Happily married for 11 years. Rog is a fulltime FireFighter, as well as a volunteer on the small department in our community. Firefighting is not just a job, it is a way of life - for the firefighter, as well as the family of one. It is an adjustment, an attitude you have to have. You have to be ready to let him go at a moments notice, without knowing when to expect him back home. You have to let go of your 'what-if' fears and stand proud of who he is.
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Greater love hath no man than this, a man that lay his life down for his friends. John 15:13
So, Wednesday night was the last night of AWANA for the year - taking a summer break. Well, my kiddos have just finsihed up their 3rd year as Sparks, and during this time, they both managed to complete all 3 years worth of books - so they got a Spark Award !! Very nice wooden plaque, and a felt award placement tapestry thing to sew their patches and pin their pins on. I went ahead and hung it in their rooms, but I still need to take the patches off their vests and sew them to the tapestry. (I cannot find a pic of it, and the award link is not the best, but it was all I could find).
My Girl Scouts are working on the Arkansas History Patch. In order to complete the requirements and receive the patch, they had to do 7 things listed, as well as a service project. One of the things I had planned to do as a troop was to visit Blanchard Springs Caverns. Well, the trip was today, and only one other GS besides Sis went on the trip. They are all so close to completing this patch, and this was the make or break for a couple of them. At our next meeting, we will see who is where and what needs to be done to make up for missing. I know Sis has one more step to complete the patch. There are 2 options that are close that we may try for.
Anyways, on to the trip!
Sis, Ry and C (one of the other GS) along with me and C's mom left out early this morning and headed to the caves. Ry was able to join us since it was a troop trip and I made it a family event. After quite a drive, we arrived at the cave early enough to go on the tour ahead of the one we scheduled. We went on the Dripstone Tour, it lasted about an hour and we went down 260 feet below the surface of the earth. The tour guide was great - he was pretty comical. He also said "being on this tour, we don't really go far enough into the ground to see bats, so if you were looking for bats, you will probably be disappointed" he no more got the words out of his mouth and we saw a bat! He pointed out several different types of formations and shared with us as much as he knew about the cave. I felt like we learned quite a bit. Here are a few shots from inside the cave.
After the cave tour, he told us about Blanchard Spring -the actual spring that the cave was named after, so we went down to it. Very pretty - here is a few shots of the spring.
We went to the picnic area, and had lunch, then the kiddos begged to go to the swim area - which was actually a part of the creek that went thru the area. Since it was off season, there was no one else around, and they had a blast wading out into the water - until Ry fell in!! He said it was time to go after that happened - he rode home in wet pants and a fleece jacket!
We had a few things to work on this week as far as finishing up, such as our 'Tuesday school' that we had been attending this year, and the science fair project that they were working on for it, so I guess Tuesday was the last day we did anything 'schoolish'! Wednesday was BEAUTIFUL outside, so they played out all day long. I had a Girl Scout Leaders Meeting Wednesday night - our last one for the year - and I was awarded a Outstanding Volunteer Pin. I had no idea that I had even been nominated for one. I was completely shocked - I have no idea who nominated me!
Thursday, we got up bright and early and started on Ry's room. Then Sis' room was Friday! Now, we have the rest of the house to work on next week for spring cleaning!
Please bear with me as I am trying to get back n the routine of blogging!
Being a homeschooling mom to 7 year old girl/boy twins is not much easier than being the wife of a Firefighter, but God placed me here for some reason, so I might as well enjoy the ride! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
