New Challenges

 As a family, we've been in a stable place for a season.

And now we are not, again.

We are facing some of the old challenges grown larger. 
Weare facing some new challenges that feel simply too big.

This week a few of the kids are at CAP Encampment.

One, who should have been there, is not because of a mistake he made that had large consequences attached.

In the past I have written somewhat freely about our challenges.

Now, I feel inclined to turn inward.

The only homeschool business I have to write about is that we're still reading My Friend Flicka, and we quite enjoy it.  It's wordy, and has some racially biased tendencies (and a nasty word or two).  I edit that out as I read aloud (or sometimes I stop for a conversation about what's in the story and why it's not okay).  The plot is quite engaging, and the peril level is just right for my crew to feel excited as the story progresses, but not actually frightened.

We've got kids coming and going so much now that I've given up only reading when everyone is together.  We're reading each day, and if someone misses a section of the story, the rest of us have fun filling that person in.

Mister Man was gone every day this past week from 7:30-5:30 because he was at CyberCamp learing about cyber safety--a perk of CAP in our area.  

No pics.

It's just a bunch of kids sitting around staring at computers.

But the stuff they're learing is useful.

And Mister Man loves it.

We had The Munchkin and Sugar Bear over one day, so they played games, went to the library, and helped Lola work on her newest doll house.



And we found a new park!

It's got no shade, so it's only good for spring/fall play, but the kids played on a slide that whipped them down the chute fast enough for teens to find fun.





We ended the week with a celebratory dinner in honor of our Island Fest teachers.  

The kids did all of their dances.





My favorite part of the night was watching the dinner organizers try to organize all of those teens with little success.  Kids were chatting, milling about, and generally seeming unaware of the adults.  

But then the music started.

Those kids snapped to attention like they were trained soldiers.

The first moves were in perfect unison!

They were beautiful to watch.

Overall this week was filled with anxiety, tears, phone calls, hugs, and  . . . peace.

Just enough peace to keep us going through the heaviness that makes each day feel like every task has weights attached to it.

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