepsie, Storm King, even the bike guy in Delmar - but I don't think the babies will handle it without screams.

Wishing we could live where we do, but still have access to a subway station.

Tripping...

Hah!  That title could mean so much, eh?

So I have been planning some road tripping, as well as working to fill up a shared Google calendar so we have lots of plans available this fall and winter, provided our old van can stay running.

Lots going on in Springfield, MA.  Really wanting to figure out a way to get us to MakerFaire in NYC in mid September, and trying to brainstorm some cool things to do with Perin for his birthday.

There's also lots of places close enough in the Berkshires, I think - so I am planning to check there next for fodder for our calendar.

Must start getting everyone's IHIPs ready, too.  Next year, Perin will need an IHIP - starting to breathe deep lately when I consider how I'll get three quarterlies done four times a year.

Rowan and Keena are sleeping better at night - I wish I was.  Might have to swallow my pride and just take the antibiotics.  Being sick and/or in pain does not make for a cheerful, helpful, supportive unschooling parent, I've found.

One things that I've been thinking about lately comes from Sandra Dodd's column.  Can't remember the exact quote, but the gist of it suggests that bits of trivia, constantly sampled, allows us to eventually build models of our world and its systems.  Is that true?  Is that a better way to learn most things, by sampling bits and pieces of the world, little nuggets of interesting trivia, and then constructing models?  Perhaps that's exactly how we all learn anyway, despite a system that wants us to learn about the world linearly.

What next?

Been wondering and worrying about how to make life interesting, without transportation these last weeks, and without much money to take us anywhere, even if we did have a car.

Plus, Perin's birthday is coming up, and it would be cool to do something really fun.  Like I wish there was a butterfly pavilion for frogs.  That would be really cool.

Also would really like to go to the MakerFaire in NYC in late September.  It is precisely when everyone gets their first cold of the season, though, so I am a bit worried.  Plus, finding replacements for Jason at the store is a huge headache.

Our August weekend

So our plans have become a bit muddled, mostly because of our van situation - it hasn't been running well for a while, and now it's at the shop again, hopefully being fixed.  So we are shelving plans to hit the road and have come up with alternative plans that don't involve as much travel.

Zoom Flume tomorrow - which is all the kids really wanted to do this weekend anyway. And hopefully a trip to the bike shop and REI on Sunday.  Maybe I'll get around to posting pictures...

Staycation in August?

So here's an interesting question...  Do you plan trips because they are "educational"?  Do you resist planning trips because you don't want them to seem "educational"?  Isn't cool history important, even if the places seem to come on a tad heavy handed?

So Sturbridge Village is cool, but lots of it we've already covered in two other living history museums.  Should we go anyway?  And just plan to come home that night?

Fort Ticonderoga is another possibility - unifrtunately, the train doesn't go up and back on the same day, and the nearest hotl is booked throughout August.

We still want to plan camping adventures, as well as find bikes.  Hoping to fund a bit of this through a yard sale in August.  Jason doesn't seem ecstatic about our plans, honestly.

If we do stick around home, we could also - as he suggested, so some of the things we've been wanting to do, but needed another adult for - Taconic, the Zoom Flume, the Poughkeepsie Children's Museum, etc... We could drive out and back to Sturbridge - it's only a 2 hour ride on Saturday - leave by 8am and get there by a bit after 10am.  Then either let the babies sleep a little during the day and drive back late - there's a special evening revelry - or drive when they plan a nap.  That would cost us about $75 to get in, and about anothr $100 for food.   If we wanted to stop halfway, pringfield has a great collection of mueum, including the Hasbro gameroom and the Dr. Suess sculpture garden.

The Zoom Flume would cost us about the same, but we could bring a cooler and only plan to stay the afternoon.

Feeling pain free

...for the first time in a long time.  Will still probably be sore in th morning, but for now I am relishing the goodness.

Doing more trip planning, and more planning for a writing business.  Also would like to explore some work out of country - Jason mentioned wanting to winter in Toronto.

Am also rethinking the August 3rd ventiure out to MA to Old Sturbridge Village - thinking that the Renaissance Faire in Sterling might be more up our alley, plus there are amazing beaches in Otswego.  Jason also mentioned the Jersey shore, so I was thinking I might check with Susan about possible places to check out.

Inspiration?

So what is it?  Is the Lyme decreasing brain function, as somone suggested today?  Was my backache from last week some symptom of something els going wrong?  Why am I unable to focus on store things?

Just to recap, I cancelled our health fair, and have no plans of doing any music this summer.  I watched this documetary about Ram Das this morning, and realized that I don't really have any intereest in bettering this community further than my own family.  It's not that I don't lov this place, and these people, it just all seems a bit pointless - like busy work in school.

Planning trips with the kids is so much more fun.  It's so cool that we can get the babies out with us, without too much trouble.  I think we all just wish we could have Jason with us more.

We're hoping to get a week in September, to go to MakerFaire in Manhattan, then to the beach for a few days, then to Boston to follow the Freedom Trail.  All via Amtrak!  I actually have somepics from the city that I should post, too - what a wild time!

MakerFaire!

Not to be missed...  September 21st

http://makerfaire.com/

Father's Day in NYC!

Our rough itinerary:

8:45 Train from Hudson
10:50 Arrive in Penn Station

Take the 1 train from Penn to Canal Street.  I think the first course of action is to get everyone food.  The Stray Boots tours look cool, too - and they might help us get to some out-of-the-ordinary food spots.  Next shopping, then head to the ice cream factory (65 Bayard Street).  Then maybe relax at the Hester Street playground before heading to the Buddhist Temple nearby (that has a great view of the Brooklyn bridge!).

There are tours of the Tenement Museum at 3pm, which would be cool to go to - one in particular is good for families.  It lasts about 1.5 hours, but I'm worried that it might be too much for this trip.  Maybe the kids and I will come back at some point, just for that museum.

Montreal?

There's also some travel possible to Montreal, via train, though it's a long ride.  8 hours, doubling the time it would take to drive there.  Same with Boston, incidentally - train rides nearly double the length of your trip.  Not sure it isn't just worth waiting till the babies can handle the car.  Sigh.

I have been wanting to be a bit more proactive on US history - and Boston and New York seem to both be great ways of exploring origins.  Zar's identified Chinatown as a must, though she's really interested in the knock-off shoes.  My mom wants to see the Intrepid, though I'm not sure I can handle having my mom on an overnight trip.

Just discovered how easy it is to get to Boston!  Amtrak, directly from Albany, in 5 hours, for less than $200 round trip for ALL of us!

Going to start saving for this, and creating a list of places to see in Boston!

As an aside, Jason is getting cold feet about our month long venture out to the west coast.  I have been grudgingly pricing out getting us to Florida - it would cost about $1400 for all of us to get to Anna Maria Island on the Gulf.  (To Tampa, and then public transportation to Anna Maria.)

Another option is 

More tripping...

Been loving this research.  (And been neglecting lots of other store-related things I really should be doing!)  I think rail passes are a great idea.  If we can manage to go this Oct-Nov for a month, it will cost us $2345.  That 30 day pass will allow us to travel over 12 segments.  Once we figure out exactly where we'd like to go, it's also possible that we could use the shorter rail passes, since we can use the 1 days spread out across 6 months of travel.

Tentatively, I think we'd like to get to New York first, and spend a few days experiencing the city.  Then head to Chicago, and spend at least a day there.  The leg from Chicago to West Glacier is 31 hours, which means we would have to sleep on the train for at least one night.  Another option is spending the night at a hostel in St. Paul - I have been emailing hostels in Chicago and San Fransisco, and spending nights in a bed versus a train seat seems like a better idea.  Plus, the hostels look great.  (The kids inquired about whether it was like the Ronald McDonald house, which seemed like a great comparison to me!)  The trip from Chicago to St. Paul on the Empire Builder is just over 8 hours.

Also - it seems important to expand their knowledge of our country in every way possible - and we'll be following an approximation of the Lewis and Clark journey.

I think we'd like to get to Portland/Salem and visit Katherine.  She might be able to put us up for a night or two...

From there, it would be great to travel down the coast.  Perhaps spend a week or so at a warm beach location in southern California.  San Fransisco seems like a good place to stop, with lots to visit, including a rail trip to Yosemite.  I am also looking into San Diego for a week, on the beach.

New York City trip

Zaria's been preparing for our New York City trip, despite Jason wanting little to do with the planning.  No matter how we shape it, it's going to be costly, so I've been trying to figure out a way of estimating exactly how much, and figruing out a way of minimizing the costs as much as possible.

Found this today - http://albanykid.com/2013/05/15/hilton-garden-inn-staten-island-budget-nyc-hotel/ - the Statan Island Hilton Garden Inn.  It has an indoor pool, plus shuttle service to the free Staten Island ferry.  We've been constructing a running list of the sites we'd like to visit, and I've been checking out train costs.

It's looking like we might be able to score round trip business class tickets for all of us, for about $450.  And there's also CityPASS, for about $100 per adult, and less for each kid over 6, gets you into some of the top museums and attractions.

In other travels, I am considering getting us rail passes - it seems like a fantastic way to get us across the country, for far less than traveling by car or plane, with a lot more flexibility.  It's also cimpler - if we go before next April, Keena and Rowan are still free.  So we would have to figure out how to feed aourselves and where to sleep, knowing that the cost of transportation would range from $669 per adult and $334 per kid - a total of $2340 for up to 12 segments. 

Hudson River ClearWater Festival

Next year, not to be missed!

http://www.clearwaterfestival.org/

Winter ending, finally.

Loving and living fearlessly.  My plan for 2013.

Next adventure must include travel.

Weekly plans for spring

After a brief discussion, we decided that we should save Mondays for gardening.  Tuesdays would be a good park and/or beach day.  Wednesdays and Thursdays - museum days, since Jason will be home in the afternoons. 

Fridays will be a friends day - Meg's been wanting to come over and we thought we'd ask Katie.  Samantha Kemnah might want to join us, too.  And, unde a bit of coercion, we thought we'd invite Marla and Amy with Lily.  (Lily's the coercion part.)

Planning a vacation

Have some great books on the National Parks - so i'm starting to plan!

First stop, Cuyahoga Valley NP - it's right between Cleveland and Akron.  (About 8 hours from home, according to Google maps.  Lovely right along the lake, too!)  Overnight accomodations available at Ohio parks for a decent rate, too.

 
After Cuyahoga Valley, we head west!  Badlands, Wind Cave, then Yellowstone!

There's no way we're making 18 hours in one day, but we could get to Chicago, which has an amazing children's museum.  They even have a new cardboard exhibit! 

Our resolutions

We're at the store, on New Year's Day, making some breakfast and working on resolutions -

Zaria - GET CHICKENS!!  Assist with design and architecture of Jason's underground house.  Personal goals: really big snow fort.

Perin - Zip line!!  More bird watching?

Eden - Treehouse, with curved slide!

April -  I resolve to do everything possible for us to be a healthier, more loving, more meditative (!) family.  I want to be a better unschooling parent, and a more loving spouse.  I resolve to write more - on the blogs and for profit.  Personal goals: green roof on the shed - large (but not unmanageable) garden - maybe a sheep - and learn about what it would take to keep bees.

Some collaborative resolutions: (Jason) Everyone should not drink so much junk.