Fun Week

Fun Week is our annual institution (instituted this year) where I take a week off from my never-ending round of work and have some fun with the kids. It is supposed to follow Work Week, but somehow that one seemed to get canceled as far as anyone besides me was concerned! Nevertheless, I was determined that we would still had fun. *I'd* earned it, anyway, and I was not going to be denied.

Of course, being a frenetic poodle of a person, even my relaxation was busy, but we did get some fun stuff in that we normally wouldn't have done. Someday I need someone to tie me up and leave me by the shore of a lake for a week to relax. If they didn't feed me, it would be a slimming experience, too!



Sunday we went to Lake Skjermo to swim. It was a little brisk by the time we got there, but the kids had fun. I didn't get wet, instead sitting on the dock and painting a watercolor sketch of the lake. The kids, being of the age still where they are impervious to discomfort caused by play (yet oddly sensitive to that caused by work?) had fun jumping and splashing around.



This is NOT a very good sketch, but I like to fancy it looks a little better in person. And it was recognizable by others, especially ones who knew I'd just been there.
Monday we sat around on our butts for a while and watched a bunch of "I Love Lucy". Because she would be 100 years old if she weren't, well, dead. The kids enjoyed it and I found it amusing that they did. Even in this age of filth as amusement, there is still fun to be had from clean, classic entertainment. And nobody could do it like Lucy!

I'm sure we also did something besides sit and watch TV, but at the moment, I don't recall what it was....

Tuesday morning we spent cleaning up around the house, because Fun Week is NOT Filth Week. Then we were supposed to go to another lake nearby, but when we got into Westby my traitorous kids both got jobs and preferred to earn money instead. Well, since they were busy doing that, no sense in MY sitting home alone. I went and did my mowing job. And made cookies. I'm not totally devoted to labor.

By the time they finished, there was a storm over the lake I originally wanted to go to, so it was off to Skjermo again. This time there was no hurricane, so I got in, too. We had fun jumping off the dock, floating around, and standing on each others' shoulders and hurling the top person into the lake. At least that's how it was supposed to work. Caleb never succeeded in doing anything to me but plopping me sideways in the water, in spite of his gym workouts and buffness.

"You weigh too much, Mom."

Yet somehow I was able to catapult HIM perfectly well, and he weighs much more than me. We proved that the next day on the teeter-totters. Oh, well. We can't all be synchronized swimmers. Some of us are just sinkchronized.





On Wednesday we went to Bismark to drop Caleb off after his home visit. Fueling your body properly is very important when you have a big day ahead of you. So the night before, "Who wants to have ice cream for breakfast tomorrow?" "Me!" "Me!" But I'm not THAT bad of a mom. We added healthy things to it. Very nutritious, though Caleb did musingly remark a few hours later that ice cream didn't seem to stick with him very long. He was definitely ready when we stopped for lunch!






It's quite a drive to Bismark, but we stopped at a little park along the way and had a picnic. Scratch one more thing off the Fun Week to-do list. It was fun to play on the teeter-totter--haven't done that in years--but I am not posting any pictures of it. So too bad.



It was sad to say good-bye to Caleb again, but I'm pleased with how well he's doing at school, and they should be able to move back to Minot soon, so he'll be closer. Now it's down to Glendive for camping and a mini-mission trip sponsored by the Women's Ministries in the Montana Conference. See you next week!

Not EVERYONE had fun during Fun Week.