Tag: Nature

Fun North Carolina Animal Encounters for Homeschool Families
Fun · Homeschool Life

Fun North Carolina Animal Encounters for Homeschool Families

Deby Ciui (Chewy)Leave a comment

We are two weeks into homeschooling this year and have officially had our first field trip. I’ve lived here for so many years and somehow am only now hearing about so many cool things to visit and experience. This week we visited the Greensboro Science Center, a museum, aquarium, and zoo, all in one. Aside from the heat it was quite an enjoyable experience. Some of the zoo animals were understandable hiding/sleeping due to the temperatures but we still got to see otters playing, the adorable red pandas snuggling up together, and many many more. I have been to North Carolina Zoo several times but in terms of ease, I do believe I enjoyed this place even more. As much as we love the big NC Zoo we do tend to get overwhelmed and exhausted whenever we visit. The Greensboro Science Center let us take our time and enjoy ourselves at our own leisure. Of course, now that I know what to expect, I think I’ll wait to return during the spring/fall when it is much cooler.

Every year I am excited to plan out field trips with the girls. It is one thing I always loved when I was younger and wished that I could have more of but they seemed to no longer exist after elementary school. So, since I am the teacher now, I get to plan as many field trips I want. For now though, I’ll admit that majority of our field trips often involve animals of some kind whether they’re wild animals or domesticated. This year promises to be no different as I already have a list of places I’m looking forward to exploring with the girls.

  • The Carolina Tiger Rescue
    • This is somewhere I have visited on multiple occasions but have not taken the girls to yet. I am excited to see their faces when we are so close to the big cats. I personally always enjoyed the tiger rescue and learned something new each visit.
  • Carolina Raptor Center
    • I have lived in NC for almost 20 years and somehow only just discovered that this place existed! This is also on my list of field trips this year but will take some planning due to distance.
  • Aloha Safari Park
    • Another place I only recently discovered and am looking forward to visiting.

The list goes on, between local museums that we have visited before and the usual zoo/aquariums that we always love. I don’t know who looks forward to our field trips more, me or the kids.

Moms-Only Trip
Life · Travel

Moms-Only Trip

Deby Ciui (Chewy)Leave a comment

Take time off. The world will not fall apart without you.

Malebo Sephodi
Sisters!

This past weekend was our planned girls(moms)-only trip with 2 out of my 3 sisters and my sister in law. It was a trip we had begun planning back in April of this year, a trip that my mom wanted to take back when she was alive but we now fulfilled in memory of her. This trip was the first time that I had ever left my girls alone with Josh for the night. That’s 4 years of me not having a break from them, despite knowing that it was needed. To be honest I was reluctant to even consider taking this trip, I felt guilty and nervous even though I knew my husband is perfectly capable of taking care of them, I mean they are just as much his kids as they are mine. But I was struggling with this sense of guilt, I felt excited for going on a vacation and guilty for being excited.

To be perfectly honest the trip was fantastic. I got to bond with my sisters, two of which live out of state and I essentially only get to see on special occasions. I learned things I never knew before and I recharged on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. It was a vacation filled with walks on the beach, prayer, girl-talk and chick flicks. It was only one of the first times I feel I actually came back from a vacation relaxed and recharged instead of more exhausted than when I left.

One of the things that really stuck with me was my sister who said that she took similar trips like this or even just a day or few hours away from her kids when they were younger for the specific reason of letting her recharge.

I take these trips to become a better mother.

It wasn’t until I came home that I realized the accuracy of that statement. Toddlers are tough, they’re tough to raise and tough to handle and when your patience is already running on threads that are barely holding on, it is very easy to forget that they are in fact toddlers. It is easy to catch yourself beginning to expect a 4 year old to have the understanding of someone two or three times their age instead of taking the time to explain something and teach them what they are trying to learn. This vacation has been a big eye-opening reminder of that and I hope that I can continue going forward with that reminder to become a better mother and teach for my girls. I am relaxed and recharged and ready to go.

The view from my window
Life

The view from my window

Deby Ciui (Chewy)1 Comment
Rain and wind from hurricane Ian

For 8 hours a day (minus breaks to get up and move around), I work from my desk. I made the decision to re-arrange my office one day and pushed my desk against the wall so that I have a nice view out the windows and the decision was absolutely worth it. It gives me the opportunity of breaking up the monotony of working with views from outside the window. Last Friday I worked while watching the winds from hurricane Ian bending the trees in our yard and sending branches flying by, thankfully we were more on the outskirts so just lots of wind and rain. Then one night last year I was even able to witness a very bright meteorite light up the night sky That was a pretty cool thing to see.

Squirrel enjoying a pinecone bird feeder the girls made

Some times the view is pretty much the same, yard, trees, sunlight. Sometimes you see the neighbors, or someone walking through the park. Sometimes you find dogs on the lose scavenging in your yard (yes this has happened). There are also times one of the kids from the neighborhood tries to sneak up on the house and play ding-dong-ditch, that made me laugh until they did it when Emily was taking her nap. But my favorite thing to see is all the different wild life that shows up. I enjoy it so much that I have set up many things to attract more animals in view as well, lots of bird feeders and seeds. Unfortunately, this caused me to make the mistake of doing an amazon subscription on bird seed and well… I now have several bags of it it my garage.

One of my favorite reasons for living in a more rural area is getting to enjoy the sights that you don’t really see very often in a more crowded city or town. Every spring I get to see does and their fawns playing in our backyard and sometimes even see them in the middle of the day. I’ve seen opossums, owls, several cats and the occasional fox. Squirrels have apparently taken refuge in our yard, I once counted 6 different ones all spread out across the yard. They’re a comical bunch and I enjoy having them around, up until its gardening time when they like to steal my tomatoes.

Birds at the bird feeder guest starring Phoenix the cat

As someone who also has a very active imagination, I’ll admit I’ve also had those moments where I can get lost looking out the window and just daydreaming in another world. Sometimes the lighting and view is just right to trigger that creative spirit and I’ll be thinking of adventures and plots and characters.

A short story is what you see when you look out of the window.

Mavis Gallant