So it begins!

Okay, so I'm officially a "blogger" now! I've been wanting to do this for awhile, and kept putting it off since I could never find the time. I still don't have the time, but I'm doing it anyway. (Right now it's almost 11:00 and Elizabeth has been asleep for over an hour. I should be in bed!) I love the idea of documenting the life of our family. The past five years have been practically lost in a blur of pregnancies, trips to the delivery room, diapers, crayons and playdough, two moves, church, mission and hunting trips, business building, camp kids and staff, playgroups, and the less exciting, mundane stuff of life like trips to the grocery store and cleaning the house...when I get to it.

I really want to go back and start at the beginning of our life in Cleveland, just to have it to read later and to share with the kids. I'm thinking that would be impossible, however, so I'll summarize it in a stream of concious kind of way.

October 2000*Living in Mom and Dad's cabin on the mountain*Building houses for Dad*Building our house on Daybreak Road*Moving into the house April 2001*Establishing Himstedt Homes*Starting to clear the camp property (April 2002)*Amelia July 2003*Keep on building houses/working at camp property*Shannon October 2004*Buildings going up at camp*First Open House April 2005*First camp session June 2005 (42 kids)*Sell Daybreak Road house December 2005*Rental house in Clermont*Living in Rockcreek cabin summer 2006 (150 kids at camp)*Avery September 2006*Moving to camp October 2006*Camp 2007 (220 kids)*Elizabeth June 2008*Camp 2008 (270 kids)

That should get us up to speed! As for the present....

I always dislike this time of year. Yesterday our last group left for the summer, a family camp, and today we said goodbye to the last of the summer staff who have been here since May. Now life is back to "normal," quiet during the week, groups here about every other weekend through the year. Everyone asks if I'm glad to have everyone gone, and I always answer, "NO!" It's so much more fun to look out over camp and see it busy, people having a good time, watching community happen. It's just cool.

The upside to the summer ending is that we will see James more. All summer we saw him at meals...and that was about it. Now unless he's working a retreat, gone on a recruiting trip, or somewhere else like playing cards with friends (where he currently is as we speak), he'll be here to hang out with the family in the evenings. I think the kids have missed their human jungle gym before bedtime.

Another thing I dislike about this time of year is school starting back. It ties up everybody I know in some way or another. People become slaves to the school calendar, and weekday functions always have to wrap up early so everyone's kids can be in bed. I watch families run hither and yon, trying to cram in a full day of school, after school activities (sometimes way too many), homework, dinner, and hopefully a hello before rushing to bed to do it all again.

This year we have a school aged child. It seems rather unbelievable, it got here so fast! Amelia is a young five, just having had her birthday at the end of July. When we got married I couldn't fathom the idea of homeschooling, or why anyone would want to do it. All the homeschoolers I knew were weird, fashion backwards, and socially awkward. I now get what their parents were aiming for...though I certainly think there are right and wrong ways to do it. We've chosen to keep Amelia at home this year, and will continue to pray and re-evaluate it year by year. School started yesterday, and most of her friends are attending kindergarten at one of the White or Hall county schools, or at Chattahoochee or White Creek Academy. Having heard first day of school stories from my friends, I honestly feel a little naughty keeping her at home when everyone else is at school! It's a weird feeling.
The overriding feeling, however, is happiness. I love having the best part of her day. I love knowing how she spent her day, instead of wondering what went on when the only answer I might have gotten was, "my day was fine." I love watching her learn from the front row, and observing how she learns best. None of this is said in judgment of those who are in school, they are just my thoughts on what I love about this choice for us.

Elizabeth has now been asleep long enough for me to be able to get in the bed for maybe an hour before she wakes up again. Oh well, I got a start on our official blog now, so it should be worth it! Who thought of the word blog anyway? It's kind of dumb...