This is my personal blog to share what goes on in our family's life. It gives people the opportunity to see an unschooling family from a father's perspective. Enjoy the stories and feel free to share!
As a reminder to all of you, I am continuing a tradition I learned about last year from Tia Graham. The tradition is posting a five item gratitude list every Wednesday up toThanksgiving. So far there are several others joining in, so enjoy reading, and hopefully participating, in the spread of gratitude. Here's my list for the week:
I am grateful to have seen Neuschwanstein in the Alps shrouded in fog
I am grateful to be learning to scuba dive
I am grateful I live in beautiful North Georgia
I am grateful to have seen Bayern München in person
I am grateful for the wonderful unschooling community (thank you for the support and inspiration)
I know I'm a day early, but I had the opportunity!
Today is my 41st birthday. Someone asked me earlier today if I "felt" 41. Interesting question. I realize the implied question was "Do you feel old?" I remember asking people the same question when I was younger. My, how things have changed!
As I enter my middle-age years, I realize I have no clue what aging is supposed to "feel" like. Sure, there are physical differences, unfamiliar life challenges, and the growing cognizance of mortality. C'est la vie.
I actually LOVE my 40's so far. I have discovered much about myself in the past couple of years. The cumulative life experience combined with my unwillingness to grow up has made life extremely fun. My wife, daughter, and I have found so much recent adventure. My life is filled with wonderful relationships and fresh perspectives. I am actually looking forward to what's around the corner more now than at any other time in my life.
For those younger, there is much to look forward to. To those who are older, thank you for blazing an amazing trail. For everyone, as we continue to venture along the path of this glorious life, let's continue to guide, teach, and share through all of our experiences!
Last year I got the idea to write a weekly gratitude post on my blog leading up to Thanksgiving. I read about it on another blog and loved the idea. Sandra Dodd joined me, and this year I would love as many people to participate as possible. Let's link up our blogs and share the gratitude.
Do whatever feels good to you, what I am going to do is post 5 things I am grateful for every Wednesday leading up to Thanksgiving. It's a fun tradition I hope you will share with me! So here I go:
I am grateful for my wonderful family
I am grateful I get to participate in so many groups
I am grateful I have so much support from friends
I am grateful I live in Georgia and get to experience these beautiful fall days
I am grateful I get so many opportunities for adventure
It is a joy to share my gratitude with as many people as possible. I look forward to reading everything you share!
This post is from our latest diving adventure on the way home from Disneyworld. We stayed in Gainesville, FL. because it put us close to some great spring dive spots. Devil's Den is close by as are Ginnie Springs and the place we wound up, Troy Springs.
If you check out the link for Devil's Den, you'll be able to see why we decided to move on. It is a great place but as inexperienced divers it was a little dark for us. Maybe we'll go back some other time. We didn't have time to visit Ginnie Springs and found out Shelby was too young to dive there anyway. Oh well, on to Troy Springs!
Our day started off at the Extreme Exposure dive shop in High Springs, FL. This is where we rented our tanks and weights. The folks there were great. They were extremely helpful and patient. They were also able to give us some useful information about different versions of buoyancy control devices. One of the things I love about diving is that there are a lot of helpful people. It's a fun little sub-culture!
When we arrived at Troy Springs, we were pretty excited. It was a week day, so we unschoolers pretty much had the place to ourselves. As is the case with the other springs we have visited, the water was very chilly. It was about 68 degrees. It was a hot Florida day, so the cool water was refreshing at first.
On both the dives we went on, we didn't go very deep. There was a giant hole that probably went to a depth of 70'. The rest of the pool was between 4' and 10'. There was a slope leading into the hole but none of us had the intestinal fortitude to investigate. We saw a bunch of turtles and several fish. The real treat at Troy Springs is a sunken Confederate ship. The Confederate army sank the boat in order for it to not be captured by the northern army. The boat is close to the river so we were able to drift in the current to see the boat. It was a definite highlight.
It was great to be able to stay under water for an extended period of time and gain more experience with our equipment. We all get more comfortable each time we have the opportunity to dive. Troy Springs was a lot of fun and worth the trip. I love being able to share these experiences and look forward to sharing many more. Until next time!
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