This is like me picking up pine cones in the middle of my nine mile hike and adding them to my backpack.

We do it all the time. We do it even if we aren't new to homeschooling because you guys I am not

new to homeschooling and I find myself doing it still. So today I want to invite you to peek into your

backpack. It's time to put some pine cones back. Hey there I'm Sarah McKenzie and this is the

read aloud revival the show that helps your kids fall in love with books and helps you fall in love

with homeschooling. By now most of us are needy in our homeschool year right and no matter how far

you are into your year and no matter what's happened that you either expected to happen or didn't.

I'm willing to bet that something funny has happened. You're carrying around a lot of pine cones.

No, oh yeah I bet you are. I'll explain in just a moment but first let me tell you about my husband.

My husband Andrew is a backpacker hiking miles out into the wilderness to sleep on the

hard ground. It's his idea of a good time. Don't get me wrong. I'm a nature girl. I love spending

long stretches of time outdoors with my family. I just like conveniences at the end like I don't know

toilets, showers, mattresses. Anyway the first time Andrew went backpacking on his own. This was

several years ago now. He was very excited about it. He was going to hike out at Wannless Lake in

Montana. This is about a nine-ish mile hike out and a nine-ish mile hike back. So he'd hike out,

set up camp at Wannless Lake spend a couple of nights there before hiking back out. And he'd

been looking forward to this reading about it preparing for this trip by doing what seemed to

me to be a very reasonable way to prepare right. He considered everything he might need or want

on such an excursion. He made a list. He piled all those supplies onto our kitchen table. He made

homemade beef jerky and gathered up, you know, bear spray and extra water. And he even had a small

axe to cut firewood. The night before he set out, he weighed his backpack. It was 56 pounds.

It doesn't matter. He was excited. This was going to be the best weekend ever. And so the following

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