Category Archives: Living

Update: end of August, beginning of September

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On vacation: Drove to Florida to visit Doc’s parents. Lucy learned to love swimming due to their heated pool, googles that fit just right and lots of downtime to swim when she wanted. All of my kids really came into their own as swimmers in that pool.

If you are friends with me on the Facebook, pictures are posted.

This was our fourth time (maybe? can’t remember) driving to Florida. I’d love to say we enjoy every minute of each other’s company, but that would be a lie. It’s a long way to go and the family van is not the best enviroment for finding personal space to take a break from that annoying-to-you sibling.

And all the moms of more than one child know exactly what I’m talking about.

Now this is the part of this blog post in which I want to write about something that happened, but I’m not sure I want to share it publicly. It’s not a huge deal, yet it bothered me, still bothers me, and I know there are readers here who would benefit, but…

Do I really want to stir that pot?

Sorry to be all clandestine. I will share. Eventually, tip toeing through the potential minefield of emotion and over sharing.

Onward with the memory keeping: We did our favorite zoo, went out on the boat, found all sorts of Florida critters we don’t have up here in Jersey. All fun.

On the way home, we took our time with two coffee-related meetups. One in Georgia, one in Virgina, both with coffee geeks Doc met via social media. We promised the kids both times the visits would be quick.

Ha. When we start talking coffee, we can lose track of time. Poor kids!

Now home and this is the first Monday of us getting back into that mode of driving to all the stuff that kids do like AWANA, piano lessons and Wednesday night church.

It’s good to be home.

So that’s my end of August and the first bit of September.

And for those keeping track, all of the Important Bits of my old Dell are now in this old laptop which the kids used to fall in love with Minecraft and Super Tux. Right shift key won’t work. Making me crazy, but what can one do?

 

 

 

 

 

King of Boredom

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Polo match
Not a bad shot for using my iPhone, eh?

In case you can’t tell by the picture, this is a polo match. With horses and clubs and a white ball that riders whack with said club while galloping at a pretty good clip.

I want to learn how to play polo.

Of course, I don’t have the polo pony to go along with this desire. That could be a problem with learning to play. Or at least, playing on a team. No matter. I’m not getting a horse anytime soon.

Stupid economy.

So, as you can probably guess, I went to a polo match. Me with my “Horses are wonderful! Isn’t this exciting! Let’s stomp divots!” enthusiasm. I had a great time. Doc seemed to like it too.

The kids? Maybe I shouldn’t talk about them. They were less than thrilled. Which might be good in the long run because if one of my kids got the horse-obsessed bug, I’d be bummed to tell him or her no to horse ownership. Pity it’s so expensive, these glorious animals.

I wish I had a picture of the worst of the four. The chief complainer, the boy child named for a particular Biblical king. He was King of Boredom yesterday.

Poor boy. O, to be nine and away from a computer screen! O, to be subjected to what your mother says is the Sport of Kings.

Don’t make me watch another polo match ever again, Mom! It’s so boring.

Heh.

Doc and I plotting and scheming our next visit with a proper tailgate meal. A picnic worthy of polo – not a favorite sport for one named for a king.

 

Did you see the lunar eclipse?

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Wasn’t it interesting? Watching the moon do it’s Pac Man imitation before becoming an orange in the sky. A winter solstice to remember.

I made a last minute decision to stay up, venturing outside at 1:30 am to check on the eclipse. Too many tree branches in the backyard to get a clear view with my binoculars. Later (2:30? Can’t remember. So sleepy), I checked the view from the driveway.

Amazing.

Diane Goodwin, a fellow homeschooling mom and Twitter chat friend, snapped this beauty. It’s exactly what I saw in the sky.

I didn’t really get the orange bit until I actually saw it. I’ve seen other lunar eclipses before, but nothing like this one.

In case you didn’t see the eclipse due to clouds, or the need for sleep, I’m posting this time lapse video. Thanks to Sandra Foyt for sharing the link.

I can’t help but think:

What did folks think years ago when it appeared the moon bled?

How much more interesting it is to jump on social media and share with others watching the same event, yet so far away.

If you are reading this in RSS, you may miss the link up at the bottom of this post.

Click over to add your blog post about the eclipse.