Retreat

I just had a great scrapbook retreat weekend. Friendship with fellow scrapbookers, some awesome food, no chores, fresh air at camp and I come home rejuvenated and ready to go again! I know not a lot of people understand our weekends away. They think "scrapbookers"... they must just be crafting. But scrapbooking is so much more than that to me. It is a way of documenting life's moments... preserving a piece of our life to remember. I know that life is much more than a few memories, but this is one thing that I can do to share with my family what they mean to me. Here are some of my creations from the weekend:

Making Time...

This is one of those things that I think most parents struggle with their high schoolers about.... making time for the things that are important. They have school, homework, extracurricular activities, recreational and family activities, and they want to be involved in it all! So how do you teach them to decide what is IMPORTANT?

Of course, what I think is important and what they think is important may not necessarily be the same. School for example... is surely at the top of both our lists but school "extra-curricular" activities are very time consuming but very important to the kids. Doesn't that count as making school a priority? You don't want to let everyone else down because you need to do more research for your paper. It also seems that when things get busy at school it is all the family time that seems to get cut first! I know that as they grow up we will see less of them but that doesn't mean I won't miss that time spent together. I am learning to relish those times more.

How do you teach your kids that it is okay to give something up? That you don't need to participate in everything. I think this is going to be one of our biggest challenges this year.

Adversity

Adversity...one defintion I found was a state of misfortune or calamity. Adversity is not something that we look forward to but it is something that we all face, and in overcoming it, it can make us stronger.

This past weekend was the boys final marching band competition of the season and Flu had hit the school:
8 band members were out sick
2 soloists & 1 drum major with a speaking part were sick
& 1 was injured and on crutches

No fear... they worked it out. Two students were given solos the day before the competition (Jacob was one of them) and our injured member stepped up to do the speaking part on his crutches... we can do this! The band director decided to go even with our many holes in the line not to mention sounding quite different with that many musicians missing. Then we got to Missouri... People kept mentioning that the field was muddy, but the kids had no idea just how muddy until they stepped onto the field. The mud was just slick! I saw at least 5 near misses as far as falling goes but everyone managed to stay upright. The kids were a little dissapointed in how they did but I think they did awesome in light of all of the adversity.

What a better way to learn that life does not always deal you roses and sometimes you just need to step up and do you best.

SNOW!

Oct. 10th and it is snowing! You know I love snow and winter activities that come along with it like skiing and Christmas, BUT OCTOBER! I sit here looking out the window at the snow accumulating, thinking about the Cross Country meet and Marching Band competition that we have on the schedule for today, and I can enjoy the view knowing it won't last long.

What Makes Me Smile...

Sometimes SMILES come from very unexpected places. This morning, I had several students in the library finishing up World Civ poster projects. I glanced over to see one student pasteing the journaling boxes on his poster with a Big Grin on his face. I thought, how nice that he is enjoying his project (most high school students loath poster projects). Upon closer examination, I noticed that he was pasteing his boxes on by writing funny saying with his glue stick! It made me smile even bigger but for a whole new reason. He made "enjoying the simple things" take on a whole new meaning.

What a good way to start off a Friday!