5K at Five Stones

Five Stones is a camp sponsored by a local  mission that our church supports and that our Preacher is on the board of.  Here is how their website defines them:

Situated on 145+ acres of wooded land in Reelsville, Indiana, Five Stones Camp provides an absolutely FREE residential camping experience to disadvantaged inner-city youth from all over the state of Indiana. The Five Stones program is a rigorous 40-day residential summer program that rescues troubled, low-income teenage boys, ages 13-17, from the negative influences of gangs, drugs, neglect and domestic violence and helps them become responsible, mature and independent young men through spiritual, educational and vocational training.

I think it is such a unique ministry.  This year they had their first 5K "Run the Ravines" to raise money.  So I signed Daddy up.  C & I were thinking of doing it--until we figured out that C had 3 soccer games that weekend.  We wanted to rest his legs.  Due to some confusion, C ended up walking the entire think anyways!  And it was hard!  Up and down some crazy ravines--or so I"m told.  I was back at the finish line watching a friend's baby so mommy could do the run with her girls and hubby.

Dear Diary

February 4: Valentine's Party at friend's house.  C was the oldest; but they all love him.  Enjoyed taking with 'adults!"

 February 8: AWANA quizzing.  Took 5 teams.  Good group of kiddos!

February (ummmm?): Got C's 11 year pictures taken.  He looks so old!

February 22: SIL and BIL and 2 kiddos drove through to...........somewhere and spent the night.  They came back through a few days later.  So nice to see them unexpectedly.  Got lots of these texts.

February 28: Took C to his first concert.  It was a lot "harder" than we anticipated.  But he enjoyed it. Need to try something a little tamer next time.

March 3 & 4:  Got to spend the day with this cutie.

March 4: also started AWANA games practices (they don't call it Olympics anymore)

March 7: attended a dear friend's husband's funeral.  It's been a hard year for funerals

March 10:  Stood in line for 2 hours to get 10 passes to a local rec center for $10!  Good deal, but good grief!

March 11:  NERVOUS!  I had a session at our church's Outreach Conference for Dei Gratia.  Had a great number listening and many follow up responses!  C also got his picture taken with his pastor friend.

March 15: AWANA games.  We got 2nd for every team!  Not bad!

March 18: Dei Gratia assembly.  Had a great time with some good/new-ish friends!  Mailed 4 bags.  Distributed with one of said friends.

March 21:  Had above friends and their families over for dinner.  Ma L cooked yummy Tex Mex.  Learned how to make guacamole and salsa!

March 28:  I went to a homeschool conference.  Got some exciting stuff for next year!  SIXTH GRADE!  Daddy and C went duckpin bowling and on a photo walk.  We all met up for dinner.

I have pictures somewhere..........

March 30-April 1: revival with Hal Hightower.  He's good; funny.  I ran camera one night.

April 3:  Our 15th anniversary!  Wow!  That's hard to believe!  We actually went out April 11.  Pictures are on Daddy's phone.........

April 12: Soccer games started.  C's in a new club this year.  We really like it.  We've been told it's one of the best in the area.  He's been playing goalie.  Makes this mama nervous.

April 14:  C did his first testing, ever!  Waiting to see results.

April 15:  C & I helped church host a fireman's lunch for our April Faith @ Work outreach.

April 19:  We were able to attend an Indy 11 game.  Indy 11 is the new soccer team in Indianapolis.  What a great time we had.  It ended in a tie.

April 20:  Easter.  Because of Easter I will see my K girl again.

April 21:  Happy Birthday to my wonderful hubby.  Don't know what I'd do without him.  I'm very thankful for him!

April 23: AWANA awards.  C finished his book.  Only one more to go.  He also won Indy 11 tickets! Yeah for another game!

Misc:

This happened.  ON APRIL 15!  What strange weather.

C met a new friend.  Such a sweet dog!

This mess turned into these yummy muffins.  

This is what happens when you turn the mixer to high instead of to off.

Focus

Society always has "buzz words" or words that are the IT thing for that time (selfie was the word of the year for 2013???? Hilarious!)  Around here we have buzz words too.  For 5th grade one of our major buzz words has been FOCUS!  I'll admit, I sometimes need reminded to focus.  But I'm thinking especially of C.  But the key would be, he needs to learn to focus on what is important--not always what he wants to focus on.

All that for back story for the following picture.

One day, it was almost time for lunch.  I asked C to go downstairs, get out a pan, and put a can of soup in the pan to warm for lunch.  All instructions he should be able to follow and has done (although not all together) in the past.

I came downstairs a few minutes later (thankfully only about 5) to find this pan with a can of soup  sitting on the counter.  The burner was on (not very high).

Ummmmm

question #1: whatever makes you think this will be the appropriate pan for a can of SOUP?

question #2: why is the burner on but nothing in the pan? "I was warming the pan up."

Common sense:

answer #1: common sense would have told you that the soup would not have worked in this pan.

answer #2: common sense would have told you that it might be dangerous to put an empty pan on the stove, turn the burner on, and walk away.

He just wanted to get done what he was told to do so he could move on to what he wanted to do.  So the word of the day is "Focus on what you are told to do"  Actually, I guess that's a phase---I mean phrase.

Grand Prix

AWANA Grand Prix this year started with dinner at church and then the race in the auditorium.  As usual, there were a few glitches that delayed the races, but once they got fixed everything proceeded fairly quickly.  C ended up getting a medal for design.  But his was one of the slowest cars of the night.

One of the race officials was Mr. Dennis.  Mr. Dennis's favorite AWANA activity was the Grand Prix. Mr. Dennis and his wife Peggy became one of our "non-Christmas Elf projects" Sadly not long after the Grand Prix, Mr. Dennis beat us all to seeing K again. 

Thanksgiving part home

We played lots of games together.

We went to Weber Grill for Thanksgiving dinner.

We did do some Black Friday shopping.  Some of it was midnight online shopping.
While at Kohl's we found Woody. Poor guy.

One of the games we played was Bunco.  Notice who was playing.  I guess we hadn't played it in awhile.