Ontoganized

Around here school doesn't start until after Labor Day so that's why we're still posting vacation pictures when other people are posting Back to School pictures. As a homeschooler, we start whenever we want, but it's not easy to convince your children to start school when their public school friends haven't started yet.  

Keith did something neat on our recent trip to Ontonagon, MI. We spent the afternoon at the beach either swimming or cogitating. 

Then he sent us off for 45 minutes with notebooks and asked us to write about our vacation. 

After which he built a fire on the beach and we roasted hot dogs. I'm not a big fan of hot dogs but they taste great cooked over a campfire. 
 
We forgot roasting sticks so Keith improvised by duct-taping two bamboo skewers together. Then he stuck them in the mud near the shore so the waves would wet the sticks and keep them from burning whilst we cooked our hot dogs.

After eating, he asked us to gather, still on the beach, mind you, and read to each other what we wrote. It was a sweet, affirming time, probably the highlight of our week. By then, the coals had burned down just right for S'mores. 

Then we sat and watched the sunset over Lake Superior together. 

Talk about soul satisfying. 

Some random thoughts Keith wrote about our trip:

I've been Ontonagonized. 

I really like this place. I don't know why but it's very hard for me to relax. Not until five days into this vacation was I able to quiet down inside.

I needed this break. I take on many problems, mostly my own, but people share their burdens with me and it weighs a lot after awhile.

I’m fascinated by how my girls can seemingly go with the flow and adapt to different sleeping arrangements. As a kid I hardly every slept anywhere other than my own bed in a very familiar bedroom.

I love my family, every one of them. It is good to have them here.

This is about as close as it gets to my style of relaxing.

I whine a lot.

I LOVE the beach.

I love to watch my kids play in the water

They are growing up so fast.

Time is short, eternity is long.

(Click here if you want to read my take on vacation and here if you want to read Erica's version.)