Camping for the Campers!!

Monday we pulled the camper that we were working on home after a small rain storm. We'd popped it up slightly while in storage and found some water... so, we knew where we had to fix so that it wouldn't leak anymore. The campers had already done their math for the day and so we called the school day over (schools around us are already out for summer but we school year round) and asked the campers to help us. Well... we got where it was leaking fixed and had it partially popped up while still on the truck to check for something... Daddy asked ECJ to get something out of the bed of the truck, ECJ jumped up on the back bumper, and the roof that we had just finished fixing started splitting from the rest of the camper! Daddy quickly moved it to a flatter area only to have the entire roof cave in right after we finished popping it up the rest of the way!! So, we spent the rest of the day tearing apart the camper so that it was only the bottom box and nothing else to take back to the scrap yard the next day. We also had to go repossess the camper that we'd sold because the woman kept coming up with excuse after excuse not to pay us when she'd promised. Sometimes you get burned when you trust people.

On Tuesday we took the old camper to the scrap yard and then came home and did math with the campers... After math we brought home the camper that we'd repossessed and spent some time cleaning it and repairing the damage that the people who were supposed to have bought it did to the camper. Life lessons were learned for everyone in the family (although Daddy and I were sad that we had to talk about how you can't trust everyone to keep their word yet again). While we were finishing up cleaning I noticed a caterpillar that was gray and nearly blended in with the dirt and sticks that surrounded it right before it climbed up one of the trees in our yard.

Wednesday and Thursday we did math, read a lot of books about Europe and England for Europe week in the Give Your Child the World book group that we joined. We read some about Ireland and how there's still religious problems between the Catholics and the Protestants there ... this made Peanut especially sad, she prays that they'll reach a peace sometime soon because she doesn't think that you should fight over religious beliefs. I happen to agree with her. We spent a lot of time outside and some time scrapping ... there was time spent doing individual projects and playing games. All in all both days were pretty normal for us.

Friday Daddy decided pretty early in the morning that we were taking the camper to the nearest state park and going camping for the weekend to celebrate his birthday! The camper got brought home from the storage unit and packed for the two nights that we'd be gone. ECJ decided that he'd like to stay home so one of our friends came over to spend those two nights with him (he's 16 and COULD have been left alone as we were only about fifteen minutes from the house ... but, he'd never been left alone over night let alone for two nights). Daddy, myself, and the girls left and went camping! We set up camp really quickly (we've had lots of practice with the putting up and taking down of campers over the last few weeks) and then Grandma and Papa showed up at the campground to give Daddy his birthday card!! We went for several walks, watched videos while it rained, and I crocheted quietly during those movies. Yes, we bring TV and DVD players with us while we camp ... especially when we know that it's going to be a rainy weekend! We tried to go to bed/sleep around 10 PM but there were so many mosquitoes that we were bombarded all night long! There had to have been at least 100 mosquitoes in the camper itself and so many more outside! 

On Saturday morning, Daddy's birthday, we all woke up around 6 AM ... we'd only slept a few hours each thanks to the mosquitoes and grabbing some coffee it was discussed and agreed that we'd leave camp a day early. We were all tired and had realized that we much prefer tow behind campers or fifth wheels than pop ups. Besides it was scheduled to pour down rain for most of the day and we didn't want to be locked in the camper watching videos with mosquitoes bombing us every few seconds. We packed most of our stuff up and took the girls back to the house, woke up ECJ, and then YCJ made pancakes for everyone while Daddy and I tried to get the energy up to go back and take down the pop up. Around 9:30 Daddy and I did head back, check out of the park, and take down the pop up relatively easily. We have the process down to a science now! We took the camper back to storage, unpacked the truck at the house, and then settled in to ride out the rain with naps. Daddy actually spent the majority of his birthday napping and relaxing which is how he'd really wanted to spend it anyways ... we just weren't camping while he did so. That evening Daddy and I drove to meet up with a person we're doing a few scrapping jobs for over the next week or two. We tried to go look at the second job but the rain was coming down so hard that we could barely see!! We headed home, ate a late supper of rice with shredded chicken and gravy, and then all went to bed early! (We also weren't feeling very well thinking that we'd ended up with mild cases of food poisoning while camping.)

Sunday morning we woke up to more rain and a "lake" in our side yard. I ran to the store to grab some fish sticks and tater tots for the campers for supper (Daddy and I are either going to eat chicken sandwiches or eggs salad sandwiches). After getting home I updated this blog post (not publishing it until next Friday) and decided to crochet the rest of the day away other than the time that Daddy and I will be quoting the second job for scrapping tonight. Rainy days are best used crocheting, writing, talking to God, and relaxing in my humble opinion... I won't blog about the rest of the day because I'm not touching the computer again until Monday evening.

Monday again! Daddy and I woke up relatively early (but late for our usual wake up time) at 6:30 A.M. ... we had coffee and chit chatted while I jotted out the contract for the scrap job that Daddy had to do this week. We did a quick run to the store after waking up ECJ to take the dogs out and then Daddy and ECJ left to begin work on the scrap job. I took a shower, ate breakfast, and planned out this week's lessons in my planner. I woke the girls up and made sure that they ate breakfast before we did a few chores (some of which usually fall to ECJ to do) ... we brought up the trash cans from the curb, took the dogs out, cleaned the cat pan, and set up the coffee pot for later. We followed this by school lessons: this week it's The Prairie Primer unit study (we're going slow on this one and won't have it completed until probably December), talked about why it's never a bother to talk to God or ask Him questions, math, health with Eat This Not That, and began studying Asia for the Give Your Child the World book club since this is Asia week. After lessons were over the girls each wrote a letter to a friend, cleaned up the living room and dining room, and turned on Boxcar Children to watch. I ran the vacuum and then went to write a letter myself and work some on my crochet because I have to finish a blanket by Wednesday. But, before I began crocheting for the day the girls and I ran to the store (well, actually we walked) and picked up the things I needed to make potato soup for supper and some cereal. When we got back we ate lunch, a small off brand lunchable for each of us, and I played a computer game for about half an hour. I then crocheted until Daddy came home. We took a gentleman to the storage unit and sold the pop up camper and then came back home. I quickly got supper going (Potato Soup, recipe at the end of this post) and then crocheted some more. As a matter of fact I spent pretty much almost all night crocheting, pausing only to eat supper, pass out meds,  read to the girls before they went to bed.

Tuesday rolled around again and Daddy and I lay in bed long past time to wake up. Quietly drinking coffee and relaxing the morning away. Then it was time for Daddy to go back to the scrap job he'd done half of on Monday, before he left with ECJ he ran me to the post office and then the gas station. After Daddy left the girls and I did school lessons, our regular chores around the house, and laundry (time to strip the bed Daddy and I sleep in and change the sheets out while running the comforter through the dryer to get rid of the dog hair). After lessons the girls watched some cartoons on DVD while I played my computer game for a bit and then went off to crochet. We went on a small walk after a lunch of leftovers and I went right back to crocheting while the girls watched some more cartoons. When Daddy came home he dropped off ECJ and picked me up, we ran to the bank and then the gas station, and quickly we got back home. There were several leftovers in the fridge from boiled eggs to chicken and potato soup ... not to mention the sandwich fixings. Everyone had a very eclectic supper except for Daddy and I who ate the same thing that we ate the night before: potato soup, butter bread, and melon pieces. We turned on Netflix to watch Forensic Files after we ate and I spent the majority of the night crocheting ... again only stopping to pass out meds and read to the campers about Asia. This night we read about the Philippines. Everyone was in bed and asleep by 11:30.

Just in case it isn't apparent in the upper two paragraphs ... ECJ not only worked pretty much all day long with Daddy both Monday and Tuesday, but he also came home did his chores AND his school work! He's working really hard to impress upon us that he is mature enough to get his learner's permit for driving later this summer/year.

On Wednesday morning I woke up at 5 AM and stayed awake! I had to finish the blanket before I left the house (or so I thought)... coffee, breakfast, and crochet all before the sun officially rose. I did not get the blanket finished in the morning. After looking at the forecast we noticed that it was supposed to rain all day, so Daddy called Grandma and Papa and rescheduled the BBQ we'd planned to have with them this day until Saturday. The campers woke up and ate breakfast about an hour and a half before Noni showed up. Could we have done lessons? Sure, but we try not to do five days of lessons during the summer usually (though this summer there will be more five day weeks than previous summers). Noni brought ECJ's new math book: Life of Fred Advanced Algebra ... algebra hasn't been friendly to ECJ in the last few months but we're hoping that he can get through both Advanced Algebra AND Geometry (Life of Fred again) before this time next year. He was less than thrilled to see how thick the book was. We went to eat at Wendy's with Noni and then went bowling ... ECJ won the first game and YCJ won the second game. I came in dead last both times. But, we had a lot of fun!! We stopped at Kroger on the way home to pick up some things like milk, cereal, and bread. I gave Noni a bottle of wine that I'd been given by Grandma and then Noni had to leave. I did a pretty quick scrapping trip with Daddy and then we picked up some pizza for supper (I'd taken out fish but neither of us felt like eating fish). The campers were excited by the surprise. After supper I spent several hours crocheting, again I stopped for meds, bedtime reading, and to stretch a bit. Everyone was asleep by 11:30 again.

Thursday morning I woke up at 5 AM and stayed awake again. More coffee, breakfast, and crochet before sunrise while listening to the Bible being read to me. After Daddy woke up we had a bit more coffee, woke up the kids and fed them, and then headed to the scrap yard to pick up what was owed us from the scrap job on Monday and Tuesday. Once we finished with that we ran to the auto part store and grabbed a new coil pack (spark pack) for the car and new plugs for it as well. We came home and Daddy gave all three campers a lesson in installing a coil pack and doing a tune up on a car. Once that was done Daddy and I ran to pick up a load of dirt, two yards worth, with our truck. Dropped that back at the house and grabbed the car and then went to Menard's for a few other items needed. Friday we'll be down at Grandma and Papa's house most of the day using up that dirt and other items to help them out. I came inside and played a bit of my computer game, then crocheted more while Daddy took a nap ... and finally cooked supper of fish and fried potatoes. I then continued to crochet until it was time to pass out meds, read for bedtime (moving on to Australia a few days early as we'd like to just finish off this part of the book club ... we'll be going over the same territory during the fall semester and into next spring doing one section at a time per month), and getting the girls settled for bed. I then crocheted until 10:30 PM and was in bed asleep by shortly after 11 PM.

Friday and Saturday we spent the majority of each of these days at Grandma and Papa's house building up the ground around the foundation and in the garden, spreading grass seeds, watering things, and doing some minor work in the basement. Both of these days were HOT ... like in the 90's dripping with humidity HOT. We made BBQ both nights while we were there: fish and veggie packets for Friday and ribs and corn on the cob for Saturday. When we got home Saturday evening (we'd slept at home on Friday evening as well) we discovered that our lawn mower no longer worked... so off to the store Daddy and I went and we bought our first brand new lawn mower in about a decade.

So, here it is Sunday afternoon and I'm finishing updating this blog post. We went to early mass at church today and then took a drive to look at a house (more on that in a future post). We ended the day with scrapping, supper from Taco Bell (too hot to cook, in the high 90's again today with humidity), and after a cool bath I crocheted for a few hours.

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Potato Soup:
4-5 lbs pealed and cubed potatoes
2 small onions diced
garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper
tbs butter
instant mashed potatoes
shredded cheese
water and milk

Prep all your veggies. Saute onions in butter right in your soup pot until onions are tender. Take off heat and add potatoes, seasonings, and water to cover potatoes. Boil approximately half an hour, or until potatoes are tender and falling apart. Turn heat to low and add milk to fill the pot 3/4 of the way full ... add instant mashed potatoes to thicken soup to desired thickness (you may end up having to add more milk). Serve with shredded cheese and butter bread if you wish.