Annual Camping Trip

Hubby and I both really like to go camping.  Right now all we have are tents.  We can't justify the money involved to get any kind of camper to just go once or twice a year.  Maybe eventually, but right now we're sticking with the tents.

Ready to go!

So we try to meet up with our friends from Houston once a year to go camping together.  Since neither one of our families celebrate Halloween we've decided that it is easier to just be gone over that particular holiday.  Plus, the weather down here has generally at least started to cool off by the end of October so that we're not completely miserable in our tents. 

Some of the worst weather we've ever driven in.  That wad of brown is napkins put there to block the water leaking in under the windshield!  Thankful Hubby was driving.

We made our reservations a couple of months in advance and the menfolk had already taken time off, so when the day arrived for us to actually leave we couldn't do anything when a huge storm blew in except pray that God would move it through quickly.  We did leave a little later than originally planned in the hopes that the rain would have stopped by the time we got there.  And it had let up almost completely by the time we arrived.  After dumping 5 inches of water on our campsites. 

It's hard to tell, but this was actually really wet.  This is where we would have been

However, we were very blessed that this particular KOA site had cabins to rent.  They were originally going to let us rent the cabins for a discounted price.  Still more than what we would have paid for a tent site, but the cost was worth it to us at this point.  We would have been miserable in tents with all that water.  However, their computers wouldn't let them give us a discount so they ended up letting us stay in the cabins for the same price we would have paid for the tent sites.  That was such a huge blessing for us.  It was still muddy outside, but we had invested in some rain boots for all of us so we didn't have to worry about wet, messy tennis shoes.  The cabins had a bathroom with a shower, AC/Heat, a microwave, and a little fridge.  The only down side was that since we had packed to be cooking and eating right next to each other we had to make several trips back and forth to where we set up to cook and the cabin.  Other than that, it was absolutely perfect!

Deck from our front porch

The cabins were right next to each other and we had a little pond literally off our front porch.  We spent a large part of the day on Friday fishing.  All of us caught a fish, including yours truly!  I've been fishing so many times in my life and never caught a thing.  I caught two fish within 5 minutes of each other.  It was awesome!

Look close, it's there!

We took a couple of walks, played on the playground for a while, ate, talked, and laughed a lot.  We had a fire pit right in front of the cabin and had fun both nights sitting around the fire.  So what could have turned into not so much of a fun trip turned out to be a blast for all of us.  We got to spend time with good friends and take a break from real life for a couple of days.  We're already looking forward to next year!  Even if we do have to go back to our lowly tents!

The "Who does school when family is in town" Weekly Wrap-Up

We actually did do school this week.  We're taking off all of next week so I knew we needed to plow through and do our school work, even though we didn't want to.  We didn't do anything on Tuesday because Hubby and I were at a funeral that took up almost the entire day so #1 and #2 were supposed to take that time to finish all their extra school work so they didn't have to worry about it for the rest of the week, but that didn't happen.  I wasn't upset.  Who wants to do school work when you can hang out with your grandparents?  So they had a little bit extra to do Wednesday and Thursday, but we got it all done. 

  Thursday afternoon was our bi-monthly meeting with Hilltop Speakers.  We had a big friends and family event to prepare for on Friday.  The rehearsal was pretty much a disaster.  However, the actual event last night was fantastic.  The skits all the girls were in were funny and worked out as well as they could.  And I am so proud of the three oldest girls for the individual speeches they gave.  I don't think anyone besides her mother could tell that #1 was even nervous when she gave her speech.  We joined Hilltop mainly for #1, to give her more confidence being in front of other people, but I wasn't sure how well it was working.  Last night showed me exactly how well it is working.  She spoke with confidence and poise and made eye contact with the audience.  I was trying to play it cool, but I had the biggest grin on my face when she was done.  And #2 said a poem that she came up with her own facial expressions and hand motions that added so much to the poem.  She had the audience rolling.  #3 also quoted a short poem.  She did an excellent job speaking loudly and clearly and making eye contact.  All in all, although the lack of organization at Hilltop kind of makes me twitch almost every time we go, I am very happy with the results.  And I'm also glad that we actually had family to bring to our friends and family night!

Now back to Thursday.  Back when Uncle and Noni were here from India, we went with a group from church to a Hibachi place to eat.  It was seriously the best Hibachi we've ever eaten.  We've been wanting to go back ever since, but it is pretty pricey.  So we decided to wait and take Bryan's parents when they got here.  We went Thursday night because we don't get home from Hilltop till about 4:30, and I knew I wouldn't want to cook anyway.  We had a lot of fun.  The guy cooking for us had a lot of fun messing with the girls.  We laughed a lot and ate until we were almost miserable.  And then took the leftovers home! 

Some mutual friends had mentioned to Hubby's Mom that she needed to go to New Orleans to eat some beignets.  We were told by several people that there is a place here that has beignets that are just as good as New Orleans.  So off we went to Coffee Call.  Turns out, everyone was right!  They were really fantastic.  And they had hot chocolate and cafe au lait already made up so you literally went through the line, filled your coffee mugs, and ordered the beignets.  There is currently one left that we brought home.  It will be eaten soon!

Today Hubby and I took advantage of the free babysitting and went to the movies.  Sweet and sour chicken is currently in the oven for dinner.  And after we get the girls in bed we're going back to see another movie.  Because we're still young and there is no way we're going to fall asleep in a movie theater, even if it is a late night show!  And tomorrow is worship.  All in all, a pretty fantastic week!

The "I'm so late I should almost wait till the end of this week" Weekly Wrap-Up

I had no idea I was so far behind on writing.  I knew if I didn't get caught up now I wouldn't get caught up until after the first of the year so here we are.

Last week school was school.  #3 is doing a little bit better in Math.  She gets the ideas separately, but when you put them all together she has a hard time remembering how to do them.  I have decided that she just needs more practice.  So we've moved on and she'll continue to practice these problems with the review that is written in the curriculum.

#2 is not going to get through the IEW book by the end of the year.  I knew that when I decided to break up Language Arts and IEW into different semesters, but as I was thinking about it this last week it was really starting to bother me.  I started trying to figure out what it would take to continue IEW into the new semester and play catch up with Language Arts until I finally had to remind myself that I didn't have to finish the book each time.  It really bothers me to leave books unfinished, but I'm going to deal with it.  My plan is a good plan and I'm going to stick with it.  For this week at least....

We actually did not do school work on Thursday because our homeschool group was having our Thanksgiving get-together.  Of which Hubby and I got exactly zero pictures.  Fortunately, the Mom who puts all our field trips together has a blog all about our adventures, and she took lots of pictures!  You can see them here.   We had an amazing time!  They had different booths for the kids to go to.  The girls got to lean how to make butter from whipping cream, make a ship and "sail" it, make their own candles, learn to tie different knots, learn a little bit about navigation skills, and make a picture of a ship from their hand prints.  After all that, we got to play and visit and eat.  The weather was perfect and we had an amazing time.  This homeschool group has been a real blessing for myself and for our girls.

Pizza and a movie first!

Our friends who have the girls who match up in age perfectly with our girls are also part of this group so they were all excited to see each other.  The other Mom and I were pestered questioned many times about when they were going to be able to get together to play and have a sleep over.  We determined that the only time we were really going to be able to get them together was that weekend so we had their three girls come over Friday and stay the night.  I'm very happy to say that these girls are ones that having all three of them over wasn't any more work than having just one over.  All of them are polite and well-behaved.  All the girls got along all night long, no fighting or ugliness or exclusions.  I was very thankful for this since Hubby had to go visit a church family who lost a loved one that night so it was just me with them for the most part.  No one got a decent amount of sleep that night, but that is what sleep overs are all about.  And also why we only do them on Friday nights and not very often at that.  They all had a great time.  And now I am happy knowing that the next sleep over happens at their house!  :)

After their "dance routine"

So that was last week.  Two more days and I'll be writing about this week.  And I'm eventually going to write about our awesome camping trip.  Hopefully this week.  We'll see.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Triumphs and Tears

One of these days we will make it through a week without someone crying, either myself or the girls.  One day!  Until then, we plod along.

There were more good moments than tearful moments at least.  For starters, #1 is flying right along in math.  I really like the way that Saxon has so much review of concepts that have come before, adding just enough of something new in so that they are constantly learning, but enough review that nothing ever really gets rusty.  It is exactly what #1 needs.  She has confidence when she looks at a lesson and already knows and understands 90% of it, which goes so far in her attitude about completing the lesson.  I'm so thankful that her being the oldest and all my experimenting with different math curriculums didn't set her back at all!

Another huge triumph was #2 writing a paper completely on her own, and having it actually be a really excellent paper.  Up to this point we have brainstormed together and then she has dictated to me what she wanted to write and I would type it up for her.  We would then go over it together and make any corrections and she would write the final draft by herself.  This time we brainstormed together and then I told her she was on  her own for writing her rough draft and then we would go over it together to make any corrections.  She asked a couple of questions as she was writing her rough draft, but it she wrote the whole thing on her own.  I was kind of dreading reading it wondering how much correction there would have to be.  Imagine my delight when there were just a few grammatical errors that needed correcting.  She had added all of her dress ups as she was writing, she didn't have to go back and add anything.  I was one happy mama!  I could see the mechanics of IEW finally starting to click in her brain.  First you do this, then you do that, followed by that, and when you've done all of it you'll be ready to write your paper just like you planned.  So awesome!

Our tears this week come to you courtesy of #3.  I don't know if it's because we've had several weeks lately that have been short because of travel, or if she never really grasps the concept before we moved on, but she is really struggling in math.  I can not get her to understand these two concepts.  Individually she understands them, but put both kinds of problems on the page and she is at a compete loss.  Adding manipulative into the mix just seems to make it worse.  She can't remember how she is supposed to build one or the other.  Thankfully, Math-U-See has online resources so we've completely stopped working in the book and are going back over the material until she is ready to move on.  And part of it is my fault.  I really dislike teaching the younger grades of math.  Honestly, sometimes I feel like if I have to say, "Nine wants to become ten" one more time!  Well, you get it.  But next week is another week!  Hopefully with no tears!

Today #1 had a mock tournament for her speech and debate club she is a part of.  She just did the speech part this time.  I'm not crazy about the debate topic: "Bio-surveillance is better at fighting bio-terrorism than bio-security."  Yeah--that's what I thought too.  I judged a couple rounds of debate and I had to watch myself so I didn't go cross eyed just listening to it.  So #1 was prepared to go in and give her speech that she had prepared.  Turns out she also had to do impromptu speaking as well. Something she wasn't prepared for at all.  #1 doesn't do well with things suddenly sprung on her.  But she handled it very well and the feed back she got will help her improve.  She and I are exhausted after our long day, but it was worth going to!

Lastly, I have finally started moving forward with trying to organize a homeschool choir.  We got a lead about another choir in the area, but they are even more expensive than the first one we looked in to.  If we only had one child interested in choir we could swing it, but since we have three right now it just isn't an option.  I put the question out there with three different groups as to whether there would be any interest in a homeschool choir.  There was enough interest for me to start seriously looking in to it.  I'm actually really looking forward to this challenge.  I know there is going to be a lot of work involved, but it's about something I'm passionate for my girls.  It'll be worth it in the end!

My weekend is not over yet.  I still have three dishes to make for the luncheon tomorrow at church.  Hubby promised to help though so hopefully it won't take long and I can sit down and do nothing for a bit before falling asleep!   And then we'll start all over again with a new week.  At least we get to start with the Lord's Day!