Our Vacation

For the last two weeks my husband has been on vacation.

The first week we went to the Illinois River.

We always procrastinate, so we didn't get there until almost dark. lol

I was kind of frustrating because there was a burn ban, and we we couldn't cook out over the fire, so we had to buy a little charcoal grill.

And of course we had to put it together in the dark! With bugs flying all over me! OOHHH

After we got it all together my husband cooked hot dogs, and we went to bed.

The next day we had a lot of fun swimming down the river. We decided not to rent a raft as the water level was so low. A lot of people were bottoming out.

We swam for almost the whole day, and then decided to try to find a free wilderness camping site. We had been told there were some, but couldn't find any.

My husband wanted to camp out under a bridge by the river. UH, NO! I was not comfortable with that.

Luckily he said we could find somewhere else.

We were going to go back to the campgrounds, but we went back a different way and accidentally found a sign that said primitive camping 5 miles.

So we drove all the way down the road and came to the campsite, if you can call it that.

It was so scary! We turned on the head lights and set up the tent. We had already eaten out before we got there, so we didn't have to worry about that.

As soon as I got the tent set up, my husband went out to the car, and a snake went right in front of him. He said it looked like a copperhead! YIKES!

But we calmed down from that, and as he was getting something out of the car, he heard a loud stampeding noise that really scared him. He turned around, and there were about 15 deer running up from the river into the woods. He said it was awesome! I wish I could have seen it.

He told us to come see, but as soon as we got out of the tent he told us to hurry up and get back in. He saw a coyote in the woods.

OK, I have had enough. I am ready to go at this point. Back to the nice campgrounds were there are no Snakes and Coyotes! OK, there might be, but not as likely.

We stayed, but we had a hard time sleeping, wondering if anything would come up to our tent. Well I did at least, my husband slept fine. lol

The next morning we got packed up, and went down to Barren Fork River and swam all day.

You could see all of the fishes in the river, it was so clear. It was really fun.

But later that night my husband wanted to go back to the primitive campsite to camp again. It's free, ya know? lol

So, we did, and getting there before dark was much better. It didn't seem as scary.

So, we set up camp, and my husband and the kids fished. At this point we had just been eating out for all of our meals, as the town was super close, and we didn't want to mess with the grill.

The next morning we woke up, and went swimming. It was so nice. I wish we could live right off of the river...

But guess what we saw on the other side of the river on a big rock? Bear poo! Yes! Oh My! I didn't know we were out there with bears. Then the kids informed me that they found some last night just down from our tent on a tree on the river.

So they showed me, and it was still fresh. AAAAHHHHH. That is so scary. I don't think I want to camp with bears anymore.

It was really fun though. We had such a great time together. It was really bonding for our family.

And I love long car drives, so I like taking these long trips.

Well, thanks for listening to me babble on. lol The one thing that I regret was not bringing my camera! What was I thinking?

Next time I will have pics to show you!

This last week we just stayed home, and did pretty much nothing, but it was so good to have him home.

He had to go back to work today. SAD

But I am happy we got this time together. He hasn't had a vacation in over 6 years.

Next time we go camping though I need to find some tips on how to keep the bugs away. We have bug bite all over our legs. And I still have some kind of rash on my tummy. Poison Ivy or something.

What kind of tips do you have for camping?

Do you ever feel like you have too much curriculum?

UGH. I feel so frustrated. I have all of my plans laid out. I have all of my curriculum. I am set.

BUT, I don't have time for any of the extras. I have so many ebooks, unit studies, audio classes, etc, that I never have time to do.

Do you ever just want to do one thing at a time, and move on?

I mean, I have all subjects picked out. Each course will take a year. If I continue with this, I will not be able to do any of those unit studies, living books, etc.. that I also want to do.

I feel like I would want to do math and writing each day with my oldest, math and reading each day with my youngest, and then just do something else, whether that be a history or science thing.Whatever.

Do you know what I mean?

For example, I have almost all of the Curiosity Files. I would like to do just one of those until we are done, and then move on to something else.

I have Creation Science classes online, I have cool art projects, I have a lot I would like to do, but with all of my curriculum picked out for the year, I won't have time for any of that.

And Lapbooks, OH MY, I have 100's of lapbooks. But never any time. sigh

I want to read a lot more, I want to do a lot more projects. Oh, I just feel tied down.

Do you ever feel that way?

How do you deal with this? How do you make it work? How do you incorporate the extras?

DON'T Leave Your Books on the Dashboard of Your Car!

Twice I have left a hardback book on the dashboard of the car. Both times it warped the books.

You would think I would have learned the first time, but NO.

After the second time I did learn my lesson, BUT, today I left a paper back there.

I didn't think it would be an issue.

The heat melted some of the binding and some of the pages came loose! It was a new book too! (Already Compromised. I am almost done. Look for that review soon.)

I just wanted to share this with you all so that hopefully you won't end up with warped covers, pages coming loose.

Green Beans in the Garden

I just went to the Homestead Blessings Website, and saw this video.

I just wanted to share it with you. It was so sweet. The girls were quite a bit younger in this video though.



I have been watching some of their videos. I love them. Tomorrow I am going to make a roast using their recipe. It looks so good. And They have a great recipe for buttermilk ranch dressing. YUM!!!

If you haven't hear of the West Ladies before, you really should check them out. 

More Things for Sale - Price Reduced

Writing Strands Level 4 Retails for $20. Selling for $5 plus Shipping.

Very good condition. Does have our family name in the top right hand corner, but can easily be covered. 

                                                                                                                                                                  

Reading Strands Retails for $20. Selling for $5 plus shipping. Has a little corner wear, and has our name in the corner. 

Will sell both books together for $10.

Writing With a Purpose.  Retails for $16. Selling for $5 plus shipping. Brand New. Never Used.

  

Story of the World Volume 1 Retails for $16.95. Can buy at Christianbook for $11.49. 

Selling for $6 including shipping. Good, used condition. Has some wear. 

Spelling Wisdom Book 1  Retails for $21.95 Selling for $10 including shipping.

Great condition. Has some shelf wear. Cover is not Bright White anymore. lol Pages in great condition.

ABeka Arithmetic 6 Have the set of Student workbook, Teachers Guide, test and speed drills, and Test and speed drills answer key. Retails for over $50. Selling for $15 plus shipping.

The first 35 lessons have been done, but can easily be erased. There are 169 lessons.

There is another version coming out, but you can still get this one through A Beka as well.