Journey to Excellence

1. I have been in quite a reading slump lately. But my favorite author, Kristin Hannah, has a new book The Nightingale that has me staying up late at night to read again. Historical fiction set in WWII, but different from the usual German attack on the Jews. Very good read! 2. Speaking of reading, we started back to school this week and a lot of our time is spent reading. One of the books we are reading aloud is Escape from Mr. Lemencello's Library . Think Willie Wonka in a magical, fantastical library where there is a contest for the kids to get in and a crazy game for the kids to get out. It's awesome! 3. I looked out the window this morning and a giant tree about a block away had fallen and knocked down the power line. So glad it wasn't on this side of the neighborhood. 4. The temps have climbed up into the 90's this week. Yuck. We have had some sticky nights of sleep because we haven't installed our bedroom air conditioners yet. But thankfully it...

There is no Wednesday Hodgepodge today as the host is moving this week. As my older kids will start texting me "Where's your Hodgepodge?", I'll do a Daybook entry instead. Gotta keep my viewers happy! For today ...  Wednesday, June 10, 2015 Outside my window ...  it is SUNNY! The 10-day straight rain forecast has been pushed back a few days. Right now I am enjoying the sun and slight breeze coming in through the sheer curtains in my bedroom. I am thinking ...  about how nice it is to have Dawson's best friend, Antonio, here from Oklahoma. The whole house gets excited when he comes to town. I am thankful ...  for my awesome little home. I am wearing ...  my Girls on the Run 5k t-shirt and striped pj shorts. I am creating ...  my gardening spaces, finally! We have been so busy and it has been so rainy and nasty that I have just now had a chance to do it. Things are looking nice! I am going ...  to a doctor appointment for myself in...

Today's Tuesday Coffee Chat asks us to brag about our gardens and flowers. I certainly wouldn't call what I have done in my gardens this year bragging, but I do at least have enough done to participate in the Chat. I finally took a break from building our ark this past weekend to plant some flowers in most of my pots and to get a few things in my vegetable garden. I have NEVER been this late in planting. I always plant my veggie garden about the last weekend in April and my flowers on Mother's Day weekend. But if we weren't bowling at state tournament, graduating a child, marrying off a child, or on vacation, it was raining and I couldn't get out to get it done. I went a little mild this year, just opting for getting something colorful into my pots. I only have two more to fill, and I am going to use some starts from some pretty yellow flowers that my mom has at her house. They are perennials so we will be able to enjoy them every year. Speaking of perenn...

Today's the day .. the day we have ALL been anxiously waiting for ... SUMMER SCHOOL!!! (Perhaps not all share my enthusiasm). Actually I am not enthusiastic, just ready. We took off school for the month of May, and I am ready to get back into a semblance of a routine. Plus, I've been doing some planning for fall and have a tad bit of my teaching excitement coming back. So it's time. We won't be doing a whole lot, just beginning to reuse our brains for something other than Splatoon! on the WiiU, Youtube videos, and Netflix (that last one is for me). Our summer schooling plans look like: Mom gets up a little before 8:00 for coffee and quiet time. Kids get up around 9:00 for some personal time and breakfast. At 9:30 mom works out. At 10:30 we start schoolwork. At 12:30 we are done with schoolwork. Afternoons are for swimming, playing, housework, relaxing, reading, Netflix! From 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. we will be doing a math assignment, a grammar assignm...

1. Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner. Okay, why do we all have to be involved in this? He/she is free to do whatever he/she wants. It is between him/her and God, and they apparently have a lot of work to be doing between them. Making it constantly my business is annoying. I don't want to be involved. It's not my business, and I do not care! I feel the same way about the issues with Josh Duggar. It's not my business, and shouldn't be. This is why I do not watch the news or read a newspaper or magazine or get too involved in the internet. I just don't want to know. 2. I am having a Netflix obsession right now. In conjunction with my do-absolutely-nothing-because-I-am-exhausted week, I watched the entire first season of When Calls the Heart and have now started the first season of Gilmore Girls . 3. On an unrelated t.v. note, I finally decided to make our bedroom my hang-out haven, so I had my son-in-law (that has a nice ring to it) move our basement Direct TV box and a sp...

Do you want your child's wedding day to be the most amazing day ever? Then either fly to Cozumel, Mexico, or take a cruise there, and have Lluvia at Cozumel Wedding Planner  take care of everything for you. Wow. I mean, WOW! We made all arrangements for the wedding via their website and e-mail. It was an a la carte arrangement where we chose and paid for what we wanted for the wedding. This included the location, altar, flowers (very specific and wide variety), cake, champagne toast, number of chairs, etc. We tallied up our requests, received an invoice, paid it, and showed up. It was that easy!!! In the grand scheme of things, it was very inexpensive. And completely stress-free!! We took a taxi from the cruise ship to Mr. Sancho's resort. Lluvia was there to greet us and immediately took us to an air conditioned bridal room. We hung out there a bit and Kyndal got into her dress. And we took some photos. The kids spent some time chasing iguanas. Then w...

What's something you're looking forward to in the month of June? As crazy as the past month has been, I am SO looking forward to the fact that I will not have to spend one night sleeping anywhere other than my own bed, and I will be climbing into my own bed at a very reasonable hour each and every night. This introvert is tired! In what way have you come full circle? Problems don't go away just because you will them to. In relationships those unresolved issues always find a way of circling back around. Lonely Planet lists 10 spots in America you should see in 2015 and the reasons why. How many on the list have you seen? Which one on the list would you most like to see? ~ Queens NY, Western South Dakota, New Orleans, Colorado River Region, North Conway NH, Indianapolis IN, Greenville SC, Oakland CA, Duluth MN, and the Mount Shasta Region CA. I have been to South Dakota and New Orleans. I have always wanted to visit New England, so North Conway, NH, would get ...