Category Archives: Practicalities

Everyday happenings – anecdotes, ideas, recipes, and more!

Guidebook Update: Pilot Progress

Dec 20 2011

Although my attempts to work on route descriptions at Stone Mountain were waylaid by the storm front that moved in on Thursday night, my day spent at Pilot Mountain on Thursday was well worth the drive on a variety of levels! Originally Bill Webster (aka guidebook publisher) asked me to join in on a meeting he had lined up with the park staff to talk about access. He figured some of the information discussed would be prudent to the guide, and also said we could work together on double-checking my descriptions and taking pictures when the meeting was finished. I’ve…Read the rest of this entry →

Somebody Broke the Off-Season Rule…

Dec 12 2011

…and it wasn’t me. I’ll give you a hint – he’s just over 2 feet tall and 25 pounds of sheer energy. Yep, that’s right. While hubby and I have both been very diligent and committed to our 3 weeks of rest, Cragbaby has been literally climbing the walls, flaunting his young muscles that have yet to discover the need for rest days. Household bouldering is anything but a new phenomenon for C. He’s been projecting various items around the house such as chairs, stairs, tables, and shelves since he was around 5 months old. In fact, I even found…Read the rest of this entry →

Choosing an Off-season – aka The Importance of Rest

Dec 08 2011

What’s the best part about being a climber in the Southeast? Climbing is a year round sport! What’s the worst part about being a climber in the Southeast? There’s no off-season… I grew up in a family that followed multiple sports – baseball, basketball, volleyball…pretty much everything but football. (And thankfully my hubby never got into football either – which works out well since football season also brings some of the best weather weekends of the year!) I remember that my “favorite” sport would always be whatever sport was currently in season at the time. I remember anxiously awaiting the…Read the rest of this entry →

A Wishlist for Cragbabies (and Cragmamas, too!)

Nov 28 2011

I’ve said time and again that one of my main hopes for this blog is to inspire other families to get outside and teach their kids about the value of adventure. Armed with a sense of humor, a dash of patience and some high quality gear, our family has learned to adopt the motto that “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing!” So what are the all-weather must-haves for the average, run-of-the-mill adventuring family? While it may be true to some extent that you get what you pay for, the budget-conscious among us will hopefully be pleasantly surprised at…Read the rest of this entry →

One Pumpkin = Multiple Green Hours

Oct 31 2011

How many Green Hours can come from one bright and happy orange pumpkin? At our house, more than you can count! The first one was of course the Sunday afternoon excursion to the local pumpkin patch a few weeks ago (in costume of course). C took his pumpkin-picking-out job very seriously, and made sure to inspect EVERY pumpkin in the patch before finally deciding on the lucky orange friend that got to come home with us. Next came Carving Day. We decided that this would be safest as an entire family activity.…Read the rest of this entry →

How to Use Your Stick Clip (a Collaboration with the Crag-Daddy)

Oct 25 2011

For those of you that remember my recent post a few weeks ago regarding the DIY stick clip, you may also remember that I promised a subsequent post on how to use your handy dandy new pole. (Or you may have forgotten all about it since it’s taken us so long to finally take these videos…sorry about that). Anway, since my hubby prides himself in his mastery of stick clip tricks (and while I have no trouble hanging a draw, compared to Steve my “trick” skills are that of a mere apprentice), an instructional post like this was right up his…Read the rest of this entry →

Helmets – Heck No or Essential Pro? (and a GIVEAWAY!!!)

Oct 03 2011

This is a post about brain buckets, aka helmets. And guess what – in honor of Petzl’s October Helmet Campaign, I’ve been authorized to sponsor a free giveaway of a Petzl Elia or Elios (winner’s choice) to one lucky reader, courtesy of the folks over at Pemba Serves. Interested? Read on… The majority of climbers have helmets – the real question is does it ever end up on your head, or is it merely dead weight in your backpack? The subject of helmets can be a controversial one for some climbers – it seems as though there are two extremes,…Read the rest of this entry →

To Stick or Not to Stick (Clip)…

Sep 23 2011

What is long, collapsible, assembled from a seemingly random assortment of items from the local Home Depot, and always within arm’s reach of most bolt-clipping sport monkeys? If you answered stick clip, you’d be mostly correct…add in the word MACK-DADDY and you’d be right on! For my non-climber readers who think I’m talking about a strange way to interact with zoo animals, here’s a quick primer in Sport Climbing 101… A route is designated as “sport” if the line is protected by bolts every so many feet all the way to the top. The first climber (leader) ties into the…Read the rest of this entry →

In Celebration of World Breastfeeding Week

Aug 05 2011

In case you weren’t aware, this week is World Breastfeeding Week, which is meaningful for our family since Cragbaby is 16 months old and still nursing away with no signs of stopping. So to celebrate, I wanted to do a post about breastfeeding – but not about the benefits of toddler breastfeeding, or how to find support in your area (you can find a lot of that information here, however). My intent is not to judge those that formula feed, nor is it to sound preachy towards folks that breastfeed for longer or shorter time than we have. Everyone is free to make their own decisions about what is best…Read the rest of this entry →

Guest Post from Velomom

Aug 01 2011

Earlier last week I shared a guest post from Kristen Lummis, the snow bunny component of our Adventure Moms project (@AdventureMoms). Today’s post will feature our rad biker chick representative, Jen Charette. A mommy to two boys, software engineer, and co-owner of a bike shop, I can’t imagine when she has time to breathe, let alone bike, but she manages to make it work with style. Below is a contribution from her about how to get your kiddos inspired about cycling… First, this is not a post on the mechanics of teaching a child to ride a bike. There are plenty of…Read the rest of this entry →

Get Ready for Some Renovations!

Apr 26 2011

Those of you that have been faithful followers of my blog from the beginning are aware that my focus has changed a little bit since Reflections Along the Way began. I initially started this blog so I could have my own personal place on the web to post up random thoughts and musings, along with the occasional trip report. I would go through phases where I would write a lot, but then other times weeks would go by without any new posts. Once Cragbaby came along however, I realized that there was an adventure niche that I seemed to naturally fall into. And so blossomed…Read the rest of this entry →

In Praise of Cloth

Mar 27 2011

In my last Cragbaby post, I mentioned that our family uses cloth diapers. I’ve received a few questions about it and decided there was enough interest to warrant a separate blog post. It is something that I felt pretty strongly about before Canaan was even born, but now that we’ve survived a full year almost completely disposable-free (except for the first week before the cord fell off and a time or two at the doctor when I forgot an extra…), I feel even more passionate about the merits of cloth. But why on earth would anyone choose cloth over the “convenience” of…Read the rest of this entry →

Canaan’s Bread n’ Butter…

Dec 30 2010

So after posting about Canaan’s special Christmas Morning French Toast a few days ago, a few inquiring minds have been wanting to know how I went about it. That, coupled with the fact that one of my New Year’s Resolutions (as cliche as it sounds) is to blog about stuff other than climbing, made this seem like a great idea for a post! Canaan’s Christmas Toast It’s easy peasy – all you need is a slice of whole-wheat bread, about 1/3 of a banana, and an ounce or two of breast milk. Mash up the banana and mix with breast…Read the rest of this entry →

And the name is…

Jan 16 2010

Countdown – less than 11 weeks til April 2nd! Since the holidays we have been busy bees trying to figure out all the stuff that needs to get done between now and then. It seems like just when we get a few things crossed off of our list, we realize something else needs to get added to it! However, the things we have checked off are definitely worth showing off, so I thought I would share some pictures! (And in case you want more detailed pictures, I put loads more up on facebook) J-BEAN’S ROOM – As you might…Read the rest of this entry →

The Halfway Point

Nov 14 2009

Just over 4 months ago, I saw two pink lines on a pregnancy test. An hour later, I didn’t believe it so I tested again. Then also the next day, and then even a week later, just to make sure. Now, several months later, I’m feeling my litte jellybean kick even as I type this out, and my ever-expanding belly is leaving no doubt to the entire world that my body is producing something amazing on the inside! So I am officially 20 weeks pregnant, which marks the halfway point (b/c everyone knows you deliver at EXACTLY 40 weeks, right?) …Read the rest of this entry →

Day of the Demolition Divas

Aug 08 2009

Earlier in the summer, my favorite mother-in-law Beth offered to come up for a couple of days to help me with any “projects” I might have going on around the house. Now, Steve and I are not really known for projecting around the house. I feel like we’re not even really in our house that much to make it worth the time and effort. However, upon further reflection, I realized that there indeed were many things that could make for a nice day and a half project. (translation= things that desperately needed to be done) …Read the rest of this entry →

Gourmet Camping (aka Ode to Jetboil)

Jul 12 2009

If you have ever been camping with me, you have heard me sing high praise for the Jetboil system. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the Jetboil is NOT a communicable skin disease transmitted on airplanes, but rather, a portable, personal cooking system. According to their website, the Jetboil is a “complete food and beverage multitool.” Steve and I received our Jetboils for Christmas in 2006 in anticipation of a backcountry canoe/hiking trip to the Everglades for New Year’s 07. Since then, we have never been camping without it! For a long time we stuck to the tried…Read the rest of this entry →

“Good Marriage” Bars

Jun 06 2009

I went to a wedding shower for Lisette, my friend and co-worker, on on Thursday night. For the past few weeks, she and I have had this endless conversation about these granola bars that I make. When we first started talking about it, I gave her the recipe, but she misplaced it. I wrote it out a second time, but she had not had a chance to make them yet. But we’ve been talking about them forever. Well, I decided that even though it had nothing to do with a wedding, I would make some for her and throw them in…Read the rest of this entry →

“Not all who wander are lost.” —JRR TOLKIEN