A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

But I'm still going to talk about these pictures!

These students kidnapped Jessica last weekend and took her on a youth canoe trip.

She kayaked for almost 10 miles! We're so proud of her!

First day of school! I figured home schooling is no reason not to get new clothes and take a few pictures!

Sadly, those are my old glasses, with the lenses taken out. She asked me to take this. Sorry about Mike's feet...

Jessica's first science experiment! Corn syrup, water, and oil in a glass, and a grape, a cork, an ice cube and a rock dropped in. It was pretty cool, and my favorite part was watching how excited she got.

Friday afternoon a bunch of home school moms and kids got together at one family's farm to play and plan. And eat homemade ice cream. :) The girls had fun, and came home filthy, so I had them wash their feet in the tub right away. I didn't see the mess they made until that night.

After the meeting/play date, my sweet girls surprised me with a spa treatment! They had decorated the (dirty) bathroom, made face cream with mashed bananas and honey, put cucumbers on my eyes, gave me a hand massage and a foot soak (with kosher salt, lemon juice, and marbles in the bucket), mani/pedi (with glitter), hair and make-up. And spa cuisine--a yogurt parfait. Oh, and entertainment--Mikayla played her recorder and Rebecca sang, and they both did magic tricks.

See my glitter!

It's a brave beautician who'll tackle this hair.

My big fat braid.

My tiara spells MOM!!

About stuff

I really like the way my clothes are starting to fit now, after 3 months of consistent exercise and trying to eat healthier (3 months and 4 lbs lighter --whoopdedoo). But I am a seasonal eater, and September is coming. Time for apple pies, cakes, and pancakes...caramel corn and caramel dip for apple wedges...snickerdoodles...
And we're starting school tomorrow, so I have a feeling exercise is about to go to the back burner.
And about school...this is my first year to home school all 3, and my first time to homeschool first grade (plus fifth and seventh). I filled the girls assignment sheets out this afternoon, and panicked!! How do I do this?? I mean, it's one thing to teach a room full of first graders all basically the same thing (which in itself is quite challenging). But Rebecca's going to need so much of my time, and Mikayla and Jessica will still need me, too. Well, Jessica not so much, but a little.
And about Jessica...she started youth group this week, and is loving it. She was kidnapped by 4 youth at 6:50 yesterday morning and taken on a canoe trip--got home around 10:30, exhausted, sunburned, and full of stories. She actually ended up kayaking most of the 10 miles! I've never even been in a kayak! I'm so proud of her. Then today she was happy to discover that they serve breakfast at youth Sunday School and supper between student choir and discipleship training.
And about church...we (the BCM) had a worship service on campus this morning for the incoming freshmen and our leadership team, and it was so good. We have a new worship team, and they were nervous but did great. We're estimating we had between 80-90 people there. Now we're praying for them to come back! After the service we fed them BBQ brisket, potato salad, & cole slaw provided by 3 area churches. MMM-mmm, it was good.
And that's all I have to talk about. Oh, except to say with my anxiety about h.s., starting a girls' Bible study, helping with kids' choir, and facilitating a ladies' Bible study, please don't take it personally if I drop off the internet for a while. I'm sure I'll be back!

Glorieta!

What a fantastic week! The biggest travel challenge we had was that the van Mike was driving had a horrible air conditioner, so the students were really hot. But we rotated them in and out of the van I was driving, and that helped. My three girls sat side-by-side on the back bench and were so quiet and well-behaved that I decided to take college students on all our family vacations from now on!

See the buffalo we passed between Magnolia and Texarkana?

Mike drove the hot van...notice the redneck air conditioner plugged into the lighter!

Cool van!

West Texas sunset

We drove about 7 hours the first day, and spent the night in Childress, Texas, got up early the next day and had a worship service in our room, then drove on in to Glorieta. We ate a picnic lunch at the New Mexico welcome center, which was very nice! Registration at Glorieta took forever, but I got my girls signed up for day camp and preschool, and then we started seeing people we know, and the fun began!

Mike and Daniel getting lunch stuff out.

There was a dinosaur bone at the welcome center we all had to look at.

I loved the big blue sky!

Waiting outside New Mexico Hall for Mike to be done with registration.

We had supper at Dairy Queen that night, and got cake to celebrate Matt's birthday (the guy in green).

The students went to a worship celebration that night, but Mike, Kylie (Henderson State's BCM associate director), and I drove in to Santa Fe to buy groceries for the week. It was crazy!! Sam's was closed because it was Sunday, we passed by Albertson's in favor of Walmart, then realized it wasn't a superstore, so went back to Albertson's, they were all crazy-busy, and we didn't get back until 10:00. My girls had been nervous about going to their classes that night, but they ended up loving it, all week long, and made lots of new friends. My days usually went like this: get up at 7, shower, get all the breakfast stuff out; take the girls to their classes then go to worship.

Addison Road led worship--I loved them. Mike Satterfield and David Platt were our speakers. They were great, too.

 After worship I usually went to the ministers' fellowship for a cold bottle of water and some goodies (cinnamon rolls, chips and salsa, quesadillas, shishkabobs) and to see who I could see, then back to our room where I cleaned up breakfast and had a personal quiet time until time to set up lunch. Unless I was driving Mike back and forth to Santa Fe, where he was having the van's a.c. looked at.

It was both worshipful and relaxing reading my Bible and praying on these rocks by our room.

The students would all come over for lunch, and after they left I'd clean up again, then we had free time until time for me to cook supper. That's when I hung out with friends new and old, shopped the Lifeway store, and took naps. I wanted to hike and do other recreational activities, but I was always either too tired or too busy. Hopefully next year. A few students came over each night to help cook supper, and it went pretty smoothly considering the stove was about as big as a postage stamp. After supper the girls went back to their classes and the students had sessions or family groups, so I cleaned up and then went on to worship at 8. It was honestly so inspiring, and was a truly rejuvenating time.

Students praying  together during the invitation

One night the speaker called for students to give up, once and for all, what they've been holding back from God. He compared it to vomiting up what's making you sick, and he said they would need their leaders to "hold back their hair."So many students came forward that he asked for more leaders to come pray with them, and I got to pray with several--it was very moving. What was humbling about it was that the ones I prayed with had the same issues I did.
On Wednesday we all drove to Santa Fe after lunch to do some sight-seeing. Since I've seen the Plaza several times before, and thought my girls would get bored shopping for hours, I took them to the Rancho de los Golondrinas instead. It's a living history museum 15 miles from Santa Fe, where the Josefina American Girl books were written...we went to Josefina's house!! It was a hot day in the desert, but I loved it, and I think they did, too. In addition to the rancho, there were outbuildings and a schoolhouse.

Gate to the hacienda

Carts from the caravan on the Camino Real

I love the suspended cradle.

Oh yeah, she's in trouble.

This mound of crosses is where people on the rancho carrying someone to their burial would stop and place a rock and a cross to remember them, and to remember that we always need to rest. 

This tree was HUGE!

The schoolhouse was pretty awesome.

After an hour or so we joined the students in Santa Fe and bought a few souvenirs, then headed north to a little town called Chimayo that has my favorite Mexican restuarant in the world, located in another ranch from the past. There's also a little church there that has dirt that is supposed to have healing qualities, but it was locked up when we got there.

Native Americans selling jewelry--this is how I always picture Santa Fe.

Sopapilla relleno--glory!

Sanctuario de Chimayo--I love the ladder.

Aside from not being able to sleep because of the noisy people staying above us, I'd say it was a perfect week. We left at 6:00 Friday morning (yawn) and I drove our van the w-h-o-l-e way back. It went pretty well other than taking 30 minutes to get through Texarkana because the interstate was closed. I was so tired by then I was shaking. It took all weekend for us to recover! Here are some more random pictures:

Rosie's comfy bed

More of that gorgeous sky!

My friend Beth!

Jessica and her "big brother" (in her words) Matt

and Mike

Sunset on our last night--it was amazing. Pictures don't do it justice.

Speaking of pictures, a lot of these were taken by our students. They are much better photographers than I am!

Ten on the Tenth--from Glorieta!

This month I'm joining Meredith's Ten on the Tenth from Collegiate Week at Glorieta, so here are 10 observations from our trip so far:
1. Driving down a state highway in Texas, we ran into a rodeo parade!


2. Turning into a chicken place for supper, a guy on a bike ran into ME! Scratched my van, but he seemed to be okay. As okay as a guy who rides into vans can be...

3. The sky seems bigger and bluer out here.

4. We passed dozens of abandoned houses that just intrigued me. And once, an entire town!

5. A roadrunner crossed the road in front of us.

6. I love watching the landscape change--especially the mountains and rocks and gullies.

7. It’s always fun seeing “family” you haven’t seen in years, even if they’re not blood related. We saw Matt Munger, former student/associate as soon as we got here! I miss his wife, Jackie, but I’m excited she’s having a baby. And I’ve seen other friends from the Northwest, as well as some from college and my single years at Wedgwood.

8. Buying groceries in Santa Fe reminded me of the benefits of living in a small town.

9. The air may be thinner, but it feels great and smells wonderful.

10. God is amazing. I haven’t slept well the past 3 nights. I drove my van the whole way here. I’m the cook this week, and still a mom to our 3 girls. I’m exhausted. Exhausted to the point of irrational emotional outbursts and tears. So I got a few moments to myself this morning, found a place to sit and pray where I could see the mountains and feel the cool breeze, using the book Face to Face by Kenneth Boa, as I usually do. My praise verses for the day? “Behold, You who form the mountains and create the wind, and reveal Your thoughts to people; You turn dawn into darkness, and tread the high places of the earth—the Lord God of hosts is Your name.” (Amos 4:13)… my confession verses? “Therefore, let us strengthen our hands that are weary and our feeble knees, and make straight paths for our feet, so that what is lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.” (Hebrews 12:13)…my closing prayer? “I remember You on my bed, O Lord, and I meditate on You through the watches of the night. Because You have been my help, I will rejoice in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63:6-8) God talks to me, and meets me at my point of need. How cool is that?? He never stops amazing me.

*Note: I actually wrote this yesterday. I slept much better last night, and feel like a totally different person today. Phew!

I got nothing

I can't think of anything to write about. It's too hot to think. My days are spent cleaning house and getting ready for school to start (I am preparing a history notebook to try to have a little more accountability for what my 2 older girls read this year--it's a big job. But I'm enjoying it! I even wonder if I'll be able to sell it after I get the kinks out on my own daughters...) and swimming in our sweet across-the-street-neighbors' pool. But we are leaving for Collegiate Week at Glorieta, New Mexico, on Saturday, so I hope to have more to say when we get back!