* Summer Summary

School is around the corner. We are going to school today to see the classroom. First day is Monday. Sadly we have not gone to get school supplies yet. Payday is tomorrow so it did not align with the tax free weekend. My son will have to choose from leftovers. On the bright side we did not fight the crowds and will shop in relative emptiness in the morning. Sometimes too many choices causes children's brains to explode. I am slightly excited about the shopping as those who have been following loyally for the last year will know from my post about this time in 2008. I have come to realization that summer is over and it is time to assess whether I feel like I wasted it or not. Summer seems like a poor thing to waste. Waste asparagus not summer. What did we do this summer?

1. We had a schedule! While we did not follow it terribly well, my son did enjoy hiding it from me. Behind the speakers, behind the poker table.... Even though we did not follow it perfectly it did establish daily reading for my son who is now on the seventh book in the magic tree house series. Since they are numbered there is no way we can read them out of order. Whose son is that? :) Money bingo has also helped with our change counting. Good times! The schedule also helped me be proactive with my daughters learning. She has not yet gone to preschool since I am at home all the time and it is not an expense we want to add to the budget. So we have been working on her letter recognition. I had wanted to have the alphabet completed this summer but we are about 4-5 letters shy. Strangely we get stuck on the oddest ones, K/N/S. She has moved past K and N but S is the current stickler. She can pick all letters out if I ask her to find the 's' in a row of cards but if just asked to name it we are not yet 100%. But I can say we made measurable progress from the ~6 she could do when we started.
2. We went to the beach for a week with my family. A new activity and fun for all. Tons of pictures - later scrapbook overload. I have never been one of those folks who go to the beach every summer for a week, but I seem to have known several and this year I could casually say "oh that is the week we will be at the beach" and people would respond "oh we are going in July" or " oh really we are going the next week."
3. Judah went to China - a lot. This would probably be where we felt like the summer was wasted. With daddy gone for 6 weeks of summer we missed a lot of time at the lake. We have probably been out on the jet skis 3 times since we de-winterized them. Blgh.
4. The nieces came for a visit. I have a post for them so I won't repeat myself but it is good to keep the tradition going and have the little come for her first visit.
5. Lots of decorating time at the church. Weeks on VBS where I did one section all by myself for the first time. I will not get too depressed by the fact that the gorilla tape did not hold and caused some mid week drama and quick repair. This past week has been full of creating new sets for KidZone. I will try to get a picture on here when they are completed.
6. Judah got a new job which he starts Monday. Yeah! This means no more China! Subsequently we decided to try to sell our house and move a bit closer to his new work location. So I spent two weeks cleaning the house out and scrubbing things. It looks great - still some things to do but we are advertising it anyway and working along the way. We have had several calls and one showing last weekend. We are in no true hurry but my kids will get tired of the "no eating on the couch because mom had the carpets cleaned" rule.
7. College service days - our college group is a blessing to us and we have really felt an increase in their "groupness." This summer they served each Thursday at the inner city church and on our final Thursday we could honestly say we felt like our time there was not wasted. I loved seeing my children interact with other children not quite similar in appearance - talk about contrast - I have terribly blond children and I praise God that their eyes are currently color blind. The world can creep into our vision all too soon and its view can be quite difficult to dislodge ( a reference perhaps to the plank in our eyes Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount?). We have big plans for continued service with the college group this year and I am so proud of both them and my children.
8. Slight improvement on the family devotional time. Some weeks I really did well - others a total thumbs down. So overall I would give our improvement at a 15% increase from pre-summer levels. My statistical husband would probably like to see some hard numbers on that but I don't have any.
9. Fewer visits to the grandparents house this year - not sure how that happened. We did spend a week at the beach with grandparents but I am sure that doesn't count towards time at grandmom's house. Totally missed going to my grandmother's this summer which we have done for the past several years. However she was at my mom's twice when we saw her so we did still visit, just not at her home.
10. In order to get to the round number ten that I prefer we will now fill it with random things - like my son losing three teeth this summer and our garden being a flop after the eight squash I picked before the beach (apparently the week of the beach was hot and the teenager that watched the house was not the plant watering kind - the animals were fed though :) ). We went peach picking at the local fruit and berry patch which was awesome. Our friends from Memphis visited which was cool in many ways not least of which it meant I didn't drive to Memphis in the summer heat. Here's to the other thing that make summer the cool time that it is - sleeping late!

So long summer....