You Don't See That Every Day

I can't believe it is already here. The first day of school. We usually don't start until after Labor Day. We have a tradition of going yurting while everyone else heads to school. But this year, I decided to be organized. I decided to go through all the lessons and map them out to correspond with the calendar. And I came upon the realization that we had to get a head start, or we would be doing school well into June and July. And I knew that wouldn't fly here. Not for me. Not for the kids. So we jumped into it today. Not a full-body dive into the waters of education. More like a dipping of the toes. I didn't want to start out too hard on the first day. I even restrained myself and did not give out homework today! Now that I am homeschooling three at the same time, my previous methods from years past don't work quite as well. I found juggling three in the same subject was not working; so I am going to have to do some shuffling and figure out how to make this work w...

This is what we picked from the garden about a week ago. The top is my brothers pickup bed, the bottom one is mine. Now imagine all of that in watermelon instead. Two entire pickup beds covered in melons. That would be over 100 of those babies. And these are not the nice little basketball sized ones. They were huge, almost as big as my youngest child. My brother brought them by last night, all 100+ of them, and offered half to my son to sell. Of course, this would involve mom and sisters, since he is only 10! We loaded up the back of the pickup and drove out to the big, busy road and set up some signs. Within minutes we had a buyer, and then another, and then another. It was a slow trickle of interested eaters. And then a guy drove up and counted how many we had left, and said, "Ill take them all" in a lovely Australian (?) accent. I think it was Australian b/c he said, "No worries" and really, who else says that?! So we loaded up his little 2 door car and he pai...

He might look like a harmless giant but yesterday his true colors came out. He's a thief. We picked a ton of vegetables at the farm yesterday afternoon and I set most of them - the beans, carrots, corn, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, the one zucchini my dad set out for me - in the garage while I was cleaning up. I had the kids set for travelling the neighborhood to share the bounty, and I was thinking about the bread, or maybe the cake, I would bake before supper. I went out to the garage to grab the zucchini for either bread or cake (not like I need more cake but it sounded so good!) and it was gone! Gone! A little green stub was on the ground. No dogs around, no zucchini. I know the kids didn't take it and eat it - that would never happen. All I could figure out was That Dog! grabbed it and ran. I found no other traces in the garage ... and I don't think I want to go inspect the 'remains' in the yard. Unless ... this little black one was the thief. She has been kn...

My reading list has taken a turn in the last month or so. Instead of the usual exciting fiction I was reading, I turned my attention to biographies. My first one was by Denise Jackson, It's All About Him . It was a very fascinating read on the life of Deni se and her famous husband Alan. I actually related to some of the stuff she went through. ( ... even though my husband might be mistaken for Payton Manning by some people, we haven't quite made the celebrity list). No, the real life stuff, the struggling with people and relationships stuff. The next one I made it through was Julie Andrews' Home: A memoir of my early years . She has always been one of my favorite actresses and I was curious about her life before The Sound of Music . Boy, were my eyes opened. We think we "know" a celebrity, but then they tell it in their own words and I come to realize I have no idea who this person really is/was. From there I moved on to Carol Burnett, One More Time, a memoir -...

Yesterday was my birthday. The first present I got was when my baby, Princess moved up from level 1 to level 2 in swim lessons! It has been 5 weeks of lessons, and finally she gets to ring the bell! Later in the day the family went miniature golfing. We had quite a good time! Finally, after pizza we got to the goods - notice the chocolate. Costco 7 layer cake; candy bars from my son; my girls bought me jewelry; What's missing is the Marie Callendar's chocolate satin pie - that we finished off the night before (thanks go to my older sister) and also the 2 pints of Baskin-Robbins choco-peanut butter ice cream, waiting in the freezer for me (thanks go to my husband). Overall a lovely, high-calorie, day.

I offered a glass of w ater to my sister-in-law last night. And like any normal person, I asked if she wanted it in a plastic or glass? She looked at me a little funny. I am one of those people. I cannot, or will not, drink water out of glass unless I have to. And if I drink milk, it needs to be in glass, never, never in plastic. It's just wrong. Makes it taste funny. Now pop - that should be in plastic, but I can handle it in glass if it is ice cold. What about you?

One of my favorite places to be - the coast - and I get to go there this week! Even though we might have to wear sweatshirts and jeans in the middle of August, it will still be so worth it, to smell the fresh salty air, to feel the cool breezes (and strong winds), to eat the clam chowder, to contemplate life.