Ohio Outdoor Water Woman

This is my third year attending an Ohio Outdoor Woman weekend and I've loved every time! This year the Ohio Outdoor woman weekend was sponsored by the ODNR Division of Watercraft. So it focused mostly on water sports and boating and had no hunting or guns. I love the water and really loved this!

Action shot of me driving the boat

 This year the outdoor adventure weekend was held at Burr Oak Lodge. This was by far, I mean by light years far better than the other places we went. Rather than a huge room with tons of bunk beds for 50+ women, we had a room equivalent to a hotel room that walked out onto a patio for just the four of us. Previous years the food was rubbery hot dots and soggy buns (yummy!) and this year we had fantastic food like barbecued chicken and pasta with meat sauce. And we always got dessert! The accommodations and food far exceeded my expectations.

Susan and I in our orienteering class. Where am I??

 I went with Susan, Nicole, and Virginia. We missed Michelle since she was busy the weekend before at GenCon. I made lots of friends and got to be outdoors and enjoy the beautiful weather with other outdoorsy women.

Me on the power boat

Barbara, Me, and Jen - a watercraft selfie

 On Friday afternoon all four of us did archery. I pretty much always pick archery because I love it. There were several different bows to try and I picked one with more tension. It was easier for me to control since I have tons and tons of upper body strength. After shooting for awhile and practicing we had an archery contest. The bulls eye was 5 points, the red ring around was 4 points and so on. Guess who won?? Yours truly! I had the highest score of all the 10 participants with 23. Right after that I shot even better with 4 out of 5 arrows in the bulls eye. I heard the instructor behind me say "wow". Go Gina..it's your birthday (picture me doing the cabbage patch dance....on second thought...)

Virginia and Nicole in kayaks

 Friday evening we went canoeing until about 10pm. It was a beautiful canoe ride. I was in the canoe with Nicole paddling along just fine until we realized we were backwards. So we gracefully turned around without tipping the boat. It was too dark to get pictures, we even had flashlights on our canoe trip.

Me in a kayak

 Saturday and Sunday mornings they offered yoga at 6am. Normally I do not get up at 6am and normally I do not do yoga, but this was a weekend for new things.  Saturday morning I took a power boating course. So I had an opportunity to drive a boat and dock it as well as learning some knots. This was a lot of fun and made me realize how little I know about boating rules. Before renting a boat I want to take an OBEC course.

This is the view from my kayak

 Saturday afternoon I went kayaking. This was relaxing with beautiful scenery. I learned the proper technique to paddle a kayak by using your core not your shoulders. After two hours of kayaking my shoulders didn't feel tired at all. Apparently I was using my core properly however last I checked I didn't have a six pack. Maybe next time.

Saturday evening a professor from Ohio University came with his telescope to talk a little about astronomy. I got to see Saturn (rings and all!) and he pointed out several constellations. That was very interesting.

Virginia, Nicole, me and Susan doing archery

Susan and Virginia did pretty well

Archery champion!

Even better!

 Sunday morning Susan and I were hoping to take geocaching but they had orienteering instead. This also looked like fun and I'm glad I did this. While I am poor with intuitive directions, I'm good at math and angles so I was able to figure out the direction we should go and orient myself that way. I thought this was very interesting.

The rooms were amazing!

Overall this weekend was fantastic. I loved getting away and trying new things. I'm hoping to do this every year.

A new school year

The beginning of the school year is always filled with so much hope and excitement. The kids are excited to meet their new teachers, new friends in class, be back in a routine, and learn. Yes learn. They are itching to get back to school by the end of summer.

Jenna has Mrs. Dominy as her teacher for fourth grade. Mrs. Dominy goes to our church and we've known her for years. I requested her as a teacher for Jenna even though I wasn't sure they would honor that request. Well it turns out they did! Jenna is beyond excited to have Mrs. Dominy who is fun and dances during class :). Sarah has a new teacher to the school named Mrs. Moore. She is sweet and has named their class "Awesome Town." They even have a secret handshake for their class. Sarah really loves first grade. Matthew has moved into an integrated class for preschool. This class has peer role models as well as kids with IEPs (Matthew has an IEP). His two teachers are Mrs. Brady and Mrs. Norris. Mrs. Norris remembered Matthew from last year and gave him a big hug the first day - he had no problem going to school after that!

Swinging in the backyard

 Even though school has ushered in the end of summer, we still have a lot of fun ahead of us. The kids have been playing a lot and Jenna has been reading a lot. She has found a new series called Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. She is in book 3 and I just finished book 1. Mrs. Dominy recommended the book for Jenna and apparently she knows what Jenna likes since Jenna has refused playdates so she could read! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree....

Ever since my trip to Sacramento a few years ago I've visited some bubble tea shops near the Columbus Asian Market (CAM) and discovered that we all love bubble tea. At one tea shop I saw this interesting postcard. Based on the postcard I am now Asian since I tried the snacks they listed.

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The Warrior Dash posted pictures from the weekend and Erik and I made an appearance! We are muddy and yucky and having fun. Erik runs 2 miles every day and you can tell. Look at his amazing leg muscles in this picture!

In other news:

1. I am very sad that Wheel of Time did not win a Hugo award. I was really hoping!! Sometimes the books that win these awards are not actually the fan favorites, or the best books (ie the Windup Girl)
2. Our book club finished  City of Fiends by Michael Jecks. It was a medieval mystery and a different genre from what we normally read. I enjoyed the book and it provided good discussion. We kept wondering "who did it?". I guessed wrong.
3. As I said before I just finished Fablehaven book 1. I recommend this book to anyone who likes Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. It was a fun read. I'm sure I'll like the rest of the books but I have to pry them out of Jenna's hands first.
4. I'm also reading Brent Weeks' book The Black Prism. This book has a lot of action and is a great read. I read a review about the book that said "if you like action and epic fantasy you will like this". Check.
5. I finished 7 and Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker. They were books to get you moving and doing and I'm making changes. I'm hoping to see the world through different eyes. I have some big plans this year for service. Let's just hope I can do it all!

82 on Quiddler today. They also let me play iOS. That was pretty cool.

The last hurrah of summer in the middle of August

I know it may seem that every post I write after the last one will make me sound like a hypocrite. And I am. But I'm working on it. I'm trying to move away from a consumer Christian. So you will have to bear with me - hypocrisy and all!

The kids start school this week. Yes - in the middle of August. It seems early but they are ready. Jenna practiced her math facts (which she has not practiced for the past several months) and knew all of them except 8*6. Pretty impressive I'd have to say.

So for our last hurrah of summer Erik took a vacation day last Friday and we all went to the zoo to just ride the rides. Everyone had a blast! We packed a picnic lunch and rode rides for 5 hours. We rarely had a line for any of the rides. Erik avoided the rides but the rest of us had a great time (yay for the tilt-a-whirl!)

Jenna on the Merry Go Round

Matthew and I riding on the bench (see Sarah in the background)

Sarah on the Merry Go Round

Sarah and Matthew in the teacup ride

 Jenna and I rode on the roller coaster which meant that Sarah wanted to ride. I looked at the height requirement and to my surprise both Sarah and Matthew were tall enough. So we all went on the roller coaster. Yes - I took a 4 year old on a roller coaster. He LOVED it! The girls did too. I guess we are are ready for the Harry Potter rollercoaster. Jenna only talks about this EVERY DAY.

Sarah, Me and Matthew on the roller coaster  - Matthew is wearing a bright orange shirt

On Saturday Erik and I ran the Warrior Dash. Last year I ran it with Amanda. It was a fun course, a bright sunny day, and we had a great time. Unfortunately Amanda was sick this year so she couldn't go with us. Someone is always sick! Afterwards we went to Panera for lunch covered in mud. My parents watched the kids on Saturday while we were at the dash. This was a great date!

Erik and I after the Warrior Dash -Look I took a selfie!

78 points on quiddler today

Excess Stuff

I mentioned in a previous post that I was reading 7 by Jen Hatmaker. This book detailed her desire to move away from excess. She labeled herself as a comfortable, consumer Christian. Jesus spent his time with the least and the lost. Where do I spend my time?

This rang true for me. Last Christmas we had over 100 gifts and had a drawing to see which gift would be opened. Is this what Jesus would want? Much of the rest of the world does not have our luxuries yet what should we do with them?  Hatmaker writes "Excess has impaired perspective in America; we are the richest people on earth, praying to get richer". I know I want to change my perspective and I'm working on it.

She spent 7 months and each month she cut back on an area of excess in her life. It was her way to "fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence." This deeply reduced life led to the discovery of a greatly increased God. 

Here is the breakdown and how I'm trying to incorporate this in my life. 

• Month 1: food- eat only 7 foods (note: peanut butter would be one of my foods). We are working on buying local/organic foods.
• Month 2: clothes - wear only 7 articles of clothing (I could dig this)
• Month 3: possessions - give 7 things away every day for a month (210 items). Do socks count? I have lots of those. We donated a ton of clothes and we still have so much more! I'm a sweater girl. My armoire is filled with warm, comfy sweaters but I donated many of them. I don't need SO much! Now I'm down to 5 sweaters. Shoes too. I always said I didn't understand why so many people love shoes. I'm an engineer not a shoe lover. But when I went into my closet, I had 35 pairs of shoes!!!! Several of which I had only worn once for a wedding. I donated 13 pairs. 
• Month 4: media - no TV, gaming, facebook, apps, radio, texting or internet unless needed for work. Yikes!! I could give up TV - in fact, we turned the TV on only once this week to watch a movie. We don't watch much TV (why are we still paying for it? This is a question I ask Erik ALL the time. We are paying for football season basically). I could NOT give up the internet. I am an online teacher! 
• Month 5: waste - conserving, recycling, driving only one car, buying local. We are working on this - getting better but we have a long way to go (see below)
• Month 6: spending - only spending money in 7 places in the month. I could just spend money at Amazon and Kroger and would probably be fine for a month. However she is concerned about buying local. I need to work on that. Erik thinks this is hokey (actual word he used)



My first day of class sweater circa 1993-1998

• Month 7: stress - In her book, she pauses and prays seven times a day and observes the Sabbath. I think observing the Sabbath is excellent. Ever since my friend Lynn passed away we have stopped buying things on Sunday and taking it as a day of rest. It is glorious. The beauty of fasting or just taking a Sabbath is in that you are resting from your normal routine, making space for God to move in your life. For example, I LOVE food and cooking and baking and the food channel....you get it. I think about it a lot (what I'm going to make, what should I buy to make such and such dish). However when I fast - I don't think about food because I can't have it. It is removed from my thoughts. The same with Sundays. I can't think about shopping or picking this or that up because I can't. It is a self-imposed break and it is wonderful (note: we have broken this Sunday rule a few times like when we were in Paris, or had my friend Nicole's 40th birthday party).

How we are trying to become "green" and waste less (note - this has been in the works for several years)

• Using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins
• Using a wood stove to heat our house
• Using cloths instead of paper towels to clean
• Reusable grocery bags at the grocery store
• Dryer balls instead of dryer sheets
• Less air conditioning (we've turned on the air conditioner maybe 5 times this summer. It has been a cool summer and I like fresh air anyway!)
• Recycling
• Gardening
• Rain barrel
• LED lights in many of the light fixtures
• No plastic baggies in the kids lunch 
• Making our own soap, dishwasher detergent, and bread
• Avoiding disposable plates and silverware when the Bible study group comes (we bought a few sets of corelle plates we will use for the small group dinner instead of using paper plates)
• There is a lot more we could do - this is just our start! At some point we want to get solar panels too.

Yea for old books!

Working on donating our excess stuff has also been freeing. I finally gave away my "first day of school" sweater. I wore this sweater on the first day of class my entire college career (Bachelors and Masters degree). Every first day of every quarter I wore this sweater. Sheldon takes lessons from me on how to be OCD. I won't talk about how I ate tuna fish sandwiches every day for lunch either....

Our basement is also filled with tons of pointless stuff. I have an entire shelf filled with mechanical engineering books and notes. I'm sure to use this often! I donated everything on this shelf so some person at Goodwill can read about Tool Design and Differential Equations with Boundary conditions. Yipee!

In addition to reducing we are also increasing our giving. I've been working as a volunteer for a free store in Delaware called Common Ground on Wednesdays and am hoping to work more with those in need. 

This is just a start and we are all "works in progress." Of course I started reading this after we started our kitchen remodel! But we are moving forward. I would like to use this book in our Bible study starting in fall - we will see!