I asked one of the boys if he could go out in the woods and take some pictures. The spent the afternoon playing outside. They played a game called Manhunt, which is similar to the camp game Hostage. In the morning the four kids had done their Saturday cleaning chores from their cards. They say I have to stick to the card and not add more than what the card is asking. At first I wanted to say, “Um, I’m the mom and I can do what I want.” But I decided to hear their pleas and just be honest and try to joke, “Okay”, I said, “but it’s hard.”

Lunch was scheduled for 12:45. “This is part of my job”, I told them. With four of them doing 25 minutes of cleaning a day, that’s nearly two hours of cleaning happening in less than 30 minutes. It makes a big difference for me to not have to do that. I did acknowledge that my rounding skewed my estimated number of two hours when in fact it is closer to an hour and a half. But it still makes a difference.

Dad had a meeting down at the dining hall. The camp hosted a Lutheran High planning session where the board members, some teachers and parents, and the Lutheran grade school administrators came and had a workshop led by a volunteer from one of the association churches. They have a new plot of land now. I really hope it works out for the school to figure something out. The longer this goes without forward progress the more students the school looses, as well as confidence from parents that the school has a viable future. The Catholic school in town just announced a new sliding scale tuition based on income. We’ve already lost many students to them.

I have a 4-R paper due Monday. It stands for Review, Relate, Reflect, Respond, and is based on whatever book we chose to read from the list. After class last week I went and picked one from the teacher’s office. The book is called Redeeming Work: A Guide to Discovering God’s Calling For Your Career by Bryan Dik. This quarter’s class is Careers Counseling. Taking this semester off has been great. I didn’t realize how much I needed a break, though this break has definitely caused me some doubt and uncertainty. Just out of nowhere it seems like everything shifted.

What if I actually never finish? And this becomes just one of the many things I sought or started, but was blown away and lost. It seemed like God’s way and leading at the time. My three completed theology classes won’t count for anything, as well as the integrating spirituality intensive that I missed my son going to college for. I guess I could also still be thankful to have gotten through as much of the curriculum and core work that I did. And so it is with such changes, taking one day at a time.