Salado Creek Greenway and The Kids

 

Jonathan and Phillip took a Basic Handgun Course at a nearby gun range. 

I hear Jon did better than Dad at the shooting range. Good job, Jon! I need to get him on a hunting trip with Aupa.....

I've been slowly making my way down Salado Creek Greenway. I've done maybe a third of it. It's too much to walk in any sort of quick way, so I've ridden Jon's bike and this time I tried skating. 

I have to say that skating outside is v-e-r-y different from a skating rink. 

I fell only twice. I will have bruises on both knees and one hand. 

It was a nice breezy ramble. I went from McAllister Park to Walker Ranch Park ~ 6 or 7 miles round trip. Lots of people out bicycling and walking on this Sunday afternoon. I'm looking forward to conquering Salado Creek!

Liz is selling hand-knitted hats on her Instagram. She is taking orders and has three colors ready to go: black, cream, and the above autumn orange.  See Liz Gore on Facebook or liz_gore_ on Instagram. 

I've always loved that she keeps her hands busy. She knits every spare moment and has made beautiful baby sweaters, cute pairs of socks, and so many lacy sweaters and shawls. Good work, Liz! You were Proverbs 31 from a tiny tot.

I sneaked pictures of all the kids Saturday afternoon. I like to catch them doing something besides being on a screen.

Phoebe is sewing (but don't ask her what; she likes to keep her projects a secret until she knows if they're going to work out or not). 

Harrison is doing the laundry he didn't do the first time I told him to do it. (I swear, I understand why the youngest gets away with so much ~ the older kids have worn us down! But lately I've been thinking, "What will his wife think?" And that has been a big motivation for me to Keep On That Boy.)

Jonathan made a neat helicopter. He doesn't get out the Lego very often anymore. But he makes some pretty cool stuff when he does. And it's fun to see him and H work/play together.

We bought this boy a new coat since his old one is too small. We had an actual "jacket needed" day last week, and that made us go through all the coats to see what still fits. He snuggles in the new coat, knees and all. Jonathan loves to push him over and watch him flail about. 

Drawing contest. 

I think the boys drew guns. Not sure of Phoebe's drawing (see above).

Jonathan puts out the flag every morning. A pretty sight. 

Ozark CC is going back to in-person classes tomorrow. They're gonna see how it works out. I can just see them see-sawing all semester! Shut it down for a week, open back up the next. Ah, to be young and flexible. Liz seems to be rolling with the punches. I can't imagine how the professors and administration are doing.....

I try to stay sane on Facebook and with anyone I talk to. Covid has really riled me up. Or maybe it's the election that's coming. I usually don't pay a ton of attention to political things, but this year is different.

 My rage outlets have been The Lord and customer satisfaction surveys offered on receipts. I get to say whatever I want and no one is going to care or know who said it! It's been therapeutic. The last survey included "muzzled," "harassment," "free-breathing," and "I'm not blaming your store....." Usually the store has been fine, but I get to just let them know what I think of the state of our city in general and store policies in particular. And I might just win a $500 shopping trip! 

Company Over and a Cibolo Creek Nature Outing

I told Phillip, "We need people. Who should we have over?" And he said, "Why not that girl you meet with?" So we invited my Schole´ Sister and her family over for dinner last week.

Schole´ Sister comes from a homeschool podcast (which is quite a good podcast) and is applied to this book group that I've been meeting with for the last couple years. Kelly and I are the only ones in the group right now, but our meet-ups have been sanity-saving during Covid. 

I didn't get any pictures of the family, but we had a great time visiting with them.

I did, however, get pictures of the organic scraps before I put them in the appropriate waste bin. For some reason, I was really loving the bright colors and I took a number of pictures of my fruit and veggie scraps this week. 

Sorry, not sorry. These make me happy.

And then we did an afternoon trip to Cibolo Nature Creek yesterday and put an announcement on the San Antonio Homeschoolers Facebook group. 

And who should show up but Levi and his family!!!! 

He's a youth minister from many moons ago. He's now married with children. And it was awesome to sit and talk and get to know Heather while the kids all played in the creek.

They're homeschooling this year because of Covid, and they. are. killing it. 

I sent Liz a picture because she was the one in that youth group the longest, but Jonathan also was in there for a bit and he had a good time talking with Levi.

A great place to play! 

This was a magnificent Cyprus (?) tree. I couldn't get all the magnitude in one picture.

Liz is doing great, from all that we hear. Looks like the whole campus will be quarantined starting next week. They can come and go to jobs and pick up meals from the cafeteria, but all classes and chapel will be online and they are supposed to stay in the dorm rooms and not be out and about on campus. 

The news from campus is that one whole boys dorm was first totally quarantined "because that's just the way that dorm is," and then I found out the Boatman boy's dorm has an oven and "it isn't fair because women should have the kitchen!" 

I agree, girl. You can't bake without an oven. 

 

End of Summer and Isolation

We had a great week off of school right after coming home from Missouri. There was just enough bored time there at the end of the week, that everyone was ready to start school on Monday. At least Mom was very ready. Kids were reluctantly ready. 

Jon and Danny.

Jon and Phillip went on a father/son camping trip with Jon's old youth minister and another father/son friend set. Enchanted Rock was the camp spot. Phillip was worried about the heat, but a huge storm passed through right before they arrived and cooled things down a good bit. They were tired when they got back, but I'm so glad they got to go. Fellowship time is precious and rare these days. 

One of the panoramic views.

Early morning hike to the top to watch the sunrise. 

Jon and his license. 

He's our new errand guy. He's driving to Walmart with Phillip in this picture. 

The Kids' Clubhouse.

Phoebe working on her thrift store find. 

She cleaned it up real good and covered the seat with new fabric. 

Harrison at a friend's birthday party. 

Our usual summer pool has been closed, so any water that we can get to, we appreciate!

And Liz. The beautiful Liz. Away at college and already has gotten herself into Isolation.

Not hard to do these days. Just carpool to church with your D-group. All of you wearing masks. But it doesn't matter, because if one girl tests positive for Covid, all girls go into isolation. And so she found herself there her first week of college.

She had a most positive spirit about the whole thing. 

We texted, talked or face-timed just about every day. We sent her packages right away, but they took a few days to arrive. The college had a good plan in place for taking care of those in iso ~ getting their mail, getting them meals, giving them Keurigs with coffee and hot cocoa. 

They even got yard time (yard time! :-). 

She attended classes online and got a lot of homework done. She and the other girls were isolated on the same floor, but they had to stay 10 feet apart. They would sit outside their rooms and do homework together in the hall. 

I'm sad she missed out on a number of Freshman week activities, but she will have a story to tell, and hopefully a bond with these girls. 

She's out now. Doing great with the school work. Proud of that girlie!