Lately

Nate and Ellie had a book club Zoom call for The Penderwicks in Summer—a book we love around here.  They made Churchie’s gingerbread.

Later we visited a Civil War hospital (a house in our area that was used for that purpose).  The Confederate soldiers who died, and were not subsequently moved by their families, are buried in the yard, near the family and enslaved persons of the household) after reading The Perilous Road.

Ellie list her two front teeth!

We’ve been trying different prom hair styles—hard to believe that gal is heading off to prom soon!

I was able to make a baby quilt for a friend who is expecting a new little one.

We had finals week and finished up school super early this year.  We couldn’t go to the pool last summer, so by July we started doing school days here and there when the weather was poor and nothing fun was happening.  We skipped fall and spring break, since Justin’s schedule was the same.  There were a few groans during the year as we kept going straight through, but everyone is happy we did that now!

We wrapped up the last regular AHG troop meeting of the year.  We’ve been outside due to Covid.  One of our amazing families let us set up in their yard all year long.  We kept our supplies in a trailer on site and would pull out our clipboards, name tags, scissors and tables.  It was and adventure.

We are hoping to be back inside for the fall, but it was a year we won’t forget!!

We loaded up to go camping at two different locations—the girls with AHG and the fellows with Trail Life.  We’d never both gone the same weekend before, so the logistics were a bit tricky...like who gets the French press!

Lucy got to go spend the weekend with our friends and their dog Brandy.  We hear she minded her manners.  We’d never left her before, so that was good to hear.

It was a wet weekend, but the girls had a good time.  Katie and some of the other older girls taught a badge, Gabby spent the day at archery.  Ellie rotated through: earning Archery, Toys & Games with Katie and friends, and Hiking.  I taught the kindergartners the AHG Joining Badge with a good friend of mine.

I don’t have pictures of the fellows, but they did knot tying, relay races, and orienteering.  Justin managed to cut himself setting up one of the courses, but thankfully didn’t need stitches, and a couple of the other fellows bandaged him up.

Our (very, very muddy) campsite

Thankfully the fellows had less mud, despite similar rainfalls.

Our elementary girls started walking back and forth quacking.  The once dirt road became a mud slick.  It was a bit challenging, but we made it through!  The only way to get gear to our site was to be hauled up by a Gator.  If we’d managed to keep the mud off anything, by the time the Gator went through the splattering mud taking us back to the car, it wasn’t clean anymore!  The last of the laundry is finally in the wash—six sleeping bags, six camp pillows, extra blankets, rain jackets, winter coats, and every item of clothing anyone took was damp, even if it wasn’t worn.