On the Home Front - August 24

A peek through my window…. well, um, our lawn is kinda scalped.  I forgot to tell M. to raise the deck of the mower before he mowed.  Hubby is watering it right now in hopes of saving it.  We had such a mild summer that we had green grass ALL summer long.  First time ever I remember that happening.

What’s going on this week… “Be your student night” at one school.  I went to L’s last week.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to stay late at my school one night and get things organized.

What “the boys” are doing… L’s at a Scout campout/float trip.  M is doing geometry homework.

And...they are definitely growing!  When we take first day of school photos, Hubby gets down on one knee. It used to be so he would be closer to their height.  Now, it's to show how much they have grown!

On my mind…  we leave in two and half weeks to camp with Hubby’s family in Colorado.  I am so looking forward to it and hope we get to see moose!

Of course what’s on my mind before all that is finding a substitute and preparing work for my class.  Hopefully by then, they’ll have their routine down!

On my bedside table…  It’s clear because the house is on the market.  I read over a dozen books this summer, but am not reading anything right now so I’m not distracted from the things that need to get done.  If I start reading a book I usually have to finish it in a day – maybe two.

I am richly blessed…  even though there have been changes at school (new principal and I am in a new grade), I am blessed because we love our new principal and my team has accepted me well and been so helpful.

In reflecting back at what a difficult beginning of school I had last year, I am blessed to not have the same stressors this year.

I’m praying for…  an opportunity for Hubby and also for family – a dear second cousin lost her husband to a stroke Friday. 

I’m still praying for God’s will in our housing situation.  We’d like to sell our house, live in Dad’s while we fix it up to use as a rental and build a new house for us.  We’ll see what His plans are.

Our home…  smells like roasted Hatch green chilies!  We haven’t gotten any since Texas and Hubby was so excited when I found a local place that had them.

Menu planning… Green Chile Burgers, Pork Loin, Cube Steak and Bumblebee Mac n Cheese, Potato Soup.

A photo or two… 

1st Day - 7th grade

1st Day - Freshman

Summer Bucket List Wrap-up

Although the calendar doesn't say it yet, summer is over....the picture above even shows it.  I decided since I made a summer bucket list, that I would give the update.  The ones in italics are done!

1.  Sleep in...a lot!
2.  Go to a drive-in
3.  Read a book with paper pages
4.  Flint Creek with friends from school
5.  A conference or two
6.  Sell our house
7.  Pick blueberries and blackberries
8.  Pick other fruit too
9.  Fly a kite on the beach
10.  See the wild horses
11.  Snuggle with my niece
12.  Go to a museum (or two)
13.  Eat breakfast at the donut shop
14.  Connect/Catch up with friends
15.  Do something with my blog
16.  Restart my gratitude journal
17.  See fireworks
18.  Make something homemade
19.  Finally go to the Flying Pig
20.  Celebrate our wedding anniversary

Some were a little different than I envisioned.  Different good:  I thought I'd end up running over to a local museum to catch number twelve, but we were able to stop at Nauticus in Norfolk on the way home from the beach and saw the Wild Horse Museum when we were in Corolla.  Also good: We saw fireworks more than once.  The ones we saw from a rooftop downtown with friends were especially enjoyable. Different not so good:  Flying kites on the beach wasn't what I remembered!  I had to run more than what I cared to while on vacation and the sand was hot!

Mermaid outside of Nauticus.  You can see the Battleship Wisconsin int he background if you look closely.  I have a picture of one of the boys behind a mermaid cutout (the kind you put your face in) and the other boy buried in the sand at the beach and maid to look like a mermaid.  I will spare both of them from having those pics posted!

We celebrated on 18th anniversary by going to dinner and looking through our wedding albums.  We still plan to go to Eureka in the fall.

Our house is still on the market.  When we put it there, our family was three "list it" to one "love it".  Now that months have passed we are two to two and there's a little indifference even there!

So summer. is. over. It has been one of the most enjoyable summers that I remember.  This is largely in part to our cool temperatures.  It made just normal every day life wonderful.  Usually, we have multiple days (20+) over 100 degrees (and of late, pushing 110). This summer we had maybe two days over 100.

I'm thinking I should be making a fall/winter bucket list!

Things I Learned in July

1.  I learned that I shouldn't take notes for this kind of thing as I go along because I'll lose them.

2.  I am at the age where I can't remember all the log ins and passwords to everything.  In my defense, I think it must be because there are waaaay too many things requiring such things. I have started a collection (all in one spot - not lots of pieces of scrap paper!) of log in information.

3.  Half of July was spent on vacation where I learned many things.  Some are:

• Sand crabs that come out on the beach at night are about five times larger than the ones that are out during the day!



Smaller "day" crab - look in the very middle

• There is a charter school meeting in the old Corolla School House (circ. 1800s - 1950s).  The school is Water's Edge Village School.

• It is no fun for almost everyone on vacation to get a stomach bug (I knew this without having to experience it first hand.)

4.  The blog where I had been finding links to free books just wasn't delivering much any more, but I learned of a new one - eReaderGirl.  I love how she separates fiction, non-fiction and kids!  I just followed her on Pinterest too and she has so many fun reading pins!

5.  I learned about Sidetracked Sarah!  I am not a homeschooler or do I have a large family, but I tend to enjoy those blogs most.  Since school will be starting soon (by the way it's 1st grade this year for me) I was looking for freezer recipes and Sarah's got several menu plans for freezer to slow cooker meals.  They all seem like "real" food (not funny things I've never heard of or that no one in our home would dream of eating) and more like things I normally cook.

6. I learned the hard way that when you don't link your blog post in time that Mr. Linky does in fact close.  So this time I will link with Emily at Chatting at the Sky as soon as I'm done!

Dreams in Bloom

This is beach post, but how could I resist this title or face??

On our beach vacation, some or all of us went to the beach every day.  We went several times a day at all different times of the day.  I'm not much of a beach person, but I must say, I enjoyed it the most this time out of any times ever!

When the kids weren't playing in the surf, they were burying each other in the sand making characters - a skeleton, hockey player, body builder, even a mermaid!  For the adults - it was easy to entertain the kids, it was done for us.  So we relaxed and read.  Not all on the beach, but I finished four books on vacation.  I also enjoyed collecting shells and watching hundreds of giant sand crabs on the beach at night with Hubby.

Since we went to the beach often, I got to experience high tide and low tide for the first time.  At low tide, I collected shells.  At high tide, my sis-in-law and I kept moving our chairs back until we were sitting in water anyway!!

It was a wonderful time away and with family.  I especially enjoyed watching my sons, niece and nephews enjoy themselves so much!

A New Home for Banjo

October of L's 1st grade year, he finally talked me into a critter - he purchased a leopard gecko entirely on his own!

L. found Banjo on Craig's List.  We met the owner at a gas station close to Lewisville, Tx.  Banjo was four months old.  Yes, that's my Dad sitting in the passenger's seat.  He was visiting for Fall Break.

Since that time L. has cared for Banjo completely on his own - switching out lights, feeding him, cleaning the cage.  He's paid for everything out of his allowance.

This past spring, L. decided he wanted to sell Banjo.  I "advertised" - meaning I mentioned it to a few people.  Finally, when we had a garage sale in May - I advertised a little better.  Someone I knew from college who still lives in the area contacted me via facebook because she was interested in a pet for her classroom.

Once L. knew she was a teacher, that I actually knew her, and that her 6 year old loved animals (we saw pictures from Sea World!), L would not entertain the thought of a different buyer.

We finally connected last week - L. took great care in showing her everything she would ever want to know about Banjo!

L. was pleased with the new owner, also.  He mentioned to me several times how nice she was.

Sigh. I remember every school project L. has done where he had to tell "his" story - autobiography, timeline, etc. - he mentioned when he got Banjo.  So far there's been no seller's remorse.  The gecko has a good home and a chapter in our ordinary life has closed.

7 Things I Learned in June

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.   

Anthony J. D'Angelo 

Emily, at Chatting at the Sky, has invited us to share what we have learned during the month of June.  So here goes (I just love random ramblings!!)

7 Things I Learned In June

1.  I love summer!  I rarely say this.  I've never been that fond of summer - I'm more of a fan of fall.  This summer though, it hasn't really been that hot (yet).  We've gone places, but we've been home a lot too and I've enjoyed the ordinariness of doing things around the house.  I've enjoyed doing a lot of nothing and only what I want.  I've also enjoyed cooking (some).  PT (Prior to Teaching) I spent a lot of time menu planning, preparing and cooking.  During the school year, that just doesn't fly!

One of my family's favorites is this sausage and broccoli bake.  It's a Weight Watcher recipe, but I un-WW it because I don't use turkey sausage.  I think when I figured out the points it wasn't that different and I really can't stand food that tries to act like other food (i.e turkey acting like sausage or worse, beef!)

2.  My kids really are too old for some things.  I've seen this coming for a while now.  It became more apparent when I took my oldest, M (age 14) and a friend to a creek with friends to swim, jump off the falls and picnic.  The falls weren't as high as fourteen year old boys (at least mine) would like.  I had a lot of fun anyway! And no, I never jumped. Said boys did accompany me to the Dayspring Outlet in Siloam Springs right after the creek time.  So THAT is impressive!

3.  There is something (good) to be said of children getting older.  I learned that dead animals of any kind make me squeal (I already knew I would jump on the couch for live mice, etc.).  When the dog brought a bunny in (I'm sure she found the bunny unresponsive and after unsuccessfully attempting mouth to mouth was bringing it to see if we could help.) it was really nice insisting my fourteen year old son handle it (his Dad was gone at Scout camp) since it was after all, his duty.

4.  I learned that I stay up waaaay too late when Hubby is gone.  I already knew I slept with the bathroom light on if he's not home, but 2 am is way too late for me to stay up (I'm one who requires sufficient beauty rest!) reading.  Once I do turn the light off I sleep horribly too.

5.  June was conference time!  I went to a four day one and an afternoon one so I learned many new classroom ideas - way too many to write about.  I'll just mention a couple - I learned that Dr. Seuss books contain a high amount of Dolch words.  So having a student read a book to you is way more exciting than reading a list of words!!  I also learned to take existing games (Twister, Jenga, Candyland) and make them in to sight word (or letters for early years) practice games.

I can't wait to figure out which grade I'm teaching so I can start working on some games!!

6.  I finally found a study at church that works for me to attend!  I've been going to Beth Moore's lecture series "The Law of Love".  It's so beautiful to see the fulfillment of the law in Christ (I love to see the fulfillment of Jewish customs in Christ too).  Our Promised Land is Christ Himself.  Every part of my listening guide is covered in my writing and each time I reread it to try to write something down I've learned, I just get overwhelmed that I couldn't possibly write everything down!!

7.  I also learned every time L. and I get a chance to go eat together we usually choose barbecue!  He doesn't like Chic-fil-a and I don't like sushi, so that's what we agree on.  Also, M. doesn't usually choose it because he doesn't like to SMELL like barbecue when we leave!  L. and I were in "the city" doing errands a couple of weeks ago and we ended up at an old favorite and last night when it was just the two of us for dinner, a different BBQ place was our choice.

Thanks, Emily, for the encouragement to write.

I'm looking ahead to July - Beach vacation and to August - I will kick getting ready for school into high gear!

Our Backyard

When I was looking for pictures for "Flashback", I found one of our Butterfly Bush in Albuquerque.  I was so excited a couple of summers ago to plant one in our backyard.  I was even more excited to see how nicely it had grown this year!

I went out to take take pictures of the bush and took a few more.  While photographing I had some deep contemplative thoughts to blog - but now I can't remember what I wanted to say!

I thought it would be nice to share the pictures anyway.  And since J. the dog made some of the pictures I might as well tell her excitement from a few nights ago,

A bit of trauma in our home tonight...I opened the door to let the dog in, but I could see she was carrying something. I jumped on the couch and maintained my position when M. said it was a mouse. However when he said it was a bunny I ran to my room where I shouted directions and demanded he take care of it. I bet M's friend spending the night thinks I should be committed! Nothing like this has happened since L's soccer coach's wife  rescued me from the bird that flew in the house.

Ok, I guess that was my excitement and not hers! (I just used what I put on Facebook and changed the name I had tagged.)

Anyway, I'm so very thankful for my backyard!