Summer Wrap Up

It's been one heck of a summer, but in a good way. It started out with a bang with the trip to Washington, D.C. with Martha, Jr.'s Girl Scout troop for Rock the Mall back in June and hasn't slowed down much since then, in spite of cutting back on some of our regular activities. The Wild Child spent a lot of hours with the reading specialist and made considerable progress with his reading; she raved over how well he did when he had his last session. (He'll start up again in a couple of weeks when she gets back from her vacation.) The younger two both started Taekwondo (good for The Wild Child's gross motor skills) and they'll be testing for their next belt toward the end of the week. There's another benefit to Taekwondo for The Wild Child that I didn't know about going in. They have to memorize "forms", or special sequences of movements, to advance to the next level, and since The Wild Child also has working memory issues the memorization aspect will help him considerably. They are taking their classes at the same place where The Eldest takes Krav Maga so we got a family membership and she's back in her classes too, which is really good for her. She has a tendency to park in front of her computer and not get any exercise at all so this is a good thing to get her up and moving.

And The Eldest has a boyfriend! He seems like a really nice guy; he's funny and sweet and he's got her going places and being all social and stuff like a regular college kid. They met through friends and went to a comics convention together. All of the friends rented a hotel room near the convention and hung out for 4 days, and by the end of the 4 days they were an item. That was after hanging out in my house for a week, where they worked on costumes to wear. (They are into the cosplay big time.) The Eldest and The Boyfriend are also getting ready for the next convention where there will be dancing, so they are taking dance lessons once a week; more physical activity, yeah!!

I had physical therapy for my back problems and that went well, too. I have a lot of exercises I can do now to build up my endurance so that I can be on my feet for longer periods of time which will be a big help in the long run. I'm done with the therapy sessions for now so I'm going to try to sign up for Pilates (with the encouragement of both the physical therapist and the doctor) to keep it up. I need to strengthen my core, just like The Wild Child, and Pilates does just that.

So now summer is just about over and we'll go back to the regular school year schedule. Even as homeschoolers we are affected by the school calendar! 4H, Girl Scouts, and our homeschooling group will kick in again. It will be good to see all of our friends in each of those groups. My book club will get going, and I hope I'll be able to go! I wasn't able to attend many meetings last year due to one thing and another so I hope I'll be able to find time this year. I'm looking into enrolling Martha, Jr. into an on-line school so that will be a big change for her. She's starting middle school so I think the on-line option will work well for her. She doesn't have any of the learning issues The Wild Child deals with so she'll handle the academics easily. The Eldest has three classes to go to finish up her AA degree and she's enrolled for those already; they start in a week or so. She's also finally managed to find a job, after looking all summer. She'll be working with an after care program for elementary school kids; that will keep her busy, busy. She's excited that she found something that won't involve weekends since she wants to keep them open for conventions. The Boyfriend and at least one of her other friends will be working for the same company, although not necessarily at the same location.

The busy summer leads to a busy fall, and I just keep plugging away. I'm counting my blessings; we are so fortunate that we are able to lead a life with so many opportunities for positive things.