Welcome Back, Me!

It’s been a busy vacation, but ultimately a good one. We got some stuff done around the house that we’ve been meaning to do. We took our very first family vacation with the kids (and learned that a family vacation with the kids means the only ones having a vacation are the kids). I managed to narrowly miss doing serious damage to my left hand (yeah, for the record, NEVER try a new skill with a new-to-you sewing machine if that new skill involves elastic — the results were not pretty and are still putting a crimp in my style).

I finished a lot of projects that have been hanging over my head, well, until the “incident” as we’re calling it. After that I spent a lot of time reading. I’ve now read most of the Kleypas connected books and am diligently working on finishing the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn. So, yeah, I might have a little thing for historical romances.

We started our homeschooling year in earnest while I was on vacation. We’re still in search of a math curriculum that doesn’t make one or both of us cry at the drop of a hat. We’re now eying RightStart Math — if you have opinions, pros, cons, or other suggestions that don’t involve a metric ton of worksheets, I’m all ears. The worksheets seem to be the problem. But for our first serious year of it to have only two curriculum mis-steps seems like something of a miracle. It really does. Everything is proceeding well and I’m overall pleased with how he’s doing. His handwriting is his biggest issue. Everything else is going swimmingly (well, except math, but we’re heading toward getting that fixed).

School restarts today. I’m good with it. I’ve somewhat missed teaching over the last six weeks. Not as much as I have during some other breaks, but not so little that I don’t want to go back, if that makes sense. The difference seems to be that I have more to fill my days and I don’t “have” to have that school schedule to keep me going. Now, I have to wonder if I can take more time off than I used to and still be an effective teacher. Guess we’ll see about that.

Other random things that have happened. Katie spontaneously tried to potty train herself. It didn’t take, but we encouraged her with every step and she still poos or pees in the potty at least once or twice a week. Pretty good for a just turned 22 month old. We finally admitted that Katie has my hair and I purchased appropriate products to make her hair life better than mine was (until the last couple of years). So, yes, Katie now spends as much on hair care as her momma. Fortunately, her products don’t cause any rashes or other sensitivity issues and she doesn’t mind them horribly. (Those wondering probably shouldn’t — I’m a Ouidad girl and I likely always will be, so she is, too. Their kids line is FABULOUS [and no, they’re not paying me to say that.])

I’ve agreed to teach Sunday school at my church this year. We’re trying a workshop approach and my first time teaching is a week from Sunday. It’s going to be interesting, I’m sure. We’re going three weeks on and three weeks off.

I’m taking a couple of classes at Big Picture Classes this fall. One that is scrapbooking (totally a new thing for me) and one on photography. They overlap a little, but it should be fine. We’ll see.

I’m also following along on the 100 Days Til Christmas thingfound here. I’ve always done better if I have a holiday planner and this is truly helping me think things through as we start planning for the holidays this year.

I’ve missed blogging and I’m back to this too, though I’m not sure what I want to talk about and how much I want to focus on what. I guess we’ll all find out together. If you have requests, now is a good time to make them.