Home Alone

The Imp is gone to work a retreat this week. She left Friday afternoon and I go to pick her up this Friday. Saturday we hosted our couples' prayer group, and I was so focused getting my house and food ready, I didn't really notice she wasn't here. Sunday the Singer, Hubby and I all just relaxed and read books. She would have been doing the same, so her absence was not keenly felt. Yesterday, however, as I had the house to myself from 7 am till 6 pm, her being gone screamed in the silence. I sure pray she's having a good week. She is actually facilitating the retreat (running it with other teens to train kids to facilitate weekend retreats). Some of her cohorts really enjoy Drama in their lives. The Imp has limited patience for that and I'm sure she'll come home ready to hole up in her room for a day or two for some alone time of her own (and some sleep).

I can't believe school starts in 5 weeks already. Somehow the summer always flies by. I'm ordering the Imp's textbooks this week. I'm also attacking her bedroom closet. I hope I survive. It will feel good knowing it's cleaned out and getting rid of some of the little girl stuff she no longer uses/wants.

My House Is Back

The house is finally 'put back together'. We've finished the floor and moved the furniture back. And we've even sifted through all our stuff before putting any of it back. We got rid of a number of books (very hard to do...but keeping every book bought when the girls were 9, 10 and 11 just isn't practical), some old VHS tapes, lots of magazines and just some junk. The living/family room looks great. It took longer than I had expected (and I thought I was giving ample time to complete the job). So I am soo over the whole job. We still need to get a throw rug for the middle of the floor, but other than that we should be good. We have our kitchen back and actually sat down, all 4 of us, for dinner together. With the Singer and Imp taking a Bible Study on a different night than Hubby and I, and with ballroom dancing classes and the Singer working out two days a week on her way home from work (putting her home around 8) we haven't had a many family dinners as I would have liked. But we sat around the table and enjoyed good spaghetti and fresh green beans (alas, not from my garden). Yep, the house and home are finally back together.

I get to scrap again today. Always a good day. I'm a little tired, which sometimes makes it harder to be creative, but friends are coming over so all is good.

Yesterday I got to teach my crochet summer class. I had 5 little girls (ages 10-15) and I thoroughly enjoyed, not only teaching crochet to others, but just the girls themselves. They're just a fun group and they all friends with each other which just made for a fun atmosphere.

Lack of TV Appreciated

The man who shot and killed two Tampa police officers during a traffic stop has been arrested. The memorial for the two men is taking place right now. My heart goes out to Officer David Curtis' wife and four young sons and to Jeffery Kocab's wife (who is nine months pregnant).

I am so ready to have my house put back together. Climbing over furniture to simply walk from my bedroom to the front door is annoying. Having no table to gather around at dinner time is frustrating. But, there are positives of this situation. Without a TV in the living room and tiny ones in the front computer room (with nowhere to sit except at the computer)and my bedroom, the house has been very quiet this week. I kept waiting for the girls to complain. We did all climb on our queen bed to watch "In Plain Sight" Wednesday night, but other than that, the TVs have been essentially quiet. At dinner last night (and we did go out to eat because I hated eating in shifts) the Imp said she enjoyed the lack of TV this week. Both she and the Singer have devoured books (although they are both avid readers, so that isn't too unusual for summertime) but the Imp said we've talked more as a family. The Imp, Singer and Hubby have all sat together on the couch in the kitchen just being silly. So at dinner I said we could institute a no-TV night each week, fully expecting resistance along the lines 'it was fun, but we really don't need to go that far...' but instead got a resounding "Good idea, MOM!" If I had tried to institute a no-TV night last week, I guarantee the girls would have fought it, complained, and then would have worked to make those nights less than enjoyable. They had to live through it and feel the positives before they'd buy into it. Hubby and I hope to have the furniture back in the living room tonight...definitely by tomorrow night (even with going to his cousin's to celebrate the 4th).

Fallen Heroes

The lead story of every news outlet in Tampa, is about the man who shot and killed two police officers during a traffic stop. I can't imagine being a "first responder." Whether a policeman, or firefighter, or EMT all these people face dangers all the time. There doesn't seem to be the proper respect given to these workers. The shooting happened early morning Tuesday, the killer has not been apprehended...yet. There is a $100,000 reward for his capture. Someone knows where he is and as our police chief has said, that no one has turned him in is as disturbing as him killing 2 officers. The "honor" of silence among the lawless is mind-boggling. Prayers go out to the families of Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab. I've purposefully omitted the killer's name from my blog. He doesn't deserve the ink.

*@#$%* and other not nice things

So much for making good progress on our laminate floor project. Tonight as we were working, we decided we had made some errors in putting together the first rows, so....we took it all apart. We're now where we were Sunday morning. The tension was palpable and for a few moments I thought Hubby might lose it. But, it passed and we started singing "If I Had A Hammer" only changing the words to fit our circumstances. The girls looked at us like we were crazy (and maybe that's the secret to doing home improvement projects together...don't take it too seriously). But with the song, and some laughter the tense moments passed and we are still speaking to each other.

Hubby spent an hour on the phone with our wireless provider trying to get a $260 charge removed. Someone ordered a phone on our account and had it delivered to Indiana. We've been working this problem for about 2 months. We were told, yet again, that it would all be taken care of, but somehow it keeps reappearing on our phone bill.

I'm happy for the rain we've been getting every night the past week. Our lawn is green (even if most of it is weeds) and my rose bushes are healthy.

I can't believe it's already July. My summer is flying by. It won't be long before we're taking the Singer up to Belmont Abbey. I'm reading a book about mother-daughter relationships and it addresses the fact that our society holds fast to the myth of perfect mother love. And that this is detremental to both mothers and daughters. Somehow, mothers aren't suppose to have conflicting feelings towards their daughters. Well, I've got plenty of conflicting feelings towards my daughter, just as I have contradictory feelings towards my husband, my friends, my siblings, etc. Relationships, by nature, involve ups and downs, and as a relationship involves two flawed people, I figure having more positive feelings than negative is doing pretty darn good.

Laminate Flooring

Back at the library, but only 2 times this week :-)

Hubby and I have made great progress on our laminate flooring project, but are not finished. With Hubby having to work, we won't finish until Saturday. But what's done looks pretty good. I've waited a long time for this and I can't wait until it's completed and I can sit back and enjoy it. We were talking last night, and the Imp offered her assistance this week and suggested she and I could make significant progress during the week. This would involve one of using the electric saw. Hubby commented that we hadn't been "checked out" on that equipment and the Imp replied, "What? You turn it one and cut. How hard can that be?" At which point Hubby turned to me and said, "Don't let her go near it!"

Trying to plan for next school year. Teaching once a week with lots of independent learning requires a different approach than conventional classroom teaching. But I'm excited for it. I'm also looking forward to utilizing the internet more. I'm thinking of having work sent to me the day before class, so I can simply go over what there is confusion on and then have some sort of activity, instead of going over the questions everyone 'got'.

The Singer's 20th

The Singer at 1



Celebrating her 2nd Birthday with her cousin.



As Belle, on her 5th Birthday



As Barbie, on her 7th Birthday



At 16



The Singer turns 20 today. I can't believe it. I got up early and made her some beignets from the mix from Cafe du Monde.
Although, nothing compares to the fresh beignets made at Cafe du Monde, in New Orleans. Those are simply heavenly.



She was super excited. We aren't really celebrating her birthday until Sunday due various social conflicts, and even then it may be a small celebration due to the laminate project, but that's okay, there have been many years where she's had numerous birthday celebrations. If we've been with extended family (which we often are) around her birthday, they always give her a cake and presents. And she traditionally has a party for her friends and then a separate get-together with her in-town cousins.

I feel great contentment over the Singer transferring to Belmont Abbey and in so many ways she's growing/grown up, but in her day-to-day dealings with her immediate family she is still very much a teenager wanting lots of privileges with little or no responsibilities. If she successfully completes her tasks (chores) for 4 days in a row and then totally ignores her responsibilities on the 5th day, she gets the "I can't believe how unreasonable my parents can be but I can't talk back" look on her face and says in a saccharine sweet tone, "Yes ma'am, I'll make sure I do that." then proceeds to NOT do it. UUGGGHH. This isn't a dorm, this isn't simply a place to stay...this is home and being part of a home requires a certain amount of GIVE not just take. The Imp has suffered the most, as I see the Singer taken advantage of her. The Imp doesn't want to see the Singer get into trouble and has picked up the Singer's chores on more than one occasion, and has tried to warn the Singer of impending catastrophe. The Singer seems very unappreciative.

Back in January, the Singer's plan was to be in an apartment now. I was so for that. In some ways she is too old to be 'parented' but I won't let her live here as a simple boarder. I know she thinks she should be able to do whatever she wants...last summer was rough around the edges, this summer is better simply because her work schedule has her sleeping and waking during normal hours. I know, August 19th will be here before I know it and with her in NC instead of across town, I will miss her. But I'm complaining, anyway.

My garden is not in good shape. I'm still pulling a few onions, and my green peppers look okay, but I got cucumber worms and the heat and sun are doing their damage. So I'll harvest what I still can, but then am waiting until mid July to start seeds for a fall crop of cukes and beans and more peppers and lettuce and new onions and potatoes.

Contents Under Pressure May Burst

A science lesson up close and personal. The Imp and I were putting cans of coke into the refrigerator and 2 were knock over and began rolling to the edge...I grabbed one and tried to yell to the Imp to get the other, but before I could form coherent words...wishing she could interpret my, "aahghh, ahhgha, aaahhhh" to mean, "Grab it!"...the can rolled onto the tile floor. And yes, it exploded. Quite impressively. The Imp found the whole thing interesting and amusing. Me? Much less so. I was spared the full impact of the explosion, as I was on the other side of the counter. But the explosion was rather impressive. Coke splattered on the wall 15 feet away! I took about an hour to wash everything down. I mused, "I guess this is a sign to stop drinking coke." And the Imp quickly told me she didn't see that message in the event. She thought it was a message to not sweat the small stuff and relax and laugh. We did have a few laughs as we were cleaning and she was a trooper in helping get rid of the sticky stuff. She kept the can. [It looks so cool.]

Hubby and I are taking the laminate plunge this weekend. We purchased the 300sq ft of laminate that we need and are letting it acclimate in our home so we can install it Saturday. The idea being that even if everything goes wrong we should be finished by the end of the July 4th weekend. Of course, I'm hoping for a much quicker completion date. Our house isn't really big enough to move the furniture out of the living room without impacting every other room of the house. With the Singer home from college already using any available storage space, it will not be comfortable to be in the house until we can move the furniture back in the room. As the couch has to camp out in the kitchen during this process, I was very thankful it wasn't already in the kitchen when we had the coke explosion.

I started teaching a crochet summer class. Just 4 weeks...a true intro class. I had 5 little girls (10-15 years old...they wouldn't appreciate the terminology) yesterday and I enjoyed myself immensely. I may have to start a crafts club for the school year with the homeschooling group. It really is fun.

Father's Day

Father's Day was great! The girls made another T-shirt for Hubby. They've made about 10 shirts in the last 15 years. This one was exceptionally cute. I love the back, "Guiding Our Footsteps Since..." The first shirt they made in 1995 had their handprints all over the front (but the handprints were so much smaller).

Hubby always has "world peace" as an item on his wish lists. It drives the Imp crazy because she hates that she feels an item is unattainable. So...this is what she gave him..




Hubby said that was his favorite gift. He is quite the punster so he loved that part of it. But there is also the fact that he and the Imp share a connection over the Veggie Tales' French Peas
The French Peas

The French Peas tend to play roles where they are enemies or are running things behind the scenes. They are small green peas. They do not quite understand instructions perfectly. The main two peas are Jean Claude and Phillippe, who are voiced by Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer, respectively. They also voice the others peas, except for Christophee Pea who is voiced by Chris Olsen.

So if you look real close you can see that the Imp named her peas with French (sort of) names. It was definitely a feel-good time.

Then after presents we went to see Toy Story 3. It was great! I'd go see it again (if it weren't for the sticker shock at the theaters.. We all agreed we need to purchase it for our DVD library when it's released. I've always been a fan of the Toy Story characters...I still am.

Back at the Library

I'm back at the library, but fortunately only until 2 pm today. I've managed to get a little work done, but have spent most of my time looking at laminate flooring online. I think Hubby is going to be going to home improvement stores for Father's Day. We need to make a decision and get going on this. The worst part of the whole process is moving the furniture out of the family room so we can do the work. I'm sure ripping up the old carpet won't be pleasant, either. I did find neat online resources through the library site and am looking forward to using them in the future.

I spent time yesterday reading old posts on The Happiness Project. It's fun to look at lists/hints/tips of others. I almost always find exceptions with at least some of them. At home, I talk back to the computer but here in the library I must remain quiet. Gretchen, at the Happiness Project, is an advocate of de-cluttering, and so am I. But I am also a person of moderation. De-cluttering does not mean never having anything out in the house. She talks about putting away small appliances (coffee pot, toaster) so de-clutter your counter. I leave them out to simplify my life. A tip to decluttering is to avoid souvenirs when travelling. But if I have a shell for souvenirs, then why not? Avoiding souvenirs that you don't already have a place for in the house...got it. I'm sure my the outside of my refrigerator drives my OCD and clutter-free friends crazy. It is covered with magnets (lots of business card/advertisements) so it's not a 'clean' look and then I have all sorts of important papers held up by those magnets. I do 'clean' the outside of my refrigerator and throw out out-dated stuff, but have the girls' schedules, my Jo Ann's coupons and the Rays' schedule so easily accessible is very important to me. When is stuff too much stuff? I don't know...I'll know it when I see it...in someone else's house. I have been trying to simply/downsize. We really don't have much storage room in my house. No basement and no real attic (very few things can survive a Florida summer in an attic). So I am forced to limit my stuff to a degree. I know I'll never be like the people on hoarders who climb over stacks of trash to get through their homes. The hardest thing for me to part with is a book. The Imp is the same way. I was in her room the other day (usually her room is primarily her domain) and I noticed she had a stack of books on her dresser...at least 3 feet high...no exaggeration. I told her she needed to put some of them away on one of her 2 bookshelves. She told me there was no room. I told her she needed to weed through some books. She doesn't know how to get rid of books. Having me as her mom doesn't help. But the 2 of us will be going through her books next week. I just got rid of 2 boxes of books. I let my friends rummage through them then give them to the library.

I wish I could stay home tonight. But Hubby and I have our marriage ministry group tonight. Once there I'll be fine and have a good time, but after 1 1/2 years of running the meetings, I'm ready for someone else to step up, but I know there isn't anyone who will. I think it's an important ministry, so Hubby and I will continue for a while longer, at least. When we started out we said we'd do it for 2 years. 2 years is up in February. We're both disappointed that it hasn't drawn more people. I guess lots of people see their marriage that as something that just IS, and not something that needs nourishing. Oh well.

Staking Claim at the Library

Well, I've made my claim on the carrel in the back corner of the library. A teenage boy had his i-pod music so loud I could hear his music over the music from my ipod. Guess he won't hear much in the future. The librarians are pretty good here, and someone came over to have him turn it down before I could finish my internal debate on how loud was too loud. This library is not large and older...so there are limited number of outlets (our new library in Town and Country has outlets everywhere for us laptop users) and claiming a carrel with an outlet is a feat. I got my Bible Study done and since I'm a prisoner of sorts here, I spent more time searching background material than I normally would. I learned quite a bit about the Pharisees.

I'm trying to figure out how to handle the Imp's work schedule. When we gave the okay to work with the iWait program, we were naively unaware that she would have to get to Plant City every day she worked. Ugh. I'm sure I'll get more of my planning done for next year's classes than I would have, but it really takes the low-key approach to the summer away. Fortunately, she doesn't work 5 days a week, so we'll have one day that we can not wake up and hustle out the door with me having to pack a lunch and a book bag filled with things to keep me occupied for 7 hours. I wouldn't mind doing some shopping...but I don't want to spend money and if I spend hours shopping, I know my resolve with not last. There are some antique shops in historic Plant City (right here) that I might meander through. Not much temptation of buying there....most is too expensive and doesn't match the decor of my house. And I use the word 'decor' liberally. I like my house...it definitely has the lived in feel to it. No one would feel like they'd walked into a magazine layout.

Even though the Singer is home this summer, it seems I rarely see her. She's working from 8-5 about 45 mins from home and she's started stopping at the gym to swim on her way home. So she's getting home around 7 or 8 each evening, and is gone by 7 the next day. I guess we'll all get to see each other this weekend for Father's Day. I think we'll go see Toy Story 3 on Sunday...maybe Karate Kid. Then Hubby wants me to make bacon-burger-cheese-dogs for him. You take a hot dog, split it down the middle and put in some cheddar cheese, then form ground beef around the dog, then wrap 2 pieces of bacon around it. Throw it on the grill, and you've got a dinner only a guy would want. We were telling some other people about this, and the women all said..aaahhh a little too much, and all the guys said "Oh I want that, too." Go figure. It's his day, so I'll make them and he'll grill them...

The Singer's birthday is next Friday. She's turning 20...a big deal because she's no longer a teen, but not really any milestone. Don't know yet what we're doing for her birthday. Guess I'll spend my afternoon planning her birthday.

Ballroom Dancing

Last night was a blast! Hubby and I took our 3rd class in ballroom dancing and we were actually dancing! It was fabulous. And more of a workout than it sounds. And we were complimented by the instructor...she asked if we'd taken classes before because we picked up the dances so well. Yea. I can't wait to go back again next week.















I'm reading a couple of different books right now, and they're all good. Two that are especially intriguing and thought provoking are
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink and Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. Here's a great summary of Drive on Youtube. Drive has me thinking of how to run my homeschool courses next year. I'll be teaching High School Geography, Government and Economics. It's a unique situation as I only meet with the student for 50 minutes a week. So much of the work is already done on their own. But, the gears in my mind are churning and I'm getting excited for the school year. Back to Virtue has me thinking about soooo much. Here's a quote, "We have reduced all virtues to one: being nice. And, we measure Jesus by our standard instead of measuring our standard by Him." The whole idea that today people spend more time than ever before in history TALKING about ethics and doing the right thing, but little time in pursuit of virtues or Truth. In fact, many today don't believe in an objective Truth but that Truth (hence right and wrong) are subjective. Anyway it is quite interesting.

The Imp has a summer job working with the iWait group, going around to Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCA summer camps to put on skits and such about abstaining from sex and drugs. I think she's perfect for the job and the varied structure of the job is perfect for her. The training is this week...32 miles from home. So I find myself sitting in the library not far from her training. Yesterday I worked on the scope and sequence of my government course and realized I need to learn more about the history of Florida before I try to teach about its government (state government is only 1 part of one unit and there are 15 units, but still...I hate not knowing some depth to what I'm teaching). Today I've been reading Drive and playing with my blog and searching for good swing music to download so Hubby and I can dance at home.

While surfing around on Daniel Pink's site, I came across the Happiness Project, and got caught up in reading many of her posts. In some ways it ties in with something Cindy mentioned in her post the other day about a woman making a new piece of clothing from an old dress each day for a year. Her budget for the year only $365. If you've got some time, it's fun...not near as 'heavy' as the other things I've mentioned thus far. If you sew, you should definitely take a look.

I'm also gearing up to teach a crafts course this summer. 3 weeks of intro to crochet and 3 weeks of intro to knititng with a "catch up week" at the end (no new material...just trying to finish projects). I'm pretty excited about that, too. Although, since I'm mainly self-taught in these I am spending some time online making sure my technique won't teach my students any bad habits.

I was telling Hubby the other night how it was kind of nice that we had no real summer plans and that I was looking forward to just staying home. He then told me he thought we should finally replace our living room carpet with laminate. I'm super excited to have it done, less excited about the actual doing. We're trying to get it done within the next month. (We have our couples group to our house the 3rd week of July). So I've also been spending time researching laminate flooring. Any advice is welcomed, although not necessarily heeded.

memorial day weekend

Our trip over Memorial Day Weekend was fun and packed with activity. We got to Sumter on Saturday afternoon. Got to see Kevin and Lauren (and meet Patrick) and my mom and dad. Brian's boys were spending the weekend with my parents so we had fun with them, too. Sunday we drove the boys home and got to spend Monday and Tuesday with Brian and Tracy. The rain tried to put a damper on things, but couldn't. Tuesday we toured Belmont Abbey and it was absolutely gorgeous. The student who was our guide said he'd try to keep us in the shade as it was so hot. We all laughed. It was beautiful...about 86, sunny and not too humid. Arriving back in Tampa, we have mid 90's and humidity so high you can cut it. The school is obviously small. Only 1400 students. Compared to USF's 40,000+ it's bite-sized, but it felt like a perfect match for Megan. Now if she can just get her transfer credits situated. Enjoy the pics.
Pictures from Sumter
Pictures from North Carolina

'Nuff Said

Florida bishop recalls how mother considered aborting him :: EWTN News

Florida bishop recalls how mother considered aborting him :: EWTN News

Dinner? Again?

I like to cook, and have become a decent cook in the last few years. I enjoy planning meals for us to sit down as a family to share. I don't like planning dinners day after day after day after day. I especially don't like planning (or making) dinner on nights I have to go back out to do something. Tonight is our marriage ministry meeting, last night was Bible Study. I'm preparing for the meetings in the early evening and am rarely hungry before I leave the house. In fact, I usually pull something together for Hubby and girls and don't eat anything myself. It seems we've been having a lot of evening meetings and I just don't want to even think about dinner. I know I'm complaining about something which many people wouldn't...I'm a baby.
My house is a mess right now. With the Singer home from college our front room is full of boxes with her dorm stuff in them...blankets, sheets, dishes, cleaning supplies, printer... The family room is full of my world history class' end of the year project of a timeline (3000 BC thru 2000 AD...and yes I still say AD and not CE). Our counter, which is a paper magnet by design has birthday cards, college loan info and just plain junk mail strewn across it. If I'd taken these last 10 minutes to work on it instead of complain it'd look a lot better, but I'm having much more fun complaining.
Had to run to the store for last minute items for tonight's meeting and so the Imp wanted to drive. We're driving home and she's inching closer and closer to the right side of the road (which borders a ditch). I finally comment on how far to the right she is. Her response is "I knew exactly where I was." Now does that mean she thinks she was not as close to the edge as I thought OR does it mean that she meant to be that close to the edge? Either way is a little scary. She's actually not a bad driver, but is still in the learning stages since we've given her such little time to practice.
I feel like after this week (that is by next Friday) I'll be done for the school year. Of course, I always get my hopes up for a restful summer, but as Hubby keeps pointing out...I spend much more time with the kids during the summer than during the school year...but I'm holding onto my dream for a little while longer.
The Singer is working 40 hrs/wk this summer and they're 'regular' hours (8am-5pm). Last summer she worked odd hours and missed dinner each night, stayed up late and slept till 10 or so. It's so much nicer having her on a schedule similar to ours. It's still an adjustment to have her home. She's simply not used to living as a family and the considerations that entails.

A Happy Birthday

Here's something a friend sent me. I think it's great. Might have to try to memorize and perform it myself.



Had a great birthday. Hubby took the day off of work and we went to You Do the Dishes a place where you paint pottery and then they fire it and you pick it up a few days later. I made a deviled egg plate to match the serving bowl I'd made another day.




I love going and painting things there. Some people are amazed at how much time I'm willing to put into painting these things. In order to make the deviled egg plate, I cut 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch squares from masking tape and place them on the plate to create the checkered pattern. I really didn't mind at all. I find the whole experience therapeutic.











One of the best parts of going to You Do the Dishes is getting a chocolate moose frappe. There are all kinds of goodies but my tradition is always a chocolate moose frappe. One time I got a strawberry smoothie...not the same thing.


I first went here 12 years ago. A friend took me there as my birthday present. What a great present as I've been going back once or twice a year since then. Here are a few of the things I've made.












In addition to that great experience, I'm waking up to my Christian radio station and hear that my daughter has sponsored the day in honor of my birthday. Now that is a neat present.

There was a slight cake calamity, but I won't go into it as I'm still mourning the ruination of my chocolate meringue truffle cake that I spent 45 minutes putting together.



My family tried to make it up to me with a Carvel ice cream cake. It was nice, but not close to the chocolate meringue truffle cake I'd been planning on having for the last 2 months since I found the recipe.

Another great birthday present was the return home of my nephew from Afghanistan. Glad to know he's no longer in a war zone and is safe on American soil.

Mother's Day

I got the best Mother's Day gift EVER! I love to hear my girls sing. I've been asking for over a year for a recording of them singing Via Delorosa one of my all-time favorite songs. Well...they made me a recording. I find it uplifting, invigorating and moving. I, of course, had tears in my eyes when I listened to it the first time. The sound quality is not professional, but I only hear their voices raised in song, not the sound quality. Just had to share.
via delorosa

Ballroom Dancing

Hubby and I have talked for years about taking ballroom dance lessons. We came very close a few times only to have time and budget restraints get in our way. Well we're finally going to do it. The local library is offering very inexpensive lessons for 8 weeks starting on May 18. We're both super excited. I've always loved dancing even if I wasn't always the best. I've taken years of ballet and just enjoy the controlled freedom required for dancing. That dancing has numerous health benefits is simply a plus.

The weather has been gorgeous. We had a downpour Sunday night with thunder and lightning. We got at least 2 inches. The plants are loving it. Our highs have been in the low 80s. This is why I live in Florida.

I've been working on the courses I'll teach next year for the home school group. I'm teaching Human Geography and Government/Economics for high school students. My eyes light up and my mind begins to race as I anticipate all I'm going to do/teach. The materials I've ordered have started to arrive. I spent last night flipping through the government text we'll use while Hubby and the Imp laughed at my social science-geekness. But life doesn't get much better than being able to immerse yourself into a topic you love. The Imp had order some new shoes online. They arrived via USP during dinner. When I allowed her to open them before she finished dinner, I made her day. She quickly tore open the box and put her new Toms on.

Now I could be an intellectual snob and say being geeky over government books is better than being geeky over fashion/shoes, but instead will just be satisfied that we both got to revel in our interests last night. Lest I forget, the Imp purchased the shoes with her own money and since I have veto power on her spending, got me to agree to the purchase because of Toms' One for One program which provides shoes for children in need.

Voices Raised in Song

We got loads of rain Sunday. The rain actually started around midnight it kept on raining on and off through the afternoon. I think we got over 2 inches. Our pool is nice and full again. April is typically a "dry" month for us and often we have to fill the pool, so just as the pool was getting low we got great rain. It rained again briefly last night. My plants are looking good, now I just have to be patient for the benefits. I had to buy garlic yesterday. None looked great and I wanted to be able to use it fresh from my garden, but my garlic isn't ready for picking/eating yet. What a life, if all I can complain about is not having fresh garlic.

Saturday was the Confirmation ceremony at our church. The Imp had a solo in the choir. I can't think of much that brings me more joy or contentment then to sit and listen to my girls use their talented voices to praise God. It just is wonderful.

The Singer is probably transferring colleges this Fall. She's planning on going to Belmont Abbey College is Belmont, NC (just west of Charlotte). I think it's a great fit for her and God is probably calling her there. But boy it's hard to give up the free ride at USF for the private tuition. Granted, 2 of her scholarships will transfer and Belmont Abbey is also offering a substantial (about 60%) scholarship, but still... The Singer is determined and I'm sure she'll find a way to make it work. I'm actually very excited for her and her future there. We're planning on making a trip there at the end of May. Now the prayers are for her finding a part time job there. If she can find a decent part-time job, she should be okay financially. The Singer talked to my brother in Charlotte, who graciously offered her a room 'as long as she needed'. I'm not sure what his wife thinks of that (although she is very gracious...I just find it funny how easily he offered without consulting her). It's very nice to know she has some family nearby. My parents are only about 2 - 2 1/2 hours away. It will be hard not seeing her so often, as she tends to pop in pretty frequently just for an hour or two. The Imp is not happy with the situation. She and the Singer are very close and she does not want the Singer to be so far away. Now, when it comes time for the Imp to choose a college, I don't think location will be a big factor. The younger sibling always has a different perspective. The older one should always be there and not change and the younger should be allowed to be the one to loosen the ties.

Crew season is over for the Imp. YEA!! It had become drudgery. 5 nights a week for the entire school year is a bit much, especially when the regattas were full day events often requiring us to leave at 4 or 5 in the morning. I'm not sure what we'll do next year. I'm not sure Hubby and I can do an entire year. There are technically 2 seasons...a fall and spring. Maybe we'll let her participate in one season. Hubby was pretty tired of the whole thing (he's usually the one who goes to the regattas). At the end of the season, the Imp was trained as a coxswain. What she wanted to do all year. But we didn't realize that the coxswain does NO physical training with the team. And a big part of doing crew was for the physical activity. [The girls have to pick one something the requires physical activity..dance, swim, judo, doesn't matter what...but something.] Another reason to revisit the whole crew team thing.


Last night I got to present an overview of the courses I'd be teaching next year to the home school high school kids. I'm pretty excited. I'm teaching a semester of Government and then a semester of Econ. We'll do government in the fall due to the elections. I'm also teaching a human geography course. I'm such a social studies geek, that I get all excited just thinking about all the neat things I'll be able to do. I really do love teaching, too. Only 5 weeks left for this school year. It felt good when a few parents of little ones, said they wished their kids were older and able to take my courses. Yea!

My brother and niece have been in my thoughts in prayers this week. 14 years ago my sister-in-law (wife and mother respectively) died of breast cancer. She was a pretty wonderful person. I'm saddened that I haven't had her life these past 14 years as a continued example of living the good life. I'm saddened for the loss to both my brother and my niece. But Ellen would be so proud of her daughter and all she's accomplished and become. She'd be pretty impressed with how well my brother has risen to the task of single parenthood, too. So many people still miss her, I had to honor her memory by mentioning her again.

I'm off to get a new pool filter and some 'polysheen' to counteract the pollen in the pool. The weather promises to be gorgeous today.