Summer officially began a couple days ago, but our "summer" has been in full swing for four weeks already! One of the great things about homeschooling is we can pick our own start and stop dates. And it's been so nice to be done!! I think I'm more excited about summer break than the kids are!
The most exciting thing that's happened so far this summer is that I had a "mom work day." A few of us moms at church are swapping kids on various days so we can each have a day to ourselves. And let me tell you--it was glorious! I had about 9 hours all to myself. I worked on my list of projects, and actually got them all done, believe it or not! For that entire day I worked uninterrupted. . . no breaking up fights, no feeding or changing or disciplining children, no one interrupting me to whine or tattle or say they're bored or hungry, no one making messes, no one making me lose my train of thought or leave a trail of unfinished work behind me. It was truly wonderful! Now don't get me wrong, I love my kids! And I even enjoy being with them. But having uninterrupted time to myself is a very rare thing, and it was truly a blessing. I have two other days like this planned and can't wait to see what all I get done! :)
The other exciting thing we've been doing is Park Quest. I hesitate to blog about it because the more people know about it, the more competition to get in! So, Marylanders, cover your ears. :) They only allow 1,000 families to register. I registered three minutes after it opened, and I was number 600! I'm so thankful we made it though. This program gives you a "passport" for the state parks, and you try to go to at least 10 of them throughout the summer, completing a "quest" at each one. And the passport gets you into the parks free! I couldn't ask for a better use of our tax money! We've done four parks so far, and it's been a lot of fun. Here are some pictures:
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| at Sandy Point State Park overlooking the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay Bridge |
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| at Cunningham Falls State Park (with our friends the Slades) |
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| at Assateague State Park |
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| at Gunpowder Falls State Park (We got to play in the stream for this one! Very fun!) |
Assateague is right on the beach, about 3 hours away from us. So this was our beach day trip for the summer. After our "quest" we spent the rest of the day on the beach. One of the nice features about Assateague is the wild ponies that wander the area. At least I USED to think it was a nice feature. Now I'm not so sure. The ponies are not afraid of people. Not one iota. And they're smart too. You're not allowed to feed them. OK, that's fine. But just what do you do when they decide to help themselves?! These two hooligans pictured actually stole a bag of my sister-in-law Bekah's homemade chocolate chip cookies. Out of the cooler! The cooler was completely shut, but it had a broken hinge, and the ponies managed to push the lid open, grab the cookies and eat them right in front of us. There are warnings and pictures of the bites they can inflict, and you're not allowed to "harass" them, so what were we to do? We basically stood helplessly while they ate the delicious cookies right in front of us! It was pretty funny, but if I had baked those cookies I think I'd be a little mad at their demise! It was a very fun day though, and we all had a great time.
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| the Pony theives |
Oh, one more exciting event is that Rayanna is potty training! While I despise the process, I'm thrilled that soon it will be over. I can't wait to not have to buy diapers ever again!! Tabitha's medical issues in that area have shown some improvement, so I'm hopeful that one day we might not need pull-ups either, and maybe I won't need to have any involvement in anyone else's bathroom procedures ever again. Let's hope so anyway.
So that's the start to our summer. I love having more downtime, but somehow there's still plenty to do. It's no wonder I often feel like there aren't enough hours in the day when we have school to do as well! Some other things we're looking forward to this summer . . . Our church Day Camp is this week. We're hosting another Latvian chaperon for the orphan hosting program; she comes this Thursday for a week. Tabitha and I will take a trip to Cincinnati for tests to see if her last surgery was successful. My sister Carrie will come visit for a few days. The kids are taking some fun classes. And hopefully we'll have plenty of time to relax. It's already hot enough that I'm wishing for fall, but I'm also very happy to be enjoying some time off. Long live Summer Break!
