November 4, 2023 - Saturday


Well, I woke up after not a ton of sleep. I was shivering for a couple of hours and, although I know I fell asleep at some points, I felt like I was awake until after 3. BUT, I had no desire to dwell on that at all. So, those of us that were still in there got ourselves dressed, grabbed our things, and headed over to breakfast and the first teaching. The food was cafeteria style and taste. In other words, not very good. But I didn't have to cook it or clean it up, so I don't have many complaints. And Rachel came!

The teaching was good and, afterward, we headed out to work on our devotional study that we were assigned. We had an hour for that, then came back for another teaching and lunch. Pretty packed morning, but it felt good. I was happy about it. I'm not even going to mention lunch because, dude, I just had to go hungry. 

When lunch ended, all of us Ohio HC ladies besides Rachel decided to head over to Mohican state park and go for a "moderately" difficult hike. :) It was much more than moderately difficult for me!!! 🤣 Dear Lord, I'm going to be feeling that hike for many days to come! Beautiful park, beautiful views, and definitely a memory-making experience. Afterward, we headed out in search of hot drinks! We found a cute little coffee shop in a nearby town that also sold ice cream, so I got myself a malted shake. Yum!! However, within an hour, my stomach started cramping up SO BAD. And that was the beginning of the end of the retreat for me. I made it through Patrice's teaching, but I just started thinking about what happens when I have diarrhea on those scary pit toilets and I'm walking up and down the long hallway all night long, getting no sleep, then getting up and driving to CT in the morning. Yeah. I just gave in and said I had to head home. 

The kids were THRILLED to have me home! And, honestly, so was Ben. :) And it was nice to be here. Yeah, I have to deal with stomach cramps and bathroom runs, but at least I'm in my own bedroom and bathroom, comfy, warm, and not having weird air from a pit toilet blowing on my butt. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May 3, 2025 - Saturday

Image
What a day! It literally rained from start to finish, but we packed as much into it as we possibly could! We had a great time visiting and hanging out. We had a fire and lots of great meals *brushes shoulder off*. The kids played well together and, as far as I know, there wasn't any drama! It was a bit exhausting, but I'm so glad that this retreat went well. Last year's was a bit of a bomb, with all the childcare drama happening behind the scenes. I feel like last year's retreat was a pre-cursor to our deciding to move away. Not that they actually had anything to do with one another, but they happened in such close succession that they seem related in retrospect. I drank a bit too much tonight and had a really fun time singing songs, while Tony played the guitar. Man, I wish I had talent with instruments!
Read more

November 9, 2025 - Sunday

Image
This is my favorite picture from the whole shoot!! I love it.  We went to CT this morning and I actually got to sit in on the teaching! Woo! It feels like that doesn't happen very often. We hung out in the cafe with friends for a little bit, then went to Chipotle for lunch on the way home.  We spent most of the day just relaxing! I started a photo book for our Maine vaca in September, and tried to get caught up with some other stuff, but it was mostly just a chill day. Jonas and Clem went to group and we stayed home, chillin'. Ben and I got in the hot tub with Ruby and Ollie for a little while, which was fun. It was snowing while we were in there!  
Read more

November 24, 2025 - Monday

Image
Today was a very rough day for me. It's not like everything went wrong, I just really struggled to manage my emotions. I had to run out, first thing, to get my pick-up order because there were things in it that we needed for breakfast. Then, somehow, we didn't get school started until almost 9:30. I started with Ruby and Ollie, as usual, and decided to check in with Ollie while I was reading. Okay, related side note, Ruby can't stand it when I ask Ollie questions and not her. But the thing is, Ruby remembers EVERYTHING she hears. She learns super well by just plain old listening. If I ask her questions, she answers them correctly and I never get to gauge whether or not Ollie is learning. She also always blurts out answers because she's so afraid I won't give her an opportunity to show us all how much she is learning. And I get it! She wants praise and to show me that she's a good student and she's learning. I understand. But, because of her constant eagernes...
Read more