7:00 a.m. Woke up to clouds and rain. Watching DVD, doing another load of laundry, lazing around, wondering what we’re going to do today.
10:00 a.m. Went shopping in Lakewood, including our daily trip to Sweet Memories Candy Shoppe.
12:00 p.m. Lunch at the cabin. Kids and I swam to the first island (Deer Island), and Mike kayaked along next to us.
5:00 p.m. I made chicken with mushrooms, onions, wine, sour cream, rice (which Mike has dubbed “Winey Chicken”) and we played a rousing game of Uno, which Noah won.
7:00 p.m. Mike is reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins to the kids, and then we’re putting them to bed. It’s been a rather uneventful and unphotogenic day. Things I miss about home:
Far too early a.m.—Everyone is awake and piling into one bed for a fun, lazy morning. We had devotions, and the kids pretended to be cats. Now we’re going to watch a “17 Kids and Counting” DVD, have some cereal, and wait for the jetski to be delivered.
9:00 a.m. Jet ski is delivered, and I’m heading to the grocery store, gas station, and library.
11:00 a.m. Mike and kids are jetskiing, and I am happy to be alone in the kitchen at last. I love this kitchen. It’s big, well-stocked, and I can see my family on the lake out the window. I’m steaming broccoli and making hamburger patties to grill later.
12:00 p.m. Kids and I are having lunch. Mike is still jetskiing. He saw a bald eagle.
5:00 p.m. Filling up the jetski gas tank (again) and getting ready to return it. Grilling burgers, eating super delicious corn on the cob that I bought at a local produce stand, and roasting marshmallows for s’mores.
Early a.m.—Everyone is awake. I’m the only one who stayed in the same bed all night.
Wheeler Lake has wake hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., so the lake is calm and peaceful in the morning before the boaters and skiers start. We’re getting ready to go out and fish. Sarah said, “Why are we fishing before the wake hours? The fish aren’t even awake yet!”
9:20 a.m. Drove to a place that was supposed to rent jetskis. They don’t anymore. Drove to the zoo, which also houses the Chamber of Commerce. Both were pretty lame. It is VERY hot and even more humid.
12:00 p.m. Lunch and hanging out at the cabin.
3:00 p.m. Going to the library and candy store.
4:00 p.m. I’m making soup for dinner. That was my plan, because it was supposed to get down into the 50’s at night up here, and I thought soup by the fire would be great. Instead, it’s soup in the heat.
5: 30 p.m. Noah and I were finishing our dessert while Sarah and Mike were down at the lake. Sarah came bursting through the door yelling, “Noah, come quick! Kayak emergency! It paddled itself away!” Sure enough, the kayak hadn’t been secured and had floated far, far away. The boys rounded it up and brought it back. This is what Mike’s rear end looked like after they got back:
6:15 p.m. My goal has been to swim across the lake to the first island before the week is over. Full of hot soup, I decided tonight was the night. Noah paddled the kayak along next to me in case I couldn’t make it, but I made it to the island and back.
8:00 p.m. Kids are in bed. Last night they said they had a sleepover at Sarah’s house (her bunk bed), and tonight they’re sleeping over at Noah’s. We have five beds in this place, so we can spread out, but they choose to sleep together.
6:40 a.m. We’re up, after a night of thunderstorms. We had a family devotion and prayer and made breakfast. (I have a cute picture of Sarah helping cook breakfast, but she's wearing only underwear, so I guess that's not bloggable). The kids played in the sand and tried to catch minnows in the lake, while Mike and I kayaked all the way across the lake to the second island. We explored the island and listened to the loons. When we got back, Noah pretended he was Christopher Columbus and kayaked all the way to the first island by himself.
11:00 a.m. I packed a picnic, and we headed out for a hike in Nicolet National Forest.
We went on the Quartz Hill Trail, which leads to an old fire tower (only the concrete stump remains). It was uphill, hot, humid, and swarming with mosquitoes. We decided not to picnic after all and came home for lunch.
2:30 p.m. I fished off the dock (no action) while the kids played in the water and Mike called the cabin owner to ask about where to rent a jet ski. I took a major nap while Mike and the kids were kayaking.
5:00 p.m. Drove to an incredible candy store in Lakewood. It’s a house that has been entirely filled with every kind of candy you could ever want. Noah selected an Anakin Skywalker pez dispenser and some rock candy, and all Sarah wanted was Fun Dip.
6:00 p.m. Roasted hot dogs on the fire and went fishing off the dock. Sarah pulled out a nightcrawler and announced, “I’m not hooking this one, because she’s pregnant.” As she was putting a different worm on her hook, she said, “Ew, mustard squirted out of this one.” We saw several little bluegill (the water is very clear), but nobody caught anything.
8:00 p.m. Kids are going to bed, and I am doing laundry. The kids are completely out of clothes already on our first full day here, because they walk right into the lake wearing their clothes, and then put on dry clothes and do it all over again.
8:03 a.m. leaving home. Sarah said a good prayer. Van is loaded to the gills. Kids are eating hot pockets and listening to Mr. Stinky Feet’s Road Trip. It wouldn’t be a Janes road trip if we didn’t start with a loud playing of our favorite road trip CD.
8:33 a.m. Now we’re listening to VBS songs. The kids are dancing in their seats, singing loudly, and doing all the motions to the songs. Noah just said, “I wish Isaac was still alive, because I wanted to be President and him to be my Vice President, and then it would be a great country.”
8:54 a.m. I made my first trip to the back to set people up with trail mix and drinks. Noah is reading a Boxcar Children book.
10:00 a.m. Stopped at a VERY busy rest stop somewhere on I-39. It has a nice playground with a stand-up seesaw. Kids are now drawing and listening to a book on CD.
10:15 a.m. I spouted out a random trivia fact (“Astronauts get two to three inches taller while living at the International Space Station.”), and Mike asked, “Do they shrink back down when they get back to Earth?” Occasionally I do Wisconsin quizzes (the state insect is the honeybee) or knock-knock jokes from a library book. Noah is playing the license plate game. He has six states so far.
11:00 a.m. Took a picture at the Janesville sign. We passed it and had to walk back to it.
1:20 p.m. Stop for gas and pee. I’m having a discussion with Noah about evolution.
2:01 p.m. Road closed, taking a long detour. Noah just noticed that our ETA on the GPS has gotten later, and he said, “What?! It’s still an hour and a half? You said an hour and a half about half an hour ago!”
3:20 p.m. Arriving at the cottage. It’s in a very nice setting and has everything we need. Hauling in stuff, unpacking, getting organized. It’s pretty hot. No air conditioning. Getting the fans going and windows open.
4:30 p.m. Going on a search for food. Got burgers, fries, and ice cream at a DQ-type place. Stopped at the town’s only grocery store and bought stuff to make breakfast in the morning.
5:30 p.m. Getting in the lake and trying out the kayaks. Noah paddled one by himself and did great! We paddled across the lake to a wooded island and explored it. It was raining a little, and we saw a rainbow.
6:30 p.m. Started a fire in the fire pit on the patio. Blew some bubbles and played with punch balloons.
8:00 p.m. Put kids to bed after showers. They’re both sleeping on their top bunks.
A few years ago, a friend asked me, "What is your definition of a good education?"
I don't think I gave a very coherent answer at the time, but I've been thinking about it ever since. Here are some quotes that have shaped my opinion:
"True education is learning how to learn; learning about yourself, your family, the world around you; and, most importantly, getting to know God and His awesome plans for you in His world."
--Janice Southerland
"Nine tenths of education is encouragement."
--Anatole France
"To keep alive the spark of curiosity and the natural love of learning with which all children are born."
--Bill Greer
"There's been no delineation in our family between 'learning' and 'living.' As we live, we learn. It's as simple as that."
--Mark & Helen Hegener
"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it's knowing how to use the information once you get it."
--William Feather
“He is educated who knows how to find out what he doesn’t know.”
--Georg Simmel
“Learning how to learn by learning how to think makes a well-educated person. Learning how to learn not only expands the mind; it also gives you a lifelong asset. Once you have it, it stays with you for the rest of your life.”
--T. Kaori Kitao
“Let children get at the books themselves, and do not let them be flooded with diluted talk from the lips of their teacher. The less that parents ‘talk-in’ and expound their rations of knowledge and thought to the children they are educating, the better for the children. . . Children must be allowed to ruminate, must be left alone with their own thoughts.”
--Charlotte Mason
"In the singular act of living life to its fullest, in appreciating every moment as it unfolds, true education occurs."
--Linda Dobson
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
--William Butler Yeats
Yesterday was Monday, which means bathroom cleaning day in the Janes house. I did the toilet; Noah did the tub/shower; and Sarah did the sink/counter. They finished theirs before I did, so they went to wash walls in the kitchen and hall. That led to washing the fronts of the cabinets and appliances. Then they started on the floor. They were slopping wet, soapy water all over the floor, and they kept slipping on it and splatting out. After their clothes were completely soaked, they decided to put on their swimsuits and turn the whole thing into a slip and slide .
