Last Days of Summer Break

School begins on Monday. With Sarah taking a summer class on-line and doing prep work for her Honors English class it seems like there hasn't been much of a mental break for her or for me this summer. I was going to start Elizabeth's schoolwork on Monday too, but I may push that back a week or two just to get a mental break. I realize I don't have much time to make this decision and plan on running through the pros and cons this weekend. Most likely, I will just start her with the other two kids like planned.

The kids have all spent this last week of summer vacation relaxing to the best of their abilities. We have allowed them to stay up as late as they want to and sleep in for as long as they want to. This has meant 2 am bedtimes and noon wake-up times.

With high school soccer practices starting in the beginning of June and Sarah's summer school stuff our summer was pretty uneventful. We took a trip to Ohio/New York in July, but other than that we did not really do much. Some summers we are able to go and do a lot and others we do not have that luxury. The latter was how this summer played out.

I am looking forward to fall as it is my favorite, favorite time of year. I will be thankful when this humidity subsides. After living out west, and being spoiled by not having to deal with humidity, I have become a big baby about living with it again.

Andy has delayed college until January. He plans on working and saving as much of his cash as possible because he wants to try and get his degree without having any student loan debt. I support this fully as I will most likely spend a good portion of whatever life I have left paying off the Bachelors degree I don't even use. I don't want my kids to be in the same spot. 

The kids plan on spending today and this weekend just laying low and relaxing as life is about to get a bit hectic on Monday.

Andy and Bob brewing a batch of beer. 

When I went to visit my family in New York in July I had the privilege of going through my grandfather's drawing books. He would never admit to it because he is too modest, but he can draw pretty well as you can see from these drawings above. That picture in the middle of the drawings is that of a firefighter in the midst of a conversation. That firefighter is my grandfather probably taken in the early '80's - if I had to guess. I keep these items at eye level on the wall that my desk faces so that every morning and every evening when I sit there (or try to anyway) to review the day ahead and plan out the next day I am reminded of him. 

Whole Foods delivers to our area now and I have been buying my groceries on line from them and having them delivered. Whole Foods has the best quality, cheapest flowers around. Seriously, their flowers beat Walmart prices. I got this batch of gladiolas for $5. They are absolutely stunning and I am only showing about 1/3 of them in this picture. They shoot up so high.  

How can I resist putting a picture up of this guy?  My Moose. Man, I love this cat. It is ridiculous.