I love these little insights...

...into Merrilee's head.  She really is who she says she is.  She loves the outdoors, and loves the Lord.

Today the two older kids had to get up early and get going for their first day of summer camp at the Flint RiverQuarium.  The theme of the camp is The Wonders of Nature.  Our schedule didn't work out for some of their first choices of camp this summer, but I really think they'll enjoy this one.  Merrilee loves nature, and  her "Exploring Backpack" is filled and ready at all times.  She keeps the backpack hanging in the garage, and I figured it had typical kid exploring junk in it, so I never really paid attention to it's contents.

The backpack itself is a very pretty quilted backpack/purse she received on her 5th birthday from Aunt Paige.  Today, Merrilee had planned to use the backpack to carry her lunch, hat, and a pencil to camp, so she dumped all the bag's contents (including the grass, dirt, and debris) onto the kitchen table, leaving the mess for me.  Since she was supposed to have her name written on the bag, she changed her mind at the last minute and left the bag in place and took her lunch in a paper bag.  When I came home from dropping the kids off, I curiously started to look through what she keeps in the bag.  I loved what I found!

Courtesy of her father's old military stuff, she has an official USMC issue first aid kit, complete with camouflage gauze bandages, Band-Aids, eye patches, and a card explaining how to perform artificial respiration.  She has also added a pencil and Nemo note pad, binoculars, gardening gloves, a bag of camellia seeds probably taken from Grandma's garden, and a treasure map.  Seems like a pretty good collection of junk for an eight-year old's exploring backpack.

But here's the part I liked the best:  her treasure map.

I think this is the only map any of us need.  So easy, even a child can draw it.  And this map always leads to the treasure.

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."  Matthew 13:44

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:21