Elena 
I feel kind of silly still doing these since the Simple Woman site is shut down for the summer. I’m not sure why I continue to link to it except we were asked to. At this point I guess I am really keeping it up because I enjoy doing these, and it makes a nice snap shot of my life every week, and because I miss it when I don’t. Maybe my kids will enjoy reading these in the future.
Outside my window…
The sky is blue and bright. I think that makes it three weeks in a row.
I am thinking…
about my mother almost all the time. Mondays’ are the hardest because she died on Monday.
I am thankful for… good health. I also thankful that I have a bit of money from mom to tied me over while Mr. Pete’s business slows down. It’s not that his work load slows down, it’s that school systems just quit paying over the summertime and that makes it tough. For years now I have hated summer because it just meant greater hardship for our family. This year that pressure is off.
From the learning rooms…I got the results from Sam’s PLAN test back and was very pleased. I will post about that for the Carnival tomorrow. We continue to plug away. Our meeting with our portfolio evaluator is in five weeks!
From the kitchen… I’m thinking Shepherd’s pie.
I am wearing…blue capris and a white T-shirt. Very comfortable.
I am creating… or rather completing paper work to get all of my thank you notes out and all of the other paper work to tie up my mom’s business stuff.
I am going… to keep working on diet and exercise. I realized as I was putting together all of the photos of my mom that there will be fewer pictures of me because I shun the camera unless I am behind it! That’s a little selfish. So I’m going to continue to work on that without becoming obsessed with it.
I am reading… On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss
I am hoping… just to get through the month, get all the paper work done, finish homeschool, making it through our appointment with our evaluator and then taking a break for a few weeks!
I am hearing… The air conditioner which actually masks the usual buzzing in my ears.
Around the house… I hate this category. It is becoming what “outside the window” use to be. So here’s what I honestly want to write – around the house is a mess. It will always be a mess because there are 8 people living here, 5 of them are male and one of them is 4 years old! Yes I have help, but the older ones clean as if it is a penance to get through instead of love for the homestead. And it shows. I am one person who also works out of the house as well as homeschools and prepares most of the family’s meals. And why I would love the place to look like a show room – it never will until the last one leaves the house and I can count on keeping stuff the way I want to keep it. I might even have to outlive my husband for that to occur! In the meantime I love my family more than the house and so if it looks perpetually trashed at least in one room or another, so be it. That’s just how it is.
A few plans for the rest of the week: writing some funeral thank you cards, and paperwork. I also am working to bring our homeschool blog up to date before the evaluation.
A picture I am sharing:
My three oldest boys getting ready to compete against each other in the bag race at the family reunion. Calvin is letting them know that he will remain undefeated in this event – and he was. In their version tackling is involved.
Me and my mom 1961
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