Summer Learning

I had grandiose ideas of how to continue the kids education into the summer by just doing a little bit of spelling and math each day... Who was I kidding? It didn't happen. But we have been up to a lot! And yes, they are still learning anyway :)

Learning how to:

pick 100 pounds of strawberries,
make up important questions to be answered by anyone wishing to climb our tree,


help with laundry,

put on sunglasses,

be more helpful in the kitchen,
copy our fun and crazy dada on adventure hikes into the forest to hide time-capsules for viewing years down the road,
be Japanese tourists with our own poor kids as the subjects,

hold still like the big boys,
play football and do sparklers at the same time,
put smoke bombs on the back of our scooters and ride as fast as possible,
get on a scooter (with proper head protection),
go garage sale-ing for hours on end every Friday so we can find great deals like this backyard fire pit for $5 so we can have parties with cousins and cook hot dogs and marshmallows all evening,

swing in the hammock we got daddy for Father's Day,

eat polish dogs and ice cream cones at our church's outdoor evening service,


be content with short visits from a good friend who is a missionary in Australia,


take backpacking trips with good friends,
and do it while in a skirt,
catch crawdads, cook and eat them,





doing crazy spins and wacky dives off of the diving board,



swimming with floaties,
approach a llama with a group of 30 and not scare it,

and much, much more. It's been a full summer so far and we have a few more weeks to go. I'm starting to focus on school and our curriculum a lot more now because I want to be prepared going into it. Also, Cliff and I get to run with some of our best friends in the Hood to Coast relay in a few weeks. So, we are focusing a lot of time and energy on training and muscle readiness :) My first leg (of 3) is straight downhill from Timberline Lodge to Govt. Camp. My muscles have been "learning" (very painfully, I might add) how to do this by running repetitively down the steep hill by our church.

I've also been learning a lot through our summer study of passages in the Bible having to do with the Pharisees and a book called 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (like me) Finding the Grace to Live Unmasked. For the first time, really, I'm learning how much I am like them and didn't realize it. It has been humbling, eye-opening and challenging, but really good! I'll probably do a post of that when we are done with it.

Learning is great fun and good whether well planned and structured or not! We are so blessed to be able to do it in this great free country with awesome like-minded friends and family who are willing to encourage each other in this really long (yet I realize very short) earthly walk of sanctification with Jesus.

I'm soooo thankful.