LIVE A LIFE OF NO REGRETS!!: September 2023

Quote from "Stepping Heavenward" by Mrs. E. Prentiss

"She says I shall now have one mouth more to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music and drawing.

Well! This is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other.

Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which dwells is worthy of all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ's name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other dear darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, wondrously blest!"

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Day 3 - Alaska Bound - Illinois to Wisconsin to Michigan

There was nothing quite like our adventure to Alaska this summer. I'm a few months on the other side of this adventure, and I am already dreaming of another and yet so enjoying thinking back upon this summer. I love taking the time out of my crazy schedule to reminisce a bit more, and give thanks to the Lord for safe travels, no illness, no accidents, and a summer full of God's beautiful creation that seemed to cause awe every bend of the highway.

Taking it back to yesterday's pondering of where my adventurous spirit began, I speculated part of it was being a military brat. Another part of the spirit is probably attributed to hoping to inspire wonder in my children all the years I've homeschooled. It seems the more I learn, the more I'm awed at God's creation. But for now, I'll move on to recalling day 3 as we headed to Alaska.

We awoke and packed up camp at Starved Rock and headed next to Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This was quite the experience. You walk in the castle surrounded by amazing smells of fresh bread. You then have various rooms where you can taste either cheeses, olives, and/or breads. We left with cheese curds and cheese bread. Christopher planned all along to get a cheesehead hat and he followed through with his planned purchase which made us laugh. This was a fantastic stop on our journey. Then we didn't plan it, but we couldn't help ourselves. We had to stop at Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. It was too close to our travels to miss out. We fell in love with the Great Lakes that seemed as large as oceans. These stops would make us get to our campsite too late to hike, but they were so worth it. We had so much fun exploring these lakes.

We then drove a little more than five hours to Hiawatha, the world's largest statue in Suffolk, Michigan. He stood over 52 feet tall. This was a cool place to stretch our legs and get some fun pictures before we headed for our stop for the night.

Last stop on day 3: Pattison State Park. We set up camp at dusk, showered, and played cards. We would finally get hiking in on day 4.

You can check out the VLOG for this day here.