Game Night!

The last few months, the family has been gathering around the dining room table on free evenings enjoying games of Spades. It's a really nice way to reconnect with the offspring. It's been fun seeing the competitive natures tempered with the sportsmanship we've tried to instill in them since they were young.We go long periods of time where it feels like we get disconnected with one another in the Fall and Spring, with all the evening activities, so summer game nights are a real treat for me and the hubby.

While we've been focusing on Spades the last few months (it's a simple game that just needs a deck of cards, a pen and a piece of paper), there are a number of games we like to play. Uno, of course, is a family favorite. I've been tempted to purchase the Uno Attack game, but haven't yet. RackO is another game we enjoy. We have multiple Life games and pull those out on occasion. And we can't forget Monopoly. :) The male offspring requested Monopoly: Electronic Edition back a couple of years ago for Christmas. We searched and searched to no avail. Fortunately, the hubby stumbled across the game in time for Three Kings' Day. The electronic banking is fun and makes for much neater game play. :)We've considered purchasing Risk, but I wonder if the female offspring would enjoy a game like that.

What kind of games do you play with your children? Do you play as a family? What about extended family? Do you have a set family game night?

Summer is Insane

So, for most people summer is all about the lazy days laying back at the pool or the beach but here in the Florida Sun, I've managed to make myself crazy trying to keep up with summer activities. Because we homeschool, I have a lot of control over the busyness during the "traditional" school year. To help with that busyness, we take a lot of time "off" for trips, activities and life. When the offspring were younger, we'd get quite a bit of school done during the insanely hot summer months because none of us cared to be out in heat.

NOW, however, those offspring are nearly grown and have lives of their own with multiple interests pulling in multiple directions. Camps and sports and programs and friends and movies and ....the lists go on. So less school work has gotten done, than planned. Sheesh...I always thought that the nice spacing of ~2.5 years between each of the offspring would be a benefit, and it was - when we were talking diapers and potty training and baby clothes. But now, not so much. One almost adult, one smack dab in the middle of the teen years and one who is very nearly a teen (and might as well be because almost everyone she hangs out with is a teen) makes for some real busyness.

This summer we've added travel softball for the youngest. It's been fascinating. She plays on a 14u because there were no open spaces on the 12u teams. She has had a fantastic time and hopes to stay with these girls as they all move up to 16u now that the 2012 travel season is over. That kinda freaks me out. She's only 11, but if they are willing to let her continue to play with their team and she's enjoying it (and improving her skills) then hubby and I think that she should continue with them.

As usual, we've continued with the musical theater program for the older girl offspring. She was so happy to be cast as the "heroine" of the Summer camp production. She does such a great job. At the end of camp, they announced the fall production. They'll be performing The Sound of Music. I'll be honest and say, this is not my favorite, lol. It does provide quite a number of parts, however, allowing for the largest number of students able to participate. 11yo has begged and pleaded to be allowed to participate, if we can work out the schedule I think that we will. She may have to miss a few rehearsals for games, but we'll do what we can to minimize that. So we'll probably have three "stars" this fall, lol.

The male offspring has grown and matured beyond belief. It's hard to imagine that he'll be an adult in just over a year. Hubby and I are trying very hard to be the kinds of parents that will allow him to mature and advance to adulthood in the healthiest way possible. We just are really sure what kind of parents those are, lol. We were both out of high school and in college at 17 and were making our own decisions, so we are kind of following that model for our own children. It worked out pretty good for us, I suppose, with a few bumps and bruises along the way. He'll begin dual enrollment at the local State College this fall. He is actually looking forward to that. (I was surprised.)

Personally, I'm overwhelmed with the idea of dual enrollment. I have to navigate the admissions process and I'm feeling a bit reticent to do so, lol. Unusual for me, as I'm not usually one to back off from a challenge, but age is catching up with me, I fear. LOL.  So, one more month of summer, wonder how it will turn out...how's summer in your neck of the woods?

La di da...look who's posting?

What a frustrating few months we've had. We closed out softball season, thankfully. But we are already planning for fall. Emma made a 14U travel softball team for now. She enjoys playing with the older girls and we feel that it will help her improve quickly. We are, of course, looking for a 12U team for her to play on if the opportunity comes up. She can't pitch at the 14U level, yet, since she JUST moved up from 10U this spring. That was a huge jump in distance and size of the ball. 14U adds another 3 feet to the pitching distance.

Raina and Jacob had a great time performing in our local drama program. They presented Suessical, Jr and had a great time. Jacob followed his usual pattern of holding multiple roles in the play. Raina was asked to be a student leader. I'm very proud of both them. Here they are in their costumes:

Unfortunately, immediately following the production we began to fall sick. Everyone has been on antibiotics at least once and I'm looking at another round right now. My tonsils feel like they are softballs in my throat, lol. So frustrating. ARGH

I will not be sick in 2 weeks!!! I have a trip to look forward to. Chicago!!!!! I can't wait, all my closest e-maginary friends :) I've never been to Chicago, so I'm really looking forward to new experiences.

Right now I'm wondering if my offspring will ever finish their math, however. Emma is screaming NNNNNOOOOOOO as I tell her to get her math book. Okay, not really, but she has ignored me now twice, but now she's off to get her book. LOL. Off to do a math lesson :)

Maybe the Mayans had it right?

2012 has NOT been a great year, thus far. Seriously.

Last week I spent 2.5 days in the hospital for a kidney infection. Seriously, where'd that come from? They suspect that I passed a stone. I believe it, the pain was awful! It felt just as bad as Transition, for longer. NEVER want that to happen again. The ER did a CAT scan and then issued a cordial invitation to stay upstairs in a comfy private room. I was just happy to be getting the pain meds. Thankfully, everything was under control by Friday afternoon and they let me come home. I certainly missed my hubby and kids.

Monday morning started out in a most depressing way. Our dog, Riley, passed away. He was almost 10 years old but was fine the day before. We're not sure why he passed away. We came out to him not able to move. As I was making plans for Son and I to take him to the vet, he took his last breath. It was heartbreaking, especially since it hasn't even been two years since we lost Pluto to cancer.

Add that to the tragedies that family and friends have suffered since the beginning of the year and I'm stressed out. Beginning to wonder if those Mayans had it right ending the calendar in December this year. ;)  Just kidding, sort of. LOL

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a good day, however. We have lots of giggling girls coming to visit from our homeschool support group. We'll stamp things and chatter and snack and play. FUN! :)

Happy, er, second week of the New Year!

Yay! Woohoo! Auld lang syne and all that stuff! :)

Yeah, I know I'm late. As usual. Forgive me, please?

So welcome to 2012. You gotta wonder what's going to happen this next year, don't ya? I know I do. My son turned 16 last September, so I expect this is going to be a year of him spreading his wings and stretching his boundaries. My mother's heart will be proud of him, while at the same time, aching at the thought of my little boy growing up. I suspect homeschooling to get a bit more intense as the younger two move up into high school and middle school. Can't really say much about my uber private hubby, so I'll just say that he's good and he's so good to me. And leave it at that.

As for myself, I'm hoping that the new year will bring me a bit more discipline and self-control. I'm guessing that's probably not all that likely. After all, it's been FORTY years already and it's not happened. :p Yes, you read THAT right, the big 40 attacked me three days before Christmas 2011. Dagnabit and doggoneit! How did that happen? No, really, HOW did that happen? I still remember being 12 and thinking that 18 was so far away. And then being 16 and thinking that 30 was just terribly old. And now? NOW? FORTY!!!! Holy crimoles!  Okay, enough of that. Seriously, I do plan on being just a wee bit more disciplined in the eating department and the schooling department and maybe in the cleaning, nah, who am I kidding? Just the first two.

My hope for this year is debt related, as in "get out of it". My dreams are for hubby to have a job that he really loves. My expectations are that there is going to be a lot of fun stuff going on for us this year with softball and theater.

So got any hopes, dreams or expectations for 2012?

I know why I struggle to post on my blog.

My husband is an intensely private person. And I'm not a big fan of sharing stuff that might embarrass my children, so there ya go. Not much to write about. LOL. So I'm going to have to work on that. I might have to become the strange aunt that no one wants to talk about so that I'll have something interesting to blog about.


One interesting thing that's happened recently - my older two auditioned for parts in The Musical Adventures of Oliver Twist. They both were cast in the play. My older daughter, Raina, was cast as Mrs. Corney/Mrs. Bumble and my son, Jacob as Mr. Sowerberry (the undertaker) and also as the villian, Bill Sikes. Fun stuff!

Emma, my youngest is very sad that she can't be in the musical, but she is a pitcher (fastpitch softball) and the rehearsal schedule and game times conflict. My hubby has taken on the daunting task of coaching (at my pleading and begging, seeing as I'm the head of our area's girls' softball league) and I think will make a terrific coach. He loves the girls and enjoys learning every tidbit of information he can about coaching. Besides, it gives him something else to think about other than his extremely stressful job.

Me, I'm just running around like a chicken with no head. Sigh...Stuff for church, stuff for softball and stuff like educating my kids. Eek. I'm still trying to cobble together my Core 100 for the older two. Thankfully, I'm pretty set for Emma. I love Sonlight but we just can not order the whole core this year. (remember I mentioned that stressful job of hubby's? Yeah, they cut all overtime AND reduced his pay by 3% even though he hasn't had a raise in over three years. The joys of being a public servant, eh?) Thankfully I have Amazon Prime and Paperback Swap. They've been wonderful resources :) Not to mention, my precious Kindle! Love that thing, best gift from hubby in a long time. So, I'll muddle through ordering school stuff and maybe we'll start before Thanksgiving. Good thing I'm a pretty laid back person! Rest assured, the kids are still learning.

Jacob is taking Latin, Algebra and Physical Science through FLVS. Raina is taking Math. She has one more assignment to complete in her 7th grade math class. Her teacher called last week and suggested we skip straight to Algebra 1. So that's the plan. I think it's a pretty good one :D

Well then, I guess that's a pretty good post, eh? And I didn't even have to put on a funny hat and talk to an imaginary friend. I'll call that success! ;)

I Don't Wanna Grow Up!

Today, I went with my Step-dad to see his surgeon. He has an official diagnosis of Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma. The next step is staging. He will get a PET Scan and have some other tests run in order to determine what stage the disease is in. This is certainly not the most fun I've ever had.

I find myself running through different scenarios in my head, some better than others. I have to admit this is one of those times when a sibling or two would really come in handy. I live over 300 miles away from my mom & step-dad. This makes me uneasy. My mom does not drive. She's has her own physical limitations that she's in denial about and she really doesn't like to hear me talk about things that remind her she's getting more fragile herself. She's always prided herself in taking  care of things without outside help, she's not wanting to even look at her options.

Honestly, I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself. That's my true selfish nature, there. It's hard to imagine that my parents are actually getting old. In my head, I'm sure that I'm only 21, so how can my parents be so old? The truth is I'm pushing 40, I mean REALLY pushing 40, so that means they are... Well, yeah, old. I want to stomp my feet and yell about how it's not fair, but the naked truth is that I have an extremely charmed life compared to so many others. My "not fair" would look so dern good to them. So, for now, I'll put on those big girl panties and go act like a grown up.  At least, for now.