the good, the bad, and the abominable

just an update!

This past weekend we were up camping at Donner Lake with some other homeschool families. Fun! Learning!

Ok, it was actually not as good an experience as I wish I could report, only because we arrived there so late Fri night (er, um, Sat. morning) that we were pretty tired Saturday, and it seemed like everything was just off all day. Like we were eating breakfast after everyone and then when everyone headed up to the summit for rock-crawling, we found a note on our car requesting us to check in at the ranger station (even though we had already paid online) so then we felt like everyone was waiting for us (even though it only took a few minutes to register on our way out) and then by the time we met up with our group, baby E had fallen asleep and I felt so bad waking him, exhausted as he was, that I decided to stay in the car with him and let him nap a bit. I thought everyone was just going to climb around on the mountainside visible from the car and I would bring E in the back carrier to join them shortly, since he does not usually sleep long in the car, but the group ended up on an impromptu long, fun hike--through tunnels blasted through the granite mountain top by the Chinese railway workers, up to the top of the summit. Awesome! If I had known, I would not have stayed in the car! But, on the other hand, E slept almost the entire time we were alone, and I got to relax and read, which was nice since I was so tired. And then after we had lunch back at the campground, we realized G had left her shoes--her Keen sandals, new this summer--up at the trailhead. So while everyone else went to the Donner State Park museum, D and I took G (and E) back up to hunt for the shoes. Nope--she knew where she had left them, and even though we scoured half of the mountainside in the hopes she was remembering incorrectly, we finally concluded that someone had taken them.

Sigh. The worst thing about it, in my mind, is that this tailhead is only used by hikers and mountain climbers. So odds are the person who took the shoes was an outdoorsy/athletic type, who recognized their value. But wouldn't you think such a person would then know the shoes' owner would come back for them? Who would steal a kid's shoes from a rock-climbing trailhead? For all they knew, the owner was still around, coming back from climbing in a few minutes. This is kinda shattering my image of outdoorsy types.

So then by the time we got back down to the museum everyone was done with it and waiting on us so they could go swimming. So then we got our kids ready, and followed the group down where we were told they had gone--and never found them. So D and the girls just played on their own while I went back to the camp with a sudden, horrible migraine. I could go on--but you get the picture. We DID have fun! And we are glad we went! But everything was just off, and would have been very frustrating if we were letting it be.

But there is some of the GOOD: that we had a good time despite lots of reasons not to! We kept our positive attitudes and just did our best and our friends were gracious and patient and helpful (my friend Alberta in particular was such a blessing to me, esp. with the cups of tea she served me (in a ceramic mug!) and how she kept saying in her chipper way, "This is so FUN!")

More GOOD happened when we got home and saw a neighbor out in her driveway, whom I have not spoken to since last spring. So I went to say hello, and had a nice time chatting with her and her life partner about Northern CA, and in the course of the conversation they offered us the use of their cabin up north! Whoo-whoo! This year we are studying the history of CA and one of the state parks near their cabin is a real gold rush ghost town! How perfect is that?!

The BAD is clear--losing G's shoes. Hmmmm, I may have to rethink this whole expensive shoe thing. We did the Keens for our roadtrips, so we had a pair of shoes that could do anything, and they have been awesome! And we did them because G's smaller sized Keens have been handed down to two sisters and they are still almost like new! So we figured if we got good shoes they would be worth it as more than one child could wear them. . . . I was not factoring loss/theft into the equasion. And leaving behind shoes would not have happened if I had been in my right mind--since I am officially the keeper of all things--and did not have that migraine coming on. We will wait to replace the shoes until at least next summer--hope that will help her learn the lesson about keeping track of her things too.

And then, more ABOMINATIONS awaiting us! Ok, this is going to be an ongoing thing so I won't keep telling you about every little household insurgency, but this one was just too classic: I wake up this morning to a rainy day, take the girls to some school testing, come home and leave my muddy shoes at the door, go to put on my cozy slippers for the first time this fall--and the leather soles are covered in fuzzy green mold.

Ewwww!

By the way, I have not forgotten that I have yet to post pics from our last roadtrip. Coming soon! : )

Hope anyone who stops by to read has a great week!