Choosing Joy

I "found" this post in my drafts - I wrote it back in January but due to lacking "Joy", I didn't feel like posting it at the time.  As I reread it earlier this week, I realized that it's good.  I've come further in my "Joy" journey since January but I think it is also good to reflect on where we have been to see how far we've come. 

This past year brought events that stole my joy.  I believe that when you go through a life changing event you have to re-learn how to live a life you had prior to that event.  There is always a "before" and an "after"; a clear line in the sand.  As I came to the end of 2016, one of the conscience decisions I made was to work on choosing Joy throughout 2017.

In my "book" Joy and Happiness are two seperate things.  I have learned to laugh again and to find humor in things I hear and see.  I've slowly been able to sing again (granted some of those long praise songs - they wear me out about half way through and I'm done!).  The joy in my heart, though, is not there.  There is still sorrow and grief that fill that corners.  I know that my dad would say to me - find Joy.  So, that's what I am endeavoring to do.  You all know that when you decide to do something good, life will throw you a curve ball.  Boy did it ever!

January 2nd:
1) The boys and I went to Meijer and Josh dropped a glass ornament on the floor, which shattered and sent glass everywhere and caused him to go into a sobbing mess in the middle of the store.
2) Nate stepped in  . .. something . . that someone left in the aisle.
3) The boys wanted snails for their fish tanks and were told they were all dead.
4) Darryl had the worst day at work financially that he has ever had.  Not only did he make no money, he owed money for his cab rental.
5) The boys were mad because I told them they could no longer watch a show they were watching because I acutally sat down and watched a few episodes.
6) And just when I thought it was over, I took out my contacts and one of them disappeared.  I can always find them when they fall but this time, no suck luck.  Talk about a downer to end a day!

I will admit that when I awoke on January 3rd I had no joy.  We were all still fighting coughs and colds and now, my vision with glasses was less than par.  All four kids were here and they were arguing.  HA!  I read :-)  All day and reading does bring me joy.

So, here I am two weeks later and I'm still working on choosing joy.  For example, I went to the eye doctor and ordered new contacts.  Since it was going to be 7-10 days before the contacts arrived, he gave me a pair of soft contacts to use for free.  It was fabulous.  Sunday-Tuesday I got lots done because I could see again!  And then I got up Wednesday morning and one contact was missing.  For real.  I haven't lost one in over 20 years and now I've lost two in less than a week!  Uggg!  (Joyfully it was free, right?)  Now, I'm waiting and hoping the contacts come in sooner (like Monday) and not later (like Thursday!)

Living life with joy is a choice.  Despite circumstances or events that come along.

The Reality of Life Running at Fast Speed

Here it is the middle of June and I'm trying to figure out where the first half of the month went.  I kind of feel like I've been spinning my wheels and was contemplating why I feel like I haven't gotten anything done.  So, I pulled out my calender and took a look.  Here's the reality of June:

Last Week of May/First week of June - We still had our special session of homeschool co-op, baseball, Field Day, and a busy weekend of concerts with Darryl.

1st full week of June - We had to wrap up loose ends with school, choir practice, baseball, a choir concert and a weekend with family

2nd week of June - Vacation Bible School, Baseball, Swimming fun, a Field Trip, an activity at the library and camping!! 

No wonder I feel like it's been crazy!  I was thinking just yesterday that our last "commitment" is wrapping up because the boys last baseball game was Monday night.  . . .but then I remembered swim lessons started Monday morning HA!  So, 2 weeks of  swim lessons, four mornings a week and THEN I think it slows down.  

This week I'm focusing on regrouping, planning, and starting some of those June goals I posted about last week.  The kids need to get some reading time in to earn Library/Bookstore rewards and I need to put together their summer review "binders" to start in July.  

On a side note, you know it's been a busy season when your 7 year old sleeps in until 8;15 and your 8 year old sleeps until 9:00.  

Camping Trip #1

We survived and totally enjoyed our first camping trip of the season.  I hesitiate to type this next sentance because I might jinx our future trips this year but . . well . .this trip went off without a hitch.  It was almost too easy.  From hitching up the camper, to setting up, the weather (for the most part), and tearing down.  As the boys would say, "we beat our records for setting up and tearing down."  We'd love to get both of those events to under an hour but doing it in about 1 1/2 hours seems to be as fast as we can go for now!

I mentioned last week I talked about some stress-free camping ideas and the new one to us was two vechiles and let me tell you, what a game changer.  We loved having all four bikes, plenty of room to keep all of our snacks/coolers in the van and just to not have to jam things into one was great.  Plus, I got quiet time since I drove the van by myself HA!

We arrived on Thursday, set up the camper, unloaded and promptly decided that we were going to our favorite Pizza Place (Bernie O's) for dinner because we were HOT AND TIRED!  We came back to the campsite and took showers and put on PJ's before heading to the drive-in!  Just a few days Prior, I had checked and Captian Underpants was showing which the boys wanted to see.  Well, we got that and it wasn't showing because someone had a private party at one of the screens!  So, we made a quick decision and decided to see Pirates of the Carriabean instead which is not a choice we would make with the boys normally.  In the end, it was ok - there was no language or anything else - just lots of fighting which the boys loved HA!  Plus, when they got bored, they just played on their Ipads.

 Josh sat in front of the van with his blanket, bear and the left over pizza!!

Nate enjoying a peanut butter sandwich.  He wanted to sit next to the speaker :-)

Our second full day included Bike Rides, Sand Dunes, the Beach, Ice cream, and great Steak Kabobs over the fire!

 The water was cold and the waves were big which made it so much more fun!  The beach at Lake Michigan is truely my happy place and I'd pretty much rather be there than anywhere else!

 The boys loved the freedom of riding bikes everywhere.  This year they are able to go on longer bike rides by themselves and made lots of new friends. (And rescued a few lost littles too!)

 We always walk to the pier.  This year, the boys planned out a bike ride for us that took us to the pier before heading to a huge sand dune.

 Josh managed to climb to the top of the sand dune.

 Nate made it part way before Josh was already on his way back down.

One of our favorite meals is steak kabobs cook over the fire and they did not disappoint.  Yum!

Satuday was our last day - which we really wished we had one more day!  A pretty heavy (and loud) storm rolled through during the night which brought lots of mud puddles.

The rain also brought us some duck friends (There is a duck in this photo!).  The boys had fun feeding them (it was a couple :-) ) and they flew back to us a few times throughout the morning.

We are already looking forward to our next trip in July and we added an extra day to our planned trip because we decided it is way too much work to set up/tear down a campsite without spending at least two full days there!

Scripture Sunday

End of the School Year

We ended our second year of homeschooling with Connections Acadamy on June 9th.  I feel like it was another successful year and I felt like I had things a little more under control than I did last year.  I have some plans for this coming year to make it better - better scheduling around our co-op events and field trips; some schedule extra days off before Christmas and after New years; ending everything in our school year by May 15th.

 Josh with his 2nd grade teacher.  She was really awesome and worked well with us through his online classes.

 Nate's first grade teacher.  (No, he's not crying - that's just his "smile" right now HA!) He loves her :-)

Josh ran his first race yesterday and Nate and our little friend walked the path to meet up with him and ended up walking almost the whole thing too!

These photos were from our year end field trip which was awesome.  We also played on the splash pad, swam in the lake and played, played, played!

Weekly Meals - The one with camping

When I wrote last weeks menu, I was still on the "high" of thinking I could cook all kinds of stuff for camping.  Then I remembered that I don't want all of that work (yesterdays post!).  So I revamped it alot and here's the plan for the coming week!

Friday - Our annual dinner of Steak Kabobs (over the fire) baked potatoes (crock pot) and macaroni salad (Compliments of Walmart).

Saturday - After enjoying the last morning of camping, then loading up, coming home, and unloading . . I never want to cook.  We will either have leftovers depending on what we didn't eat while gone OR we will do a Taco Bell Run!

Sunday - Father's Day!  I have a nice breakfast planned - Waffle House Waffles (I found the recipe online) and Sausage.  Darryl hasn't decided what he wants - he is torn between going out or me cooking so once he decides, then we will go from there.

Monday - It's a busy night with baseball and I have practice.  So I think something simple for the kids and maybe hot dogs at the park for Darryl and I.

Tuesday - Finally.  Home.  Sloppy Joes and Baked Beans!!

Wednesday - We are meeting family for dinner in Grand Rapids!

Thursday - Chicken Alfredo, green beans and garlic bread.  Seriously, chicken is so expensive, I might buy a bag of that pre-cooked chicken strips and just throw them in with the pasta and store baought Alfredo sauce.

And then it is time to go to the store!!!

Camping- Can it be easy and stressfree?

Isn't this what we all really want? 

A nice, peaceful time camping without any stress or worries? 

Well, let me tell you.  It seems like more often, camping is like this.

Last year, on one of our camping adventures, I realized that I spent more time cooking and cleaning while camping then I did at home, or so it seemed.  I started with coffee and breakfast; cleaned up and got lunch in the crock pot; cleaned up and put dinner in the crock pot; made dinner and cleaned again before getting out snacks and, yes cleaning again.  On our next trip, I went on strike! 

I decided to focus on what we enjoy about camping which is family fun and sitting around the campfire.  Instead of labor intensive meals (either prepping at home or at the campsite) I went with stuff we could easily cook over the fire (Brats, Hot Dogs, ect).  I kept crockpot use to minimum with things like baked potatoes or corn on the cob.  

Every year, while camping, I say to myself, "Self, this year lets start working on camping stuff all winter - ideas, organizing, prepping crock pot meals for ease in meals."  And every year I don't do it HA!  So even this year, as we are getting ready to head out on our first adventure, I find myself scrambling to even find bins that I used last year because, well, I used them for other things throughout the year.  I WAY over planned meals and had to re-plan and remind myself to stop with the hard work!!!  (To think, I thought I would make an overnight breakfast so we could have a nice breakfast casserole one morning that only Darryl and I would eat anyway!!) 

Camping is supposed to be stress free. 

Especially now that the kids are older.  

Here are a few of my tried and true . . .and a new . . .ideas for stress free camping. 

1) I buy prepackaged snacks; like snack sized bags of chips, cookies, and popcorn.  These are kept in the snack bin.  We use these for snacks, obviously, but also to eat with meals.  

2) Use an electric cooler.  My mother-in-law found one for me at a garage sale a few years ago and it's great for keeping food cold without it being buried in ice.  Between the mini-fridge inside the popup and the electric cooler I can keep the food cold; I still use an ice cooler for drinks to keep them extra cold. 

3) Each person has a tote for their clothes.  Since we only camp for 2-3 days our bins are small but they are perfect.  At the end of the trip, all of the dirty clothes are then in the pop-up hamper and I can stack the containers together to save room.  I did this last year for the first time and it was a game change.  Bags just fall over and take up way too much room.  The containers sit right on a shelf in the camper. 

4) Take two vehicles HA!  This is new this year.  The latch on the back of the truck needs to be replaces so we can't open it up fully.  We realized that we'd need to take the van too and have now realized that this is a game changer.  We can fit all four bikes in the van plus all of the stuff.  Prior to this, Darryl and I stopped taking our bikes because we couldn't fit all four on the bike rack and the boys bikes had gotten too big to tie on top.  

I'm hoping that once we are on the road, the "stress free" feeling will take over because my lack of planning this time around does have me feeling slightly . . well . stressed HA!