Lull

I've been in a lull lately; life in general has been soothing, moving along like the water in busy river. There's been the occasional rough water here and there in the past 2 weeks, but nothing to unbearable. I've been getting a schedule set for myself with the new job I took on, making sure that it doesn't interfere with my family time - that was, after all, the sole reason for my working from home. My schedule is flexible, because we have kids - it requires nothing less then flexibility. I've been second guessing myself on taking on more - but it's really been a few tweaks here and there to accommodate the additional workload.

The kids are great, Ezra is looking forward to summer, swimming, and relaxing. Next week he has end of grade testing, and the school year comes to a close only 2 weeks later! He has a field trip to Old Salem to observe living history with his IB class to follow up on their recent study unit in human movement. Their latest study unit in IB is 'choices' this is a wide range of study, anything from healthy food choices, to healthy behavior choices. He's come home to tell us all about calories, carbs, saturated fat, and why it's bad for you - and which ones are good for you.... as well as telling us about doing independent study groups in class and being given dialogue that puts them in a situation where they're forced to make a 'right or wrong' choice when it comes to doing the right thing. His IB teacher has left a lasting impression on him - and we're grateful to her, she's a wonderful teacher! Ezra's become quite the student, this coming from a boy who once despised going to class!

Jesse is growing leaps and bounds, changing every day it seems. He's becoming more of a talker, until now he's really been a 'doer' not a talker. Doing alot of hands on activities, building, stacking, organizing, observing, and figuring out how things work, etc., he learned to count by rote several months ago and it seems like each day he adds numbers. I was reading about the different developmental stages of learning numbers (I read too much sometimes, HA) and it seems like one-to-one correspondence has become a daily counting routine for him. He counts cars, balls, blocks, even grapes! He'll line them up, or put them in groups, and count them - point and touch and count. We can tell him to bring 'two socks' and he will, or get 'two snacks' and he'll get two - so that he can give one to Ezra, he loves to share with his brother! It is just interesting to us to watch him learn and understand. I guess I am partial to finding this such an amazing feat because I never experienced this with Ezra. When Ezra came into my life he was 3, and had already been through most of this development... so indulge the first time mommy 'wow that's neat' attitude I have, and honestly - I pray that I never take it for granted with a 'so what, all kids do that at one point or another' attitude. I've met too many moms in mommy groups who have the 'so what' attitude - that careless approach is bothersome to me personally, because to the little one accomplishing it, it's a real victory! The human mind amazes me, learning amazes me. Children are absorbent little learners.

Jonathon is working his f/t job and also doing alot of freelance at home. With the price of gas going through the roof - and my travel each day with school commute being right at 3 hours in the car total - we really are trying to be mindful with our money. Extra income is always a benefit. It's depressing to pay 50.00 two times a week in gas, and this doesn't even count Jonathon's commute! The freelance work he's doing helps accomodate that so we're fortunate! We're managing, but not enjoying the hike in gas at all. Politics - I'll stay away from that blog post....

The area has been invaded by race fans - we can hear the roar of nascar cars rounding the track. It's safe to say that we're staying far away from there! I must admit I totally LOVE seeing fighter jets fly so low over my house that you can see the pilots!! But in avoiding traffic, drunks, and overall chaos, today we went to the park, stopped by Sonic for happy hour on drinks (ha - sounds like adult beverages huh? we had slushies) and then came home and grilled out while the neighborhood kids played in our sprinkler with our kids! It was a good day - and a most beautiful day for outdoor play!

Mystery Plant: Does anyone know what kind of bush this is? It smells like honeysuckle, but the blooms aren't as large. I planted them 3 years ago and this is the first year of bloom - they're growing large! I have 4 of them in our yard and everyone compliments the sweet smell. They're tiny white blooms with lots of greenery.