It's summer and what a beautiful summer it has been this year, 2018. It is now August and I know this month is going to fly by like a race car's streaks. I don't want it to end. Camping, swimming, relaxing...complete with blue skies and sunshine aplenty. But, unfortunately, it is a season and these long days of warmth will morph into cooler and cooler evenings alerting the trees and wildlife and us that fall is indeed on its way...
We have gotten to go swimming at a friend's condo pool once a week all summer, Elias has come a long way to not being afraid of the water, getting his face wet and jumping in with Mom "catching" him. We went to a cabin in Coeur d'Alene with friends and swam, paddle boarded, even got to go on a speed boat that belonged to the neighbor's. They too had a boy about Josiah's age. We got to go to the town named Harrison and had ice cream. Shortly after Kent's mom and dad and sister and brother-in-law came and we went to GNP at least three times getting to go to Many Glacier, which we hardly ever go to. We were reminded that we need to get out there and camp there! Lots of pictures were taken of the beauty. I went huckleberry picking with the boys on Big Mountain and got a little less than a quart of berries. No bear encounters, but boy was it hot. Josiah wanted to go up to the top, I had no idea how far we needed to go, but it was a long, long way especially with a 35-pound boy on my back! Josiah did great though and both the boys did very little complaining, for which I was grateful! We were blessed with a ticket to go on the ski lift down and I was ecstatic to not have to hike back down after that grueling trip up! Josiah said, "This is the best day ever!" We were given another pass so we took another round trip on the ski lift! We were all beat after we got down, that is for sure! Our neighbor left town and let me pick raspberries, so I have lots in the freezer, again so grateful!
With fall, comes school...we are homeschooling again this year only this time we are branching out on our own for the first time ever. It is a little nerve-wracking and yet liberating all at the same time. We were part of a local cooperative school that met once a week on Mondays for two years and it was great (mostly), but the tuition went up drastically and we would like a little more financial freedom to do other things...
Lord help us as we embark on schooling our children to your glory!
Now, it is fire season in the mountains, which means smoke for us down in the valley...no vistas to behold, just an ominous perpetual gray...living elsewhere has never been more enticing! Fire restrictions, level 2; not sure if we will go camping now....there will be no let up except for when the snow flies...
