Hello!

I cannot believe it has been one day over one month since I last posted.  Let me just say, it has been a CRAZY month.  Well, actually it has been really busy since mid-August, but things really stepped up to the maximum level of crazy this month.  Just to give the skinny on the past 6 weeks (this is really for you, Mom, so you know why you have not heard from me recently!):

1. Homeschooling
--School officially started for our kids on Aug. 15, through our charter.  Smiley is a kindergartener this year, so I am now homeschooling all 4.  But already I was looking at our calendar, and everything we had on it, and so I said to myself, "Um, no."  And so my kids kept doing "summer school" until Sept 9, when our little "Redwood Academy" started the school year with new books, routines, subjects, etc.  I have been trying to trouble-shoot some of the things that did not work out well last year, and figure out why some of our previously good habits slipped awry, and so lots of new things are happening this year--so far, so good.  Hard, but good.

--Because it was the start of school, we started regular classes back up again and so my girls have been back in music, LitWits workshops (plus and a weeklong writing camp), as well as their usual martial arts classes and this semester's "Musical Mondays" theatre workshop.  And all the girls had martial arts testing (to move up a belt level) in there, and a tournament too.

2. Serving our church
--numerous meetings for Jr. High youth group team (new ministry involvement started this summer--DH and I help with events) and the youth parent panel at our church.  And this past Fri-Sat DH and Sunny went to a big event at our local Boardwalk--an overnight for jr. and high school youth groups!

--Also meetings for Soul Kitchen, our church ministry for women, and then I have been in charge of food and set up and kitchen duties for our three nights of Conversations--the last one is tomorrow night.  Oh, and I also hosted an all-day Beth Moore simulcast event.   And worked the SK table at our church ministry fair.

--DH and I and Sunny and Merry also served with the Children's Ministry two Sundays (it is hard for campus churches to meet such needs in the summer when all the college students who normally serve are gone). 

3.  Learning and growing as men and women
--DH went on a weekend men's retreat, together we did a weekend Intentional Parenting retreat, and I had an evening dinner retreat with  fellow Christian homeschool moms at the home of a lovely woman who has been mentoring us. 

4. Squeezing out the last bit of summer with friends
--We met friends at the beach, the kids had a sleepover (thanks, Sara!) and a birthday party and an adoption party, and a Red Barn Theatre dance production.

5. End of summer family fun
--DH's family had a small family reunion up in Chico, and so we went up for the last week of August.  His sister and her husband and "Spice" and "Sweetness" came out from CO, and it was wonderful to see them, and then one of his cousins and her family came down from WA, and since we have not seen them since Happy was a baby, that was special too.  It was a very fun week! 

--Happy turned 8 in July, and we finally had a chance to do her "birthday adventure," which involved me taking her and her special-same-age-friend "Mini Rosa" (daughter of my friend "Rosa") to a local studio to paint pottery (thank you for the gift certificate Mom--she loved it!), and then creek-walking and dinner with the Rosas.   Then at the beginning of this month Smiley turned 5, and so we had a three-part birthday bash for him (since I seriously could not make it all happen on the same day--that's how crazy it has been!) with dinner at home on his actual b-day, cupcakes and playdate with his best bud HO (son of Rosa) last weekend, and today he is finishing it up with riding a historical train from the Santa Cruz mountains to the beach with his daddy. : )

6. End of summer cleaning fun
--Oh, and while we were gone up in Chico, we invited my dear Becky's husband Dan to come stay at our house; he had a big writing deadline (he is under contract for another book for Zondervan) and needed a distraction-free place to work, and so it worked out perfectly for him to stay here.  Of course this meant I felt like I had to clean the whole house from top to bottom, though! ; )  I mean, our house freaks out people easily enough--I did not want him to be uncomfortable by cobwebs or mold or dust or dust turning to mold, etc.  So that took at least a week of cleaning--but of course you can imagine how fun it was to see my house that way! 

And no, I did not get photos.  I really meant to.  But, life.

--BUT before he came, we finished pulling out and sorting every bin under the house!  That is such a huge achievement, and something that helps me feel much more ready for the starting school year.

This sounds like "What I did last summer" doesn't it--but all this stuff has happened just in the past 6 weeks!  Now you know what I mean by CRAZY!  It's all good stuff--but somehow it all came at once.  The pinnacle of crazy was last weekend, when we had FOUR events all on the same day, and we managed to pull them ALL off.  (I got the family up and all ready for the day and gathered everything they would need, then drove to church and hosted the Beth Moore simulcast from 8:30-4:30, then drove over half an hour to get to the homeschool moms dinner; meanwhile, my amazing Dear Husband stopped by the church at 9 a.m. to make sure the tech for the simulcast was working properly [it wasn't, so I was thankful] and then took the kids up to the mountains for a big annual event at a state park celebrating the culture and history of the Indian tribes who originally lived here.  They did that from 10-noon, then he got them lunch and got Sunny to her martial arts testing, took the rest of the kids on an impromptu adventure at the fire station down the street from martial arts, then brought them all home, fed them the dinner I had made the night before, and got them ready for bed.  I stumbled home around 10 and we both collapsed. : )

Yes, this one photo--from the night we returned home from Chico--pretty much sums up the past 6 weeks. 

All of these things I really wanted to share when they were happening, because there has been SO MUCH GOOD in so many of these things!  But I just have not had the time or energy or brainpower--it has been used up by all the things I just shared above. 

I must say, though, that even though I did not have it in me to blog, I was coming here regularly so I could access all my blog links there on the sidebar--and every time I did, I was greeted by my beautifully clean kitchen!!! That was so fun.  (Because of course it has not looked that good since I posted the photos.) 

We still have a busy couple of weeks to go:  a homeschool "back to school" party at a local park, a birthday party, a proposed Mom's night out, the last night of Conversations (all those happen tomorrow!), our first Vintage Homeschool Moms gathering, going to the Renaissance Fair for the first time with the kids, two school field trips, more martial arts testing, and our 18 year wedding anniversary!  And then DH's parents asked if they could come to visit, so we said the 12th was the first weekend we were not  busy, so they will likely come then for a few days.  [But we just got off Skyping with them tonight, and they really want to come this weekend, when we have other things going on that aren't really their cup of tea. Ack! Cleaning was not what I planned on doing this week!] So, I'm thinking the whole September crazy is winding down and things should be pretty relaxed by Oct 19th. 

That seems so far away.

No, I'm saying that with a smile.  I'm feeling positive and good, and all this busy is being balanced with keeping our expectations of myself and the kids healthy, and I'm doing a good job remembering every day what is *really* important. 

I don't know when I will blog next, but I'll try to go back to snippets at least--SO MANY things I want to share that are really, really good and special.  Until then, may you rest in God's blessings.  : )