Good day for a Tanburn?

My sister and I took all of the kids to the Mississinewa beach for the day, including a couple extras. One should be surprised that we could have such a good day when the adult to child ratio is over 3 to 1, but we did. The kids enjoyed the sand as much as the sun, while us moms got to catch up. We fought the wind a little bit and gave way to a little pollution as some of our trash simply blew out of our reach, but all in all it was fun for everyone. Despite all the use of sunblock some of us came home with a little too much sun here and there. Abbie especially on her back. She was happy to let me treat her "tanburn" before bed so it wouldn't hurt. Thank you God for the wonderful weather today and memories made with family and friends..and even our "tanburns".

Faith and Fear

Yesterday I decided to attend Leigha's Sunday School class with her and found myself very enlightened. We had a really good time singing and dancing to their worship songs and then learning about Peter. As most reading this know, Peter is well known for walking on the water with Jesus for a moment until he lost faith and started sinking. Therefore our lesson was for the kids to understand what faith is and to trust when we fear. The kids were then asked to privately write down their fears and there's where my enlightenment, and some remorse, came. Leigha began writing about fears that seemed more suitable for an adult than a nine year old. Things like being killed in a bad storm, being murdered and being kidnapped. What...why isn't she writing about the same things her best friend wrote, losing her kitty cat, not getting a bunny? Our media is making our children grow up way before their time. And for a worry wart like my Leigha, I'm thinking we need a lot less media.

"I won't carry them mom!"

Last night after packing all of our camp necessities (sleeping bag, deodorant, plenty of clothes we can bring home to mom filthy) Austin asked if he could use the last two fireworks I'd let him buy a few weeks ago. They were the small "fountain" style, pretty harmless so I thought, for his first fireworks beyond sparklers. His next words are were too cute and ones you wouldn't naturally want to hear about fireworks. "Mom, I won't carry them, I promise!" He felt the need to tell me this because of an incident we'd had last week. His dad had pealed the paper back and handed him the firework. He laid it on the ground, lit it and nothing. He picked it up and started carrying it to us because he thought it was a dud. We started yelling at the same time he discovered...it wasn't a dud. He threw the firework, thankfully missing anything in its path and hopefully learning a valuable lesson. Thence the reason he asks first then promises next,"Mom, I work carry them!"

Off to Camp...Again?

Just dropped another child off at church camp and miss him already. Austin is going to staying at the Jungle Huts at Rainbow Christian Camp until Friday afternoon. The Jungle Huts are a little different than he's stayed in before. They are raised off the ground, open air, and in the middle of the woods. I can't wait to hear how sleeping was in the huts. He seemed really excited when we were packing last night but was a little apprehensive today. He didn't know any of his cabin mates and is a little shy when it comes to making new friends. Hope he has a great week and grows closer to God along the way. I pray often that I can raise him to be a God loving, God fearing, God following young man. I know some of my best childhood memories are from attending my own church camp and I hope someday my children can say the same.

Miss me a little?

Today was another milestone for my baby girl (ok maybe she's not the baby but she'll always be my baby.) I took Leigha to the church today to drop her off for church camp. She was so excited! She literally counted down the days when she'd be spending (3) nights away from home with her best friend, Shelby. It was a multitude of emotions as we gathered together in prayer before they boarded the bus. I was excited for her because I have wonderful memories of my weeks spent at church camp as a child but she'd never been away from me for this long unless it was to grandma's. I was diligent to go over with her all of the things she'd have to do by herself that I'm so used to helping her with. I'm sure she probably thought, "Ok mom enough already," several times. When our prayer circle closed, Abbie and I got one last hug and kiss goodbye. Then she clasped Shelby's hand and off they strolled to the bus. I only cried a little but little sister had a small meltdown. Abbie will definitely be happy when Thursday gets here. I can't wait til she gets home either, bubbling over with all her stories. Until then I'll pray she's safe, learning to love and trust God, and missing me... at least a little.

Back to School

Just attended my informational meeting at IWU to enroll for my BA. Seems pretty strange to contemplate going back to school at age 34. Evidently it seemed even stranger to my 9 year old when she found out. Her comment was, "going back to school at 34" as if it were actually 84! Children do say the darnedest things. I am very excited at the prospect of righting a wrong that I've felt so strongly about for so long. It finally occurred to me a few months ago when I told someone that having not gotten my four year degree was the biggest mistake of my life. Their response was, "Then why don't you rectify it?" I really didn't have a reason why I shouldn't so I started investigating the possibility. I've always told the kids that it wasn't a matter of if they were going to college it was where...so why not mom? IWU has a great program for working adults and hopefully this time two years from now I'll be blogging about my graduation with a BA in Business Management. That has such a nice ring to it!