Tuesday Tour: seasonal quilt garden
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
2d ago
We found ourselves in the “RV Capital of the World.” Prior to our stop there, the only information we knew about Elkhart, Indiana was it’s home to facilities that manufacture RVs (recreational vehicles); hence the nickname for this city of around 50,000 people. We stopped in Elkhart for lunch on our way back east from last summer’s road trip west. On today’s Tuesday Tour, I’m sharing some nice aspects we found there. After checking out the Elkhart County Visitor’s Center, we soon learned Elkhart is a pleasant city boasting outdoor recreation including parks, bike paths, and nature reserves as ..read more
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Words for Wednesday: maybe Spring’s sprung?
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
1w ago
It appears that Spring is finally beginning to spring in my neck of the woods. I’m not going to hold my breath though because winter just doesn’t want to depart yet. Yesterday we had a bit of snow on the ground and flurries so a few stray winter-like days may continue to descend on us this month. However, when I gazed out one of Mama’s Empty Nest’s windows before the cold snap set in, I noticed our 2+ acre yard is gradually changing from a dead brown expanse into a verdant green one. Maple trees that grace our little plot of heaven here in the country are busting out their little red buds. Ou ..read more
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Tuesday Tour: gardens along the way
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
1w ago
The Hoosier State is a nickname for the midwestern state of Indiana. I’ve lost track of just how many times Papa and I have traveled through there over the course of our 47-year-long marriage. When we lived in Oklahoma and Kansas, traversing through Indiana was on the way back to our home state of Pennsylvania to visit our family and friends. We zipped through Indiana usually only stopping for meals, gas, or maybe to spend the night at a hotel. But as far as sight-seeing, that just didn’t happen until our road trip west last summer. On our way back home, we trekked through the Hoosier State an ..read more
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Words for Wednesday: blessed
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
2w ago
One of the best days of my life occurred when I became a grandmother.  As a mother, your heart fills with love with the birth of each of your children, but you don’t even realize how much more love can be poured into that vessel when you’re gifted with a grandchild. Our first grand arrived several years ago. And just when I thought I couldn’t love any other child like I loved her, another grandchild arrived. And then another. Three adorable little beings – girls that fill my heart with so much joy. One of our grandchildren lives nearby and we are so fortunate that we have the blessing of ..read more
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Tuesday Tour: unexpected light
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
2w ago
We didn’t expect to find a lighthouse on our land-locked summer road trip west but we did. I love to visit and photograph lighthouses and have featured many on my Tuesday Tour posts. On our way back home from our vacation to South Dakota last June, I was pleased when a stop in Michigan City, Indiana on the shores of Lake Michigan revealed not only the state’s oldest lighthouse but also another one which is its only public operating beacon. We first found the oldest lighthouse built in 1858 but it was not the original. The original Michigan City Lighthouse was constructed some 20 years before a ..read more
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Words for Wednesday: grey to blue skies
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
3w ago
Did you ever have one of those days when you’re running errands or you’re on your way to work and things just go awry? Days where you think to yourself, “I just should have stayed home today!” I started to think about experiences like that one day last week. Papa and I needed to accomplish a few errands before we left on a weekend trip to visit our son and his family in the state next door. Our entire family planned to gather there to meet our newborn grandson and for our three grandgirls to enjoy some fun cousin time. We’d had chilly, dreary, and rainy weather that week and postponed going ou ..read more
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Tuesday Tour: covered surprise
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
3w ago
If you’ve been a follower of Mama’s Empty Nest for the last couple of years, you’ll understand that in addition to spending time with my family, one of my favorite ways to pass time is traveling. And when Papa and I travel, we most likely are road tripping at our own pace. With my trusty camera (I’m old school and rarely use my cell phone camera) ready to shoot, I love to photograph neat and unique places we’ve visited. Two of those kinds of spots are covered bridges and lighthouses which I’ve highlighted often in my Tuesday Tour posts. Last summer we journeyed on a road trip westward to see t ..read more
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Words for Wednesday: some bike ride!
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
1M ago
When I was a kid, I received a 26-inch blue bicycle one Christmas. No gears, the only speed it had was as fast as my legs could pedal. No hand brakes, just applying pressure back on a pedal to slow down and using my feet to stop. No helmets because it was the 60’s and we didn’t even think about such things as head injuries from a bike crash. I was so proud of my bicycle I even took a photo of it with my Polaroid Swinger black and white film camera. I loved riding that bike  and the freedom it gave me to jaunt around my neighborhood with my friends. We lived in the country, so we rode on ..read more
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Tuesday Tour: don’t dodge the art
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
1M ago
While driving through farm country on our road trip last summer it was no surprise to notice plenty of silos like pictured above.  But on our way back home, we did not expect to find silos in Iowa like those I’m highlighting today on our Tuesday Tour. On our road trips Papa drives and I scan the surroundings for interesting and unique places to stop and capture photos. And the state of Iowa (who knew?) provided those opportunities for us. One of those was the Fort Dodge Grain Silo. This wasn’t just any old, abandoned grain silo. Instead, a 110-foot-tall mural wraps all the way around the ..read more
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Tuesday Tour: fly or fry?
Mama's Empty Nest | Redefining life after the kids have flown
by Mama's Empty Nest
1M ago
Some people consider the midwestern United States to be “fly-over country” – deemed uninteresting - because they’ve never taken the time to visit that area on their flying treks from one coast to the other. Calling any of our states inconsequential places might just make me see red though. When someone utters that, I envision him/her jumping from the frying pan right into the fire. In other words, it burns me up. I don’t appreciate any part of our country being disrespected sight unseen. Why? Because you don’t know unless you’ve been there.  And if you’ve never been on the ground seeing ..read more
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