I have one more day to be a working mom. Tomorrow is our last day camp day. I am tired of having to have the house cleaned up, lessons ready, and animals cared for by 8:15. I have really enjoyed the camps, and I know the boys have had a great time, but my sacrificing is over for a while. On Monday I sent #2 to the mailbox before everyone came. The school bus was coming down the road as he ran to the box. The bus stopped for him. I later found out the driver called out to him, "Which school do you go to?" "I don't go to school," he replied. Oh great, I guess I should be watching for social services now. Last night as I read to the boys before bed, #2 said he had an idea and disappeared under the end table. I didn't pay attention and kept reading. All of a sudden the lights went out and blue light and sparks flew out from under the table. I went over to look, and out crawled #2 breathing hard. "What in the world did you do?" "I thought I would try to make a light under the table so I could see if I missed cleaning up any parts." He had put a copper wire from one of our experiments into the outlet and hooked it onto the little lightbulb that we used. Thank God the wire was insulated and he wasn't hurt. Those 10,000 angels that guard him were working overtime. Maybe I should put him on that schoolbus!

This week has been Science Camp at my house. I have 6 students, including my own 2 kids, and each day is devoted to a different branch of science. So far we have done Biology, Botany, and Chemistry. Tomorrow is Astronomy and then Physics. We are doing as much hands on as possible. I am tired! Yesterday a friend and I took our kids to Durham in the afternoon to see The Bodies Exhibition. I guess we were prolonging the science exposure. It is a traveling exhibit that we missed when we were in Philly last year. I had heard from a friend there that it is good, so we checked it out. It was quite amazing, but I think the big people got more out of it than the kids did. It is real bodies, dissected to show the different systems of the body. All of the bodies came from China. The interesting part to me was seeing the things that were wrong with the body, like polyps in the colon, cancer throughout the body, stroke in the brain, and a massive heart attack. Also of interest was the amazing intricacies of the body. The 3 bones in the ear are SOOOO tiny. The perfect little toes on a 13 week old fetus. The strands of capillaries. Someone has a lot more patience than I do to dissect all of that apart. ---------- #2 is a nut case. Last week he told me threw up a little bit, but he swallowed it down. Well don't do that I said, you should spit it out and rinse your mouth. "No," he replied, "it has nutritional value in it. It's like an animal eating the afterbirth for the protein." I assured him it was nothing like that and don't do it again, but he wasn't so convinced. Ugh.

I feel like a kid going through puberty. The year I turned 36 it all started. I could tell within a month that things were different. Here I am, a year and a half later, still trying to figure out this body. Things don't work like they used to, I am HOT almost all of the time, my hair is changing texture, and things don't fit like they used to. Nobody tells you in high school health class that this will happen again in life. -------- Hubby was reading an interesting thing to me this morning. There is something called a "freegan" now. It is someone who tries very hard to eat organically, live eco-friendly, and does as much for free as possible. This includes raiding dumpsters. The loot they got from a dumpster was amazing, though. There was even toilet paper still in the packaging. Americans' need for fresh and best is nauseating at times. I was driving by a housing development earlier this week and it made me sick to see the huge houses. It must be a nightmare to cool them in this heat, and how many people live in those monstrosities anyway? Someone was telling me this quote from a source in the 1920's: "Why is it that the most people live in the small houses and the fewest people live in the large houses?" Things haven't changed much. -------- We went to the beach yesterday for a few hours. It was a very pleasant day. I like that we live close enough to drive down for a day. My husband likes that we live close enough to go for a few hours and then leave before he is french fried. There were a lot of surfers there yesterday; that was the first we had seen surfers there. We got a couple of skim boards and tried that out. I hurt my back doing that---back to that puberty thing again!

Yesterday I decided that I need to work as a top executive for some big company. In less than half a day I had taught many subjects, given a piano lesson, cooked, cleaned, done laundry, paid bills, organized a child pick-up from school, put out a couple of fires, and rearranged an event due to illness- which involved a little bit of public relations. Later in the evening I was telling hubby this and that I need to make more money. #2 assumed I was serious and told his brother that mon is going to get a top job with the NY Times because she needs to make more money. I have to be careful what I say! ------------- School has worn out my extra kids too. Today the youngest two were having meltdowns. Of course, you have to take into account that they are 3 and 5 and that stage of life has a lot of meltdowns naturally. We got through school rather quickly today. There were tears during math, but I stuck to my guns and we got through it. I guess we will see how much is retained tomorrow. It was double digit multiplication. I kept trying to remind myself what it is like to learn something for the first time. ------------- I went back to the chiropractor today. He did a good adjustment today when I told him that yesterday didn't help any. I think he knew I had a free coupon yesterday and was trying to get me to come back today. I didn't tell them that I had a coupon today too, and I got a good adjustment. Makes you wonder.... Anyway, he says don't dig or hoe and stay out of holes. As I was vacuuming and carrying a load of laundry out to the line I wondered if these things were counted among the "holes." I can't stop and do nothing! If I did I would have to see a psychiatrist, and I am sure there are no free coupons for them!!

I went back to the chiropractor this morning. I think I am going to have to go every couple of months. I have needed to go back for a while, but I just seem too busy and so I put up with the pain. When it gets to the point that it hurts to lie down, stand, and sit then I suppose it is time to get some relief! I have to go back tomorrow for another adjustment and then I should be ok for a while. ---------- We finished up school this morning fairly well. The extra kids are here this afternoon and we still have geography to work on. I'll see how that goes, but it doesn't usually go well to school when they are here to play. They are here all afternoon tomorrow as well, so we do have to start it this afternoon. This was the kids' first day of school. #3 did an acrostic poem, #4 didn't know what he did, and #5 didn't finish his red logs (whatever that is). I told him he could finish it tomorrow, but he assured me he doesn't want to do it ever. My niece started Kindergarten last week. She stayed on the bus one day and missed her stop. It was just too fun to ride the bus, that she didn't notice she passed her stop. This week she slept until 9 a.m. She goes to afternoon Kindergarten. In her words, "That Kindergarten weared me out!"

The dog now belongs to my husband. During the night she left the boys' room and came to our room. She kept stirring and licking herself, so I put her out and shut our door. She waited a couple of minutes and then barked. "Great," I thought, "she's going to start barking at something and keep us up." But she didn't; it was just the one bark. Then, she evidently came into the office here and used the carpet for a toilet. Now she belongs to him! I have washed it and spread baking soda on it, but I will have to shampoo it. It really stinks in here now. ------------------- Yesterday was my first day back with the "extra" kids. They have grown over the month or so that they were gone. Of course, so have my two. We went to the state park to swim and play for the day. The water was a good 6 feet lower than where it was about 6-7 weeks ago. We need rain desperately. ------------------- Today is the annual 4-H club pool party. The kids look forward to it all summer. We swim at a member's community pool, eat pizza and snacks, and have a fun time together. So this morning will be busy trying to fit in school work and play.

One of the funny things that happened while camping: We went swimming at the beach for an hour before getting ready for our play. After swimming, I told the kids they had to shower so we could go to the drama. Alex, 6 years old, was obviously not happy about this. I sent him in with his sister to help get the sand and seaweed off. I heard his sister say, "It's not so bad. You don't have to get all your body in, just stick in the sandy parts." Then in a joyous voice Alex responded, "Hey! No soap either!" The world would be a lot stinkier if there weren't any women. -------------- Tonight ended up being guys' night out, but I joined them for dinner. Then we went our separate ways: me to grocery shop, and them to the library and store. At dinner I told them we had big news for them. "Actually," I said, "Your father has big news for you." Their response was as if I had said we are having another baby! Their faces were shocked, their mouths hung open, and their words were incomprehensible. The news? Kelly is to be an indoor dog now. This is my husband's decision, but I guess I have to go along with it. She has been visiting the neighborhood across the field from us. It started as a place to go when we were out of town. I think she would get lonely and scared during storms. Then she started visiting when we would just go for a night, and we are starting to wonder if she is visiting while we go to the store. One of the neighbors stopped me the other day as I picked her up. She has been trying to get in their house through their doggie door. So in order to keep her from bothering others, she is to be a house pet. The guys went to get shampoo and flea medicine this evening. The boys are happy to have her stay in their room now, and #1 wanted to know if she can sleep in his bed. He is on the top bunk! I guess washing the dog can now be added to my list of chores.

Economics is over. I think it went well, and I had a lot of good comments from parents. They told me several things their children have gone home and talked about, so I think they learned a good bit. Taxes were a big issue with them. We went through a pay stub and looked at all that comes out of your pay, and they decided to do away with taxes. Then we discussed taxes and what they do for us, and most ended up with a grudging willingness to pay taxes. One girl said absolutely not though. I had fun teasing her mother, who is a Democrat, that her daughter is an extreme Republican! I took #1 with me last night to run some errands, and had him do some comparison shopping at Food Lion. He picked out the cheese sticks, Q-Tips, and garbage bags with help. Then I had him look for 2 boxes of cereal while I ran to the restroom. The cereal was a lot harder because it came with the stipulation of 10 grams or less of sugar per serving. He was able to find one box, but I had to pick the other one. He didn't care for the other options. _______________ We went camping on Friday with 4-H. We went to the Outer Banks to see The Lost Colony outdoor drama. It was good; one 6 year old member said it was the best historical play he had ever seen. I think the indians jumping out of the bushes had a lot to do with it. The camping was ok. We got back about midnight and storms started rolling through about 1:30. #1 couldn't stand it and cried to go home. I was afraid he might be sick, like a friend who didn't get to go, so I was up worrying what to do if vomiting started. Finally around 4 a.m. I was able to sleep, though not well since the air mattress had a hole and deflated on me. Then the other kids woke up about 6 a.m. and we were off on another busy day. We let the kids swim in the FREEZING cold waters of the Outer Banks, and then we had lunch and went to the Elizabethan Gardens. It was a fun trip. We love our 4-H club so much. _________________ The trip made us especially tired since I had been called away to the hospital on Thursday night and then cared for two toddlers through the night. One of the ladies I have met through the shelter needed to go to the hospital and she had no choice but to take the kids with her. The nurses were having a terrible time with the kids in the room and asked isn't there anyone who can come and get them. The poor thing has no family and very little in the way of friends. So she called here looking for help. I can't imagine letting my young children walk off to spend the night with what amounts to a stranger.

Yesterday we discussed non-renewable resources you find in your home. I had the kids make sculptures of some, and one kid made a clock. He said it was "time" because you can never get time back. I thought that was very clever. The classes seem to have gone well. Today was an exchange for the kids to learn about markets. They couldn't wait when they got there to make their exchanges. Some learned that, just like spinach Poptarts would not be a good idea, you should have brought something somebody would want, to be able to exchange. The producers and consumers rely on each other. Tomorrow starts the "Big Kids" class, grades 3-8. I don't know all of the students so I am hoping it goes well. -------- We are going camping with our 4-H club on Friday evening at the Outer Banks. We plan to see The Lost Colony, an outdoor drama. I'm not sure if hubby is going, so it may be me and the boys. We are also taking 2 other kids whose parents can't go. It is just one night, so it can't be too bad, but August is not usually a great time to camp. There is also a chance of a storm Friday night, so it may be quite exciting.

The Economics Seminar is going well. Yesterday was the class for K-2; I had forgotten how funny teaching Kindergarten is. As we talked about specialization, we discussed what our parents do for a living. I liked the one that said, "My Dad talks on the phone a lot." Her dad is a real estate agent. Today I had 20 students grades 2-5 and they seemed to have a good time and catch on to the concepts well. Tomorrow the students are to bring an item to exchange with other children as we learn about markets. I had no idea this would be such an ordeal. "Do we have to?" "Can we have it back?" "I can't find anything." They don't want to part with any of their things. Perhaps materialism is the lesson we will learn. --------------- Tails. They sure are cute. In the mornings when the kids get let out of the coop, they run to Millie and wag as fast as they can while they gulp down the milk. The ducks waggle their tails as they eat up the corn that the goats drop. Kelly bangs her tail on the floor whenever you pass by in hopes of a belly rub. The cats twitch their tails to show annoyance or disapproval. A friend was telling me the other day about her daughter- age 3- that walked in on Dad as he came out of the shower. "Mommy! Daddy has a tail!" That's going to take a while to explain!

I had a flashback yesterday of my professional teaching days. I was trying to think about the lessons for next week, and those for the other week of day camp lessons, and I had just finished the week of environmental lessons and was reviewing my success at that. I then remembered the days of lesson plans and was glad to be done with that! The environmental camp went well. Yesterday we made molds of the goat hoofprints. We were supposed to walk around the woods and look for animal prints to mold, but without any rain for so long it was going to be impossible. So we improvised and got our own tracks. I think the kids' favorite lesson was one about how much can land support. They were to take trees and water drops off of a grid as people moved in and see how long the natural resources lasted. I'm not sure why it was the favorite, but it was. Finally we have some relief from the heat. The last 4 days had temperatures in the hundreds and humidity that would soak you as soon as you stepped outside. The air conditioners couldn't keep up, and you tried to stay inside. The poor rabbits looked miserable, all sweaty and panting. We iced them several times a day, but I am sure they wanted more ice. Yesterday evening we finally got a good soaking, blowing storm and cleared the humidity out of the air. It was pleasant when I went to milk this morning. I know it was a soaking, blowing storm because I was in it. Hubby and I went out on the porch to enjoy the storm- I was enjoying, not him- and then he went inside. I decided to wait a few more minutes. When I tried to get back in, as the storm worsened, the door wouldn't open. I thought he was being a smartie pants and had locked me out, but actually the door jam screws had come loose and were catching the door closed. So I had to run around the house to the back door. It was kind of fun, actually. The door is now fixed.

Something interesting happened yesterday. There was a 4-H meeting at our church building. My husband, the minister, went home to work in peace. As we were leaving, a man came by asking for the pastor. One of the ladies sent him to me as the pastor's wife. He wanted to talk to my husband, he worked for the city. So I thought there was some problem with the utilities and offered to call hubby. The man's face lit up and he asked, "Could you really do that?" "Sure," I responded. So as I called and waited for it to be picked up, I asked the man what the problem was. He said he needed prayer. He got on the phone and talked to my husband, they prayed, the man became very emotional, he hung up, thanked me and left. I later asked my husband what it was about. It seems that a family member asked this man for some money. He went in the house and got some for him. Later, the family member came in and stole the safe. Now he has to tell the family what this person did, and he is upset to have to tell everyone. He wanted someone to pray with him about telling the family what happened. It was so encouraging to see someone come for that kind of help. So often people come by or call and want a hand-out. I certainly understand sometimes needing financial help or food, but so often it seems expected that we must help them. It reminds me of Jesus asking why people followed him, and some followed because they knew he could give them bread and fish. They just wanted a hand-out. Jesus offers so much more: peace, comfort, friendship. They come for water, not knowing living water is flowing past their door. Yesterday was a very hot day, and Jesus gave a refreshing drink to a thirsty man.

I started reading a book about lectio divina when I was on retreat. I have finally picked it back up. It is by Tony Jones and he has a great way of putting spiritual things on a level I understand. Here is an excerpt: "You might think "the Bible is living" is a weird idea. You might have a Bible near you right now. Look at it. It sits there, inanimate, made of dead trees and maybe bound with the hide of a dead cow. That doesn't seem living in any way. The Bible lives in another sense: Because it's God-breathed, it has the ability to breathe God's spirit into us. Think of it this way: The belief of Christ-followers is that, though the Bible is done being written, it's not done writing. The Bible writes its truths on our hearts, speaking its words constantly into new situations, new times, and new cultures. God's spirit is alive and well and enables us to read the Bible in faith. No other book can make that claim." The book is called read, think, pray, live (yes, lower case). It is short and easy to read. I recommend it. -------------- The first day of camp went well. I had 5 students, tomorrow I will have 3 and then the rest of the week I will have 6. Anyway, 2 of the 3 experiments didn't work well, so it was a trial and error thing, but the kids had fun chasing goats and climbing trees anyway. Tomorrow we look at pond water.

I was embarrassed today. I could feel my face turn pink. Hubby announced to the church that I had won the grant to teach economics. He never says anything personal from the "pulpit" (we don't actually have a pulpit), and it took me by surprise. I'm glad to know he is proud of me. He even looked up how many winners there were, something I hadn't done. There were only 2 in NC, so I guess that speaks well of me. ______ We finished The Long Winter, and are now on Little Town on the Prairie. The Long Winter intrigued me. I can't imagine that happening now. We would get food to those in isolation, no matter the weather. Katrina showed us that it might take a few days, but it certainly didn't take 7 months! People nowadays wouldn't know what to do if the food didn't come with directions of "add water and 2 TBS of margarine." Anyway, it has had me curious. The indian's warning was this happens every 21 years- a really, really bad winter. That means that last winter, 2006-2007, would actually have been time for the bad winter. I don't remember hearing anything about it. I wonder how much global warming has affected that. -------- Tomorrow starts my first day camp. It is environmental studies and has a lot of experiments. I hope I have everything together. I feel like I do. So today, as much as I don't like to on Sundays, we are cleaning house. I spent yesterday helping with the church Water Day, and then finishing up the planning for the economics seminar. So that left today for the "dirty work." Since #1 had no clean underwear this morning, it also meant doing a load of laundry. I have no idea where his underwear went. I gave him a bunch to put away on Tuesday. He either hid it really well (I have looked too) or he just stuck it all back in the dirty hamper so he wouldn't have to put it away. Who knows. Maybe this will teach him to take care of his laundry when he is to put it away. Probably not, clean underwear is not that important to a 10 year old boy.

I have a friend who recently moved with her family to Ohio. She is very unhappy with the move. It was a good move for the husband's work environment, but it hasn't been so great for the family. They moved to a town of about 3,000. There are few homeschoolers, and those she has found have been isolationists. They don't want to be in groups or to have friends. She went to a support meeting a couple of nights ago, and the women weren't allowed to talk unless their husbands gave permission. They all wore blue denim jumpers too! That tells you something right there! We are so very blessed to be here where home schooling is so well supported. We have great friends and we all work together. The boys really enjoyed their geography co-op yesterday. This coming week, I am teaching a day camp at my house on the Environment. That will be our school for the week, and other kids will be joining us. Then the next week I am teaching a seminar all week on Economics. That will have even more kids at it, and again it will be our school for the week. I would hate to be going this journey alone. ----- Geography did go well. The boys practiced their speeches several times before we left. It was so cute to hear #2 practicing aloud as if he were there with his friends. He kept making comments like they were there. They enjoyed making the foods too. We made cheese stuffed focaccia from Italy and lavosh from Spain. Lavosh is a crispy sesame seed flat bread.

Hubby and I went to see No Reservations yesterday while the boys were at camp. It was a very "wet" movie. It wasn't a sobbing movie, but leaky definitely. Tomorrow I want to try Hairspray. I enjoyed the movie yesterday, but I would like to laugh more than cry. The boys are excited about a co-op we are going to today. Last year I put together a geography co-op for the USA, and #1 thanked me nearly every week for putting it together. That was all the motivation I needed to do it again this year. However, it is going to be a shorter co-op this year. Last year we met for 14 weeks and that was just too long. This year we are meeting just 4 weeks. We are learning about European geography, and this week it is the Mediterranean region. The boys have Italy and Spain. Part of the co-op is to bring a snack food from your country. We are taking cheese stuffed focaccia bread and lavosh- a thin bread covered with sesame seeds. The focaccia looks so good I think I will make some for dinner. The lavosh has to be made this morning. ----------- The Minneapolis bridge collapse is big news right now. It certainly is devastating and shocking. The part that surprised us was the very first idea anyone had was that it might be terrorism. That never occured to us- just a terrible accident. Perhaps I am still naive, or perhaps others are paranoid.

The kids are off to camp for the day. They are participating in a 4-H day camp. They are going to Bath to learn about the oldest NC town and to learn about Blackbeard, who stayed there a while and married the town leader's daughter. Then they go to Goose Creek Park to go seining in the river/estuary. This is one of the camps that they have looked forward to all summer. We picked up friends who were also going to the camp. They don't live too far from us, thankfully. #2's shoe broke while we were picking them up, so we had to drive back down here to get new shoes before going to camp. Just love that little extra bit of stress! So now I have the day to get some school work done and to meet my husband for an early movie. Of course, I was up last night not feeling well, so I took a medicine that has knocked me for a loop. I think the day's activities will include a little nap. ------------- Last night my group's topic was laughter. We spent a lot of time laughing as well. It was good. Then Honey had a movie to watch, and I felt badly saying it is 10:00 are you nuts?! So I watched the movie with him. It was very full of sexual inuendoes, but funny, funny, funny. I think Honey enjoyed my laughter more than the movie.

Last night was my night off. I spend it in different ways every week. Last week I had a great time just staying home and worshipping God. Some weeks I work in the garden, read a magazine, plan school, clean house, and sometimes I go out with friends. Last night I went out to dinner, did some shopping for supplies for school, and then met a friend for dessert and chatter. It was fun to just sit and talk. The conversation is sometimes light, sometimes deep, but always friendly and uplifting. A woman needs other women. ------------ #2 made lasagna for dinner on Monday. He was supposed to make Mexican sandwiches, but changed his mind as he looked through the cookbook for the recipe. He saw the resipe for lasagna and decided he would rather have that. His father's response had me laughing. "You have to shop for the ingredients and plan it out. You can't just change your mind willy nilly about something like that. You act just like your mother, never following the rules!" We had lasagna, had to substitute some of the cheese, but someimes you just have to break the rules!