Elena 
It is just about my favorite time of the year – when the weather is still nice and the regular school kids are back in school!! Leaving me and my kids more time to be on our own, undistracted from little friends pounding on the backdoor, phones ringing and moms looking for their kids at my house!
We have our big portfolio review coming up and once again I am worried about it. Did we do enough? did we do too little? how come a whole year doesn’t look so impressive when it’s in a binder? Honest to goodness I felt rung out by last year and yet in retrospect it sort of seems as if we got nothing accomplished.
Then Mr. Pete reminded me that with mom dying in June and SLO starting down her path in November, and with executing mom’s estate – something I had never done before – it was sort of a hard year!Nonetheless I think the kids did alright. Sam got Spanish 1 done, took the ACT test and an ACT writing course, almost finished Apologia Science, read a ton of literature – so I think we’re good.
Izzy still struggles with reading but she is reading better than last year. Noah is soaring a head. Gabe, surprisingly has really improved his reading and spelling.
Here is the key to having your son improve his reading and writing skills- have him meet a nice girl some distance from your home and have them start e-mailing one another. It helps if the girl excels in writing and grammar. Then voila!! your son will suddenly care what his writing looks like! It’s amazing!!
Let’s see… on top of that I have been devoted to exercise and getting at least morning and/or night prayer done. Those are things I am doing for me and I consider it care and maintenance of Mom. If those things don’t get done the rest of it will suffer. So instead of getting up and logging on to blog, read e-mail or work, I’m getting up and going into the basement to pick out my form of torture for the day in the form of one of The FIRM workouts.
But there have been some highlights this week. I hooked up on computer home network all by myself! I even figured out how to encrypt it. Pretty good for a novice. I also bought a printer for the kids’ computer and I got that going as well! Rosie was happy with me because I got her a bunch of the Kindergarten Blaster computer games – and they have been keeping her busy every since. Maybe now when we go to the library she’ll be willing to skip the computers because she can get on anytime she wants at home.
Mr. Pete is working very, very hard. He came home about midnight last night. It’s unbelievable how hard someone can work for so little pay, yet the school systems continue to hang onto their money instead of paying their vendors for services rendered. It’s a crime. Yet the bright spot is that Mr. Pete has brought Sam and Gabe in and has started training them. Sam, who already has done a lot of maintenance on his guitars, was a natural to teach violin and viola repair. Gabe is working on taking stuff apart – which he has always been very good at. So hopefully when they build up some speed that will help him out.
Soccer season starts this weekend and Sam has games to ref. Cross country is in full swing. Schools start next week.
I however, do not intend to start school until after Labor Day. Life is too short and the nice days too fleeting to think of doing anything else.
Ah summer… I will miss you.
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