Stressing Out

We had a fantastic visit with my college buddy, Cindy, yesterday.  We got to see four of her six kids after they got out of high school.  We haven't seen these guys in a very long time.  As her two oldest start their senior year, they're looking at colleges.  Cindy was going through what colleges run these days.  Holy stink.  Oh, and her kids are taking some college classes right now, plus they're doing some truly amazing stuff in their final year of high school.

I have to get my stuff together for high school homeschooling.  I have some worksheets to help me plan, but I really need to get some experiences and curriculum.  I feel like I'm going to have to come out of my comfort zone, which may mean I don't play to my strengths.  Then I read this article, which did nothing to soothe the freak out factor.

My kids are smart, but that's only part of the equation.  College is part of the equation, but the cost is skyrocketing, so I wonder about the future of traditional colleges.  There is no justification for a $200k college degree.  I hate the stress of living up to expectations.  Fitting the mold.  How do we proceed from here?

Visiting Uncle Josh

We haven't seen my brother in several years.  The last time we saw him was the last time he joined everyone for the yearly ski trip.  So we packed everyone in the van and headed out to MD.  We fit our gigantic beastie of a mobile on his teeny tiny road.  And parked it!  

We squished in next to Josh for this pic.  Bill had my iPad for this picture, since I had left my camera in the car.  We had a good time visiting with Josh, and I think we'll be able to get him to move into a ranchette next to us in CO once this travelling adventure is done.  He wants all the animals Bill doesn't want us to have, so I can live vicariously through him.  It'll be great good fun!

Math Revisited, Again

My parents lent us the Great Courses Algebra video and workbook.  I have no answer book for the workbook, and so it was becoming a challenge to grade.  I really don't have the time to go through the videos and do the work myself in order to have an answer for all of his work.  I feel horrible about this.  With that in mind, however, we did go ahead and make the switch to Teaching Textbooks.  G said that the problems in there were easy peasy compared to what he had been doing, so I'm tempted to have him do the Great Courses while we're staying at houses, just to give him that extra exposure to more complex ideas, by without me grading them.  I need to have a way to keep track of his progress in math, I need to know he's getting the concepts the book is trying to get across to him, and I simply can't do that if I have to do all the work alongside him just to make sure he's got the correct answer.  I've got so much going on, that's just not working for me.  I feel a bit of a failure on this one...

Preventing the Rain

Turns out interior raining whilst camping is somewhat preventable.  Yes, we're in a humid area.  Yes, it's been raining.  But it need not rain INSIDE our tent.  Bill did a little research, and if you simply vent your tent, no interior raining.  Lovely!!!!  So now we unzip the windows a bit, and all our breathing humidity joins the other humidity outside the tent, and we're just left with the regular humidity level surrounding us (about 60%).

Now, if only we could prevent the regular rain that occurs naturally in weather.  It rained pretty hard Monday night, and for whatever reason, we got a river that led right to my feet.  And soaked the sleeping bags I was using.  So terribly sad.  And it's supposed to rain more Wednesday night.  Not looking forward to it all....

NOVA Camping

The inside of my tent is raining.  I've got puddles being created as we speak.  The humidity here sucks.  Massively.  Living in this area, I was quite aware that the humidity was horrible.  I hated it when we here, but I never slept outside in it.  Now that we're in it all the time, I appreciate how horrible it truly is.  I sleep damp, I wake up damper, and I walk through damp air all day.  The day we arrived it was close to 100, but the temps have gone down.  And the weather channel says the humidity should go down soon, too.

And so now I leave you with the video that Bill's sister-in-law showed us.  Good times.

Lunch with Aunt Carol

On our way from CO to VA, we stopped in for a day at Bill's parents' house in WV.  From there, we stopped in, briefly, for lunch with Aunt Carol at Fredrick, MD.  We haven't seen her since Bill's brother got married, many years ago.  Something like six years ago.  So while she hasn't changed, and Bill and I haven't changed, our brood has changed enormously.  It was good seeing her again, even if it meant leaving Parkersburg before 8am.  

Out in the parking lot right before we headed out.  I had forgotten my camera, so we made her come to the car so we could get a picture.  I need to get working on another big family tree kinda project.  I've tried to gather pictures of everyone as we go, but I'm sure I've missed a few.        






 And now we're in Northern Virginia!!!!  We've got plans with friends, trips to take, adventures to have.  We've already canceled our trip into DC for the book festival.  The idea of lugging the beast into the city is unappealing, plus we have camp chores to get done.  But we ARE seeing friends for dinner tonight, and that makes me happy!

Confirmation and Such

Our timeframe for returning to CO had been set way before we even began our journey across the US.  NS got confirmed on the 15th of September!  

He took the name Robert Alphonsus.  Personally, I hate that they have to pick a Saint's name before confirmation studies even begin.  K and NB have to pick their names now for their confirmation next year.  K has already done that, NB has not.  At any rate, check out how sharp my little man is next to his uncle.  He insisted on the bow tie.  He looks good!            

All of us assembled.  We don't get a lot of family pictures, so it's nice to get one while we're all gussied up.  G's slouching, he's even taller than Bill these days.  All those monkeys look good dressed up.  Very few occasions to dress up whilst camping.          






 We also got the opportunity to hang out with friends while in town.  The boys got to go to scouts a couple times, we went bowling three times (twice with friends from the charter, once with family), we hit the rec center, and we went to mass at our own church thrice (twice on Sundays, once for confirmation).  It was nice to be in a familiar place, though I missed the camping.