Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Survived the summer

The days are suddenly comfortable. The nights are becoming crisp. We made it through the summer. We survived!!

I'm not sure where they came from, there are no bodies of water close-by, a little tribe of frogs has moved in to the flowerless flower bed in front of the house. We've had toads before, but frogs are entirely new. One must be cautious when walking from the driveway to the front door. Daredevil froggies hop from the grass, across the sidewalk and into the flowerbed to hide. Yes, I have stepped on one barefoot. Ick! I won't tell you about what happens when we mow.

Now that the children are back in school, I have more time to devote to household chores and to running Project TLC. One would think, right? One major challenge is that we have children that attend two different school districts with entirely different school calendars. Last week, for instance, one district had no school on Monday while the other district had no school on Friday. Since our home school district belongs to a special education co-op with seven other school districts, they can place our children in any of the seven districts and I have no say in the matter.

How are the kids?

Well, these two are just crazy about each other. They have SO much fun together. The level of total and complete acceptance between them takes my breath away. Oh, and Supergirl/Superman? Tomato/ To-mah-to.

We said farewell to Wes just a few weeks ago. He is on TREK, a mission and discipleship program for the next 10 months. He will be assigned to an international location soon, but we don't know where he is going yet! Yikes!

Guess what? Ralph can climb like a spider monkey. Fast and high! He recently needed to be rescued by some friends. He was actually on the very top of this structure, but mom was freaking out and standing under him, just in case, instead of taking photos!

Ruby is just a neat kid. She has a special "thing" with Max, too. Doesn't Max look great? He's learning and growing like a weed. He meets the bar when it's set high so we have to remember to keep pushing and encouraging him.

Oh goodness, our Chip has left for college! So far, he is loving it. But, the weather is getting colder and he doesn't have a car. He is riding his bike to work early in the morning and I worry about him.

Theo is just a nut. His newest obsession in the piano. He learned how to open it up and has spent a lot of time banging on it like crazy. However, this morning I noticed him playing with one finger, very carefully. Maybe he's tired of banging. Or maybe he got it all out of his system. Maybe he's just ready to make some music?

Zhen got new glasses!! We really like these Centrostyle frames. They stay on his face securely without a strap. Only problem is that he has already scratched his bifocal lens. Ugh. This boy.