Day 176: Bathtime musings...

I took a nice, long, hot soak in the bathtub this evening....got to enjoy my milk bath products my aunt sent me - thanks again, Aunt Marilyn!

I took the soak to soothe my aching back (to many weeds to pull), but ended up with a soothed mind. Isn't it nice when that happens?

Here are some of my musings:

1 - Clothes are starting to get snug again....most likely cause is the fact that I dropped my back stretches back in April. I didn't mean to, just got super busy, sick, etc. and it happened. I never really saw the stretches as that big a deal (other than keeping lower back pain at bay), but one of the stretches is actually an exercise - crunches. I was doing roughly 60 some crunches when I quit...maybe the crunches were helping with a flat tummy more than I knew? Another possible cause is the back to back trips - late hours, rich food and junk food (and lots of it) - I ate very "heavy" on those two trips....maybe that put a few pounds on me despite all the walking I did?

2 - I am worried about my oldest attending our ward's girl's camp. For those who don't know, every LDS congregation (ward) sends the young women (YW - ages 12-18) to a week long girl's camp, hosted by the local Stake (a stake is just a number of wards grouped together...hope that made sense). The camp is so fun - they hike, they cook out, sleep in tent, learn first aid, also have a ton of fun, make friends and grow spiritually. It is so awesome. I loved every year that I have gone. So why am I worried? Well, this Stake sets up their girl's camp different than what I am use to. I am use to each ward is assigned a camp site where all the girls from that ward eat & sleep, but during the day the girls get split out by age and/or by how many years they have attended girls camp. This Stake has all the 1st year girls (girls who are attending camp for the first time) in one camp area, the 2nd year girls in their own camp area, etc... For the majority of the time, the first years only hang out with other first years. Again, why worry right? Well, my daughter is the only 1st year from our ward. All the other girls in YW are 2nd years or higher. Next year there will be like 10 1st years, but this year? only my daughter. I am worried for a child who can sometimes be shy in really large groups, that she will get "lost" or "lonely" or "unsure" or "scared" or whatever the right description is...being set up with a bunch of other girls that she has never met before....for a week. True, by the end of the first day she could have a dozen friends, but she could also have a miserable week.
Anyway, we are giving her the choice of attending or not - I don't want to make that choice for her. But I am still worried. Then it hit me - this is an opportunity for her to learn how to pray for guidance and to submit to the Lord's will. Sure, maybe it doesn't matter in the big scheme of things, but we learn from the little things. We are taught that when we have a problem, we should study it out in our minds and then go to the Lord with the answer. He will then let us know if it is right. Maybe the choice to go next year with a lot of girls from our ward is the best answer or maybe she needs to go this year - for her sake and maybe for another girls' sake. who knows, but God? I am actually excited about this opportunity to teach this principle.

3 - My last musing was on homeschool. This one is so long it could probably cover several posts (and this post is already really long). I am not even sure there is a bottom line...just a sense that I am on the right path headed in the right direction. I need to put the same determination that I am using for walking into homeschooling. I also need to apply some of the lessons I have learned about myself through walking into homeschooling. We really like homeschooling at our house, but I can easily get swayed into the more "fun" subjects....which is not a bad thing, but also not always a good thing.

Happy Walking...and musings!