TO DO

My big girls are gone for the week visiting with grandparents in another state.  The dynamics in our house are very different right now.  The three youngers are content to be on the WII for large chunks of time, so using it to my advantage I am gutting the school room in prep for our new school year.  I plan to start mid July giving us time off when the weather is a little less severe in Texas.  So bear with me as I post my to do list for the day.  I figure it might keep me accountable :)

1. wash jeans for John (nothing to do with school but my man needs clean jeans which he did not have this am)
2. tackle the paper piles that spawned from the large one in the school room
3.  input science for both learning groups into HST+
4.  Make a list of items needed
5. Gut the bookshelves
6.  Move old cores down and new ones up
7. label core 2 adv readers
8.  sit with avery and work on some phonics


that should keep me busy right??

Home Sweet Home

We arrived home last night.  My shower has never felt so warm, my bed so perfect nor my pillows so soft.  We rolled in late so it was jammies and bed for the three kids we brought home with us (don't worry we didn't lose two along the way we just shipped them home with the grandparents for an extended vacation). John watered his garden and checked some work stuff and crashed only to be awoken with a "my tummy hurts"from N.  We told him to crash on our floor.  Sometime in the middle of the night A joined him.  I guess after sleeping in a room with 7 other kids for a week they didn't want to be alone!
It is good to be home.  I am now trying to catch up on some TOS Crew stuff and plan to spend some time planning and inputing next year into the computer.  While we were gone we let A detonate some dynamite in a Gold Mine.  We're cool like that :)

Colorado

I'm really not a traveler. I usually get out locally a few times a year and see the country maybe once a year. Just so happens in the past week I have two vacations. Last week it was Seattle, this week Colorado for a family get together. There are 16 of us renting a house near Rocky Mountain National Park. All of us hiked Beaver Meadows yesterday seeing the gorgeous meadows and mountain peaks. We then walked around Estes Park doing a little shopping and sight seeing. Dh and I snuck out for an evening hike at Lumpy Ridge. That's me on the trail :) As we were driving back up the drive of the rental house I snapped the sun setting over the valley. I am amazed at the gorgeous beauty of this area. I miss mountains living in Texas.

Seattle R & R

I was blessed last weekend with a trip to Seattle.  Two friends put the weekend together and invited me along for the ride, all I needed to do was book my plane ticket and pick up a third of the tab.  DONE!  I had a wonderful weekend away.  I was blessed with conversation, scenery and no one calling me mom.  These two friends made me laugh, ushered me through an unexpected encounter with race for the cure, and shared a fondue pot with me.  We saw orcas hunt a harbor seal, saw a bald eagle fly, and blue sky in Seattle :)  I came home refreshed and relaxed and blessed by my time away.