I made that up myself. The creativity must stem from four straight days of fresh air stimulation. A friend called on Tuesday and asked if we wanted to go camping for the rest of the week at a lake that is only 22 miles from our house. “YES!” And thus brings you up to date on our week right until last night when we dumped loads and loads of campfire-smelling articles into piles in our garage. They are still there.
Funny thing was, I checked the weather report for the week on Wednesday morning AFTER I had shopped and packed and hauled and directed. It reported “Major thunderstorm warning! Avoid outdoor activity! Stay indoors! Unplug electrical appliances!” Does anyone really do that?
So off we went to the lake. All seems pretty normal, well, for homeschoolers who spontaneously school at unpredictable locations. Why not the lake? I read somewhere that camping is nature’s way of promoting the hotel industry. HA! That’s true for my mother, my sister, my sister-in-law and many others, but not for me. Camping promotes wonder and awe at God’s creation…… wonder in the dark inside a flimsy nylon tent that is your only protection from those strange noises…. and awe that Lewis and Clark did this for a living (minus the nylon tent)! I truly feel at home in front of the Coleman stove with recently caught and be-headed fish in the cast iron frying pan. My kids have never caught fish while camping. So I didn’t leave openings in the meal plan for freshly drawn bass. After my sons snagged seven scaly specimens the first day, I casually mentioned to my friend that I had never cleaned fish or lit a Coleman propane stove before. Proudly, I can check those off my bucket list now.
The thunderstorms didn’t materialize… however it did rain three times for 27 seconds each time. We had a daily wind gust that blew anything and everything not tied down toward the lake. The clouds made me wish, more than once, that I had a folded copy of the Cloud Formations poster that my husband memorized in flight school. Cumulonimbus…. uh….. stratus….. cirrus…..
Wildflowers bring joy to my heart. God made them especially for nature lovers like me. Pink, yellow, purple, orange… LOVE IT!
This was my first vacation ever where I actually read through every book and magazine I brought and still had a day and a half left over. I didn’t stress about it…. I just stared at the lake. The kids stayed busy kayaking, swimming, fishing, riding their bikes, gathering wood, building fires, playing games and laughing. I never once heard, “Mom, there’s nothing to do!” What an awesome week!
My Sister's Jar 