Okay, today has been an interesting one in our home.  Aside from my usual work day, the girls went on a field trip with the local 4-H/homeschool support group.  Anyhoo - my girls (Rachel, 15 and Missy 12, along with my friend's daughter that I hs Ileana, 11) went with another friend of our family and her daughter (Vicky, 14).  In the hs support group there is a varying range of ages, from very young (around 4) to our teen girls along with a few boys in their age range.

Today they went to the Bennett Place in Durham - a Civil War memorial of sorts.  The leaders of the 4-H group chose the weapons exhibit as the tour for the group.  Now, my girls are not really into weapons (unless you count those they "need" in their many computer/playstation games), so this was not a field trip they really wanted to be involved in at all.  I practically had to force them out the door.

When they returned home, Missy and Ileana informed me that they had been "bored to tears" on the trip.  Rachel, ever the optimist, told me she really liked it and had even brought home some authentic recipes from the museum for us to try (like potato soup and baked corn - which sounds an awful lot like my aunt's corn pudding that we all love so very much).  My friend who drove them came in and said that the girls had not enjoyed the trip very much.  I told her that that was the very thing they had just told me.  Then she said, "so what DO they enjoy?" 

After she left, that gave me pause to think about that question: What do they enjoy?  After much pondering, this is what I have come to realize about my girls:

1.  They are all very different -- wow, an epiphany, huh? I don't have a problem with one of them not liking something that maybe I think I might enjoy or another of them might enjoy.  They are free to pursue their own interests -- isn't that what hs'ing is all about anyway.

2.  My friend later said to me in an email that her daughter liked the trip and that maybe my kids just had too much fun stuff to do at home to appreciate getting out -- that Vicky looks for every reason under the sun to "escape" -- well, I'm not sure I agree with that.  First, my girls do have a lot of fun things to do at home -- not just their computers and game stations as my friend was implying -- but, we read all day long, play family games together, attend an awesome church where they have forged true and lasting friendships with other youth that are like-minded, are involved in many activities that get them out of the house and around other kids like them, and they truly enjoy being with us (the dreaded parents) here at home.

3.  They are in the middle of their lives, learning where they want to go and who they will be in this world for God.  Rachel finally, after many changes of mind (she is my true blonde), has decided that she is going to pursue an early childhood education degree to enable her to go to Japan and work with children in orphanages while doing mission work.  She has always wanted to go to Japan, loves manga (sp?) and anime (sp?), and her heart is truly for kids.  She has begun working in children's church on Sundays and babysits for the Celebrate Recovery meetings on Friday nights for the church.  Now, how many 15yo girls do you know would give up their Friday nights to watch a bunch of kids while their dysfunctional parents try to get it together?  As for Missy, well, she is only 12 -- doesn't that say it all?  I mean, she knows that she wants to be a doctor (of sorts) and is really into her math and science, but she is still only 12.  She wants to dance, dream, play Age of Mythology, and listen to Avril Lavigne and Thousand Foot Krutch and Relient K.  She wants to swing outside for as many hours as I will allow and cuddle on the couch watching Surface with me and her dad.

So, I guess this day was really a good field trip -- at least for me.  I have come away from it with a newfound respect for my girls, and their individuality.  I thank God that they don't want to follow the crowd, that they can think for themselves, and that they have their own interests.  So what if each of them did not enjoy the field trip today in the same way?  They each got something out of it, an experience - either good or bad - that otherwise they would not have had.  And I got to see them in a different light -- all from that question "so, what do they enjoy?"