Soccer Camp

The week before Tween Week, Caleb got to go to soccer camp at the high school. While I must admit he would rarely leave home without some encouragement, I believe he had a great time. 

It was a very, very rainy week, but they played outside every day anyways. 

These pictures were all posted on Facebook by Thea County Magazine, hence the blurriness. 



They got to eat their lunches in the cafeteria of the new high school. 

Caleb’s cleats blew apart with two days to go and Chris tried fixing them with shoe glue and clamps, but it was red duct tape for the win that held them together. You should have seen them when he came home, all muddy with all my lovely black sharpie-ing washed off, but he threw them straight in the trash can. Caleb always wears white socks and he says it’s because the mud shows up better that way, and he was very proud of how terrible his soggy tennies and cleats smelled by the end of this wet week. 

Solar Cookers

For the Art Track for Junior Week and Tween Week we have made solar cookers. 

I did this with my ESL students at the end of the year as well. 

Pizza boxes are ideal, but we had to improvise for a few campers this week when we ran out. 

The boys are both campers this week, as this week is for 11-13 year olds. Caleb is also going to a Day Camp (6-12) and Josiah is going to Teen Week (13 and up). Eleonora doesn’t get to go until Day Camp in July, but that’s not stopping her from jumping right in and acting like a camper now. 

I didn’t take any outside pictures today, but here are Lydia and Eleo with last week’s bunch. 

This was Lydia’s and it was so cloudy that the temperature in the box only got up to 75 degrees. Our record at school was 150, and today, Josiah’s box beat it with 153.  That temperature certainly melts the chocolate but it doesn’t do much in the way of toasting the marshmallows. We sure did have a good time though. 

Blasts from the Past

Monday Night Campfire

I Mustache You a Question

Caleb and a Salamander

May Books

I read three great books, written for adults and everything, last month, and that is a treat not to be taken lightly. 

This book was neither great, nor written for adults. Come on, Louisa May, you can do better. (And she did - Little Women, Little Men.)

Here’s another of my ‘shoe’ books, recommended by the bookshop lady in “You’ve Got Mail.”  Amusing books, but repetitive. 

Historical fiction. Oh, so good. Based on true stories. Set in France. Try it today. 

Dogs chase raccoons through woods, ad infinitum. Read it to the boys. Thought it would never end. 

Read this twice!  To my 2nd graders and my 3rd graders at school. It’s nothing crazy amazing, but they enjoyed it and we did some cute projects with it. 

Set in Italy after WW2. Not as sad as I expected, so that’s a plus. I enjoyed it. This is the second of my books this month that I’m calling great. 

Read this to my 3rd graders and we had a fun time with it. I’ll show you some of the cute projects they did with it sometime. 

This was only okay, in my book. It’d definitely be better than nothing if you were sitting in a waiting room or something. 

Okay, here’s great #3. I took a while to get into it, and then read the last 400 pages or so on Sunday after church to celebrate the beginning of summer break. That was a good time. Set in Italy during WW2. 

The other book I read to the boys this month. Notice the manly theme to make up for the Anne books?  All I can say is that we are a lot more educated about 19th century cod fishing than we were before. 

10 books in May, taking me to 43 for the year.  Woot. I think I’ll make 50 after all. I’m so glad I write these down, because it seems like a thousand years since I read the books at the beginning of this list, and I couldn’t have thought of all ten to save my life if I hadn’t taken pictures of the covers along the way. 

As far as other goals go, I got rid of 120 items in May, taking me to 356 for the year. Gonna be a stretch to get to 1,000 but I have hope. Here’s a tip from a book I read, instead of looking through a collection of items and pulling out the things you don’t mind getting rid of, think instead of the few you’d most like to keep. For example, my kids have these matchbox cars that they still play with occasionally, and they had them out today and I had each of them pick their 10 favorite to keep and we got rid of the rest (they’re going straight to my treasure box at school).

Facebook. I was going along so well, skipping it, only messed up twice til the middle of the month, then I started looking again, but still got plenty of book reading done, so maybe not too much. 

Walking. I walked 10,000 steps or more 18 days in May. Getting better every month so far. The kids and I went to the track right after school a lot. We’d walk during Caleb’s soccer practice sometimes. My parents walk with me in the evenings occasionally. And Chris got a one-wheel so he’s happy to head to the track with me anytime if I don’t mind him zooming circles around me. Jenn and I and two other friends are in a county-wide walking contest for June and July, so hoping to kick it up a notch, plus win a fab prize or two. Ha.

Bible Reading. We finished reading through Psalms and Proverbs and did another plan on the Fruit of the Spirit. 

June Goal - lots more supper cooking. So far, so good!

Happy June to you and me!