wow. summer is quickly coming to an end, and to be quite honest, i'm totally okay with it. it has been such a crazy, jam-packed, on-the-go last few months, that i'm in a hurry to bid it farewell and say "hello" to autumn. j and i just got back from a whirlwind trip to iowa, minnesota, wisconsin and illinois. his youngest brother, adrian (age 13), had been living with us for the summer, and it was time to take him back up to wisconsin for school. adrian is a great kid, and taught me quite a bit about raising a 13 year old (eeek!). since he was only 3 when i married his brother, plus the fact that he lives 12 hours away, neither j nor i really knew him. this summer was a great way to develop a bond between him and us. we had a great time, but like all good things, it came to an end. all of us were ready for it too. as much as i loved getting to know him, and enjoyed our time together, after 2 months, we were ready to have our house to ourselves. j and i are pretty selfish with eachother and our 2 munchkins, so 2 months with a house guest and not going insane is considered a success for us! ;)
in other news, this summer has brought a new "side business" for me. i've decided to do stock photography. something i've *loved* to do for most of my life, but now i've worked up the nerve to share it with others. a huge thing for me, since i'm usually pretty private about my taste in art. j, being the best hubby ever, bought me my new camera. a canon 40D i've lovingly named bindi. she's a beaut. ;)
school started yesterday for the monkeys...and to be quite honest, it about kicked my rump. this year is so intense. i've changed some of my curriculum, and stepped up to a more advanced form of history and geography. it's incredible, but a *bit* overwhelming for me just starting off. i know i'll get the hang of it soon enough, but if you saw the 2 HUGE stacks of books that will be read by my children by the end of the school year, you'd understand. yesterday alone, the first day of school, we started reading 3 indepth fictional books about early america, on top of our history lesson and required reading. crazy, but oh-so-fun! it's hard to believe this is our 4th year of homeschooling, and that i've got a 2nd and 3rd grader. i grow to love it more and more every year. quite surprising as i never thought i could do it. it's so encouraging and satisfying to see lauryn and london reading for fun, doing math quizzes like it's a game, and being completely engrossed in american history. they run to our poster on american presidents if they can't remember who came after nixon. they ask for me to fill them out a sheet of math problems so they can do them. they love reading, and a "field trip" to barnes and noble is the highlight of their month. i've also changed our scheduling around a bit. we are now doing 5 days a week, instead of 4, and we are 4 weeks on, 1 week off, with 2 extra weeks at christmas, 1 extra week at easter and 4 extra weeks in the summer or to be used whenever. i love going year round, it means we never really have to review the last year. all of our curriculum is cumualtive, and the kids don't have a "break" long enough to need to be "re-taught". makes life simpler.
well, i've gone on about that long enough. we're headed to the lake house for the holiday. you have no idea how much j and i are looking forward to having our little family all to ourselves. i'm going to work a bit on my photography, editing and such, and just kick back, take the boat or jet skis out and relax. *sigh*...i'm clicking my heels...;)
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