Musings by Melissa

Yesterday I ran across a site that told me how to make fun symbols!

To do this, make sure your num lock is on. (Some laptops have a blue FN key that changes some of the letters to numbers.)

Then hit ALT with the appropriate number:

1 for ☺
2 for ☻
3 for ♥
4 for ♦
5 for ♣
6 for ♠
7 for •
8 for ◘
9 for ○
10 for ◙
11 for ♂
12 for ♀
13 for ♪
14 for ♫
15 for ☼
16 for ►
17 for ◄
18 for ↕
19 for ‼
20 for ¶
21 for §
22 for ▬
23 for ↨
24 for ↑
25 for ↓
26 for →
27 for ←
28 for ∟
29 for ↔
30 for ▲
31 for ▼

The numbers do keep going, but those are just for things you can make with the shift key. Have fun with this!

The past weekend was spent with Wayne’s family. We were together to celebrate his Grandma’s 90th birthday.

We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Wayne’s cousins and their two kids who live in North Carolina. We had fun making pizza over the fire and chatting. And we enjoyed our trip to Lake Michigan, even if it was storming as we entered the water. Hey, the water temp was a blamy 78 degrees! Who would turn that down because they didn’t want to get wet?!?

And even though Wayne’s cousin is a doctor, we never once talked about North Carolina health insurance! Although the guys may have ventured into a discussion of politics when us gals were busy talking about something else.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend!  It’s always great to reconnect with people, especailly those who are a joy to be around!

Yes, it’s almost my birthday.  Less than a week and I’ll turn the big four-zero.  It’s hard to believe.  I mean other than my bum ankle, which is pretty much back to normal now, I don’t have any joint pain.  I still have all my teeth.  My hair is its natural color.  For the most part I feel pretty good.

But I can tell I’m getting older.  My memory isn’t as sharp as it once was, and  I have a few pounds that I must have grown really attached to because they don’t want to leave. 

Oh well.  With age comes wisdom, right?!?  And I’m sure I could use a healthy dose of that.  So, bring out the candles and the ice cream and let’s celebrate!

Last night we had another EFA.  An EFA is an Eefsting Family Adventure.  This is when we try to do one “out of the ordinary” family activity each month.  In the past we’ve gone snowshoeing, raquetballing, etc.

We have visited the Outdoor Discovery Center in Holland numerous times, and I am a “fan” on Facebook.  It was there that I noticed they were having an Owl Prowl.  Having read the book “Owl Moon” to my kids more times than even I care to admit, I thought this would be an interesting EFA.

So, we donned our layers of clothing, and we were off! 

We started our hike before the sun set.  Hiking through snow with heavy gear, going uphill isn’t exactly easy going.  But it was fun.  The group of people was small.  Just our family and two older couples.  So, the guide stopped often enough so that we weren’t completely exhausted.

We had a great time hiking through the snowy woods in the dark, trying to call in various species of owls.  Unfortunately, we never did catch a glimpse of one, but we all had a great time anyway.  And when we got home, we knew we had received a good workout.  Up and down all those hills in our heavy boots definitely “blew up” (as Justin would say) a few calories!

And then this morning, as I was browsing the internet this morning, I saw an ad for quick trim extreme burn reviews.  I had to chuckle, knowing that our latest EFA was much more fun than any miracle pill, with all the extreme burn of “blowing up” calories!

Gotta love those EFAs!

I enjoy nights when the kids and I have a campdown.  What is a campdown?  Well, we all grab our sleeping bags, and we sack out on the living room floor.  Sometimes we use air mattresses.  Sometimes the kids will grab the cushions off the couch.  And sometimes they just sleep in their bags on the floor.  (Hey, they’re still kids.  They’re fine with that.)

Sometimes I’ll make a treat, but not always.  Sometimes we read a book together.  Sometimes we turn all the lights off and tell each other made-up stories … funny, scary, true, etc.  Sometimes we listen to a book on CD.  This week we started listening to Ben Hur by Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre.  Very good story, so far!

So, while no two campdowns are really the same, they are always fun.  Although, the older I get, the less well I sleep and the more I find myself wishing I had some of the best eye cream on the market to try to hide some of the bags under my eyes!  ~grin~  But it’s worth it.  The memories we make while giggling together in the dark are definitely priceless!

For some reason this weekend was more fun that normal.  Perhaps it’s because Wayne works most weekends.  (That’d definitely be a factor!)  We didn’t do anything earth-shattering, but we had a great time doing whatever it was we did.  ~smile~

On Saturday Carl had friends over that he hasn’t seen in a long time.  We weren’t sure we’d ever get the chance to see these friends again, so having them over to spend the day was definitely a blessing.  Wayne took all four boys shooting, and they did a lot of “boy stuff.”  While they were doing that, I did a bit of geocaching.  The weather was beautiful all weekend.  And since crunching through the leaves is one of my favorite activities…

Saturday evening I came down with a killer headache.  The kind that sends me to a dark room with no noise.  I woke up with it Sunday morning.  That was discouraging because the sun was peaking around the corners of the blinds in our bedroom.  I got up and got the family ready for church.  But there was no way I was going to be able to go.  I took some more ibuprofin and cleaned my contacts.  An hour or so later, the headache was gone!  So, I did some reading and some writing.  I picked up the house a bit.  And I still had three hours before my family would be home, so I decided to do some geocaching.  I must have walked at least three miles!  The weather was so beautiful that I really didn’t notice how far I had gone.  Within minutes of returning home, my family arrived.  Wayne wanted to take the kids for a hike. 

I pulled out my trusty GPS, and we headed to another park.  Again, we hiked for at least another three miles. We found a couple cool caches.  Carl had to do quite the acrobatics and cross a couple of fallen logs to get to them.  It was quite a workout for him.  Mentally, and physically.  (Better than a treadmill or dip machine, and he had the satisfaction of finding a geocache at the end of his workout.)  A couple times he had to take off his shoes and socks to wade through parts of the creek.  He had a ball.  Wayne thought he’d try to pull off a scene from Man vs Wild, but alas, his modified “pole” snapped when he was half-way across.  Splash!

By the time we were all safely on the “right” side, the sun was down, and we had to hike back to the van in the semi-darkness.  It was a memorable weekend.  One none of us will forget for a long time.

We came up with this game when our youngest was too little to play a regular board game.  We played it once when our daughter had a friend over, and the next time that friend came over, this was the game she wanted to play.

You’ll need:
2 teams
a timer of some sort, even a second hand on a clock is fine
a kid’s book
a way of keeping track of points  (Either pencil and paper or moving around a game board.)

We play for a set amount of time.  Whoever got the most right in 15 minutes is the winner.

Here’s how to play:  One team has the kid’s book.  Someone on the team opens it up and without looking points at a word.  Let’s say he’s got the book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear.”  He opens it up and his finger lands closest to the word “children.”

The other team has a set amount of time (30 seconds to a minute) to come up with a song that has the word “children” in it.

The song that came to my mind was the song “We are the world.  We are the children.”  (I know I’m dating myself!)  So, if I came up with that song in the alloted time, I’d get a point or I’d get to move my guy ahead one square on the game board.  (Or add a point to my tally.)

You’ll have to make up some other rules as you go.  For example, do you count nursery rhymes?  Are they really songs?   If one team doesn’t think of a song, does that word get passed to the other team for a chance at a “bonus point?”  Make the rules so they’re easy enough for the youngest child to understand.

And have fun!