Camping has been redeemed!

We returned from our wonderful camping/canoeing trip yesterday afternoon - dirty, sweaty, exhausted...and so blessed! The kids did great and really enjoyed themselves. It was so fun to see my son come alive the second night around the fire - enjoying the company of the other kids, roasting marshmallows, listening to the stories, and staying up wayyyyy past bedtime! He is so social!
Dear daughter preferred the solitude of camping and fled the onslaught of bees and mosquitoes for the retreat of the tent. She had brought many (if not ALL) of her ponies and her new bunch of sea creatures and enjoyed the fresheness of the outdoors through the screens of the tent as she was whisked away in her imaginations with the animals. She also had fun playing in the river with her sea creatures - the COLD river I add! She also had moments of real fun with the other kids and got to see a baby catfish and even watched tadpoles moving inside the safety of their eggs. She was on cloud nine!
I would love to share some more spiritual insights gleaned on this trip, but I sense this is one of those times where I just revel in the togetherness of the experience and leave it be at that. (Or maybe it's the tiredness that still lingers, the mountains of laundry still waiting - in spite of the 4 loads I did right away yesterday! - and the fact that my late sleeping children need to get moving and have some breakfast that compels me to end my post. ;))
Blessings!
Ruby

Relay for Life

Last night we had our annual Relay for Life to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Some of you may have gotten an email from me with a link to my fundraising page.

This picture is one of the luminaries we made for Paul's dad. The kids helped shave crayons and I ironed the shavings between wax paper to make our "stained glass windows". We are very pleased with how they turned out. We will be doing this again next year (especially since my mom and her best friend are the Co-chairs of the event!) and we will gladly make luminaries for your loved ones! When it is time I will again have a webpage just for Relay for Life and can send you link. For any size donation that you can make safely right online we will make you luminaries. I can take a picture just like the one above and send to you as a keepsake.

For those who are not familiar with RfL, it is an all-night affair! My husband and Brother-in-Law DJ the event all night so I get to come home with the kids and sleep in my own bed until hubby comes home in the faint light of dawn and claims it! It does end up to be a late night for everyone, however. I think my cherubs were finally on their way to dreamland around 11:15 last night! Paul has had so many commitments as of late that from Wednesday afternoon until sometime this Saturday afternoon I will have seen him a total of about 1 hour! He hasn't even been home to sleep in his own bed! Needless to say, last night when the kids were in bed I had to pop in Lord of the Rings for a little mommy "fun time"! When I headed to bed my book "Redeeming Love" beckoned me and before I knew it, it was 2 a.m.! *Yawn* Glad I didn't have much planned for today! We all leave for a canoe/camping trip on Monday so today is laundry/plan/pack day. We did our big shopping trip last week to replace the camping chair broken during last year's trip, get DS his first sleeping bag, and add a new 5 day cooler to our ancient regular old red one. The kids are so excited! Every morning they ask how many mornings until we go camping. It has been years since we have tent camped and even since then we have only camped twice. Why? You ask? Check out this account of our last tenting experience and all questions will disappear!

A Nightmare to Remember

I best end this post before I ramble on forever! I just really need to say a "Thank You!" to those of you who have been praying for me. We are still muddling through the house issues (and now our central air died on top of it all with no hope for fixing it!) and family issues surrounding the seemingly never-ending task of grieving, but I can see it all working to build patience, forgiveness, and just plain character. I just wish I would "catch on" a little quicker each time!

I leave you with a couple more pictures from last night. Blessings to all and to all a good ... night?

(okay, forget the pictures, according to blogger my pictures have been added but I have no idea where they are being added to because they aren't showing here!)