Mother/Daughter Book Club

Before our lake trip, we hosted an event that I look forward to all year long. It was our 4th annual Mother/Daughter Book Club. I wrote all about the history of our club and this year's selection as a guest contributor at ReadingGroupGuides.com, so you can read all about it here. I truly, truly love this experience, which I hope I conveyed accurately in the article, so I wanted to share it here also.

I highly recommend the book we read - Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. It was a great read. It might be a tad scary for younger readers - I know L would have been freaked out by it even as recently as last year. She's such a worst-case-scenario worry wart!

We're hoping to meet again one more time this summer to do To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm not sure all the girls will get through it in time (especially M&L!!) but we plan to show the movie and even a brief discussion will be worthwhile, since most of the girls will be reading it in English class during the school year.

The Sound of an Empty House

The girls left for camp this morning. They'll be at Rockbridge Alum Springs with their Wyldlife group. (Wyldlife is the middle school version of Young Life, a non-denominational Christian organization for teens. I know -- the first time I heard "Wyldlife", I thought, "What the heck? It sounds very inappropriate!" But it is a terrific organization.)

They were very excited. They've been going to sleepaway camp since they were 7, but this is their first experience with this camp. Last year we were in Vermont, but several of their friends went and loved it. This year we changed our Vermont week so that they could go. And I expect we'll have to do the same for next year!

There were five busloads of kids that left this morning. Lots of kids they know from school but I hope they also make some new friends.

It's kind of sad and lonely in the house without them ... but not that sad! I love having the peace and quiet and a short break from the ...ummm... DRAMA!! ... of thirteen-year-olds!