This week

• There's two big bowls of tomatoes and cucumbers I picked on Monday that still need to be taken care of.
• Brett said last night that "maybe I should take care of his laundry". Maybe.
• Brett's 1st day of school is Wednesday, September 2nd. 1/2 the kids go on Tuesday and the other half starts on Wednesday. Monday night we go to the school open house, meet Mrs. K and see the classroom. And unload all those school supplies.
• Brett started piano lessons this week. It's a bit of a late evening lesson (8 pm) but we'll take it until something else opens up. We do not have a piano but we do have a full keyboard so we'll start on that. Brett will be learning keyboard in music class this year as well. We are very pleased with the teacher after meeting her & observing. Brett protested every time I talked to him about lessons but he enjoyed it and was excited after trying it. I knew he would be. He was concerned he wouldn't remember left from right and that he didn't know enough for lessons. : )
• Guess we missed sign up for fall soccer. I totally forgot to check into it. That's OK, I think spring soccer is enough.
• Trying to think of how we'll celebrate Brett's birthday this year. No ideas yet. He wants to have a sleep over but I'm not sure if 1st graders are ready for that. He would have no problem sleeping over at someone's house, but I can just see little boys crying to go home in the middle of the night. We're having a family party on Saturday, Sept. 5th.
• Day care has been very busy this week. Two full time kids are back, including a 4 month old, plus all the school agers/regular kids. My new food program rep showed up in the middle of it all. Next week things calm down with 4 going back to school. I now have 13 enrolled with several being very part-time but 6 are full-time.
• Sometimes it seems like all you hear are the negative things but this week, I realized I've had nice postive feedback including: 1. Email about my website from a complete stranger in CA. I often get requests for info or direction (& most do not even reply or say thank you)- she wanted to know how I put together my activity calendar & enjoyed my website. 2. New boy's Grma said my newsletter was "impressive". 3. New boy #2's mom said after two days in my care, her son's temperament was noticeably different/improved. I haven't done anything specific. He is wonderfully behaved & I've only asked him to use a quieter voice at times. I chalk it up to routine, activities and the environment/influence of the other kids.
• I do have an awful lot to live up to so now it's time to get my kitchen up to an acceptable level of cleanliness...

Brett's Beach Album

Another of my favorites

Love this one too! It's storming so I'm scrapbooking.....

Brett's 7 year old picture

I think this is it. I took lots more that I'll share later. It was quick, inexpensive & it's done! Brett will be 7 in a few short weeks...

Constant Change

The sea is constant change - and infinite unity. Reminding me of our mortality - and that we are all part of eternal life....

(On a picture in our room. I like the saying.)

Playing on the beach

Holding up his suit - possible jellyfish sting but it didn't bother him too much. That's our house in the background.

Digging for little clam shells. They quickly bury themselves into the sand. Brett & Kira filled a bucket full.

Trip to Alabama

We started out well....chips & entertainment. Brett says "This is awesome!" He rode 9 hours with no complaints. Dozed just a little, otherwise was busy reading, watching DVD's, and playing DS.

We arrived in Clarksville, TN late, about 10:30. We decided we needed a better hotel than the Super 8 we were planning on - one you could actually go into the lobby to get a room-not up to a night window. Damon got a discount at the Courtyard Marriot. It was beautiful. Note: Brett brought his baby doll, Sally, along. See her on the pillow?

Day 2: slept more this time. Very uncomfortably!

Our beach house - our room is the 2nd floor on the right.

White sand & warm water! Beach at evening. More later!

Paper Fish

Yesterday we read The Rainbow Fish and made these cute paper fish with paper plates, construction paper and scrapbooking paper. I used to the circle cutter on for various sized circles. The two red fish not pictured turned out so cute too!

Sidewalk Paint

One of the best things we did this summer - we made our own sidewalk paint.
 SUPPLIES: ¼ cup cornstarch ¼ cup cold water 6 to 8 drops of food coloring DIRECTIONS: 1. Put cornstarch in a small plastic bowl and gradually stir in the cold water. 2. Add your desired food coloring and stir. 3. If the paint still feels too dry, just add a little more water until you get the consistency you prefer. 4. Repeat the process to create different colors. This sidewalk paint washes off very easily and will not harm surfaces or plants … cornstarch is all natural and biodegradable.

Sunflowers Layout

Template from the Barefoot 12 x 12 album kit at ShabbyShoppe.com

Things of Brett's

that I will probably always save. I don't know why but especially this little pair of blue shoes. They are dirty & worn out. No one else would want them. I found them in his drawer tonight while starting to pack for vacation. They just melt my heart. I guess I picture a cute little boy running round everywhere in them. Maybe 3 years old? I couldn't get rid of them. And these, I've kept. They're so cute; not nearly as worn so someone else could use them, but I'm keeping them too. The blanket they are on will be kept too. My Grandma Smith made it. It's always draped over the end of Brett's bunkbed. I love it.

"Not so much Mom"

I bought these a while back (like new if not at Goodwill) but haven't worn them yet. Today I put them on & asked Brett how he liked them - "they're like tennis shoes with heels." "Not so much Mom." The kid cracks me up! I think they're cute but the buckle was giving me a blister on the right heel. I'll definitely wear them again anyway & hopefully that won't always be the case. I found lots of great buys again today!

Baseball Card Collection

Today's Picture

I told Brett I wanted to take his picture by the sunflowers on Wedneday night before meeting. We forgot though. On the way home Brett said "we forgot to take pictures by the sunflowers but that's okay because I didn't want to." So I got him today.

From the Garden

My garden is always an experiment. It's so small & I planted too much. The beans & peas are not getting enough sun next to the raspberries. We don't get a lot of raspberries anyway since we just have a few. Last year we had waaay too many cucumbers so this year that's under control & we'll have a lot of tomatoes instead which I'm very happy with. The little guords took up too much space. I would plant onions again but not carrots. This onion probably shouldn't have been pulled yet but they are getting covered with vines & it didn't appear to be growing much. It's probably the best one out of all of them. The tomoatoes are a smaller variety from the patio tomato pot. Bottom line: I need a bigger garden.

Midweek Update

• A new little boy started day care on Monday. He's been a bit of handful or a challenge. Not an impossible one, just one that requires much more patience & dedication than I've had to give in a while. He seems to be responding to the Supernanny-style time out technique. (I don't think it should be called "the naughty" anything.)
• I should be hearing from the other interview by Friday. She wants to bring her son here, just depends on what assistance covers. If that doesn't work out, or the one I referred to above, I have another lead for a ANOTHER 4 yr old boy. ****He starts on the 24th!****
• Last night I suprised Damon. I arranged a babysitter (which was pure luck to get her at the last minute or any time for that matter) and I called Damon at work and "asked him out." I didn't tell him where we were going/what we're doing until we left. We went to dinner at a place we've never been to before. We ate outside along the river & it was a beautiful night. It was good to get away & have some fun.
• What to do with 2 heads of cabbage? It was given to me and now I should use it. Neither of us love it but we'll eat it. I have a couple ideas, but either way, it's a lot of cabbage! We also got a big cauliflower and green beans.
• Need to start packing for vacation next week! I'll look forward to the trip once I'm in the car. I don't think I'm really anticipating it like usual since we didn't do the planning of it (going with Julie & family) and because of the drive. And everything else on my mind like:
• The rest of this month is going to fly by. I'm not ready. For school. For convention, for birthdays, for schedule changes, for summer to be over. I'm not going to think about it til later!

Dinner {the other night}

Monday night it was. We tried a new recipe for Chicken Scampi. I'm not sure that's the best name for it since it's more like an alfredo, but whatever, it was good! I added red onion, red peppers and green peppers which I think really "made" this recipe. Not exactly a healthy one either due to the sauce...

Dessert: Homemade Double Chocolate Brownies with hot fudge sauce and fresh raspberries.

Hot Fudge Sauce

1 cup sugar

3 T Cocoa

3-4 T milk

1T Butter

Stir together sugar and cocoa. Add milk and butter. Hard boil one (1) minute. DO NOT stir while boiling or after. Allow to cool and spoon over ice cream, cake or desserts. This is the type of fudge sauce that thickens and will harden on ice cream. Sooo yummy!

Cheese Soap

I was cutting up bars of soap for laundry detergent yesterday while the kids were having morning snack. Brett said "Mom, that soap looks like cheese with words on it." He's so right! The other kids were wondering what I was "cooking". I cut up the bars & put 3 chunks in the blender at a time to make it more of a powder. (It works but I should get a small food processor just for this purpose.) I love using this detergent. If you haven't tried it yet, I'd highly recommend it. It saves me a lot of money, works great & smells so nice too.

Sunflowers!

This is our first year growing sunflowers. They are a shorter variety (it bugs me when they grow so tall & then lean!) but now I didn't save the seed packet & don't recall the name of them. Very rewarding to grow- they grow easily & quickly and just how I wanted them-close together with lots of flowers. The kids were very excited to see them open! It was fun to take pictures of them & then I couldn't decide which were my favorite so here's a bunch. Maybe you can tell that flowers & gardening pleases me very much!