When we visit Mom and Dad, we generally follow the same routine everyday. 

We get up and drink coffee and read our Bibles and/or books. 

We chat with Mom and Dad who are also up getting coffee and starting their day with reading their devotions and praying. 

We wake our kids/ teens and make them walk on the beach with us. 

We pick up shells and talk and watch the sunrise. 

We come back and shower and eat and clean and we may read some more. 

We chat with Mom and Dad some more, often while we have lunch. 

Then we pack coolers with drink and snacks and go to the beach again, this time to play physically and earnestly and to sit leisurely for hours and hours.   

Then, later in the afternoon, we come back to the house, shower off again, and spend a few quiet hours reading or chatting or playing cards before we make dinner. 

After dinner, we may read again or play a game or watch something before going to bed.

Usually always when we visit, there's stuff that we help Mom and Dad with, stuff like buying a new cell phone or computer or tablet, fixing a sprinkler in the lawn, getting up into the attic for something, etc. 

And it's really a joy to help them with these little things, since we're younger and stronger often more knowledgeable about stuff, especially stuff involving modern tech. 

Often enough, Dad actually waits to deal with something until Dwayne comes in order to have Dwayne's help. 

But oddly enough, at other times, the tech just happens to break while we are there or in this last case, right before we arrived. 

The tv broke a few days before we came, so Dwayne helped Dad find a new one and set it up (and dispose of the old one, etc.) 

We joked that the tv knew we were coming so it held out as long as it could. 

We made it to Vero Beach and in time to have dinner with Mom and Dad, read a chapter of Narnia with them, and walk on the beach before sunset.

We're on our way to visit Dwayne's parents in Vero Beach, Florida. We made it to North Carolina, stopped at a hotel there, swam in the pool, and then had dinner (sub sandwiches from Jersey Mike's) outside on the hotel deck area before heading back to the room to rest until tomorrow. 

Camping Again

We took the girls camping at Macedonia Brook State Park again.

We stayed in a different site this time, one surrounded by the brook on three sides with several footpaths leading to the water. It was magical. 

We played a lot of cards. The girls like the game Garbage right now, and they showed us how to play. 

With no running water and hot weather, we "bathed" in the brook in every sense of the word. 

I often sat in this spot with coffee or a book enjoying the sounds and sights of the brook.

The morning sun came through the clouds onto my face. It felt divine. Adele, sitting with me at the time, caught it on camera. 

We took the girls over to see Kent Falls. On the way, we passed a huge, outdoor book sale at their local library, so of course, we lost our minds and stopped and bought lots of books.

The falls were magical, too. We played in the pool at the bottom and climbed into the falls, hiked all the way up and back again, and then played in the water some more.  

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek seemed an appropriate book to bring to read next to the brook. 

We came home with a lot of bug bites, but also general itching, so we are suspecting we might have encountered more than mosquitos. But seriously, it was lovely and totally worth it. 

 

Homeschool Book Swap

A mom in our homeschool group hosted a book swap recently. Moms could give books away that they no longer wanted, or they could take books they'd like. It was totally free to participate. I didn't give away any books, but my daughters came home with several books to read. And we all enjoyed the time with friends. In the photo above, Adele's reading one of the books she came home with. 

Draw Write Now Class

I'm teaching a Draw Write Now class for one of our co-ops next year. 

It'll be for the youngest students in the group, the third graders, and it's mostly just for fun. 

Kids that age will still be learning how to hold a pencil and form their letters in print, so those are skills I plan to review in each class. 

I'll probably teach them a rhyme about holding a pencil correctly, and we'll trace the letters A-Z in print, lowercase and upper case every class.  

There's a drawing exercise with each lesson followed by sentences to copy that go along with the pictures. 

So I also plan to read a children's picture book to go with the lesson. 

For example, on the day when we draw a barn and write sentences about barns, I'll read the book The Big Red Barn, etc. 

Finally, we'll color the pictures. 

I'll probably save everyone's work and give them a book of their work at the end of the semester. 

It's obviously not a difficult class to teach, but I'm looking forward to it. 

I think it'll be fun. 

For now, I'm having fun finding children's books to go with the lessons. 

 Adele, my youngest, made me a "Best Mom Ever" badge. I'm using it as a bookmark.