Keepers Camping - Rustic, but Awesome!

I went with my girls on their Keepers at Home campout this weekend - just one night of rustic camping, so they can earn their camping and hiking pins.

We had a great time camping at Holly Recreation Area in their organizational campsite. (It's a nice campground in the regular part, too though. We toured it to check for leftover campfire wood, but were unsuccessful.) Nine girls, four moms, a bit more rain than we'd have preferred, and a whole lot of fun!

We arrived at 3pm on Saturday, set up camp amidst intermittent showers, made a fire, cooked dinner in a Dutch oven, went on a hike, ate dinner, let the girls play, had banana boats and S'mores, sent the girls to bed, and let the adults stay up as late as they wanted.

Sunday morning, of course the girls got up way earlier than the moms would have liked. Breakfast over the fire, breaking camp, and a hike. We were home before noon.



As always, if the slideshow won't load for you OR if you'd like to see bigger versions of the photos, just click on the slideshow and it should take you to the album in picasa where you can view the pictures.

Oh, if you'd like to see all 263 photos we took, click HERE. The girls were playing Paparazzi (wait, you didn't play that when you were a kid? LOL) and took a zillion photos. I put the good ones of MY kids in the slideshow, but if you know the other kids who went or just like looking at kids being silly, go take a gander at them.

The Week Ahead

The Week Ahead

This is our last week of lessons for the official "school year". It's also the last week of soccer for Suzy, but James has a game next week. Suzy's birthday is the busiest day of the week!

Sunday - Church, Grocery Shopping, Youth Group (D)
Monday - Lessons, Work
Tuesday - Lessons, Suzy's Birthday, Book sale?, Keepers at Home "Banquet", James Soccer Game
Wednesday - Lessons, Work, Help with soccer registration at night
Thursday - Lessons (LAST DAY), Work
Friday - Park Day, maybe a meeting with my coleaders, then I wanna do something FUN tonight! Anyone? Anyone?
Saturday - Soccer, Book Club & Cookout!

Actually Suzy has a soccer game Tuesday night too, but she and I are going to miss it because of the banquet.

Creeping out of the BatCave

The warmth this afternoon tempted me outside. I crept out of the BatCave and ventured into the sunlight. Clothes hung drying in the breeze.

I took our science book and read-aloud novel outside and read to the kids at the picnic table, while Suzy and James climbed the swingset, Emily sat nearby, and David worked on the concrete step removal project.

The younger kids were seen playing baseball in the sideyard and also riding their bikes which were carried down from the barn loft. David tore his bike apart, repairing it and deciding that a new inner tube was necessary. Good thing Mom had a quick trip to Walmart planned. (Wait, is there such a thing?)

Chatting on the phone outside kept me outside longer in the sun, but I didn't get in a walk as I had hoped. I did spend some time organizing my co-op class stuff and made an easy dinner.


James was off to his last soccer clinic with Bob and the girls and I headed to Walmart for that "quick trip". Yes, we did it in less than 40 minutes, although I didn't get everything I wanted and easily could have spent twice that long. Got the necessities though and I will have to find another store for some of the craft stuff I need anyway.

Then I delivered them to their meeting which had a gardening theme. I read my book while the girls had their "circle time" and then I helped them plant some seeds to take home. Delivered one of their friends home and chatted with her mom for a bit.

Came home to a very bouncy David and a very tired James. (And a rather grumpy husband, if truth be told....)

The week only gets busier!

(OK, I'll admit the pictures are from MONDAY not Tuesday. But they did the same things outside on Monday that they did on Tuesday, so I figure it's all the same, right? lol)

PBS, Walmart, Raking, Steak

I found pumpkins at Walmart today for $1.50.

Went on a field trip today to the PBS station in Flint. VERY cool field trip!!! I learned a lot. We were there for about 90 minutes! I took 2 of my friend Donna's kids since she is without a vehicle at present. So I had 6 kids (hers are 9 and 11). Then we went to Walmart and did about an hour of shopping.

After that, we headed over to a house in Lapeer to rake the yard for a service project for the girls' Tuesday night group. Yes, I made the boys help too. There was a good group of people there, not just us. It was COLD but not too bad. We got it all raked and bagged in an hour and then it started to rain/snow. Great timing!

Tonight was a relaxing night, with a late dinner. Bob broiled some steaks and baked some HUGE potatoes. Yum! I read about half of the latest Artemis Fowl book, which is overdue at the library.

Will hope to have pictures up here tomorrow of today's activities. Wow, it's midnight! Am I a pumpkin?

Tuesday Tidbits

Have been attempting some lesson planning. Updating Cornerstone blog with info on that.

Met a friend at the waterpark today and sent one kid home with her for the night. (One down!)

Taking the girls to their first Keepers at Home meeting tonight. Picking up a friend and her daughter on the way and taking them too. Emily is going home with a friend afterwards. (Two down!)

Need to think of something for dinner.

Need to get the camper cleaned up and popped back down, ready for our next trip! When will that be? Not sure yet.

Bob's CPAP machine arrived today. He has sleep apnea, recently diagnosed, and we are hoping this will make a big difference for him. During one of his recent sleep tests, he slept 3 hours out of 7-1/2 and he quit breathing 12 times. I'm hopeful that more sleep (and better quality) will make a big difference to his pain and cognitive abilities.

Off to do some lesson planning.....

Activities and Announcements

Sounds as though we have a new pastor, actually not really all that new, though. The student ministries pastor submitted his candidacy for senior pastor and last Sunday was the vote. He's in like Flynn! He's young (late 20's), married with 4 kids, and on fire for the Lord! It's exciting!

One of my kids left a library book outside last night. In the pouring rain. Sigh.

Much cooler today, thankfully!

We signed up today for all our church activities - the kids are signed up for Sunday School classes. David will be doing youth group on Sunday evenings. Suzy, James, and Emily will be attending Pioneer Club on Wednesday nights while Bob and I attend Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsay).

I will be teaching 4th/5th grade Sunday School this year. I didn't teach last year because of work and actually we burned out on Sunday School about halfway through the year and didn't go at all in the spring. So, a fresh new start!

Other activities will be starting soon. The girls are in a new club called Keepers at Home, which will meet twice a month. Soccer practices will start this week for Suzy and next week for James. Games begin the first Saturday of September.

I am upset because of the soccer schedule. 7 of the 9 games for each child are at the same time. Because I am coaching Suzy's team, I won't be able to watch 7 of James' games. This is unacceptable to me. I've left a message communicating my displeasure. If they can't do anything about that, I'll have to resign from coaching. I hate to do that, but I didn't sign up to coach so that I could miss virtually ALL of my other child's games. Please pray that all works out.

David and I missed the soccer referee classes last week. Both were scheduled during our camping week, and I had planned to come back for the class. But I forgot until it was too late.

I have a couple things to do at night as well - things I haven't been able to do for the past year. Once a month on Monday night, our homeschool group has support meetings which I greatly missed. A friend and I are also starting back up our writing instruction meetings - this has to do with the writing curriculum we are using and we will meet once a month as well, also on Mondays.

Things are coming together! This week should see it all scheduled.