The Countdown has Begun!

Well, only a little while left before I start back to work and the children start to school. The countdown to school has begun...

This has certainly been an eventful summer!

Some personal things I want to remember from the summer are:

1. Kicking the Diet Coke habit (I no longer drink Diet Coke, and those who know me know that this was top priority for me every morning for the last several years. I don't drink coffee, so this was my source of caffiene.) I just hope I can stick to this after school starts.

2. I set a goal at the beginning of the summer for how much weight I want to lose and vowed to begin seriously training for the St. Jude 1/2 marathon this December. So far, I've lost 6 pounds, and I am running almost everyday even if it's at 9:00 at night. Whenever I can work it in. A friend advised me to treat it like my JOB...something I must do everyday! I still have a lot of work to do before Dec. gets here!

3. I passed my School Leadership Series Praxis!! Still praising God for that!

4. Cleaned out all the kids' closets, reorganized the playroom, made donations to missions, made some additions/rearranged the dining room and cabinets with my Mamaw's (my paternal grandmother) things she gave me several months ago. This was a little sad for me as I pictured these things in her house, the house that she will never be in again, that I will never visit her in again. Someone else is there now, and my Mamaw is not doing well as her dementia seems to be worsening. I wish she could be here in Covington, closer to us, so that the children and I could go see her more. My goal is to try to get to Jackson more in the next few months so that I can see her and she can see her great-grandchildren more often.

5. As a family, we have accomplished many goals this summer in VBS week, baseball camp, basketball camp, swim team, a small version of Kindermusik, the celebration of birthdays, family vacation time...whew!

A wonderful summer!

With Mary Claire beginning preschool this year, we will all be in school somewhere for the first time! Yay! I am hoping that we'll all fit into a schedule nice and easily as the coming days draw closer. One thing's for sure, we have got to go to bed earlier at night! We have been allowing the kids to stay up later and later, and my kids are not late sleepers no matter what time they go to bed the night before! They wake up at the crack of dawn almost. Mary Claire is my only one who has been somewhat of a "late-sleeper" usually waking between 7:00 and 7:30. There have been some mornings she makes it to almost 8:00. :-) My boys are so good in the mornings, though, that they will not wake her up, or me (if I'm still asleep). They go straight to the playroom and start playing Star Wars or superheroes, you know, the typical "boy stuff". Yesterday, I went up to tell them breakfast was ready, and they had pulled out a board game and were playing it together. I love these summer days! Days when we can be carefree in the mornings, days when I don't worry too much about putting on make-up or fixing my hair, or what I'm going to wear. Comfortable and COOL are key!

But lurking in the distance is the REAL world, a world where I frantically get myself "together" for a day of teaching young children and my own 3 ready for a day of learning (Yes, this is where I live a pretend life of a single working mom since my husband leaves the house before 6 a.m. everyday. Listen, all you single Mommas out there or you Mommas who have a husband who is out of town with work a lot, you are at the tip-TOP of my SUPERMOM list!), a world where we leave the house at 7:00 a.m. (Hopefully with everything we need for the day!), spend the day in our perspective "places", and then reunite every afternoon for the journey home or to the next scheduled music, dance, or sport activity. I hope I don't sound like I am complaining for that is certainly NOT the case! I love my God, my children, my husband, my job, my life as it is. And it is what it is for a reason, I believe that. Sure, there are some times I have looked at another's life and thought, "O.K., what did I do wrong that prevented ME from having that type of life?" or "Why didn't God allow me to be a stay at home mom?" (I think I'd make a good one.:-) But God is still teaching me that He chooses specifically what He wants me to have, and I am just extremely THANKFUL for it all! I certainly don't deserve any of it! So, on the anticipated mornings that I'm probably going to not want to face the day or rush to get ready to rush out the door, I will give Him all the glory for it! For each and every day whether it be CRAZY or not so crazy.

And along with these three, I'll be counting down the days to next summer!