Difficult Week
This past week has been really difficult for our household. Saturday (June 28) was our Patriotic Musical. I spent all morning at the church getting things prepared for the program that evening. Wendy was home washing clothes and packing suitcases for her and Ashton as they were leaving on Sunday for Centrifuge (youth camp). We left early that night for the program and got home in time to get the boys to bed for an early start the next day.
Sunday we had our normal three worship services, ran home to eat lunch and change clothes then drove right back to church so that Ashton and Wendy could load the church bus and head for camp. Zachary was very upset because this is his first time to go a week without his brother and his mother.
On Monday, Zachary spent the entire day with a neighbor and her two young children. He did fine, but he was very sad that I could not make it home until late and did not make it home for lunch. That evening we went shopping to get supplies for our cookout on Tuesday and then spent an hour playing Mario Party 6. He went to bed late (he really wanted to spend as much time with me as he could) and asked me to sleep with him for awhile.
Tuesday he did not want to stay with anybody. He insisted on going to work with me even though he would have to sit quietly and play his Nintendo DS while I worked. I also had to go to a meeting in Columbia with three other men from church, so he had to sit quietly in the back of a van for the hour drive and sit quietly in an outer office for three hours while we met with our state director. We made it home about ten minutes before our Bible Study group arrived for the cookout and study time. He did get to play with two preschool boys and entertained them with magic tricks.
Ashton had a difficult time on Tuesday as well. One of the other middle school boys at camp told him that nobody wanted him to hang around with them and asked him to go away. Ashton went to the youth pastor to talk about this. The youth pastor had this boy call his mother to tell her what he had done and made him stay right beside him for the next 24 hours. Wendy said that Ashton was still very upset about the incident, but was walking around by himself looking happy. This is one thing that our boys miss out on by being homeschooled, so they have to experience it at church activities.
One Wednesday Zachary was scheduled to spend the day with a friend. We got to their house a little early and had to wait for the mother to wake up and get dressed. Everybody else was still asleep, but she told us that she was going to take them to ride go-carts on the military base. Zachary was extremely excited at this. At lunch time I found out that the go-cart place was closed, so they went to play putt-putt. That evening I found out that his friend is actually away at camp this week, but his younger sister was home…so, Zachary had to spend all day with a girl who has no interests in common with him. He was not very happy.
Today (Thursday) Zachary and I went fishing at a church members’ pond. We spent an hour feeding fish (meaning that the fish were eating our bait and we were catching nothing). Then we got into a paddle boat, switched to lures instead of bait, removed the weights and lowered the bobbers. Suddenly we started catching one fish after another. Zachary caught seven fish, including the largest, and I caught five. In my defense, I did spend most of my time removing his fish, throwing them back in, paddling the boat, untangling his line, changing lures, etc.
Ashton had another difficult day because all of the boys at camp were being punished because two boys made a mess of the bath area in their cabin. The youth pastor had all of them sitting in the cabin until the two boys confessed. Ashton said he knew who they were, but they did not want anyone to tattle. However, the only boy who was not being punished was the one who told the youth pastor that some of the boys had made a mess. Ashton and another minister’s son were searching through their bibles and reading aloud verses about doing what is right in hopes that the two boys would confess, but they did not. The boys were allowed to leave their cabin to go to worship time and will be coming straight back after. Ashton is tired of camp and ready to come home. I think he liked RA Camp much more.
Sunday we had our normal three worship services, ran home to eat lunch and change clothes then drove right back to church so that Ashton and Wendy could load the church bus and head for camp. Zachary was very upset because this is his first time to go a week without his brother and his mother.
On Monday, Zachary spent the entire day with a neighbor and her two young children. He did fine, but he was very sad that I could not make it home until late and did not make it home for lunch. That evening we went shopping to get supplies for our cookout on Tuesday and then spent an hour playing Mario Party 6. He went to bed late (he really wanted to spend as much time with me as he could) and asked me to sleep with him for awhile.
Tuesday he did not want to stay with anybody. He insisted on going to work with me even though he would have to sit quietly and play his Nintendo DS while I worked. I also had to go to a meeting in Columbia with three other men from church, so he had to sit quietly in the back of a van for the hour drive and sit quietly in an outer office for three hours while we met with our state director. We made it home about ten minutes before our Bible Study group arrived for the cookout and study time. He did get to play with two preschool boys and entertained them with magic tricks.
Ashton had a difficult time on Tuesday as well. One of the other middle school boys at camp told him that nobody wanted him to hang around with them and asked him to go away. Ashton went to the youth pastor to talk about this. The youth pastor had this boy call his mother to tell her what he had done and made him stay right beside him for the next 24 hours. Wendy said that Ashton was still very upset about the incident, but was walking around by himself looking happy. This is one thing that our boys miss out on by being homeschooled, so they have to experience it at church activities.
One Wednesday Zachary was scheduled to spend the day with a friend. We got to their house a little early and had to wait for the mother to wake up and get dressed. Everybody else was still asleep, but she told us that she was going to take them to ride go-carts on the military base. Zachary was extremely excited at this. At lunch time I found out that the go-cart place was closed, so they went to play putt-putt. That evening I found out that his friend is actually away at camp this week, but his younger sister was home…so, Zachary had to spend all day with a girl who has no interests in common with him. He was not very happy.
Today (Thursday) Zachary and I went fishing at a church members’ pond. We spent an hour feeding fish (meaning that the fish were eating our bait and we were catching nothing). Then we got into a paddle boat, switched to lures instead of bait, removed the weights and lowered the bobbers. Suddenly we started catching one fish after another. Zachary caught seven fish, including the largest, and I caught five. In my defense, I did spend most of my time removing his fish, throwing them back in, paddling the boat, untangling his line, changing lures, etc.
Ashton had another difficult day because all of the boys at camp were being punished because two boys made a mess of the bath area in their cabin. The youth pastor had all of them sitting in the cabin until the two boys confessed. Ashton said he knew who they were, but they did not want anyone to tattle. However, the only boy who was not being punished was the one who told the youth pastor that some of the boys had made a mess. Ashton and another minister’s son were searching through their bibles and reading aloud verses about doing what is right in hopes that the two boys would confess, but they did not. The boys were allowed to leave their cabin to go to worship time and will be coming straight back after. Ashton is tired of camp and ready to come home. I think he liked RA Camp much more.
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