Red River Family Encampment

This is our first RRFE and also our first trip to Red River, NM. The town is quite quaint. It gives me a small sense of what life in latter years might have been like. At night and in the early morning hours, you hear complete silence. No cars, horns, bass speakers, yelling, dogs ... NOTHING. It is amazing coming from OKC. We've enjoyed the early morning chilly runs/walks that are maybe 50 degrees at the end of June! The condo has no air conditioner - just windows and heaters along the base boards. I am amazed coming from 100 degree weather. It has been hotter at home at 6:30am than it gets here at the peak heat of the day. We've enjoyed a steakhouse, snowcone stand, and candy store. I'm not sure that I would enjoy the skiing here as there are only 2 lifts and not many green runs. However, we took the ski lift to the top of the mountain and attempted a round of disc golf. The kids have enjoyed the town park right next door to the condo.

On to the RRFE -- AMAZING!!! It is like camp for adults. I often wish that I could go to camp some weeks in the summer just to get the singing and lessons and the escape from reality. I have found this in RRFE this week. The singing is amazing! The singing is probably one of my favorite parts of any church functions. It is hard for me to comprehend why other religious groups find it weird that we don't have an instrument. If they could only hear what glorious sounds I've heard this week, maybe, just maybe they would see it differently.

I attended classes taught by Brad and Deborah McCoy. They brought out such relevant information from the Bible and their take on child raising. God has richly blessed them in their efforts. The other class that I attended was by Trey Morgan from Childress, TX. It is now my goal to go to Honduras with their group in December 2010. Check out his blog TreyMorgan.net to find out more about his amazing Honduras story.

There is some concern that the land that has been made available for the RRFE won't be available in the future. I hope that no matter the outcome of that situation that the RRFE wouldn't be abandoned but rather just changed in location either in the town of Red River or somewhere in the vicinity.

This has been a fantastic experience that I hope we will be able to participate in the years to come.

Horrible blogger (obviously)

Since it has been July of last year since I've done anything on this crazy blog, there is a lot to catch up on. However, I don't have time right now to catch up on it.

Today is Mother's Day. I have to say that being a mother is at times much harder and other times much easier than I ever could have imagined. I would say with both of the kids that actually getting them out into the world was the worst part followed very closely by sleep deprivation. However, once those passed, I've got to say, it hasn't been too terribly bad. Now, don't let me leave you thinking we've got this in the bag, 'cause we don't. New things come up everyday. I just think at this point we've learned how to better cope with them.

Ethan is nearing the end of pre-K this year and has matured so much since last year. He has definitely benefited from the extra year before kindergarten. He is drawn to artistic things and he loves math. I'm glad to see he takes after me :) At least I've heard that means he is using both sides of his brain and not necessarily dominant one way or the other.

Maisie gets to start at the same school as Ethan next year. She will go two times per week. Ethan has made my job easy because he comes home everyday and teaches her what he learned. I haven't really had to teach her much because Ethan already has. We need to start teaching her how to write her name and all the other letters. Time will tell if Maisie is fully utilizing her brain. Hopefully she too will be like me in that respect.

We skied Breckenridge, swam the Great Wolf Lodge, and made plans for Red River and maybe KC this summer. It is my goal to do better at keeping up with the blog (but I think I said that last year too).

Happy Mother's Day 2010!