It’s been a while since I’ve done a week in pictures post, and since we’re down in Missouri at Missionary Acres, I thought it’d be fun to do one. Life down here is definitely different.
So without further ado, here’s what our family has been up to for the past week or so…
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Presenting Our Ministry
Praise the Lord, deputation has resumed and we are once again able to present our ministry to Missionary Acres with churches. We had an amazing trip to Illinois about a week ago, and it was such an encouragement and blessing.
The kids got to ride horses between services on Sunday, and had such a great time trying out a zip line. It was so much fun!
And when we drove back to Missionary Acres, we got to see the arch in St. Louis lit up. It was beautiful. This pic is from a car window and doesn’t do it much justice, but it was really neat to see.
Practicing New Skills
Since the kids aren’t doing homeschool over the summer, it’s a great time to learn new skills. Ellie has really wanted to improve her cooking, so she’s been spending a lot of time in the kitchen with me.
This week, she asked if we could make a watermelon basket. We watched some YouTube videos and read some tutorials and got to work. Here’s what we created:
In addition to the cooking, Jeff has been working on wood carving. Jayme has been working hard editing her novel and trying different drawing styles.
It’s been a fun summer!
Reading Great Books
As a family, we’re working towards cutting screen time and doing more reading and playing. Thus, we’ve read some great books.
I’m reading this one aloud in the van as we travel:
I received Mimosa to review, and we’re really enjoying this story of faith.
Jayme and I each read the latest book in the Hunger Games series, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Now I’m reading another book Jayme enjoyed, in the Wings of Fire series. It’s called Dragonslayer, and it’s one of the Legend books. It provides some backstory and looks at events from a human’s point of view.
Jayme has been reading books in the Twisted Tales series. We picked one up in Audible to listen to on an upcoming road trip.
The younger kids are reading as well. Here’s a quick peek at what they’re reading:
Jeff: Diary of a Minecraft Zombie
Ellie: The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Sydney: Meet Kit (an American Girl book)
Simon and Brynna are hard at work learning to read, but they have enjoyed listening to me read The Chick and the Duckling this week.
They’ll be diving into some of our recommended books for early readers soon.
Playing Games
We brought several games with us down to Missouri, and we’ve been playing them often. Ticket to Ride and Villainous are still favorites.
Jayme recently picked up a Starter Kit for Dungeons and Dragons, and Jeff, Ellie, Bryan, Jayme, and I have been playing some evenings after we get the other kids to bed.
Bryson enjoys playing that we’re in Paw Patrol, so we’ve been doing some fun active play as well. He likes to pretend the porch at the house where we’re staying is the Paw Patroller so we have lots of adventures on it. 😀
Exploring the Area
Since we will be moving down here eventually, we’ve been taking some time to explore the area. On Saturday, we went to Elephant Rock State Park.
I’ll be doing a blog post on this park in the near future, so I won’t share a lot of details now. Except, I will say that it has many areas that are wheelchair accessible. We greatly appreciated being able to hike with Owen.
We took a picnic over for lunch, and found a great spot in the shade. It was a great day!
Church Camp
Jayme and Jeff got to go to teen camp with the church here at the Acres for a day, and enjoyed canoeing in a river in Arkansas. Bryan went along and was able to preach twice at the camp.
This week, the younger kids will be attending a day camp onsite.
Staying Busy
Bryan has been working hard helping to get a house remodel done here at the Acres. He’s sheetrocking and painting in the basement.
And I’ve been busy getting my client work done. It’s such a blessing to be able to work from anywhere!
We’re heading to Kansas for more meetings this coming week, and are looking forward to doing more exploring.
What have you been up to?