Not Dead. Just busy.

Man, what a whirlwind of a summer it has been. I don’t know exactly what is keeping me so busy, but it seems to be one thing after another!

My brain is bursting with blog posts, including projects I finished FOR-E-VER ago and have yet to share. Ugh! School is just around the corner- our second year of *official* homeschooling, and now I’m busy preparing for that.

Last time I posted, I was in the middle of planning my niece’s high school graduation party. Well, sorry to leave you hanging, but yes, she did graduate and the party was a smash!

She just left last week for a nanny job in New York city. I always want to say “Moooo York City?!” Remember the old Pace commercial??

Let me refresh your memory:

Hehe.

I taught a week of VBS at our church (FIFTEEN little boys and three girls in my preschool class, gulp).

Lyla’s on the left

The fancy schmancy entrance I made. The program was Answers in Genesis’ “International Spy Academy.” This was really fun, girls are WAY into the music and still singing it daily.

Are they adorable or what?

I know. I am biased.

I shuttled the kids to and fro various summer activities:

Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge Bioblitz Festival

Park Days

Soccer VBS

…including the most fun Madhatter Tea Party event of the year that was absolutely magical. Sharing those photos is on my to-do list as well!

We joined a gym.

Confession: Only been once since we got our membership way back in June. Yay for exercise!

But you should see my new workout wardrobe- I look so active wherever I go!

We’ve been really busy.
And it’s so hot.
So, so hot.
I’m doing tons of sweating at home!

We had our annual Fourth of July party, installed a brick patio in our backyard, and we’ve been nursing a pathetic vegetable garden all summer long. Phew! I’m tired.

Patio in progress

Tomatoes!

I built a set of shelves for our living room wall. I love them.

Baby Finn finally cute his first tooth on the Fourth of July after months of teething. He is just an adorable little can opener now. Such a happy guy, we are enjoying him so much! We took him on his first camping trip and he did great.

Are they the two most handsome men or what? I am blessed, I tell ya!

My girls have had a summer of slip ‘n slides and Otter Pops, naked backyard running, county fairs, and late nights. We’ve read Charlotte’s Web together and we are finishing off summer reading with The Door in the Wall.

I’m rearranging furniture in our little house, continuing to make it work. Finn’s crib is in the dining room shoehorned next to the china cabinet. Good news is, the dining room is the same paint color (Valspar’s Buckskin Pony) I would have chosen if he actually had his own room anyway, so there’s that.

Baby’s got a gun!

A couple of weeks ago, I began another room redo. My youngest niece Ashtyn and I have begun to amass furniture and objects for her bedroom makeover. My eldest niece Brooke got her room redo a couple of years ago, with plans for Ashtyn to be next. But then I got pregnant and tired and Ashtyn’s room overhaul got delayed by a year (okay, two years). I’ve been thrifting and yardsaling, painting and sanding, repurposing and planning to give her a shabby chic room she can call her own. Almost there!

Right now, I’m trying to get a handle on this new school year. We are adding WAY more subjects to Ava’s education plan, and I think I need a little pep talk and seasoned guidance. And I”m still trying to track down a good planner. I am so not the “planning type.” I take that back. I am the planning type, just not the “following through type.” I love to collect the supplies, the binders, the bins, the books, the materials….but using them all is a little overwhelming.

So how about you? What are you working on to wrap up summer? We finally had a break from this 100+ degree heat with a couple of days of rain and I have RELISHED it! Windows open, breathing in the sweet smell!

I am totally in a fall mood now. Oh, and I made it to the gym!