A "Little" Shopping Trip

  Today we took our bi-monthly trip to Jamesport, MO for our grocery shopping at the Amish bulk foods store.  I thought I'd share a little about what we purchase for our home use.  Here is my shopping list. 

I don't get everything each time, but its great to have a master list of what we use most often.  This time I got: baking cocoa, sugar, citric acid, cumin, black pepper, cornmeal, baking powder, rice, powdered sugar, salt, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, quick oats, instant potatoes, elbow macaroni, honey, paprika, chocolate chips, mini colored chocolate drops,  chai tea (they have some wonderful mixes), salt & sea salt.  Oh and the cheese!  I can get 6-ish pounds of cheese for $3.89 to $4 per pound, so I buy a couple of logs of those.

Here's a picture of my haul minus the cheese:

All of this cost around $190.  I did buy a cookie sheet too.  They have excellent kitchen tools, so I'll pick up one every once in a while.
  When we do our trip we take my mom with us and make it into a fun field trip!  Today we went 15 minutes out of our way to do some family history research - and we even found some tidbits!  While we try to make our trip every other month its been since February since our last trip.  I was getting a little desperate...when the cheese is running out, that's our signal to go.  We ran out of cheese a week ago, my kids were going to riot soon;)

Short & Sweet

  Occasionally, we have the opportunity to travel with my hubby when he's on the job.  Last week we were able to do just that.  Interestingly, he has been working near the town of Wagoner, OK where my ggg-uncle George Morgan Clem once lived.  His nephew, my gg-grandpa, Elias Clem was supposed to have run in the land rush down there, and I have often wondered if that was the area he was in.  He didn't get the land that he wanted, so he ended back up here in NE Kansas.
  We dropped Hubby off at the work area which is right on Lake Fort Gibson and went in search of an adventure to kill some time.  We found Sequoyah State Park close at hand and went into the visitor's center.  Boy, am I glad we did!  They pointed us just up the road to a nature center.  All of the nature centers we have been to so far have been free, hands-on, and great little places of learning for kiddos.  This was what we found with this one as well. 

They had a wide variety of native critters ranging from live fish, snakes, & turtles to stuffed ones as well.  Shorty loved the hands on table...

but when Bubby mentioned the great outdoors, our time inside was done!  The ranger (who had been homeschooled herself) took us to see a coyote and some grey foxes - which Bubby really enjoyed.  She then introduced us to a very old bald eagle who was 34 (they can live in captivity on average for 30 years).  He shared a cage with a barred owl who hooted at us from her box.

We still needed to kill a little time, so we headed down to the water's edge.  I am amazed no one dipped a toe in, or got soaked;) 

Hubby's work was over a short time later, so we began the second leg of our trip down to see my family in Texas.  My grandma's sister lives just north of Dallas.  She thought the world of her two sisters.  There is only one living and when we get the chance we try to go visit.  The kids were super excited about going too! 
  We ended up being able to go and watch a cousin's baseball game and get some visiting in in the evening. We stayed at a bed & breakfast which we had all to ourselves.  It was called Durning House (Van Alstyne, Tx) and Mookie dubbed it her dream house.  Mookie has always loved all things small, cute, and fancy and this fit the bill.  The kids had the upstairs bedroom to themselves & they were so thrilled!  Shorty thoroughly enjoyed climbing up and down the steep stairs to "his room".

Durning House

In the morning, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast time and then some more time with my family before we headed out on our way home.  A short trip, but packed full of memories!

A Short Sidetrip

  Last year was the 150th anniversary of Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence.  The Watkins Historical Museum created a special exhibit featuring it.  I've been dying to go, but hadn't taken the opportunity.  Yesterday we used an orthodontist appointment & our flat travelers as an excuse to finally make it to the museum. 
  The price is right only a suggested donation of $2 per child & $3 per adult.  There are 2 main floors of exhibits.  The first floor used to be a bank and still has the teller windows in place. 

They had some great exhibits on basketball, Langston Hughes, the Old Sacramento cannon and of course Quantrill.  I was most impressed with the Quantrill exhibit.  It was interactive.  Bubby loved using the touch screen to interact with the route of the raiders. It also had some artifacts left over in the aftermath. 

Bubby and Shorty with "Old Sacramento"

I learned something new with the Old Sacramento cannon.  It was used in the Mexican-American War, was moved around during the free-state battles, and ultimately fired in Lawrence in celebration of Kansas being admitted into the Union as a free state. 
  Upstairs of the Watkins used to be the land offices.  They had some local history items and a large Victorian play house that the kids were able to enter and play in.  They were thrilled!

Definitely worth the trip.  We'll be visiting again, Mookie had opted to stay at home, but was bummed when she heard our stories.  I didn't get to see all of it myself, so I welcome the opportunity to go back:)

Flat Traveler Adventures: Atchison & Leavenworth

  Daddy was gone this past week.  Usually when he has a big trip & we aren't able to come along, we plan some nice distractions for ourselves.  We decided to spend a couple of days with Ducky and Grandma & take them with us on our field trip.  We've been pretty busy with our trips this month.  We're hosting 2 flat travelers, one from England & one from Idaho.  I love doing the flats because it really makes you an ambassador for your area.  You need to get out and show what makes your area special.  The kids have been dying to do some specific things in Atchison, and since a it's the birthplace of a notable Kansas figure - Amelia Earhart, we went for it:)
  We started out our tour of Atchison at the statue of Deafy Boular.  He's a very distant cousin of ours (I wrote a blog on him here if you're interested in him further). Aside from all he overcame, he's amazing for the fact that was featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not for laying 46,000 bricks in less than 8 hours. He laid most of the brick in the streets of Atchison.

Mookie, Shorty & Deafy (and Longneck the giraffe)

 Our next stop was the historical museum where there is a display of Deafy's boots and other Atchison memorabilia. 

Bubby checking out Deafy's boots

The kids enjoyed the museum, but they LOVED the train exhibit outside even more! Especially Shorty, they're his favorite:)

You can't beat getting to climb on and explore trains.  Just the engine was open, but getting to crawl up on the stairs and peek in the windows was a thrill in itself.
  Our next stop was Doniphan Cemetery.  We were trying to track down some ancestors (no luck), and document stones for Find A Grave (huge success).  Some of us were not quite as dedicated to the cause though...

Bubby "King of the World"

That's ok, we'll just call that part of the day PE;)
  Heading back into town, we got out and stretched our legs at the riverfront park.  Its a lovely area with some interesting historical markers.

Ducky and Mookie at the Lewis & Clark display

  Our last stop was in Leavenworth where we picked up supper and headed to the riverside railroad park.  This is a favorite stop on our way to Jamesport.

Shorty loves it because the possibility of train spotting.  We almost didn't see one, then came the distant whistle of a train.  Bubby & Mookie got into a position on a ledge where they could get a good picture of their travelers when the train passed.  It was going to be great, right by the bridge with them in a perfect spot to be safely close.  The train got closer until we could see that it only had 3 cars on it - and it was really traveling!  I snapped the shot...

and the photo op turned into one that we laughed about the rest of the way home:)

Unknowns from Woodson County, Kansas

  A couple of years ago I was blessed to have a cousin let me copy all the photos out of a photo album that had been my great-grandmother Minnie (Schaede) Murray's.  Some of the pictures were identified, but the majority were not.  I'm going to share them here in hopes I can find someone else to help me identify them:)  Minnie grew up in Neosho Falls, Woodson County, Kansas and died in LeRoy, Coffey County, Kansas.  The Yates Center pictures are most likely either Schaede, Yeager, Krien, or other branches of her family.

Cabinet card taken in Yates Center, KS.  Most likely the seated woman is Minnie's mother Amelia (Krien) Schaede

Field Trip Friday: Lawrence

   Today was WAY too busy.  It was field trip Friday and we have flat travelers in the house, so that means that we were looking for Kansas-y things to do.  Well, only because we had to.  Overdue books in Lawrence changed our plans from roller skating in Topeka instead.  From what I understand, the overdue book is the constant battle of a homeschooler - but I just need it for a little longer for this thing we're studying.... The next thing you know - BAM! Overdue fines! But I digress...
   Gas is terribly expensive and to try to ease the pain of the cost in our pocketbook but still do all the fun things as a homeschooler we cram as much into our time in the bigger cities as possible.  Here was the progression of our day: Target for shopping, an oil change, a drive-thru bite to eat, the KU Natural History Museum, the library, a stop to see James Naismith's memorial, Hobby Lobby, a stop into Sonic's happy hour for a drink, and then to Wells' Lookout for a photo op.  Whew!  But we did it! Here's some pictures from our day:)

Meet our travelers: Hero Harry & Longneck

  The kids had been dying to go to the Natural History museum.  The exhibits really never change (although they had updated some), but how can you top dinosaurs, bugs & that animal panorama?
  Bubby is in the stage where he wants to look at every. single. exhibit.  In the animal panorama, for example, that meant finding every animal that was listed on the guides in front of the glass, etc...  Needless to say, we were there a while.  It took some work keeping a toddler busy through the whole museum, but we managed to make everyone happy, even if some of us did make laps:) 

Shorty in a moment of patience in the panorama

  We had never been to the Naismith memorial before.  Bubby was super excited, because he'd read a biography on him late last year.  Shorty tried to take home a KU basketball from the memorial, but he didn't get far:)

Some ornery brother is giving Mookie rabbit ears in her traveler picture

 Aside from all the interesting stops, the best part of the day was the weather!! 65 degree temps!  After single digits at the first of the week we were ready to be outside!  Come on spring:)

Grocery Shopping - Amish style

  Every month and a half we go grocery shopping.  We do our milk and eggs weekly, but for our big baking supplies, we make a 3 hour trek to NW Missouri to Amish country.  I factor in the cost of gas to the price of groceries and it still makes it worth our while to make the trip.  Plus its super fun.  We pick up Grandma, and make a day out of it. This time we carpooled with some buddies so we could show them the route too.
  The place we go is just outside of Jamesport, Missouri.  It doesn't look like much, but inside you can buy 20 lb. bags of flour (even 50 lb. if you so desire), 10 lb. bags of oats, 10 lbs. of sugar, you get the idea.  There are some things that I can get cheaper at Sam's Club, but I try to do as much of my one stop shopping at either place to limit my trips.  They also have 6 lb. logs of cheese you can buy.  Its my guide on when we need to make the return trip north, when the cheese runs out we know its time;)
  The kids are in awe of their way of life.  Everything from the horse and buggies (the kids are jealous that Amish children get to drive a horse & buggy to school),  to the lack of electricity, to the different way they dress.  At the beginning of summer last year when we first mad our trek, Mookie wore her shorts and flip flops.  When we pulling into the parking lot I was explaining the differences we might find inside.  Mookie was horrified that she was wearing shorts instead of a dress - she didn't want them to disapprove!  I told her that their religion was Christian based and if they judged her on her clothes what kind of Christians would they be? That seemed to help.  After that discussion though, she always wears slacks or a skirt and I wear a skirt too:)  I often wonder what they do think of all of us Englishers that come and shop at their store.  The Country Store we shop at mostly is run by women. Most of them are rather quiet, but they're always quick with a smile too, and quick with a hand to help us lug our groceries to the car (we usually have a few boxes).

  Yesterday Shorty was talking about going out to see their horses and deer (they have about 20 deer in pens which we had always seen from a distance).  They told us to walk across the yard of the house by the store and go see the deer up close.  Boy that was a treat!  I expected the deer to be standoff-ish, but they came right up to the fence & licked the kids' hands:) That was so thrilling for them!

Shorty, Bubby and Mookie petting the deer

  There's a cute little fabric shop right next to the country store and I ran in there to grab some more blank tea towels.  Going in that shop is like a snapshot of clothing for the Amish.  Most of the colors are dark, with the exception of the children's clothes which can have bright colors and larger prints.  The shop carries all you would need to make your family's wardrobe and even some items that are pre-made.  I've drooled at the hand woven rugs several times - going to have to break down and snag one...
  Our next stop was the variety store.  It is 1 1/2 miles further and a couple of turns down a dirt road.  The proprietor was a kind looking gentleman in typical Amish dress.  He didn't say much at first & let us look around his wide selection of essential oils, ointments, vitamins, and even wood stoves.  When I walked close to him, he smiled and asked if I homeschooled.  It is so funny, many people can pick homeschoolers out just at a glance.  I asked him if many in the area homeschooled.  He told me that the Amish have parochial schools (we had passed one on the way to his store) much for the same reason we probably homeschooled - true.  We had the most interesting conversation with him.  It ranged from the things in his store, to what his family did for work, to the "rabbit dog" sitting on his file cabinet.  In fact, he kind of talked our leg off, but we didn't mind, it was so interesting!  It is definitely a place we are going to go back to.  He sent Grandma with her own "rabbit dog" and the story to go with it (its a carved wooden dog on one side and a rabbit dog on the other - makes a good pet!) , with instructions to practice, so she might get tested when she goes back;) 

an Amish school