Summer Fun

Well, the bad news is my camera is broken. This explains why I haven't been blogging lately. I didn't realize it, but it turns out the photos are a big part of what drives the writing for me.

We've been having a great summer though. We had a fun trip to visit my sister and her family in St. Louis for the 4th of July. They are great hosts and it was wonderful to see them and let the cousins play together.

I quit/was laid off from work at the end of July, so I've had a few weeks home with the kids and am slowly adjusting. I started teaching piano lessons and doing other things to try to make some money on the side and I think we're going to be fine, so no worries about us.

I also decided to homeschool Olivia instead of sending her to kindergarten this year, so making plans for that has been a lot of fun and she is very excited too. For our curriculum I'm trying to have a Charlotte Mason philosophy, but using Sonlight and Math-U-See as back-up. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to add on these subjects as the year goes on.

Alexander is talking up a storm now, though I suspect most of his words are only understandable by people that know him pretty well. We've had a lot of opportunities to do fun activities with friends, like playing in the Shenandoah River.

Xander's favorite part was throwing rocks.

If anyone has any camera suggestions I'd love to hear them. Our primary needs are something that takes good video, and does above average in low-light. Someday I think an SLR camera would be fun, but for now I've got enough hobbies and projects, so a straightforward camera is what I'm looking for.

Check back soon to read about what happens when I cut sugar out of the kids' diets. :)