Semi-Blue Summer

It rained last night and so everything is green out, but I'm feeling a little bit blue. Just a tad.
Minion 1 is heading off for a week of fun insanity at Bible camp. And I won't be going with her. I'm too old to go this year.

 It really stinks graduating a year early because then all your 18 year old friends are still going to proms and camps and what-not and you're here like "I'm the same age as you, but no one will let me come because I'm in college".
There is a chance I will be helping lead the music during one of the weeks of camp this month and I'm really hoping that works out because I'll get to see some of my younger-still-in-highschool buddies.

So what does all that mean for me? It means I'll probably have to mow the lawn while she's gone. And I'll have to do her chores. And it means me and Minion 2 will have to find something to talk about, because Minion 1 is always our main girl. The Minions talk to each other (middle child on down) and The Gang talks to each other (Middle child on up).
 I'm sure she's going to have fun though. She's all fired up for her first year of being able to take part in paint ball wars, and senior camp always gets really cool speakers and extra activities to do that the younger, larger groups don't get to.
We're trying to squeeze a little more work out of Minion 1 before she heads off for a week of laziness. We've got some cows to move this morning as soon as I get her home from a doctor appointment. (If you or your siblings are going to camp with her this week, don't freak. It's only a cold)

Why is it that when kids get older they're suddenly thrown out the door on their own? I'm not talking about literally kicked out of the house to live alone, but I mean more of in society's eyes. For those of you who are graduated, you know what I'm talking about. We turn 18 and suddenly we're out of youth group. Out of Sunday school. Out of camp. Out of all the teenage groups that there are. Why is that? To me it seems like the most crucial part of our lives. We're old enough to do some things now. We need to have some help making these decisions about college and relationships and careers. But we're suddenly an island. Our support group of friends that we used all through those pimple infested young teen years is suddenly gone. Adults made sure we had people to interact with and talk to when we were first becoming teenagers. Why not when we're first becoming adults? The second one is a lot more scary in my opinion. The stakes are so much higher at this point. Do people forget that there is a transition in there? We don't feel like adults yet. But we really don't feel like kids anymore either. Don't throw us out in the deep end. Let us wade in. With some buddies.
My mom and dad have talked about this several times and have talked about trying to help me find some stuff we can do. So far we haven't, but I've got a few ideas I'm going to try to push through this summer and fall.

I guess that's my rant for the day. You might be happy to know that Maggie slept through the whole night without trying to get in the tent at 2:30 in the morning, and she is a compulsive chewer, and likes to play tug of war. She has started chasing cats instead of running away from them and the pig by the barn still scares her. She saw her first cow the other day and didn't like that very much.

Because of two nights of rain, there is several inches of water in my tent so I've been forced to sleep inside this weekend. Despite the suffocating heat in my bedroom, I have been getting a lot of writing done. I would venture to say Blaze is 99% done, and I'm 50% done typing it onto the computer for my wonderful beta readers to receive.

This week while Minion 1 is gone I'll be working on riding my 3 year old horse Flint, and getting him ready for his first year at the county fair. Saturday I have a 4-H shooting match (my first ever) so I'll be practicing for that as well. I'm not very good at shooting clays that are going left to right yet. But I'm getting there. Every other position the clays get shattered, so I'm close.

Goodbye for now! Enjoy your Monday.