Sequoyah State Park

Tuesday ended a very busy few months for me and I was ready for a break. We loaded up Wednesday and were ready to head out as soon as Big Daddy got off work that evening. As always, there were several hiccups during the hookup but I was very impressed with how smoothly it all went and what great attitudes everyone had. We drove about an hour to Sequoyah State Park. As a kid, I remember staying out there at Western Hills Lodge - really all I remember from it was playing tennis there. They had just renovated the campground we stayed in and it was so nice. We chose a spot right across from the playground and about 100 yards from the lake. We all had a great time and this was the first State Park that I said I would like to go back to again. Normally, I am pretty adament about going someplace new each time we venture out but I really liked it there.

Some of the highlights of our week were:

• skipping rocks and playing in the lake
• riding bikes and scooters for hours on end
• visiting the nature center and seeing a bald eagle, owl (T's favorite), coyote and foxes
• petting a skunk....that hadn't been "destinked"
• fishing
• hiking
• swimming in the pool
• painting by numbers (T bought a set for me for Mother's Day and we did a little each day together)
• exploring old cemetery and talkking about what life was like in the late 1800's
• playing pool and ping pong in the rec center
• made some new friends at the campground. (P always makes a BFF. Last campground she cried for 2 days after we left because she missed Kate so much. This time, we exchanged addresses and she has already written to her new friend, who happens to live 20 minutes from here and also homeschools. They were a sweet family so I do hope they stay in touch with their letters.) (And it will be a long time before we forget little Jonathan who kept showing up to visit with us.)
• watching Soul Surfer on the laptop in the camper (borrowed from the library - loved it)
• swinging on a "vine swing"
• I read three novels (yes, in 4 days...I'm a skimmer)
• not a highlight, but a reality - I bet we picked about 50 ticks off ourselves in the 4 days, including 15 when we got home!

Then on Saturday afternoon, some of our good friends came and set up camp with us. It was so much fun to have friends there for the kids to play with and us to visit with.

Today is back to reality. We are on "summer schedule" for schooling, which for us means about an hour a day. Today has taken a little longer as they are all tired and cranky. Our verse for the week is Psalms 141:3: "Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the doors of my lips." We are all working on letting God filter what is coming out of our mouth. It seems to be easier to be nice to people outside our family, which isn't very fair to the people that live under the same roof as us, so we are working on applying this verse to our family. Wish us luck!


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