I wish I could say lazy days of summer, but summer just seems to be flying by so quickly. The strange thing is we really haven't been busy with any particular activity. The days are just full. So what have we been doing?
:: The pool. Every. Single. DAY. The children love this. Me, not so much. I was laughing with Terry that I am tanner here than I was in Florida. Everyday we pack the cooler with drinks and snacks and head down to the pool for a couple of hours. It is good exercise and fresh air and it keeps us cool. And when we get home I need a nap. :0)
photo courtesy of Aunt Sussie :0)
:: I have been "curriculum" shopping and busy narrowing down materials for the upcoming school year. This year will be a little more "workbook" intensive than I would prefer but with the new baby due in the fall the kids need to be a little more independent in some areas. I am not purchasing a packaged curriculum. I am choosing materials that I like and then I will make up lesson plans to get us through at least until February. I have been working on those which is very time consuming, but worth it. I have also been hunting around for the best deal on these books. I have found a lot of them used at great prices. Ca-ching!!
:: I have also been planning and preparing craft bags for the upcoming year. The little girls love to do crafts. Really, all of them love to do crafts. If I don't plan these out they seem to not happen. I have been looking at this post at as cozy as spring for inspiration. Great ideas here.
:: Knitting. I have been knitting a lot for me. I finally finished my Baby Surprise Jacket. This is the quickest I have ever finished a knitting project. I took me less than two months. And for all of the mess ups I made it didn't turn out as bad as I thought it was going to be. Unless you are looking for the mistakes I don't think you would notice them. I am going to do a separate post about it and make note of all of the lessons I learned while knitting this sweet little sweater. Here is a picture of John Paul holding up the finished "masterpiece".
Can you tell what we are having????
:: We have been gardening. This has really been Terry's project. Our container garden is doing very well. The tomato plants are taller than Patrick. We have quite a few green tomatoes. I can't wait until they turn red, which seems to be taking forever. These are the healthiest tomato plants we have ever had. We think the difference is in the watering. We didn't realize how much water tomato plants drink. We are frequently filling the self watering containers.
:: Purging and unpacking. Terry and I have come to the realization that we are going to be in this rental house for a while. Real estate in Florida is not moving at all. Especially cottage farms. So we have decided we are going to unpack everything and purge. Big Purge. We have lived without all of the stuff packed in all of these boxes for a year. Chances are we don't really need it. We are going to maybe paint the walls and hang things up. We can always patch little nail holes when it is time to move. Someday. I need to make this house a home for us. I think this will also help me to feel a bit more settled. This has been such a strange year for me.
:: Going through the kids clothes and purging. This is so time consuming, deciding what to donate, what to consign. My goal is to be done with all of these projects before mid August so that we can just focus on school when we start at the end of August.
:: It hasn't been all work though. The kids have been playing outside quite a bit. We planted bean and pea plants under this magnolia tree. Patrick, Catherine, and Amelia can frequently be found out here "snacking".
On those days when we get rain, we pull out the watercolors and paint. This picture was taken at 10am. It was so dark out. We decided to stay in our jammies and paint.
So that has been our summer so far. It is all good.
Thanks for the update. I'm glad you are getting settled in.
Posted by: Melissa | July 12, 2011 at 08:56 PM
The garden looks awesome. I can't believe we have been gone long enough for it to have grown so much. I miss you, my friend.
Posted by: Sussette | July 07, 2011 at 07:54 PM
I was just going to say that it looks like you aren't sticking with your pattern and saw that Tiffany beat me to it! Yeah for little boys! Thanks for the update!
Posted by: Julie | July 06, 2011 at 10:54 PM
Sounds like you are having a great summer. I love seeing all that you do and I plan to check out that site with the craft bags. Congrats on having a boy! You're breaking your pattern!!
Posted by: Tiffany | July 06, 2011 at 10:32 PM