Camp Season

We have been full of camp these past few weeks! 

Jonathan helped out with a week of camp.

Then he and Phoebe went to high school week with the youth group. There were 30 high schoolers who went from our church! That's a pretty big group around here.

I drove some of the girls in the church van. I like transporting kids ~ you can just drive and listen to what they talk about. And pray for them as needed. 😉 

Harrison was in charge of the cats while Phoebe was at camp. She told him to hold all the kittens every day. I think we accomplished that. There are five black ones, and it's hard to tell if you're holding the same one you just held two kittens ago.....

Harrison and Jimmy hanging out waiting for us girls to quit talking.

Harrison and Christy and I went to visit Brittany at her camp in Illinois. Her husband is camp manager at Mississippi Valley Christian Service Camp, so they are busy all summer with camp doings. Since she wasn't able to come see us, we went to have lunch with her. They were having fried chicken ~ a good day to go! It was delicious.

I had to get a picture with the corn. It was over my head in Illinois! It was still knee-high back at home. I can tell it has really grown in the past week here near our house. 

These are most of the Vandalians at high school camp. There are a few who didn't make it into the picture and a few who made it into the pic who are not from Vandalia. Oh well. We tried. 

And Harrison turned around on Sunday to head to his week of Junior High camp. Jon drove over to see him last night; I think he's doing alright. He at least knows a couple of the kids who went this year, so hopefully this is a better camp week for him than last year. And hopefully every year just gets better. Not everyone is a camp person, I guess. I never wanted to leave when I was a kid......

A pile of little piggies.

Phillip is putting the finishing touches on the porch. I believe we just have painting left to do. He's doing a great job!

On Sunday Phillip was ordained as an elder at church. His dad is also serving as an elder; it's kind of neat that they get to serve together.

We had a huge wind storm come through and half a tree came down.

Since we've been wanting to take down several dead trees anyway, Paul found someone who could come do the work. 

If you look close, one of the guys is wearing a bee suit. This is because one tree had a beehive and some of his workers got stung yesterday. They took away most of the bees today, but we still have a few swarming in our front yard. 😮

This was so funny to find on my front porch! We had so many packages come in the mail that they just left the whole bin with us. I have done my ordering of school books for next year, and they seemed to all come at once!

Jonathan Lego-d Krennic's space ship (Star Wars) with a cool lava base. 

I got no pictures! But we had just a lovely time a few nights ago when my two college roommates and their husbands (along with the Frankes) came over for supper. Julie and Don from Pioneer Bible Translators in Texas were visiting the area (Julie being from MO). So we invited Jessica and Todd over (Jessica living just a little over an hour away). And the Frankes (being from the same college as the rest of us) for good measure. Such a good time sharing memories and stories of life that have happened in the years we've not been living near each other. Pioneer Bible Translators has exploded in terms of missionaries joining up; it has grown so much since I (for a very short time) considered joining them as a college kid. 

 

Camp and Shakespeare

We are loving summer!

    

I have found a routine that doesn't overwhelm me. I started out the summer having a whole list of things that I wanted to get done each day and it was too much. I was just rushing instead of enjoying the day. So I made a master list of things that I want to work on all summer (Spring Cleaning, School Planning, Reading, etc). 

Now I just put a mark next to the things I do get to each day. When I see that one thing isn't getting as many marks as other things, I'll make sure and get to that thing first for a few days. And then I also make a daily list of unique things that need done. So I have two lists, and somehow, that is less overwhelming.

All of this probably sounds crazy to a lot of people. But I really do think and work in terms of lists and scratching things off a list. 

Charlie found a way to get up in the kitchen window. Maybe he smells something cooking.

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Jonathan has been experimenting with making bow-and-arrows. This was his latest iteration and the arrow went the furthest. He's been buying out the ACE Hardware's rulers! 😁

He was also gone last week to help out at 5/6th grade camp. He's on stage in a red shirt off to the side playing the box drum. 

He came off the church bus the peppiest of them all. I find that funny. All my other kids are so exhausted and usually sick after a week of camp. He is energized by people. He told me, "This was fun, but it wasn't a "fun" week. This was a work week." He played for worship and also helped lead a family group all week. I'm so glad he was asked and that he said 'yes.'

Speaking of saying "Yes." 

We attended Michaela Franke's wedding. We were a little late, so we got to see the bridal party ready to walk down the aisle. It was a beautiful wedding. The Frankes prepared a delicious meal for everyone, and Phillip and I got to see several friends from college, some of whom we hadn't seen in 20 years. 

Elayne mentioned that 62 years ago she and Paul were walking down that very aisle on that very day. (I hadn't realized it was their anniversary! But how neat to have those memories and that...... that sense of home and place.)

Since Jamie had been busy all week with wedding preparation and family in town, Phillip got to preach on Sunday. He did a great job!

Phoebe and I enjoyed a trip to Forest Park in St. Louis to see a Shakespeare play! 

We had a super great time. I am always trepidatious when trying new things ~ especially driving several hours to a city not having been to the thing we're visiting. You just don't know what the area will be like or how the traffic will be.....

But it was beautiful and it was a blast! We bought a Mac n Cheese hot dog and a root beer. We walked around a bit (that was a mistake ~ too hot!). Once the sun went down, it was plenty cool and breezy. We paid for seats this time around since I wasn't sure how crowded it would be. But I think we'll try the free areas next time and bring our own food and drinks. 

The play was Much Ado about Nothing and it was fantastic! Just so much fun. They had some live music (violin, guitar and .... lute?) and singing during the play, and they did the Can-can at the end (it was set in Italy, WWI for set and costume purposes). Phoebe and I had good conversation. The drive was long; we got home late. But we will go again next year; I highly recommend it to anyone in the area! 

A statue of King Louis IX. 

St. Louis was named after him.

We will have to come back and visit the St. Louis Art Museum.

Beautiful rainbow from our front porch.

The corn is higher than knee-high way before the 4th of July. 

Of course, I'm using my knee height for measurement.....

A storm passed through the other night. We didn't get a lot of rain, but we got a lot of wind! It woke me up even with earplugs in. I thought I heard glass break, but seems like it was only my wind chimes being dashed to the ground. We did lose half a tree however. Harrison is our 'stick duty' person. But Phillip and I helped him this time around. It took several hours to pick up all the sticks and branches in the yard.

True Spring

It's been delightful to have a true spring. 

I've been reading of 100° temperatures in Texas. And we're having cool winds and showers and 70's here in Missouri. Next week might give us 90's, but right now it's nice and cool sitting on the front porch.

Modern Moods Imagery

Modern Moods Imagery

Modern Moods Imagery

Amos and Lanaya Elizabeth engagement photos. I love them!

Modern Moods Imagery

The kittens trying to nurse all at once! 

I saw so many of these little white butterflies on my walk today. 

I believe they must be Cabbage Whites.

Phoebe started working a few weeks ago at His Place. It's a coffee shop/cafe in town ~ a neat meetup and hang out place. The building used to be a bank way back when......

The pool is open. Harrison has a lot of summer pool plans.

My Charlotte Mason picture biography is available for preorder for Hardback! I didn't think it would be in hardback this quickly. Thank you to Blue Sky Daisies for all your hard work!

Friends from college were here a few weeks ago to preach and tell us about the mission in Ireland that they are working on getting to. We had a good time eating with them after church along with Mimi and Papa and the Kurz's from church. Lots of kids around the table! It was really fun to catch up and hear about future plans.

Check out the Tuttles and where they're headed! Oh, and Nick Tuttle does some awesome art work, so go see some of that work at EncounterHim Art.

Harrison turned 12 this week. He didn't want to do anything big. Just have his first sleepover with a friend.

His supper choice was baked potatoes, lime jello, and a giant cookie cake.

Jonathan swiped a picture of them in their sleeping bags reading books in the dark with flashlights. They both enjoy the Redwall series. 

You can see how the corn has grown a few inches since the last picture. 

We get to see this from the front porch every day. 

Amazing. 

I have a couple of recommendations for you. We watched a documentary called Eve in Exile. A little blurb from their website says, 

"This documentary follows author Rebekah Merkle as she discusses the role of Christian women in today’s world, the pitfalls and distractions we should avoid, and how we should approach rebuilding the ruins of the West."

It was really encouraging to watch and I recommend all my female friends and family to check it out. I mean, guys can watch it too....... no one is gonna stop you. 😄

And I am in the middle of a podcast episode that I am really enjoying. It might be dangerous to recommend something that I haven't finished yet. But if the first 3/4 is safe, I'm sure the rest is great too! It's Andrew Peterson and Tim Mackie from the Bible Project. I've loved hearing a little of each of their stories and them talking about Trees at the Heart of Creation.