Lily and Lydia -- A New Website and Magazine

A couple of months ago, some lovely Christian women started a new email mini-magazine called Lily & Lydia.  This month, they launched the website lilyandlydia.com to go with it.  Their focus is on uplifting and encouraging Christian women in all stages and areas of life, and I really love what they're doing.  In fact, I have contributed a few things to both the magazine and website!  

My first contribution to the website is in the form of advice and thoughts about homeschooling, as part of an article on prepping for the homeschool year.  You can read that right here.

The website also currently has articles up on traveling to Scotland and Ireland, supporting a grieving friend, shopping at Costco for a small family, home decorating, and foraging.  So you can see that this isn't a magazine aimed at women in one specific walk of life, but one that has something to offer to just about everybody.  If you'd like to sign up for the mini-magazine, here's a handy link, or you can sign up via the website too.

They're looking for contributors, so if you are interested in adding some of your own writing or ideas to the mix, here's a page listing what they are looking for!

Vines, Leaves, and Fruit -- Article at Blest the House

I've written a new article for the Lutheran homeschooling blog Blest the House!  In it, I talk about how trimming our grape vines gave me some insight into curriculum choices.  You can read the article here.

Are You Still Bored?

I've been collecting up more fun and free/cheap ideas to share with you, activities you can do to alleviate boredom while you're still sheltering-in-place.  I know a lot of places are starting to lift some restrictions, but... a rainy spring day being cooped up at home is never fun, and even less fun when you've been stuck at home for 6+ weeks, so... here are some fun things you (or your kids)(or your parents) might enjoy :-)

(ICYMI, my first post of such ideas is here.)

+ Concordia Publishing House is offering a free printable coloring page for National Day of Prayer, which is TODAY (May 7).  PLUS that page also has printable coloring cards for Mother's Day and Father's Day.

+ Theater students at my alma mater, Bethany Lutheran College, created their own productions of the first nine episodes of the original Lone Ranger radio show!!!  And you can listen to them online right here.  Fun, family-friendly entertainment.

+ Tweetsie Railroad is offering free printable designs for making paper trains and train cars.  They've added a new one every week for quite a while, so there are lots of them to try out.

+ Colonial Williamsburg has added virtual tours of the Governor's Palace and their Art Museums to their website.  They're fabulous, especially the one of the palace, which is filled with costumed interpreters and just... awesome.

+ Chawton House (aka the estate where Jane Austen lived in later years) has put their spring museum exhibits online!  They're called the "Man Up!" collection, and are all about women who did things they were maybe told they couldn't or shouldn't, but discovered they could do anyway.  You can explore the exhibit here.

+ Etsy artist Magnetic Past is offering free downloadable coloring pages with themes like Famous Authors and Pride and Prejudice and Medieval Times.

+ LeVar Burton is doing a Twitter livestream 3 days a week, reading books aloud!  Mondays are children's books, Wednesdays are YA, and Fridays are for adults.

+ YourLMMStory.com is collecting up people's stories of how they became a fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery's books.  You can share yours today!

+ If you have Disney+ and you or your kids are interested in learning what it took to make an animated movie back in the days of hand-drawing everything, you need to watch The Reluctant Dragon (1941).  It's a gentle little story of a man who has an idea for a movie and wanders around the Disney studios trying to find Walt himself, on the way encountering everyone from story board artists to sound effects recording artists and everyone in between.  I learned a lot from it, and so did my kids.  Plus, it's funny!  Bonus points if you spot a very young Alan Ladd in a bit part (this was one year before his breakout role in This Gun for Hire).  Hint: he's wearing a green jacket.

That's all I've got for you this time.  Friends of mine from elsewhere are saying that restrictions are easing up, but here where we are, things are pretty shut down still.  But we should be able to start holding worship services in church again about the time our new pastor arrives in a few weeks!  What a blessing!

Fun Stuff to Do While Sheltering in Place

So... life just got pretty weird this month, huh?  Here in the US, anyway -- I know it's been weird for a while in other parts of the world.

My family has been "sheltering in place" for two weeks now, in that Cowboy is now working from home, our church services are now held online, the kids' swimming lessons have been cancelled, and so on.  I do still go out to get groceries, but only once a week, not two or three times, and I don't take the kids with me.

I feel so blessed right now.  Cowboy can work from home.  We already homeschool, so my kids haven't had to transition to a new way of schooling.  We can video chat with family and friends with ease.  My hubby and I are both introverts, so we haven't been chafing under the need to stay home.  My house is crammed with books and movies and games and puzzles and toys, so there's no need to run out of fun things to keep us all occupied.  We own our own home and have a backyard, so the kids can still play outside without having to worry about coming into contact with others, plus we're not sharing walls or ventilation systems with other people.

The thing is, I know there are people who are not this blessed.  Who live in tiny apartments or crowded places, who are having to learn how to teach their children, who are extroverts and need social interaction for their emotional well-being.  Who don't own oodles of books and movies, or aren't entertained by them.  And people who have lost their jobs, whether temporarily or permanently.

For me, this has been a cozy couple of weeks.  For others, this has been a nightmare.  I understand that.  I don't want to give the impression that just because my family is doing okay, I assume everyone else is too.  If you're struggling at this time, please reach out.  To family, to friends, to strangers on the internet.  It's okay to say, "This is hard."  "I hate this."  "I'm having trouble."  "I need help.  Please help me."  If you need help, let people know.  Let me know, if you need to.  You can message me on Instagram or leave a comment here, especially if you have a prayer request or just need someone to talk to.

Okay.  So.  The title of this post is "Fun Stuff to Do While Sheltering in Place," and that's what the rest of it will be devoted to!  I've found a whole slew of things online that are either free or cheap and that I think other people might find fun or helpful.  Here they are:


+ Amazing children's book author and illustrator Mo Willems is doing free lunchtime drawing lessons for kids here on YouTube.

+ Colonial Williamsburg is closed for now, but their website is adding all kinds of wonderful interactive content.  I think their interactive timeline for the Stamp Act is really cool.  And they have all kinds of cool videos done by their historical interpreters (scroll down to find them).  PLUS, they have downloadable activity and coloring sheets.  AND they have some recipes here for 18th-century dishes.  If you're a teacher (public, private, or homeschool), you can create a free teacher account (or use a temporary one) to access videos, lesson plans, and interactive online activities.

+ Homeschool blog Blest the House has some great ideas for educational, fun ways to occupy your kids.  It's aimed at those who are suddenly having to teach their kids at home for the first time, but seasoned homeschoolers can find great ideas there too.  You might find that their Curriculum Potluck series of posts has ideas of resources you might find useful too.

+ The website Learning Through Literature has a lot of helpful articles and links to resources right now too.  I recommend their articles on book-based indoor activities, five tips for home learning, and how to create a rhythm for your day while sheltering at home.

+ ALL kids audiobook titles are free to kids on Amazon's Audible service for as long as schools are closed.

+ Scribd is offering a 30-day free trial of their ebooks and audiobooks.

+ You can listen to full-cast audio recordings of seven of Shakespeare's plays (including Hamlet!) for free on the Folger Shakespeare Center's website now through June 30.

+ You can watch a video of the Folger Shakespeare Center's 2008 production of Macbeth for free now through June 30.  (WARNING: Looks too scary for kids.)

+ The American Shakespeare Center has had to close their Blackfriars Playhouse for the spring season, but they're offering streamed versions of many of their plays, with "tickets" starting at $10.  (Might not always be child-friendly.)

+ The Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI, is offering their museum coloring book for free download so you can print it off and color it at home.

+ Etsy artist Bookmarks by Faye is offering four dragon coloring sheets for free download.

+ Etsy artist Mandie Manzano has lowered the price on each of her three download-and-print coloring book collections to $5 each.  I love her artwork so much!

+ Several artists, including Mandie Manzano, have created Collective Coloring, a place to find free downloadable coloring sheets.

That's all I have for today, but if I find more cool stuff to share, I'll do another post like this in the future!  If you have resources you'd like to share, post them in the comments so others can learn about them too!

Curriculum Potluck -- Article at Blest the House

I don't buy my curriculum from one specific place.  Back when my mom was homeschooling me in the '80s, that's the only way you could do it, buy everything for the grade from someplace like Abeka Books or Christian Liberty Academy.  But now, there are zillions of options out there for homeschoolers to choose from.  So that's what I do: I cherry-pick.

And, in my latest article for the homeschool blog Blest the House, I list off allllllll kinds of books and resources I use.  If you happen to have your kids home with you right now and happen to be scrambling to find ideas of ways to teach them, maybe this will help!  The article has lots of titles and many links.

Teaching Creative Writing: Fiction, Part Two -- Article at Blest the House

The second half of my article on how to teach fiction writing to your kids is up right here!  This one focuses on teaching grades 6 through 12, building on some of the ideas I shared last month.  If you're a homeschool parent looking for ideas, or if you're a writer yourself, you might be interested in some of the resources I share in these articles.

"The Fugitive" (1993)

The Fugitive (1993) is my second-favorite movie of all time.  When I was a teen, I had the poster for it hanging in my bedroom.  Framed, not just taped to the wall like the rest of my posters.  Its soundtrack by James Newton Howard was one of the first CDs I ever bought.  My family made a pilgrimage of sorts to the Great Smoky Mountain Railway, where the train wreck and a few other scenes were filmed, to see the remains of the bus and train used in the film.  So, when I say I love this film dearly, I am very serious indeed.

But why did this movie grab me so hard when I was in my early teens and never let go?  Or maybe the more accurate question would be, what inside me grabbed this movie and wouldn't let go?

A lot of it is Harrison Ford, of course.  My word, that man is handsome.  As a young teen when I first saw this, I was just starting to get interested in menfolks, and I seem to have kind of skipped that stage where girls get all giggly about "cute boys" and gone straight for the meat-and-potatoes aisle where they stock Real Men.  This is probably because I was homeschooled (and didn't have many close girl friends right at that time) AND because my parents raised me on movies with Real Men in them, like John Wayne and Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone and Clint Eastwood.

My parents tended to watch movies WITH us, you see.  Our TV was not a babysitter, and we did not have cable or satellite -- our TV got the regular broadcast channels, which we watched very little of, and we had a VCR.  My family would rent one movie every Friday to watch together, back when you had to drive to a store to rent a movie, not just click on it with your mouse or remote or phone or whatever.  My parents already liked Harrison Ford, and they remembered the '60s TV show The Fugitive that this movie is based on, so they rented this when it first came out.  Pretty sure they watched it without us first, since it's rated PG-13, and then they decided my brother and I could handle it, so we all watched it together.  And then, the next week, we rented it again.  And again.  For months.  (Back then, a movie would sometimes come to rental stores six or more MONTHS before you could buy it.  Be so happy you live today, kids.)

So I probably watched this twenty times in six months.  I got very, very well acquainted with it.  Now, by that time, I was already a firm fan of escaping-from-prison and wrongful-imprisonment-proved-innocent stories (The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas had been a favorite book of mine for a couple years already by then).  Plus, I loved mysteries and detective stories already.  So I was absolutely primed to love both sides of the story. 

It all starts when Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) is accused of killing his wife Helen (Sela Ward). 

He escapes prison custody during a marvelous action sequence involving first a bus wreck, then a train wreck.  Unlike most train wrecks in movies, which are shot with models, this one used a real train hitting a real bus, which is highly cool.

Once he escapes, Kimble dedicates himself to finding out who really murdered his wife.  Meanwhile, a dogged deputy U.S. Marshal named Sammy Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) leads a team in pursuit of Kimble.  I also love run-and-chase movies, and this has two chases, Kimble chasing the bad guy and Gerard chasing Kimble. 

Anyway.  Young teen me loved the story.  And loved Harrison Ford.  Yes, he was handsome, but he also exuded this niceness that I appreciated right away.  Richard Kimble is nice, kind, helpful, and intelligent -- there's no way I wouldn't love him, as he's everything I still look for in a fictional character. 

And I loved Tommy Lee Jones and his character too.  Though he insists he's tough and uncaring, he's also that mix of nice, kind, helpful, and intelligent that I so value.  I might sometimes even find him a teeny bit more attractive than Harrison Ford in this movie, believe it or not.

It's hard to believe this movie is nearly 30 years old.  It holds up SO incredibly well.  The taut pacing and the smart, banter-filled dialog are especially awesome, and the acting is so enjoyably on point.  Ford and Jones are both at the top of their game here, and the few scenes they share just rock my world.

This is my contribution to the Harrison Ford Blogathon hosted this weekend by Sat in Your Lap.  Go check out the rest of the entries for more Ford-related goodness!

Teaching Creative Writing: Fiction, Part One -- Article at Blest the House

Today, I've got a new article up here on the homeschooling blog Blest the House.  It's filled with ideas for teaching kids in Kindergarten through fifth grade how to write fiction.  I've also written a sequel to it, which is for middle school and high school students, and that will be coming along later.

Teaching Creative Writing: Poetry -- Article at Blest the House

I'm writing a series on how to teach creative writing to your kids for the homeschooling blog Blest the House.  I've taught creative writing to both public school and homeschool kids for years, including my own three little mice.  I've taught it to ages from preschool through college, and it's something I'm a wee bit passionate about ;-)

So anyway, the first article is up today, right here!  It's all about ideas and resources for teaching kids to write poetry.  Even if you don't homeschool, if you have or know a child who likes to write, you might find it helpful.

I'm Not Dead Yet!

Just a little timely levity from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).

I've had a cold.  Not the worst cold I've ever had, to be honest, except that it knocked me off my feet for about three days straight. I can't remember ever being this tired when I didn't also have a newborn around.  So, so tired.

But today, I'm back to feeling like I can do more than the bare minimum required to keep my kids happy and healthy.  Which means... blogging :-)

Mainly, I'm here to tell you I've had another article about homeschooling published by Blest the House.  It's called "This is How We Do It," and it's all about our typical school day routine.  If that sounds interesting to you, you can read it here.

In other news... I'm still tired.  I'm still not quite better.  But I hope to be soon.  Because the only Christmas decorating I've done so far is to put up our tree and decorate it, and That Is Not Enough.  So I'm hoping that this weekend will be a whirlwind of decorating and general festivity and cheer.

How are you faring this December?  Egad, it's the 11th already.  Christmas is two weeks from today!  It's a good thing I shop early!!!  I'd be soooo behind right now if I didn't...

This is How We Do It -- Article at Blest the House

I've got a second article called "This is How We Do It" posted here on the homeschooling blog Blest The House today.  This one is part of a series of homeschool families sharing what their daily school routines look like.  If you're curious about what a day in our house looks like, check it out!

Our Path to Here -- Article at Blest the House

Today, I've got a short article called "Our Path to Here" posted on the new homeschooling blog Blest the House.  My article is part of a series on how different families arrived at the decision to teach their children at home.

I'll be writing more articles for Blest the House, so stay tuned for those!

Polishing Off My Summer To-Do List

Random picture of the Jefferson Memorial from one of our summer visits to DC.

Labor Day has come and gone, and though our summer weather often lingers through September, I'm more than ready for autumn!  Which means it's time to report in on how I fared with my Summer To-Do List.

~ Read Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome Fail.  I read the first couple chapters, realized my kids will enjoy it, and set it aside to read aloud to them.

~ Read 4 other books from my TBR shelves Check!  In fact, I read TEN!  They were: Conspiracy of Silence by Ronie Kendig, Dressed for Death by Julianna Deering, A Singular and Whimsical Problem (e-book) by Rachel McMillan, Destry Rides Again by Max Brand, The Trials of Sherlock Holmes by James Moffett, Every Frenchman Has One by Olivia de Havilland, Rules of Murder by Julianna Deering, Echoes of Sherlock Holmes ed. by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger, Finding God in "The Lord of the Rings" by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware, and The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power by Jane Chance (reviews for both of those coming during Tolkien Week later this month).

~ Read 5 books from the library Semi-check.  I read three:  Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor, Careless People by Sarah Churchwell, and Snow White by Matt Phelan.  I'm okay with this number being lower, though, as I'm really concentrating on trying to read books I already own so I can get my TBR shelves under some semblance of control.

~ Watch 5 movies from my TBW shelves Check!  I actually watched eight:  Lucky Jordan (1942), The Great Gatsby (2013), Crossfire Trail (2001), Anna Karenina (1961), The Man who Never Was (1956), O.S.S. (1946), The Fall (2006), and Dark Command (1940).  I think I might have taken more off the shelves than I added to them, for once.  Yay!

~ Rig up a new cover for our deck swing Check!  I got a big vinyl-like window shade from Ikea on clearance, cut it to size, and sewed it to the awning frame with fishing line.  I was rather dubious about how well it would work, and suspected the whole thing would rip off the frame the first time it rained hard, but nope!  It worked beautifully!  I couldn't be more pleased.

~ Finish the skirts and cape I'm sewing for my kids Fail.  Total fail.  Never touched them :-(

~ Finish my Newt Scamander scarf Fail.  But I think it's almost done -- I did work on it now and then.

The Washington monument, from the same trip.

~ Reorganize the shelves where I keep all my homeschooling materials and supplies Check!  I got them all spiffed up before we ever started school up again, and I even improved on my system from last year of how to keep everyone's books organized.  So far, it's been working nicely.

~ Order curriculum for the new school year Check!  I would hope so, right?  I mean, we started school in July, so I'd better have had our curriculum by then.

~ Make lesson plans for the class on creative writing I'll be teaching our new homeschool co-op group Semi-check.  I've got lots of ideas and resources, and I know what I'll be doing for the first lesson, but I haven't yet actually plotted everything else out.  We'll be starting up in a couple weeks, so I'd better get on that.

~ Clean up my crafting corner Semi-check.  I cleaned up and reorganized all my craft supplies that I use for Sunday School and homeschooling, but my crafting table is a disaster still.  Which is why I never managed to touch my sewing projects.

~ Organize my kids' crafting cabinet Check!  I bought some storage boxes and sorting bins so all their papers, stickers, markers, and so on are easy to find and store.

~ Publish "Cloaked" Fail?  Turns out that editing a 40,000-word book takes a lot longer than a 20,000-word story like "The Man on the Buckskin Horse."  However, I'm in the formatting-for-publication stage, so it won't be long now.  I'll be revealing its cover to you TOMORROW!!!

Six checks, three semi-checks, four fails.  Not too bad, considering how insane my summer was.  I'm pleased!

And the Washington Monument one more time cuz it's cool.

Summer To-Do List 2017

Right!  Time for a new to-do list.  Here are the things I'd like to accomplish before September:

~ Read Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

~ Read 4 other books from my TBR shelves

~ Read 5 books from the library

(Source)

~ Watch 5 movies from my TBW shelves

~ Rig up a new cover for our deck swing

~ Finish the skirts and cape I'm sewing for my kids

~ Finish my Newt Scamander scarf (I mean, it can't take me forever to knit one scarf, can it?  This has to end sometime.)

(Source)

~ Reorganize the shelves where I keep all my homeschooling materials and supplies

~ Order curriculum for the new school year

~ Make lesson plans for the class on creative writing I'll be teaching our new homeschool co-op group

~ Clean up my crafting corner

~ Organize my kids' crafting cabinet

~ Publish "Cloaked"

That last item is going to use up a lot of my time and brain-power, I know, so I'm letting this list be a bit shorter than many of mine!

How about you?  Got anything special you'd like to get accomplished this summer?

A Weekend in Williamsburg: Family and Food

My parents' 40th wedding anniversary was this past Saturday.  To celebrate, my family, my brother and his family, and my parents all congregated in one of our favorite places ever:  Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.  We first went there in the early '90s, shortly after moving to North Carolina -- my dad attended a pastors' conference there and we all went along to take in the historicity of it all.  We all fell in love with the place and went back whenever Dad had a conference there, which was every few years while I lived at home.

I wrote a whole article about my memories of Colonial Williamsburg for the July/August issue of Femnista, which you can read here.  Today, I'm just going to share a whole bunch of photos from our weekend there so you can get a small idea of what it's like :-)  I have So Many Photos that I'm going to break these up into several posts.

A cool decoration at our hotel

This is by far the longest post, as it's kind of where I'm putting photos of everything that doesn't pertain to gardens, Christmas wreaths, or the Governor's Palace, which are my three other post subjects.  I'll begin with some photos from our Thanksgiving meal there, at Shield's Tavern on Thursday night.

Turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, yams, green beans, and cranberry relish!

Pumpkin pie, of course.  There was cardamom in the crust, and the filling was extra creamy.

Live entertainment while we ate.

Next are some shots from inside our hotel.  They have a lot of replica furniture, and they were in the midst of decorating for Christmas :-)

Trees tucked away in a corner, waiting for placement and decorations.

Furniture in a hallway.

This was up by the elevator on our floor.

The hotel was also putting up an elaborate gingerbread village the last days we were there.  It had a big train that ran around it, and by the time we left I think there were eight buildings.  Here are some of them:

Now some shots of us out and about in Colonial Williamsburg itself, doing fun stuff.

Cowboy giving both our girls a shoulder ride at the same time.

Headed to the candy shop!

Carolers

Clam chowder with the shells included.

Cowboy and Sam in the Powder Magazine.  Sam asked six questions!

Stairs leading down to the exit in the Powder Magazine.

Here you can see the signs that mark where cars can cross the road but not drive on it.

Duke of Gloucester Street (pronounced Gloww-ster) is the main thoroughfare that most things are located on.

The courthouse.  People like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson
made important speeches and decisions here.

Our menu at supper the second night.  You see the Crayfish and Shrimp Stew?  My favorite!!!

We rode in this carriage through the streets on Saturday.

Detail on the carriage.

Chowning's Tavern.  A great place for lunch.

An appetizer of goat cheese and roasted veggies at Chowning's Tavern.

I can't for the life of me remember what this tiny violin was called anymore.

As you'll recall, if your eyes haven't glazed over from all the photos by now, the whole reason we all gathered in Williamsburg was to celebrate my parents' 40th anniversary.  Here are a couple pictures from our celebration that evening:

Champagne.

A special dessert for my parents to share.

Now some more pictures from while we walked around outside.  These are all from Sunday, when my parents had left but we stuck around for most of the day to enjoy a few more sights and learn a few more things about life in Colonial America.

I love trees.

The open market by the Powder Magazine.  Think they have enough hats?

Another beautiful tree. 

Looking past that tree.

Another carriage.  The closed carriages only comfortably seat 2 adults and possibly 2 kids,
so we took one of the larger open carriages instead.

A powder horn and bullet pouch.

Machinery and tools used to make rifles.

I love this wall and gate.

This is the Post Office.  You can mail actual letters there, which I did.

The stairs going down beside the Post Office to the Printing Office and Bookbinder below.

Also behind the Post Office is a small bridge over a stream where you can play Pooh Sticks.
Which we did.  Four separate times.
(Only three of these kids are mine, and one of the men.)

We got to see the dying, spinning, and weaving demonstrations, which I thought would only interest me, what with my love of yarn and crocheting and knitting.  I was wrong.  Cowboy thought they were fascinating, and both Sarah and Tootie were extremely interested in figuring out where the spindle was on the spinning wheels, having recently learned the Sleeping Beauty story.

Dyeing pots.  They were using walnuts to dye things brown.

Small spinning wheel, used for spinning long fibers such as wool.

Large "walking" spinning wheel, used for spinning short fibers such as cotton.

Cotton, something I didn't ask about, and drop spindles.

They have two looms, one for each of you.

A shawl in progress.

Ohhhh, how I wanted to run away with all the yarn.

Spinning cotton.

The spindle!  Protected by a cork because yes, it is sharp.  The reenactor said she thinks Sleeping Beauty pricked her behind, not her finger, because she has herself backed into it by accident many times.

Raleigh Tavern, which we didn't get to go in.
Favorite meeting place of people like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

The Governor's Palace from a long way away.  More on that in another post!

We got to tour Bruton Parish Church, which is the original building from the Colonial era, not a replica like most of the buildings there.  Because it did not have a furnace, it never burned down.  It's now an Episcopal church, but of course it was originally Church of England when it was built.  Williamsburg was the seat of government for the colony of Virginia, and they needed a church big enough not just for the parish members but for all the important visitors and such as well.

Love that late afternoon light!

That green chair with a red awning is reserved for the Governor of Virginia.
Both Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson got to sit there.

A special Bible stand presented by Queen Elizabeth sometime in the last century, IIRC.

The front.  That stone baptismal font in the foreground is from Jamestown, and some people believe it's the one where Pocahontas was baptized, though there is no documentation to that effect.

The pulpit.

And that's all for now, folks!  I hope you've gotten an idea of the charming atmosphere of Colonial Williamsburg.  I took more than 600 photos in four days, and even after deleting more than 150 of them for being unworthy, and not posting any here with shots of anyone's faces cuz I'm just cautious like that, I still have gobs and gobs and gobs to share :-)