Poison Ivy

Yes, it's true. I've gotten poison ivy for the third time in my life. I just don't think to look for it when we go geocaching. Let's face it - my eyes are looking for the prize, not the "leaves of three, leave them be."

Oh well. I'm putting stuff on it and I'm sure it will go away soon - I hope...

Got a letter from the Marine Recruit today. He is about half-way through training and we will be going down September 12th for graduation. The drill instructors are tough, he says, but he's holding it together.

Tomorrow evening, we are going to the drive-in and then Josh's friend is coming to spend the night. I should get to bed so I'll be well-rested...

Geocaching

Today was a fun day. I slept in and then my summer daughter and I went geocaching. We drove south and searched for 12 geocaches. We found 9 of them. If you don't know about geocaching, you should. It is the most fun I can have while sweating profusely and exercising. Check out this website: Geocaching.com.

We came home and the kitchen sink is messed up. But the husband is handy and will fix it tomorrow, I'm sure. One of Dale's friends called tonight for his address at boot camp. He really enjoys getting letters from folks. My buddy Shelina and her daughter dropped him a line. Dale says thanks!!

Tomorrow the youngest will come home from church camp. It will be nice to have him around again! He's been gone for basically two weeks.

Cleaning, Day Two

That is to say, today will be Day Two, once I get started. It is almost 12:00 PM, and all I've done is washed some dishes. It drives me crazy when everything is helter-skelter and I can't find things I want/need. But I'm not doing anything about it. So, here are my goals for today and I will report how I've done tomorrow:

The desk: my desk is a dumping place - I have never sat at it to get any work done. It really is a confusing place. I think it may take 1 1/2 hours to sort through and then find reasonable homes for all the things.

Goodwill run: I have several boxes of books that need to go somewhere else - not to mention clothing and other things. It will only take loading up and driving over, but I need to get it done.

Shelina asked in one of the comments about going to the dump. We live in the county here in Virginia and we don't have any public trash service. We could pay a company to come and take it away, but it's cheaper to do it ourselves. There is a "convenience station" about a mile away, so it's not too bad. There we can take household trash and recyclables. The dump is about five miles away and we can take other trash there.

So there are the details. I could write more, but that would mean I wouldn't be cleaning...

Cleaning Day

I'm starting on the computer first to hopefully get it out of my system. This is the last thing I'm planning on doing on the computer. Oops, just thought of one more thing...

There will be a lot of trash to take to the dump - why is it that I wait and not clean as I go? I may go back to Flylady, but that just means more time on the computer...

Have a lovely day!

Home Again

Going away is nice; coming home is great. Yesterday, the youngest came back from Scout camp and today we took him to church camp. He'll be exhausted but will have had fun.

South Carolina was good; lots of teacherly ideas to ruminate on before next school year. I am teaching a class of Fundamental Math, seventh graders. I want to make it fun so I've gotta think of a theme. Any ideas from blogger land?

Hello again from down South!

Today it is warm here in Columbia, South Carolina, but not too hot. I know it could be worse. We have been attending different classes and keeping busy today - but now we're free until 5:00.

One of the most profound things that I heard today was not even one of the main points in our opening session. You wouldn't have found it on one of the power point slides, and I'm not even sure if it's a direct quote from someone or not. (I just googled it and it is often a phrase that is found in sermons - so who knows who said it first? I know I didn't!)

Most Christians live life where Christ is prominent, but not preeminent. I want to live a life where Jesus Christ has the preeminence, has FIRST place in everything I do and say. I am so glad to have the quiet of this week to consider how God is speaking to me, to listen to what He is saying through His word and through His people.

South Carolina Living

Hello, friends! I am in South Carolina this week at a Christian Educators conference. Even though the entire campus is wi-fi, alas, I do not have my laptop here. So I am sitting in the computer lab monopolizing this computer and typing blog entries.

The youngest is at scout camp this week, so it's quiet on the home front for sure. It's been interesting so far down here, and we will be leaving on Friday (I'm here with five other teachers from my school.) I'll let you know if I learn anything really deep!

Thursday Musings

Hello to all. Today is a day of packing. Joshua's going to Scout Camp next week and so he needed to get all that ready. He is almost done. I am going to South Carolina next week for a Christian educators conference, and so I'm making my list and checking it twice.

Today is the third day of my all-liquid diet. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be and it will definitely be a jump-start for some lifestyle changes. When I go to South Carolina, I will be replacing the evening meal with a shake and eating lunch and dinner with a goal of staying at 800 calories a day. It seems a little extreme, but my doctor agrees that this is a safe level to get the weight off. I am tired of being overweight and all the complications and inconveniences that go along with it.

I can't remember if I posted it or not, but Dale is doing okay at Marine Boot Camp. I have to write him a letter today. He has 10 more weeks to go, I think. He's finished on September 12.

Have a wonderful day!

Camping

We had a blast over the weekend camping near Cairo, West Virginia. The first two days were filled with rain, rain, rain! But the last two days were nice. We got a carriage ride with the kids and had a fun time with my sister, her husband, and two of her neighborhood "grandkids".

Tomorrow is outside work day. We have weeds that are almost as tall as the house.

I went to the gym tonight and walked - wait for it - a whole mile and a quarter!! But that's more than I've been doing and so it's a start. It helps that they have treadmills that have TV's on them - LOL!! Although it would probably work better if the TVs were powered by your walking!

Report on the Marine Recruit

Hello, all! We received a real live hand written letter from Recruit Morgan yesterday. He said it is hot, hot, hot and they are doing a lot of marching. He sounds like he's doing well.

We are busy getting ready for our camping trip. We have to go to Wally World and get some supplies tonight. What fun!

Thanks to Shelina for letting me know about the bouncing email issue. I think I have it straightened out now.

Have a blessed evening!