This morning, Kaitlyn asked if she could have break after she did most of the morning portion of her homeschooling work. So, I decided we'd do something different and I took the girls to climb Baldpate Mountain. Below are a few pictures of our trip...
Time sure goes by fast. My annual retreat has been sneaking up on me this year. This Sunday evening, Tamra and the kids will drop me off at the Francis House of Prayer, our diocesan retreat center.
For a whole week, without access to electronics with just my Bible, breviary, and journal, I will be staying in a farmhouse in silence. The only break in the silence will be the half hour of morning prayer, evening prayer and a half hour of spiritual direction each morning. Devoting all this time to the Bible and prayer each year has been really rewarding. It would be nice to find a large block of time I could have each week or even each month to do something similar.
It is odd to give up control of ones days and life like this, even just for a week. First off, since we only have the one vehicle, our minivan, I'll be dropped off there. When I get there, I'll be assigned a room. I don't know what the menu is and I'll eat what is served. I don't know whether the air conditioning will be running or not or have control over it, although I've never been uncomfortable. And, I'll have no control or knowledge of what's going on back home and I will not find out until they pick me up a week later. I give up everything for a week.
Tamra's mom will fly up here to stay with Tamra and the kids, like she has previous years. They always have a whole bunch of fun. I'm glad we do it this way because it softens the shock of me leaving. Now, they count the days not looking forward to my retreat, but maybe when they're teens, that will change ;).
I started posting my retreat experience last year and then I oddly lost my notebook I wrote in during the retreat. I happened to find it last week. I'm glad, because I'll be able add my notes from this retreat into the same notebook. I also enjoyed reviewing what I wrote during last years retreat.
Everyone will be in my prayers next week (more than usual).
I enjoy finding entertaining ways to reinforce the concepts the kids learn while homeschooling. One of my most recent ideas was to use the game cornhole to reinforce addition and subtraction.
In the game cornhole, each person throws four bags at the large two foot by four foot platforms that have a six inch diameter hole near the top. You play the game until one team or person gets 21 points. One point is tallied for each bag resting on the platform and three points for each bag in the hole. The team or person with the greater number of points for that round scores the net of those points.
One nice aspect of homeschooling is that everyday can be different. This morning, the kids and I were going to meet another mom and her homeschooler at the park. Tamra’s bicycle was in the shop for routine maintenance, so my plan was to drop Tamra off at work on our way to the park. As we backed out the driveway, I rolled down the windows and the fresh spring air just poured into the van. This was one of those mornings that just scream, “Go outside!” Halfway down the road on the way to her work, Tamra decided it was definitely a morning to go to work late! The semester ended last week. So, I turned around the van and we headed to the park.
Ewing Township must be cutting back on maintaining the parks. When we arrived, the first thing we noticed is the grass around the park and along the path was knee high. Fortunately, the township was mowing the grass that morning, but not with the hustle that you see when private companies zip across the lawn spinning around trees so fast you wonder how they don’t get dizzy and also whether they ever hit anything. The person mowing also took some leisure time while we were there to turn off the riding mower and talk on his cellphone which I have never observed with a private lawn maintenance company. Maybe the public works employees have very secure jobs which is a nice benefit, I guess.
The weather was beautiful all morning. In the shade, there was a slight chill, but that light north breeze felt good in the sun. The breeze occasionally carried with it a light sweet fragrance from some nearby plant. There were plenty of robins singing while they dived into the deep grass to catch worm. Occasionally, the faint sound of a jet that departed Philadelphia International could be heard among the singing birds and we would hunt for it across the vast deep blue sky that was peppered with puffy white cumulus clouds. Occasionally, I would ask what the girls saw in the clouds above. It’s amazing how the same shape could either be a large bird or a horse depending on who you ask.
After hours of play in the park, we enjoyed a nice peanut butter and jelly lunch at one of the tables under a large shade tree and eventually it was time to depart. The girls said good-bye to one another and Tamra and I took our girls for a walk along a nearby path before it was time to head home to let Abby take her nap and for Kaitlyn and Ellie to do their school work despite how the day still beckoned us to stay outdoors. While the kids did their work, Tamra left for her work. Fortunately, it was still nice this evening and we enjoyed dinner outside at our picnic table and played plenty of backyard games before and after dinner.
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Amazing how big our strawberry plants are this year!...
