Priest Lake

We had planned to go camping up to Priest Lake this past weekend, and then do some Geocaching around the lake on Saturday. We had the trailer all loaded and ready to pull out when my husband got home from work on Friday afternoon. As we drove down the street he commented that it seemed to be leaning funny, so he pulled into a parking lot to check it out. Turns out a spring was broken by one of the wheels. I'm not really up on the "architecture" and structure of travel-trailers so I can't really explain exactly what was broken, but apparently it is a major thing. So that cancelled our camping plans for the weekend. We took the trailer to the RV shop and unloaded the things we needed out of it. (It is still under warranty and the man thought he had the part or could get it within a day or two. That was good news!)

We decided we could still drive up to the lake on Saturday for Geocaching. We got started in this hobby back in 2002, but hadn't done it in a year or more. It is always so much fun... especially around here because the scenery is so beautiful, particularly when you get off the beaten path. We weren't disappointed this time... but we were reminded how out-of-shape we are... and how out-of-practice we are at finding caches! We looked for 4 but only located 2. (And, boy, was I sore the next day.) Fun stuff!

Priest Lake

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We're not in the Bible Belt...

We attended a lovely outdoor wedding this past Friday night. A lady my husband works with was getting married and invited our family to the wedding. The setting was gorgeous, and the decorations were just beautiful. I wish I had taken my camera. It was a "woodland" theme. The arch was made of rough branches overlaid with boughs of native greenery trimmed with streamers in earth tones and wildflowers. The bridesmaids' gowns were simple flowing gowns of dark brown... (I know, I had never seen dark brown bridesmaids' dresses before either, but they suited this wedding) ...the men wore khaki pants and dark sage green shirts, and the little flower girls had dark brown dresses with gauzy green fairy wings on their backs! So cute!

The whole wedding had an Irish theme to it, with flute music, a "handfasting" ceremony, and the "Old Irish Blessing". I don't know the bride well, and the groom not-at-all, but I assume this was something that was meaningful to them. It was very unique and interesting.

What was very sad to me, though, was there was not a single verse of scripture read, nor a prayer said (unless you count the "Old Irish Blessing"). I just didn't know what to think of that. Apparently those things are not important to the couple. Is this common these days? Or is it just the part of the country we live in?

Camping in the mountains

Camping

We had a very relaxing weekend camping close to home this time. It was a Forest Service campground, so no hookups, but we didn't mind. The kids even decided to put up their tent and sleep in it. The only down side was that there is a Stage 2 burn ban on right now, which means that we couldn't have a campfire. We really missed that.

This is probably our favorite FS campground, at least, of those we've stayed in... as it is right on the river... and the river is very shallow and crystal clear, so the kids can play in the water to their hearts' content! They loved it.

The highlight of the weekend was having a moose cow and her calf walk right past our picnic table as we were grilling supper last night. I dashed into the camper to get the camera, but by the time I got back out they were too far in the brush for me to get a good shot. My husband ran to head them off on the road, but even then he only got a quick shot of the calf before they were gone. (Moose can be dangerous, especially a cow with a baby, so we didn't want to be too aggressive about chasing them.) Moose sightings are very exciting to us. I think we had lived here 3 or 4 years before we ever saw one, and even now that we've been in the area 9+ years I can only count on one hand the number of times we've seen one.

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This past weekend we went to...

Glacier National Park

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Home School Open House

While I was out blog-hopping I ran into another fun "carnival" I decided to participate in. It's the Homeschool Open House 2007 hosted by Tiany at "Less of Me~More of Him". She asked that we post a little bit about our homeschooling experience, and then glean from each other as we visit each other's blogs. Sounds like a great idea to me!

We have just started our 10th year homeschooling. It is hard to believe it has been that long already! It started off as an experiment, and at first I adopted the philosophy of it being a year-to-year thing, to be re-decided every summer. After the first year, I couldn't imagine doing anything else for the second year, and so it has grown on me. By now, learning is a life-style in our family, not just something we do during school hours... so we will be "staying the course" as the saying goes. We are 2 weeks into our first year of high school, so it's a whole new ball game... but oh-so-much-fun (most days)!

We have been using Sonlight curriculum from the very beginning, and are still very happy with it. I especially love all the great books, but also appreciate the international focus, and the strong emphasis they place on raising kids to love learning. In 2000 I became a Sonlight Curriculum Consultant to represent Sonlight at my state homeschool convention. I still do this every spring and summer at various conventions in my general area. (I attended 6 this year!) It is a lot of work, but I really enjoy getting to meet other homeschoolers and sharing about how Sonlight works for us and how it might work for other families.

Our homeschool set-up changes from year-to-year based on where we are living, what we are studying, what the kids' needs are, etc. This year, my high school daughter has set up a study corner in the living room. I'm trying to talk her into moving it into her bedroom, so we'll see how that goes. My younger daughter likes to sit on her bed or the floor in her room or *my* bed. Where we live now there is a big open room upstairs that functions as the master bedroom/office/library. The walls are lined with bookshelves, and they are all full! I love to read and learn, and count it a privilege to be able to share that passion with my children.

Visit my Homeschool Resources page for more of my best tips, and if you use Sonlight, you will find my Links for Supplementing Sonlight page helpful. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great year!