AHG Summer Camp Photos

These are completely out of order and some of them there are doubles of, but I am tired and Blogger is giving me such a hard time about uploading photos since I got my new phone. So here it is. We look messy and worn out, but that's the reality of it. Oh, and ignore the crazy outfits some girls have on. We had theme days. But most people did not participate, as it was too hot to dress up in pajamas or you know...anything that is not a tanktop and shorts!

AHG Summer Camp 2016

Wow. Can I just say that AHG-our specific troop- never ceases to amaze me?! Seriously. We have been tirelessly planning for Summer Camp which requires SO MUCH work. Sure, it is separated between volunteers, but it is insane to me to think of how much stuff we have to bring and how everybody has to remember their part and their stuff so that it runs smoothly! I had the pleasure of teaming up with a lady that I thought I would clash with since we are both go-geters, but we split our work up and we were actually able to accomplish a lot! We lead the Pen and Paper Arts badge for the Tenderhearts and Explorers. We had a few kinks but this is first year for both of us, so we are still learning. I personally had a blast, and although it was a lot of work, I would not have wanted to miss it. Even if it did mean time at home alone to prop by feet up. I arrived around 8-8:30 every morning, set up my badge area, helped out where needed, and then once all the girls were there, I was on my way to help with sports. Then back to prep for badge, then I taught badge until lunch, sat with Sam to inhale my food and ask how her day was going, and then returned to my station. Afterward, I taught badge again or on certain days I served time in sibling care, and after that we cleaned, cleaned, cleaned! We left between 4-4:30 each day. My feet ached a little the first few days, but I mustard the energy to cook dinner and even go kayaking with the family one night. By time my head hit the pillow, I was done. Although, overworking my muscles walking back and forth all over campus each day caused me to consistently wake up with Charley Horses! By Friday, I looked at my Husband and said, "Pizza for dinner tonight." My feet were so swelled and my body was burnt because it was field day and I was stationed right in the sun. I was so glad we got to relax at home today. It was MUCH needed. Much. Needed. After I go to sleep tonight, I think I will have recovered. But I'll say one thing, Miss Sara is going to be a tough little cookie. She kicked and kicked all day long while I walked from one side of camp to the other. While I sweat and while I lifted tables and boxes and all sorts of things. (I've run this by several doctors. They all say the miscarriage thing is a myth and they generally tell you not to lift because your center of gravity is off and you could strain your back.) Now, as for Sam...I saved her for last because she will take longer. The first two days of camp she enjoyed, but not as much as she imagined. She complained about being rushed from one activity to the next and said a few of the girls weren't listening, which made it harder for her to listen. But by Wednesday, most of the leaders had gotten a grasp on the timing, and although, there was a lot of rushing from one activity to the next, they seemed to have enough time at each station. Every day started the same. They began with a flag ceremony and some worship music. Then they headed off to sports. The first two days were volleyball. They learned some of the requirements for a volley ball pin. And the second two days were jump rope for the jump rope pin. Friday was a water/field day, so they didn't do sports. Instead, they did a service hike. They found an area and cleaned up all the trash. They collected a BUNCH of stuff that had blown away. (Luckily, the wind provided an occasional break from the blistering heat this week.) After sports, they came over to work on their Mission Minded badge. Throughout the week they had a guest speakers come and talk about Mission efforts around the world. They learned about Widow's Harvest and Good Samaritan, which are both local. And they also listed to speakers talk about Peru and South Sudan. Friday they forgot the microphone and Sam said she couldn't hear the speaker. I was helping in the other side of camp, so I'm not sure what he talked about. The speaker for South Sudan brought photos and gave many details that made Sam hurt for them. These speakers opened up for us to have conversations at home about her thoughts on what God has for her life and how she always thinks about her purpose. After the speaker, they did badge stations. She worked on the badges, two were before lunch each day. And one was after. She worked on Toys and Games-her favorite. They made dolls and real kites and talked about the history of toys and played lots of classic games. Native American was another. Her second favorite. She came home the first day talking about Pocahontas and how she was a real person and also telling us everything she learned about Sacagawea. Surprisingly, pen and paper arts was her least favorite thing, but it makes sense because half the stuff she had done at home already-like paper mache. Other stuff, was too simple, like stamping with food. After lunch and the third badge, they went over to have more devotion time. During that time, they studied their Bibles, talked about serving and Mother Teresa-who really sparked her interest so I checked out a biography from the library. And on Friday, they filled Blessing bags to carry in the car and give to people who are homeless. It was just a giant ziplock bag with things like toothbrush, tooth paste, comb, band aids, snacks, etc. Very nice idea. On Friday, instead of doing the badge work, they had 3 stations to rotate between. A giant 50' slip n slide, dunk tank and snow cones, and water balloon games. Each day at check out, she was WORN out. In the morning, she begged me to make camp start just an hour later, but once she got there, she had fun. I'm happy. She made new friends. (This was a multitroop event hosted by us.) She had new experiences. Lots of new experiences. And she learned a tremendous about about God and Mission work. Our troop Shepard has done an unbelievable job this year centering ALL their activities around God. She keeps the girls encouraged and she is always praying with them. She is a positive role model, and I love her for that. Our troop leader, I don't know how she does it all. She went home after each day and she made a list of things we told her the parents needed to know and she sent an email update each afternoon to all the parents. She went to the store for anybody who had forgotten anything. And she even showed up at 7:45 each morning, which wouldn't be QUITE as impressive if she didn't live out in the middle of nowhere! About an hour away. I can't imagine Sam's troop running any differently. And yet, one day, it will. I only hope that it will still be just as amazing as it has been this year. With wholesome women of God who strive to do their best all the time. Women who aren't catty. Women who have their eyes on what is important, raising our girls to know God and serve others and love each other as much as they possibly can. Neither of us can wait for next year. She is already registered and paid for. Before I know it, Sara will probably be a part of AHG too and we will get to start this journey over with a Pathfinder and a PIPA. The first step and the last step. It will be bittersweet. But I know in my heart, if the group continues to go the way it is, it is worth every ounce of energy I put into it. Driving her there-27 miles one way. Attending leader meetings on our weeks off. Serving a whole week of the year out in the hot sun. Staying up all night during Forts and Floats. And getting up early on some Saturday mornings to get her to service projects. Every bit of energy. It will be worth it.

"Summer School" Update

I panicked a little last week. Okay. A lot. I lost it because I was going through my calendar, big mistake, adding every little thing we have to do this Summer, right down to "school," playing tennis on Wednesday mornings, and going to the pool on Fridays. Aa usual, I have my brother this Summer. So I'm thinking, "How on Earth am I going to get time with my precious Only before Baby Sara comes this Fall. Ahh... Then my mind starts racing and all these scenarios play though about how busy we will be and how I will just be "doing school" to check it off my list and Summer is supposed to be relaxed and S is going to hate me forever. I'M THE WORST MOM...EVER!!!! Fast forward to this week. Okay. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be. Most weeks I only have my brother 3 days. But this week I had him the whole week. And it went...smooth. And I realized that our new "school time" is so flexible and so fun that it IS part of our Summer relaxation. I spend the last two weeks before we started finishing up all the projects I would usually do during the Summer while my brother distracts S. Mwahaha. You know, like the bi-annual house scrub down. Minus the moving of the furniture. Because, I'm too pregnant to do that. That would be bad, right? *shift eyes* Serious though, I also got the rooms all situated. S wants to share a room with other S, because "all her other friends get to do it!" Okay. So they have a sleep room and a play room and it looks amazing! And we have somewhere to do our puzzles all spread out on the floor. Except not on my round belly. Wah. Off track here. So I got all that nesting stuff out of the way. And we have just spend the days playing games and reading. And they challenge each other on the math games and they bounce off each others questions for the reading. (even though my brother jumped in the Paddle to the Sea book half way through and I totally made it optional for him to join, just like with S, he wanted to and he is loving it!) And they are all, "So the iron ore turned him red?" and "I know what the stream leads into!" And I'm like, "Look how much this adds to our days!" We just kind start when we feel like it. Usually when they are bored of playing. And then we go on until...we don't even realize the time anymore! Next thing we know, 3 hours of making change and adding up money has gone by! And they don't even care they missed their time on the Wii U. And that is where we are. S is catching on at an incredible rate and I am thanking God that I stood back and let her play all those months instead of pushing her to learn her math. Because in the end, I'd rather spend one good day learning it and practicing it, than a whole month trying to explain it 50 billion different ways and wanting to rip my hair out in 30 million different directions. So this week she learned, and I mean truly learned how to carry the one in addition, borrow in subtraction, add up change, and make change for a dollar. And really, I cant ask for more. Can I? And she applies them in real life situations. And she enjoys it. And I'm like, "I took a risk (by today's standards-letting her play) and I can finally breath again!" We will definitely delay academics for Miss Sara too. Unless she shows signs of wanting more. We will get there when we get there I supposed. But now I feel better. And not like the worst Mom is the world. And I know we have time to learn in a informal/formal-ish way. And at the same time, they spend the mornings playing while I do my housework. And then on the days we aren't home, we are out doing Summer stuff. Going to the lake. Camping. Hiking. Parks. Pool. Slushies. Six Flags. Boat. Mini Vacations. You know, outdoor stuff. Good balance. I couldn't ask for more. Right Start has really worked for us. Math is so much fun on explained on a board we can all write on, using an abacus, and practicing on games. As for the CM curriculum, we have focused more on the reading, but this Fall, will make a habit of our weekly studies for nature and art. However, the reading is packed with learning opportunities. Until then, Summer is for learning/catching up on the basics as her birthday nears and the typical school year is for what we do best-playing, picking topics to study, going to events, taking classes, ask that stuff that tends to keep us busy. And this year, learning our new family member. Hooray!

School Dayz

These short and sweet "school days" are really working out for us. I was really afraid for not having time to be spontaneous, but we actually have plenty of time. We did 3 days this week. Mostly because DH was out of town over the weekend. And here is what we were able to accomplish. Monday: We took our bikes out first thing in the morning. We had a nice ride. The weather is nicer and I am having a much easier time getting around and doing things. Granted, I still didn't make it super far. But my wheel is warped and that had a lot to do with it too. So I walked the last half mile and then S played on the playground. Went to lunch. Yes, I know, that isn't school. But everybody eats lunch, even at school. Then we went to the Battlefield National Park, set up out hammocks, and read. (We had planned to bird watch, but forgot the binoculars at home. So instead, when we were done reading, S explored the monuments and read the inscriptions while I talked to DH on his trip home.) It was a successful day. We were in two books, John James Audubon biography and Paddle to the Sea. Those both encompass so much history and science. And really, S reads completely on her own now, so we don't really focus on learning to read anymore. John James Audubon's biography was a requirement for the birding badge S wanted to earn, so not necessarily on the reading list, but a good, living book anyhow. And at the rate we read, we will have plenty of time to add in books to our list. (The classic, Peter Pan, is one of those, as we are going to see the play soon. We attempted Treasure Island since she will be assisting back stage with it this Summer, but it is too above her level and I refuse to read her a watered down version of it. Luckily, S has never seen the Disney versions of the plays we go see.) Anywho, another day we did our reading from home in the morning before co-op. Then she played a bit. Then we left. They made some homemade shampoos and body washes for co-op. And afterward, of course, played. Next year, however, we will be at the Center regularly, every other Wednesday. So we will do co-op only on the weeks we aren't at the Center. We planned out our year. Together with the girls we will read some of the literature books that aren't chronological. Things like Aesops Fables and daily poems. To expose them, give them a chance to learn together, and have a different "teacher" but if they lose concentration or if 2 weeks is too long between meetings, they won't be lost. We may also do some math games with them. Today we had a lot to do, but I was determined to get that reading in. So, as our morning ritual usually goes, we read as soon as S woke up, while she ate breakfast. Then we left to run errands. While errand running, we stopped at a close by thrift store. S counted out change, which made her want to review counting change. So we did, the entire ride to the bike shop and then to the grocery store. After a few tries,she was flawless in her adding up change. We came home for food and rest and played some board games. She got a new brain game from a yardsale and really enjoyed it. We were supposed to go to the nature trail/tennis court by the house to do a nature study and play tennis, but it began storming. So we did a nature study/badge requirement in the house using You Tube videos. She drew and labeled a bird and them we listened to bird calls and tried to identify them. (She had a good ear!) And that got us started on another book on our reading list called Burgess Bird Book for Children. Cute tales about birds that teach about their behaviors and conservations, etc. Since we had extra time, I was going to let her play on her Kindle. You know, educational games. ;) But she fell asleep in less than 5 minutes. I guess I wore her out. These days don't feel like school days. They feel like they did before. Of course, with less guilt. Not that I think total unschooling is bad. I LOVE IT! All we did was add in literature with a plethora of information, always optional. And now I feel like we are getting more done! And just as the "school year" is ending for everyone else, we are starting something new. Tomorrow we leave for Mother/Daughter camp with AHG. ❤ We will do safety training, hike, go bike riding, play board games, have a fire-with s'mores of course, and just be. Together. She will get to play with friends. I will talk with moms. And at night we get to snuggle up in our hammock together to sleep-probably for one of the last times before I grow to the size of a whale. What we will accomplish by next year: A weekly nature study. Rotations between birds (current), Summer (random discovers in the Summer, mammals (winter), wildflowers (next spring). Bi-weekly artist studies. And on the weeks we don't have those, it will be composer studies. Charlotte Mason's Geography Book Part 1 and 2. Books: Paddle to the Sea (RICH with Science and Geography) John James Audubon (History) Burgess Bird Book for Children (Science) Trial and Triumph (Church History. Next year starts books based on chronological history.) An Island Story (England History) Peter Pan (Unit Study/Suggested Extra Reading) Co-Op-Literature: Aesop's Fables Parables of Nature Blue Fairy Book (Fair Tale Classics, Before Disney) A Children's Garden of Verses (Daily Poems) I'm sure she will add more as well as her independent books. She usually reads Animal Ark or Boxcar Children. She is a mystery lover. Math: We will also assess where she is with math at 8 and maybe begin a regular math time if she needs it. If she doesn't, we will continue to do math games weekly. She seems to be grasping math concepts easier. My only goals for her math wise is to learn borrowing, learn to multiply single digits, divide easy problems, and go a little more into fractions. If I can familiarize her with that, I'm happy. Activities: AHG (even through the Summer they have events, Summer Camp, "Slip, Slide, and Slaw," and a few other small events) And she will choose a few badges to work on from home once they decide which ones they are doing in class next year. They also have tons of new service projects coming up. Swim (most likely) Center (She will get to assist in the opening of our new Center and will have lots to work on there.) And of course our annual "unit studies" about traditional holidays, boats-we are still slowly restoring ours, home repair-there is always plenty of that going around, and the best unit study of ALL, ADDING A NEW FAMILY MEMBER!!! There will be a lot of adjusting and learning and connecting when the baby comes. In fact, there already is. Next year will be so great. And the best part is, "next year" is already here. :)

Planning for Next Year

I'm back! Well, kinda. I'm still on the edge of any bit of food that I don't want to see or hear about could make my stomach turn. BUT, I'm not in constant pain so I'm okay with that. I have been able to clean a little and cook very simple things. What a relief. I'm not sure if it is the meds (which however, are giving me horrendous headaches and making me a little sleepy, which I will take any day over nausea) or if my hormones are evening out. Seriously...I caught a stomach bug last week. On top of my morning sickness and allergies. I thought I was dying! Then when I got dehydrated, I really thought I was dying. I didn't have the strength to stand up. It got scary. This pregnancy is taking it out of me completely. With Sam I could walk miles in the Summer he's in my second trimester. So far, with this one, I can barely make it down the isle at WalMart. Of course...it has been close to a decade. So...on to what this blog is about. Unschooling. We unschool. This year I decided to be a little more "laid back" and in turn ended up being too hands off I feel like. She accomplished some things. Made some major strides due to age. And of course took some classes and had some cool new experiences. And...I really hope all her play time has paid off, but even she feels like she has too much time on get hands and she can't fill it. She wants more. But doesn't know how to get it at this age. By no means do I regret letting her just play until she is 8. But if she wants to move on, it's time. Right now, "school is out." This pregnant lady cannot promise a good tomorrow. So we shall wait until I feel better. I found a curriculum and a guide on how to piece it together. (I was going to buy but it is hard to find Charlotte Mason completely pre packaged.) I just know Sam will love Charlotte Mason. I told her what she would study and she was in awe! We are going to skip put on grammar, dictation, and spelling. We will do History, Science, Geography, Composer, Classical Art Study, and Poetry. That's what she is wanting. And Math will be separate. Most curriculums do not include math. We will keep using Right Start. Looking over the curriculum, it seemed simple, lots of living books and reading poetry and looking at art. A true classical education. Kind of what what we were doing, but on a higher level. BUT, we have 4 day weeks. And a lot going on. Plus, a new baby on the way. I don't want our time taken up by curriculum. It's restricting. I don't want to be doing things for the sake of getting them done so we can check them off. I want us to have lots of time to cuddle with baby and learn about our new family member. I still want time for nature walks. And when my brother comes over, I want them to still build forts. And when her friends come over, I want them to build things and discover things. I want her to still have a childhood. I don't want to have to rush through school and threaten her, "if she doesn't get ger work done in time for the CHEA field trip, she can't go." With that said, S and I talked it over and decided on having school two days a week. Year round. Of course I'm going to try to do as much of it informally as possible. And maybe give her some work at night once she is 100% independent at reading. But even then, because she will be reading classics, it'll be hard. She will start on year one. (Year zero is just reading Aesops tales and such.) They don't go by grade. We may move to Year 2 for some stuff like Geography, because it teaches N, S, E, W, etc. She knows all that. They advocate for delayed academics, so while there are thirteen years, including zero, by year 9 they have read more classics than the average privately educated high school student. And the Science is quite in depth too. I'm nervous. This year is a lot of changes. I am not volunteering for CHEA anymore. I'm not on the board at all. And I'm serving in a small position with AHG. Of course Ill still be at the Center. But a very big part of me died a little inside when I stepped down from the board. I guess it was real then that a lot would be changing very soon. It will be good. Just different. And I'm just praying everything goes well. My labor with Sam scares me to no end. Anyhow, we will have enough to fill our time. Until then, lazy days. I'm going to enjoy an entire night of sleeping. A date with my Husband. Going random places with S. (as soon as I feel 100%.) And I'm going to start preparing for our baby and our school year next year. I'll be a real homeschool mom....feels odd.

Spring, I Miss You

It's been awhile. Again. Got our handouts done.  We have an orientation on fostering to adopt on Monday,  but otherwise we are in the waiting period. I update that a lot on my Mays Family blog. Today it's about S. Winter got the best of us. I went back to feeling guilty. But honestly not guilty enough.

S is at a point now where I don't worry too much anymore about her functioning ability in society. She reads.  A lot.  I don't mean she reads a lot of books. I mean she just reads whatever is around her without asking for help.  She read the contents on the Chick-fil-A sauce package and knew soybean oil and corn syrup like it was nothing. Today at co-op we let the girls go wild with crafts and they got out an origami book.  Sam read off the directions like nothing and they were able to complete i twithout help.

She is nearing 7-1/2. And as I predicted, we are in the car yesterday and I told her she would have her allowance on Friday.  Then I hear this, "Three days away. I have 27 dollars. Ten more will give me 37 and I'll only be 3 dollars short of 40. That's okay. I just need to find 12 quarters in my piggy bank." My first thought was,  "Had somebody been giving her math lessons behind my back?" Sure. We did 2 20 minutes sessions in the last week on adding up change, but it was like, "What is 2 quarters plus 3 dimes plus 6 pennies?" And then she would use her abacus (which she loves) to add it up.  No worries there either.

But winter does have us longing for a change of pace, so Friday we will be leaving the house first thing in the morning, going to the bank to teach her how to withdraw money, continuing to the mall, talking about how to use a calculator to do a percentage off, calculating sales tax-with calculator,  a few requirements about good stewardship for AHG badge-I'm buying lunch-which the catch is she has to learn to use a check register to input my total-and then she is going to shop for a toy with her money.  Day done.  And we will go home and crash. We just need out of the house to do something we don't always do!

Neither of us can wait for Spring. The smell of Spring alone brings so many emotions and memories for me.  Playing games outside in the driveway,  laying on her trampoline while she bounces away,  taking the hammock to the park to read together-and then napping until the park is empty and it is time to go home.  ♡ Oh Spring, come quickly!

Lately

I have been so focused on this adoption thing lately - completing our profile, making our cards, preparing mailouts, and contacting lawyers, that I have neglected this blog. It has been neat though. S has been learning right along side us. The differences between independant and agency adoption. (As well as some about fostering to adopt.) She has learned about inducing lactation and dealing with RAD. Among other things. We gave her her own copy of our profile and I find her reading through it all the time. But we still must move along with homeschool...

This year has been something so far though. She is somewhere between little and big. And I continually find myself holding tighter to the things that once were and still are, but may not be the same soon.

I remember when I first started taking S to the library at 3 years old. We would go to story time and then she would run around finding books written by authors such as Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle and O'Conner, etc. The same is still true. Minus the story time and the addition of checking out some of her favorite chapter books - American Girl. Last week we spent an hour in the library going through the Children's books as she obsessed about find as many EC books as she could - especially ones she had never read before. She admires Eric Carle. In fact, she just did her author presentation with CHEA on Eric Carle. She loves his art style and she imitates it in some of her own books. Watching her that day...I wanted to hold on to it forever. She has already begun making the transition to the juvenile fiction, but the day is coming where the storybook section will not be her first pitstop on her list.

Seven and a half is coming up and I know soon she will start showing an even better understanding of things. We have delayed academics, but will start to pick up some math around 7-1/2 or 8. (Yes, succumbing to peer pressure because Sam is feeling thr weight of everybody expecting her to do math off the top of her head and it is killing her. While she and I both don't mind her feeling different, I certainly do not want her being resentful for that sort of difference.) So we bought the big Right Start math game curriculum set. Which is - you guess it-ALL manipulative and game based. And goes all the way up through 5th grade. I consider Sam 1st for math and will probably leave her in elementary math an extra year because we will take it slow, so we are looking at a good 5 or 6 years in something that only cost me $60 new. We have played some of the games using the basic card deck I bought her at a used book store. And she loves them. We play them in a relaxed setting and it is all about fun. Now that I have the book with over 300 games about math - from basic addition and subtraction to multiplication and division to negative numbers, fractions, and percentages, I will start explaining everything using the manipulatives it came with and the ones we have. I keep hearing a lot about visualization and I agree. She needs to see it and understand it - not just memorize it and be able to spit out 30 facts in 30 seconds. I am overly excited about this, but careful not to push it on her. I'd like to take it really slow and not go past addition until she is 8 - this September. We have touched on multiplication and fractions, but I am halting on that. She struggles in math and I don't want her understanding it on a memorization level only. Funny thing is, she only struggles with explainable math. She soars in building and problem solving, which I attribute to all her play time building with Legos and KNEX and playing problem solving one player games. Or even Chess.

Enough about math. We have a few other new things going this year. Briefly, I want to mention guitar. We have been learning together using a You Tube video series, which she thoroughly enjoys. But he didn't lead through how to read actual music. (I showed her tabs because I only partly remember sheet music from when I was younger.) So I found a DVD series specifically written for children to carry her back through as a review and teach her to read music. That was free-library resource. She remembered her chords, easy peasy. But it is painful to her on some of them and she is learning to hold her hands just right. I'm fearful to mess up her form, so that should help also. Then if she is still interested, a friend of ours will give S guitar lessons once a month. So that is going well. The holidays had us bogged down and it went on hold a bit while she just learned Jingle Bells, but she is back on top of it.

Another thing we began this semester is a co-op! A friend who lives right down the road, whose daughter is a year younger than Sam, and they homeschool similar to the way we do, and I just kind of came up with it out of a joke and then neither of us could let it go. Our girls have similar interests, so we began planning. (Even as an Unschooler I must have well written plans for things when it comes to stuff like that.) And kf course they get input. The last thing we want is resistance. The first week we assisted the girls in sewing doll skirts. They learned a lot about sewing and Sam got to use a full size sewing machine - which made me badly want one! Then during the "free play/Mommy talk portion," they read instructions and assembled some doll furniture on their own. That was Thursday. (We are moving the co-op around days to whenever we are available.) So tomorrow we will be doing a doll party. We will discuss Ettiquette (the badge they are covering during AHG). We will teach them to make tea in a kettle. They will make petit fours from scratch and use professional cake decorating supplies to decorate them. It is little things like that, things they will learn and play through that we are excited for. Some other topics we may do are going over some guitar together, doing some art together, a full board game day, a day where we swap kids and do whatever we are good at, and maybe as the weather warms up some gardening or Science days, or small "field trips" etc. Sam is just happy to have someone to learn with throughout the year like she does in the Summer. And I couldn't be happier for her. We should totally just open a Sudbury school and make loads of money while letting children run free and wild learning whatever they want.

Speaking of running free and wild, Sam is really enjoying AHG. Not that they run wild. They are actually pretty structured, but at the same time they give the girls this freedom to do things the way they want them done. They let them have their own ideas and figure things out themselves and have lots of free play at events. It doesn't have to be packed with one game after the next to entertain them. She has made many, many friends. She had her Christmas party in December. And in January - well recently - she had her lock in. They did Bible devotions and talked about God being their fortress. Then they built forts that they were allowed to sleep in - if they chose to sleep at all that night. They had floats and popcorn. And then they were able to play board games and hula hoop or jump rope or play ball or dolls (they all brought dolls and stuffed animals.) We turned down the lights around 2 AM. And some of the kids went to sleep. They slowly dropped like flies, but most of them went to bed at 4 AM. And a hand full didn't sleep at all. All of us Mom (about 5 of us who spent the night) just visited all night, getting to know each other. And in the morning we cleaned up and headed home. I got home around 10 o'clock and Sam and I passed out until 2 PM! I definitely slept well the next night too. Coming up she has Feed My Starving Children and a Daddy Daughter Dance! Both she can't wait for at all. I love the wide range of opportunities and experiences that AHG gives her. I am already a registered volunteer with National, so I fully intend to help plan some activities for next year - particularly a pro-life event. Sam is stoked. She really wants me in her class. And I adore that she thinks that is so cool, so I may do that. But I truly wish I could work with the PIPAS, which are the teenagers. They are the sweetest group of girls and they are old enough to start studying and understanding the Bible. Their discussions during devotion are so deep and they have build such strong relationships with one another. And it is evident when they all go out and do fun things together. I'd love to mentor teenagers, but maybe that is a future thing, when Sam is one herself. One of the PIPA moms is a main leader and her daughter loves it! If AHG helps us to mold S into a child like that, I will be forever grateful.

So that is it. Between preparing our home for homestudy to staying active in those things, well....I won't lie, we still have lots of down time. And it is great. Sam gets her 8 hours of play time most days and I read my adoption/child development/theory books on the Bible. Or I do housework. Whichever. This season of our life is slow, as it needs to be. Because soon I know it will be busy again.