Today was the first day of school. Tommy has a late June birthday and, although he reads and otherwise is plenty smart enough to go to Kindergarten, we elected to keep him home for another year. We also wanted to get involved in more activities this year so, in order to be able to afford them, I decided to do a home-school type preschool. And the kids did great! They were interested and had fun! We worked for two hours from 9:45-11:45 with a 10-minute "recess" to get the wiggles out (and take a few deep breaths and refocus my patience). At 6:30pm we had our first swimming lessons. Both kids were reluctant to leave the pool so I call that success!
Rusty took this summer off from school and got started again last Monday for his final semester of classes. He graduates with a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice in December. Halleluja! He starts an internship with the ID Department of Corrections (IDOC) soon, and we all hope it leads to a good-paying job! If not, it looks like another 18mos to 2 years of post-grad school. We'd love to spread that out over a few years while he works, though!
We went on a cruise to Key West and Cozumel August 10th for 4 days, just the two of us, celebrating 7 good years of marriage! We had a great time! There were a few regrets, like why did we not just leave from Miami the day we got into port, but live and learn. The warm sandy beaches and all the cooking and cleaning being done by others was true relaxation! I'd post some pictures but unfortunately all our vaca pictures got erased thanks to some unknown person pulling the memory card out of the reader while it was working. Gah! Well, most of them got uploaded to facebook so we still sort of have them.
The yard and gardens have seen significant improvement over the past few months. We haven't been able to afford/gotten around to buying mulch for the flower beds so it's been a struggle fighting with the weeds, but what we did get planted has done pretty well! We'll have to see what comes up next year! :o). I planted a large veggie garden in the field and everything has done so well it's hard to harvest it all! Next year I need to plant the same amount but expand the planting area significantly! There are a lot of things I will do differently next year, actually, but I'm glad to have the garden and I hate squash bugs!
Also on the topic of grounds improvement, we dismantled the two dilapitated metal sheds and have plans for a large shop for Rusty's violin making and an 8x9 1/2' chicken coop. So far we've poured the extra concrete needed for the shop (on a 100+ degree day so that was fun...) and have the chicken coop about 50% framed. Can't you just picture me in overalls with my hair plaited down my back gathering eggs and bushels of veggies? Just a good ol' country bumpkin here ;-) ! Hopefully this group of chickens and ducks don't become fox food like the last ones! (We lost 11 fowl to the cursed beast early this summer!)
We enjoyed a visit from my sister Glennis's family from Washington and my brother Rich and his wife from Ohio/Kentucky for the 4th of July family reunion. It was an improvement on past years as far as planning goes. We had dinners planned, activities worked out, and everyone stayed busy and happy. Just remembering it makes me sad it only happens once a year. Hopefully next year Johna's family from Wisconsin can make it! We missed you!!! xoxoxo
Pretty much all of May and June were spent focused on the flower beds and enjoying the fact that Rusty was done with a very hard sememster of school (18 senior-level credits; ugh never again!). Tommy turned 5 in June and we had a fun birthday party for him. I can't believe I have a 5-year old!
That pretty much does it for our summer. It was a great one and we are sorry that it is over so fast! I already have pumpkins harvested and the winter squash is looking ripe. Yep, it's almost fall. (Well, the squash beetles did my pumpkin plant in which sped up the ripening process but seeing those little orange heralds of fall, its hard not to get wistful.)
1 comment:
Sounds like you guys have kept busy! We are doing home preschool, too, and though I was worried about it, it has been great! More work, but in the end, I think the kids get more one-on-one time, which is good!
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