Another snowy day in Michigan . . . it feels like winter has been here forever! We've had snow since before Thanksgiving, and there's no end in sight! With almost 2 months of winter left, it'll be awhile before we start seeing green grass again.Once today's storm came to a stop, I took Casey out for a walk. She loves to run and jump in the snow! It doesn't bother her at all!When Tom got home from work, he and Nicolas went out to clear the driveway and sidewalks. It's beginning to feel like a weekly occurance!Other than the snow, it was pretty uneventful around here today. I paid bills and downloaded tax forms. Our gas and electric bills for the last month were enough to pay for 2 months of campground fees - we can't wait to get on the road! I spent some time looking through the "Families on the Road" website. There's more families out there than we thought! I only had time to read through a few blogs, but I'll go back there soon. I made our August camping reservation, which bring us to 5 trips this summer . . . two more to go, and we'll have a full schedule.That's it for tonight . . . almost time for "Criminal Minds".
Today was a stressful day at work. Ford was making another 10% cut in salaried workers in January, and today was rumored to be "the day" at our location. By lunchtime we knew that we were both still employed, and with a mixture of relief and disappointment, we returned to our desks. Since the house isn't even up for sale yet, it's best that we continue to work a while longer, but it's not the same place it was 20 years ago.With that behind us (at least for a few months!), we can get back to planning our summer travels. We just made a reservation at the Platte River Campground at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (http://www.nps.gov/). One of Michigan's finest areas! It's a national park campground with only one loop of reservable electric sites, so difficult to get into - especially in July! We managed to get a site, though, and so do some friends of ours. We're planning a tubing trip on the river. It's a shallow, easy river for canoeing or tubing, and ends up at the beach on Lake Michigan. We're looking forward to it! We're looking at the River Ridge RV Resort, north of Grand Rapids (http://www.michcampgrounds.com/riverridgervresort/index.php), for an August trip. It looks like a really nice RV resort with lots of activities for the kids. That just leaves Labor Day weekend to figure out . . . still working on that one.Nicolas survived his midterm exams, and is glad to have them behind him! This week is "Catholic Schools Week", and full of fun & games, not many classes; it's a nice break before they get back into the swing of things. We have parent-teacher conferences this week, so we'll see how he did on the tests then. I wonder if I'll have to have conferences with Tom once we start homeschooling? lol . . . I've been researching homeschool options. It seems like there are several ways to go. There's traditional curriculums, with books, workborks, etc.. Another option is online or CD based curriculums, and then there's actual online schools - completely internet based, with online teacher support and chat-based classroom discussion groups. This last option looks pretty interesting to me. No books and workbooks to lug around in the RV, and the interactive aspect of it would go over well with Nicolas, I think. It also lends more to him being responsible for his progress, which is good at the high school level, I think. I'm still researching, so any suggestions/comments are welcome!
I took the boys to school this morning, stayed for Mass, went grocery shopping, and now I'm home and ready for my "Me Day"! Tom is picking the boys up from school this afternoon, and they are going to the Autoshow with a couple of other Dads and sons . . . so I'm on my own tonight and free to do whatever I want!! I think I'll do some sewing, and some reading, work on the kids' school yearbook a little bit, maybe get in the RV_Dreams chatroom for a while . . . whatever I feel like! I love evenings like this!I've got lots of ideas for blog posts I want to do - to help all of you get to know us a little better, just have to find the time, and get some pictures together! Now that I know how to add pictures "where I want them" in my blog, I can be much more creative - thank you, "Geeks on Tour"! I was getting a little frustrated with Blogger, and the fact that it always put my pictures at the top of the post. Then, along came the Geeks' newletter and notice of a video on how to use Picassa web albums to get around that. I was SO happy - she must have been reading my mind!That's about it for now . . . I think I'll go make some tea - it's getting chilly again.
