Not Going to Minnesota

We had planned a nice, summer trip to Minnesota this week. None of us have ever been, except for Papa, who grew up there. I hear it's beautiful, and the people are pleasant. A lot of Papa's family lives up there, still.

Admittedly, it was going to be a bit of a stretch for a few reasons. We did just get back from a week in Winter Park. With four kids, coming back from a vacation generally calls for some down-time. Not to mention, after that trip, and some lingering pay discrepancies from Papa's job change, we were going to have to borrow some money to make it to Minnesota. We have money enough to live our usual lives, and Papa is seeing chunks of his missing income showing back up here and there, but a long (probably two-day) drive is less affordable. You have to consider a hotel room, and a lot more fast food than we usually budget.

All of the logistics aside, we gave up on the plan to visit Minneapolis for one, big reason we couldn't simply solve: sick kids. In fact, I think Papa called his dad to cancel the day we found out the Cub had pneumonia. The Cub is still on antibiotics and S now has symptoms, too. C still has her tests to take care of. M is the only one who is in the clear, as far as I can tell.

Instead, we're staying home. I made the Cub a blanket, and plan to start on blankets for each of the girls. I bought cross stitching kits for the twins because they expressed an interest in learning to sew. Mostly, we're just taking it easy.

In other recent developments: M got a new bike. Ever since the day the twins had their training wheels removed, she's been trying to come up with impressive new things she can show me on her tricycle. All that confidence and showmanship made it apparent that her three wheels were holding her back. Now that she has her bike set up as a balance bike, like the twins did, she's much less interested in riding it. Hopefully that will change.

On the homeschool front: I've just finished up writing our plan for this year and dedicated an entry of my blog just to that. I have edited out our personal information in the version I'm making public. Also, it was three pages long, so I don't expect you to read it in its entirety.