New Orleans 1992

In my decluttering efforts, I ran across a videotape made by our church when our youth group attended the National LCMS Youth Gathering in New Orleans in 1992. I had just graduated from high school and I went with the youth from my church before I started college. The videotape was about 1/2 a hour long. It was just some shots of going to Six Flags on the way there, some of the "church" services and activities we did there, and some of the sightseeing we did. I was one of the oldest ones in my group as I had not attended the Denver youth gathering (was that in 1989?) and most of my classmates had attended that one and only went once. On this trip to New Orleans I became better friends with my friend Kristy who eventually was one of my bridesmaids. My dad was the vacancy pastor at a small church outside of my hometown. About 5 of their youth plus a chaperone came with our large church. I enjoyed having them as part of our group.

The videotape-I wasn't smiling in very many of the shots of me. Our group was large-almost 50 of us on a bus with a few chaperones. This was frustrating because it was so many people to keep track of-it seemed like we waited to get the group going more than we actually went and did anything. Also, the conservative LCMS in me hated the actual youth gathering. Especially when a pastor came to our section during the communion service and winked at me and said, "Hey ladies, you get to give each other communion today for once!" And I could tell from the videotape that even then we all thought a lot of the planned events were dumb. 18 years later they are even more ridiculous! Our group had good chaperones and as far as I know we all behaved. But we heard horror stories about what other LCMS youth did at the hotels while we were there. I think 20,000 youth is just too many. I did enjoy the sightseeing and being with friends so the time wasn't totally wasted. But I enjoyed going to New Orleans with the CUW Wind Ensemble a few years later much more than this trip.

I am so thankful that my Lambs will have a chance to do Higher Things Youth Gatherings. I would forbid my Lambs to ever participate in something like what I attended in 1992. I don't think our Lambs even will have a desire to go with 20,000 other Lutherans-it's just too big for them after living in a town of 113. I think of how much money we had to raise to go to the National Youth Gathering-it was a lot of car washes, taking donations, and other fundraisers plus a lot of our own money. I think of how much it cost for LCMS to run the youth gathering. Since there wasn't Higher Things yet, I think I would have preferred to go with my family to some place like New Orleans and do our own sightseeing and go to a good LCMS church if we were there on a Sunday.

Did any of you readers attend a National Youth Gathering? Do any of your churches still attend the National Youth Gathering?

33rd Week of School Report

We had a nice school vacation for a week while we went to CA. (I know I still need to post about our vacation, but other things have come up that I wanted to post!) We tried to get back to school this week slowly after our vacation. Monday was Memorial Day so we had one more day of vacation. Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment and then the babysitter came so no school. Wednesday and Thursday we had school. Friday I had a doctor's appointment for my thyroid, 3 hours away, so it was a whole day of doctoring and shopping and no school. Saturday we had school. I am finding it hard to get motivated to do school now that it is summer. The classroom teacher in me has a difficult time doing school during the summer. We need to get caught up from all our sickness this past year when we took more breaks than we should have. The Lambs have never been to school so they aren't unmotivated because it's summer. They're just tired and grouchy after all our activities and traveling recently. We have few plans this week so hopefully we can get some good school in this week before VBS and swim lessons...

Math: Still working on MUS lesson 21. Read a book about and practiced counting by tens. Both Lamb 1 and 2 did a little from their dot to dot books.
Reading: Read Celebrated Dancing Bear without doing any FIAR activities. I think we have now read all the FIAR books from volume 1. Read a little from Just So Stories.
We took a break from Latin, handwriting and science this week. Lamb 2 did a little from his tracing book.
Religion: Reviewed all the Bible stories in set 3 of the Bible story posters. We will begin set 4 next week.
Phonics: Lamb 1 read a Bob book daily.
Music: We read about and listened to Wagner.
Art: Lamb 1 did a little in his Kumon drawing book. The Lambs painted with their babysitter.
History: We read a book about the American flag and Lamb 1 remembered Flag Day is soon so he decided to make some pictures of flags to decorate our house for Flag Day.

I think that was about it. I felt like it was a shortened week in the classroom like I used to have for holidays and other events.

International Clothesline Week Begins Today

I am going to attempt to put more out on the line this week-it's so difficult when you don't know if it is going to rain or not! I put a lot on clothes racks inside all year around so I don't feel so bad if I don't get it all outside all the time. At a minimum, I try to hang towels, diapers, jeans, sheets, and blankets as often as possible. I like the sun to bleach the diapers especially. My dad was nice enough to hang new line for me last year. I'm going to try to paint the rusty posts this summer too to brighten them up.

Decluttering day 1-3

I decided to document my decluttering efforts on my blog. Our tri-parish can not continue to pay a full-time pastor forever. I don't know what God's plans for our family are, but I don't think we will be here for more than a few more years. I plan to go through every drawer, closet, and bin in our house this summer. I want to get rid of some, organize what we keep, and clean the house well. Some of the items that I am getting rid of need to be cleaned up (strollers, baby swing, etc.). And then I need to organize where what I am getting rid of is going. Some items that I'm keeping need to be packed up like the baby bouncy seat. I'm not sure if I will get to our many bookshelves this summer with everything else planned for this summer.

Tuesday- I worked through the bin of 0-6 month clothes and got rid of some. I had done this before so there wasn't a lot that I was willing to part with. Hopefully as I go to the next age bin I'm willing to get rid of more. This is so difficult because I don't know if we will have more children or the sex of those children! Baby clothes are so cute, but they don't wear them for long before they outgrow them. I did actually get rid of a couple of Pooh outfits so I'm slowly making progress. (Last time I gave away almost everything that wasn't Pooh and my mom said I was still keeping too much.) Our boys have all been small when they were born and wore their newborn clothes much longer than the typical baby.

I also worked through 2 bins of VHS and DVDs that we own-deciding what to give away, what to watch and then give away, and making a list of what we own that I decided to keep. We actually own quite a few movies and many of them we have never watched-which is the reason why we have never had a Netflix subscription.

I also almost caught up on laundry after our vacation and kept up on dishes even after making jam on Monday and a pie today.

Wednesday-I worked on the movie organization project some more. I am up to over 200 VHS/DVDs that we own! I am basically done with organizing and listing the movies. I still have a huge tub of movies that I want to watch or have the Lambs watch and then decide if we are going to keep them. Those are not included in the 200! I discovered a couple of movies that we had 2 copies of and I had no idea when it was all disorganized. Yes, the Lambs still regularly watch VHS movies!

I worked on 2 tubs of 6-12 month clothes-I would like to get it down to 1 tub, but we'll see.

Thursday- Today the Lambs helped me organize their puzzles and we got a pile to give away making sure all the pieces were there for those.

Lamb 1 decided to organize his underwear by type (Elmo, Thomas, vehicles, Mickey Mouse etc.) and get the ones that were too small ready for his brothers. It was so funny how organized his basket of underwear was when he was done! He's caught the organizing bug from me!

I spent a long time this afternoon organizing everything that we plan to give away. I have boxes or bags for my parents, my sister, Half Price Books, Hyde Brothers (used bookstore in Fort Wayne), a lot for the Seminary, Goodwill, Once Upon a Child, and a few big items to try to sell on the local radio station. I've worked a little in the Lamb room, a little on the baby clothes, the puzzles, and the videos and we already have several bags to give away. It will be much easier now that that is organized when I find more items to give away to just put them in the correct bag.

Be still, my soul;

Be still, my soul; the Lord is on your side;

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;

Leave to your God to order and provide;

In every change He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul; your best your heavenly Friend

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul; though dearest friends depart

And all is darkened in this vale of tears;

Then you will better know his love, His heart,

Who comes to soothe your sorrows and your fears.

Be still, my soul; your Jesus can repay

From His own fullness all He takes away.

LSB 752:1&3

We miss you Tim! Ram said, "Happy Birthday Tim" to me yesterday. I'm so sad that our Lambs will never know you as an uncle. We often talk to the Lambs about you. We can't wait until the day that we are reunited.

Mommy Memory

Last night, all 3 Lambs fought for space on my lap as we said our evening prayers. Usually all 3 Lambs want to be independent and kneel by themselves. I gladly made room for all 3 on my lap.

I used to give turns rubbing Lamb 2's back and then Lamb 1's back for prayers. Recently Lamb 3 has been insisting that he has a turn too. I don't mind singing a few extra hymns so that everyone gets a turn! Lamb 3 loves to be held and put his head on my shoulder.

Vacation Post 1

Our expenses
Checking 3 Suitcases 2 times=$150
Lunch Monday=$20
Parking=$47
Supper Friday=$50
Hotel one night=$70
Lunch Saturday=$20
Water for plane=$5
Rice milk for plane=$5
Gas to airport x2

Ram's parents expenses
Monday lunch and supper
Tuesday groceries for birthday party and supper
Wednesday admission to Knott's Berry Farm and lunch and supper
Thursday lunch and supper
Hotel 4 nights
Plane tickets (thank you frequent flyer miles!)
Rent 11 passenger van for 5 days
Gas
Admission to beach so our Lambs could spend about 15 minutes there

Thank you Ram's parents for making our vacation possible.

Spending time with Great-Grandma at her house= PRICELESS