A Little Summer.... With A Twist

Things in my life are never uncomplicated. I had grand visions of a peaceful, relaxing summer. Days spent lazing by the pool or the beach with a camping trip here or there. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it sounded too good to be true.
Now that the dust has settled on the grandparent front, I go and make things even more complicated. For starters, we are moving at the end of August. I'm very happy to be moving since we are going to be closer to all the things we do and a bit closer to hubby's work. We made sure not to jump into anything too fast so we found a nice place in a nice area. But of course that means packing up this entire house in two weeks. We have a big camping trip scheduled for the end of August and I really don't want to miss it. So if I can have the house packed and ready to go before the camping trip then viola! we can just move after we get back. We are supposed to get home Wed. night from camping and move Saturday morning. I know I'm a little insane, but I really need the camping trip.
The other thing that is on my plate at the moment is my Epic adventure. A friend and I are currently writing our curriculum for an entire year. It will be wonderful once it gets done, but it is requiring a lot of research. So imagine combing that with all the other stuff going on it had been a bit crazy. Plus I do think we bit off a little more than we can chew. But the nice thing is that I feel intellectually challenged. I haven't felt this good about something in a long time and it has been great having someone to push me along. Now, if I can just get it all done by the deadline we set for ourselves!
And the thing that has thrown a monkey wrench completely into everything? I can't believe I'm actually going to admit this one but here goes. I have found myself completely obsessed with the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I started reading the first book on one of my flights. I thought hey the movie looks kinda cool so I'll read the book and I couldn't stop! I finished them all in less than week because I couldn't focus on anything else. I swear these books are like a drug, I can't stop thinking about them and obsessing over them. And they're written for young adults! Okay, so now you know my secret. Laugh if you will, but on the plus side they were my escape from reality that I desperately needed, something light and fun with a happy ending. Do you think hubby would mind if I traded him in for Edward? Hmm....

Catching My Breath

My Grandpa and I

As of today things are finally feeling like summer! We have had such an emotional roller-coaster this summer that things have been delayed for far too long.
So after my last post, my grandma held on for almost an entire week longer. Some may say that was a good thing, but really she was just in such tremendous amount of pain that it broke my heart. So then I took a trip back east to help with and attend the funeral . I began outside of Nashville and ended up outside of Detroit. I was glad that I didn't bring the whole family this time as I needed to be able to grieve and there is no way it would have happened with them there. I felt guilty enough not holding it together for my mom's sake, I definitely would have put up the iron front in front of the kids. But it wasn't all bad. I did manage to have a great time with my cousin C and get in touch with another that I really like but haven't seen in a long time. I also got to see my sister and her kids which was great as well. Let's also not forget that somewhere in there I had a birthday! C and I got red velvet cupcakes that were super yummy.
So while I was on my travels the kids bonded with what my husband calls the kids "second mommy". The day before I left we got the kids a Wii and I think they played it at least half the day everyday while I was gone! Now its been my fun task of slowly weaning them off of it.
So now summer can officially begin! I can't wait to get to the beach and the fair this week!

Rembering "Chick"

My dear grandmother will be ending her six year battle with ovarian cancer today. It is easy to say that I am devastated. I knew it was coming but has not made things any easier. She was a second mother to me when my own was unavailable. This is our second loss in the past 2 weeks. My husband lost his grandfather two weeks ago.
This is my part in my grandmother's eulogy next week:


When I was a little girl the thing I admired most about my grandmother was her beauty. I loved to go in her room and smell the different things she used to get ready everyday. I can still smell the fresh scent of Noxzema that will always be grandma to me. I would sit on her bed and she would tell me about stories from when I was a baby and about her children when they were young. Afterward she would always give me one of her special candies she kept hidden in her room.

As I got older she continued to share her stories with me. Slowly she started to tell me the tales of her childhood. There was always a good story about getting into trouble with the nuns in Catholic school because of her sassy ways or the boys doing outrageous things to her long braids. There were also stories that took me by surprise. Like attending Ukrainian school, taking the train to New York City and my all time favorite her days roller-skating as “Chick”. She would tell me about any story as long as I asked.

All of these stories opened a whole new person I had never imagined, but made my grandmother complete. As a child I had only seen her as a loving mother and grandmother devoted to her family. But these stories helped me to see beyond and I feel very special to have shared those stories sitting on her bed with her all these years. It also helped me realize that her beauty was more than skin deep. She was a wonderful woman who had undergone many things in her life with grace, dignity, beauty and a whole lot of spunk. I hope I can make her proud and do the same.

Quirks

I have been tagged by Patrice over at Making Peace for a game of quirks! Here are the ones I can think of:

~I have to do my morning routine in the same order everyday otherwise I feel a bit off kilter all day long.

~I can't stand to have anything touch my ears. I rarely even wear earrings because I'll figit with them the whole time.

~I don't sleep in, ever. I kills me that my hubby can.

~I detest wearing socks. If I do wear them you can bet their gonna be argyle. My kids think I'm weird for not having normal socks.

~I fall asleep with in seconds of watching any sort of tv or movie at home with my hubby. I've even tried sitting on a different couch. It must be something to do with comfort level.

~I have a strange obsession with being punctual. I can't stand to be late. Which has become very interesting when trying to get three children out the door.

Because I'm not so good at always following the rules I'm not going to tag anyone. I'm just feeling a bit accomplished for actually getting this done!

Where Am I?

I have been very neglectful of my blog lately. The past two months have past me by with out a stop to say hi! I have just been so overwhelmed that this has been one of the many things in life that has suffered.
A few of the things which have kept mind occupied on other things have been:
Shakespeare rehearsals and then performances
Testing (which I hate but we had to do per our Charter)
Bug's Golden Birthday (Which seriously lasted an entire week)
House hunting
I know there is more but at the moment my mind is just so blank that I can't think.

I also have a dying grandmother and I cannot seem to get my mind off of her. I feel quite detached from reality at the moment. She has been battling Ovarian Cancer for 6 years. There have been several times that I thought it would be the end. But, alas she just keeps on hanging in there. So this time I truly thought I wouldn't get emotionally worked up. But I am such a mess that I cannot focus on anything this week.

So forgive me dear friends for my unintentional sabbatical I will try to be a bit more on top of things. :)

23 Things About Me

Having been inspired by so many posts about people here is some info about me.

1. My favorite color is green
2. I have never, ever dyed my hair
3. Growing up I desperately wished for black hair
4. I have been married since I was only 20
5. My all time favorite band is Weezer
5. I've listened to alternative music since I was 9
6. I could spend days in museums
7. I was an art major in college
8. Halloween is my favorite holiday
9. I love theater
10. I sing horribly
11. I love to read just about anything
12. Book series with the same plot in every book frustrate me
13. My favorite author is Jane Austen
14. I don't drink alcohol
15. I'm secretly pretty geeky
16. I hope to travel the world someday
17. I have been to almost every state
18. I would have a houseful of children if I could
19. I love Anime
20. I love to learn new things
21. I used to be decent seamstress, but now, not so much
22. I secretly wish to be more homemaker like
23. Coming up with interesting stuff about me is hard!

Confessions of a constant planner

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking a lot about the older two kids futures. Frodo will be ready for high school in about 2 years and I'm already worrying. One of the things I love about homeschooling is the ability to do what we want. But I know that as the high school years approach the kids will have to meet certain criteria for college. I also think a lot of this is coming from pressure from my non homeschooling friends. They have been talking about how you need to tour high schools in 7th grade so your prepared for choosing which high schools you want in 8th grade. I mean seriously is this high school or college were talking about people?
But because of all this chatter I keep turning over options in my head. Options like, continuing with our charter school, switching to another that has a part time campus, filing an R4 so we can just do our own thing or a distance high school. The most important thing to me is the ability to take community college classes during high school for credit. If we stay with our charter they will actually have to take all their science and foreign languages at our local cc.
So for once in my life I am going to stop trying to plan something so far in advance and just go with it. This will be no small feat for me, but I think I can do it! Because after all, I still have a few years where I don't need to worry, I should really take advantage it for once! So instead of worrying I will spend my days enjoying our time and our new love for Charlotte mason. ;)