More trip pics

Pictures from the road...

Here we are on our last night at the timeshare. You know what that means... time to use up the "plop and bake" cookies and milk and the ice cream! In the meantime I just spent the better part of an hour uploading pictures from my phone for your viewing pleasure. There will be many more pictures to come from the real camera, the kids' phone, and hopefully Pam and Marissa's cameras. We have had the best week here and the time has flown!!


Last week in Atlanta...






Last weekend with friends...








Early in the week...




Wednesday...





Yesterday...





Today...

From the Road

We are in Atlanta this week. Business for Mike and schoolwork by the pool for the rest of us. Jonathan and I are in the hotel business center and while he's doing some virtual school work, I found a little time to catch up on blogs. I figured it wouldn't hurt to update mine as well.

We've gotten a few "homeschool comments" on this trip so far. Yesterday Jonathan was wearing his unsocialized homeschooler T-shirt, and a man at the Coca Cola Factory asked him about it. He was impressed that Jonathan was homeschooled and said that it was the best way to go. Then he went on to say that he and his wife would homeschool if they had the patience. Clearly, he hadn't been keeping too close of an eye on us or he'd have seen that we don't have an extraordinary amount of patience. Sometimes I think I no longer have even an ordinary amount of patience. Today at breakfast a hotel workier asked if they went to school. When I said that we homeschooled, she asked if they were in middle school (they were all sitting nearby). I told her one is in high school, one in middle school and one in elementary school her reply was, "Oh you must be really smart". {that's definitely debatable!}

Tomorrow we head to NC. Next week we'll be at our timeshare. We have a lot of plans to see old friends and my parents are coming up for part of the time, so like most weeks lately, I'm sure the time will fly! Time is flying too much lately! In those early years of parenting I remember looking so foward to the end of the day when Mike would get home. Now, I'm still happy when it is time for Mike to get home, but generally speaking, I'm no where near ready for the day to end. Likewise, in those days I looked forward to when the kids would be a little older so we could enjoy different things etc... Now they are old enough, and getting closer everyday to "too old". I want time to slow down!

Jonathan is on a card trick kick. He's finished his schoolwork for the day and is now learning new card tricks via youtube. Jake came into the business center a little while ago with a Junie B Jones book and a deck of cards. He sat down and read for about 3 minutes, then said "done" and "a dios" and headed to the front desk to borrow the basketball so he could go shoot hoops. Do you think we're a little comfotable in hotels? They may not ever have been in a classroom, but they can certainly tell you the ins and outs of a hotel breakfast, know all about opening doors with card keys, and are at ease asking the front desk workers for more towels, soap, or basketballs. Now Jake is back with UNO and Madi has been in here inquiring about how to use the hotel shower (yes, we have been here since Sunday, but she's been in the pool everyday). We've really set up shop around here. I just realized that they have a pencil sharpener in here, so now I'm going to send Jake to get some of our pencils that need to be sharpened.

Jake got his braces and palate expander last week and is doing fantastic with it! I think he's grown up in the past 7 days! (this is the good kind of grown up, not the one that I want to slow down) He looks so cute too! I'll put pictures on here eventually, but in the meantime, you can see some on facebook.

Trying to slow down

It is show week once again. That means concessions. Last night after baking one batch of cupcakes, one batch of lemon bars (because the lemon bar baker extrodinaire is out of town), and two batches of brownies, I had much more left to check off my mental list...read to Jake, finish my own book so I could start my next one, fold and put away all the clean laundry that was on my bed, etc...etc... The problem was it was already 10pm. I'm starting to realize that there is no way to get more time in my day, so I guess the only reasonable way to handle this is to lower my expections. I have high expectations. High expectations of others, higher expectations of my kids, and astronomically high expectations for myself. It is no secret that some of the things that I strive to accomplish for myself each day (especially this summer) include a lot of reading, working out, daily Mass at least a few times a week, and currently making a dent in the 1000 piece puzzle that is on our front room table. This doesn't include computer and telephone time, never mind the in person chatting with the various friends that I might run into during the course of the day. Then there's all of the house stuff: laundry, dishes, the constant cleaning out, throwing away and donating that has been my summer. Then there's the driving to and from the kids activity du jour. I haven't even gotten to the time actually spent with my family. We are a game playing family. Games take time too. Some how I've seemed to get off on a tangent here and while I'm considering deleting the whole thing, I think I'll just attempt to steer myself back in the right direction. The thing is in the midst of all of this stuff, my main focus is on preparing for our schoolyear. If our house is clean and decluttered, we can focus better, if I've had time to recharge my batteries with reading and quite time, I'll focus better. This year I actually bought the unrealistic homeschooling mother's schedule book that I've borrowed for the last several years. Grand ideas are my enemy. I'm thinking too much. Last night I had a dream that I had to return library books to a library in Rhode Island, I even know what town, Exeter. They weren't even our library books, they belonged to a family that we know from a distance, Jake played baseball with the little boy a year and a half ago. My brain is too full. It is so full of clutter that I've been stuck for 2 days on a level 1 sodoku from the newspaper. I've been decluttering the house, but I really need to declutter my brain. I guess that's what I'm hoping to accomplish by dumping it all here. The thing is since hardly anyone is reading blogs anymore, I don't have to try to be articulate or anything. What this post was supposed to be about was how I've been hit over the head a couple times this evening, right here from the comfort of my computer chair, with stories about simplifying. One by a friend I know in person here. and also from a whole bunch of people that I don't know here.

The thing is we have grand plans to simplify this year. The problem is the grand plans part I think. How do you balance accomplishing enough and not running around like a chicken with your head cut off? That is my eternal question. This year my "accomplishing enough" must include guiding a high school student. I have many many more questions, but right now there's a game of CLUE set up with my name on it and it's not even 9pm yet, I just might get Jake read to, my book finished, and the rest of that laundry off my bed. Thankfully tonight Madi made the brownies!

Dancing through the Decades 50's

One of Madi's Kids' College classes was Dancing through the Decades. In 7 1 1/2 hour classes kids that never danced together and mostly didn't know each other or the teacher learned all of these dances. I say this as a disclaimer because while I think the dances are good, and Madi had a great time, they are not necessarily up to par with the kids' theatre. Madi is pretty much front and center every time. Fortunately, as a homeschooler, Madi is very familiar with these decades. You know, Leave it to Beaver, Wonder Years, Brady Bunch, Cosby Show...

the 60s

the 70s