What We Are NOT Doing...

...is getting ready for a hurricane. I feel sorry for the people who live in North Carolina and the surrounding areas. But I am so glad it's not us getting ready for a hurricane. I've had enough for awhile.

Also, ten years ago was Hurricane Ike. I can't believe it has been that long. The girls and I were doing a lesson in History where they wrapped each other up in toilet paper like mummies. We were using The Mystery of History back then. A friend called and asked if we were leaving. I had no idea what she was talking about, but figured it out during the course of the conversation. Told her I needed to talk to Steve.

Hurricane? What hurricane? Our mama was busy looking at lesson plans, not the weather!

After we hung up, Steve called immediately and told us to get packed up. We had a small leak in the living room, half our fence blown down, the playhouse flipped over, and we needed a new roof when we got back home.

It was vertical when we left. 

I don't know how many hurricanes I've prepped for in my life. I probably don't want to know either. Stay safe, you guys on the East Coast!

Steve took off work Monday and Tuesday. We sweated and worked in the garage all day Monday. Boy what a difference! We threw away probably 10 contractor bags of trash. The next morning I took some trash out to put with our other piles as it was trash pick-up day in our neighborhood. There were holes in every bag. We've had a lot of trouble with stray dogs getting into the trash and it's such a pain to pick up after them when they have scattered the contents everywhere. But this looked different. For one thing, a small trash can we had throw into a sack the day before was sitting nicely on the sidewalk. Hmm. Husband came out to help me double bag everything so it wouldn't all fall out when the trash guys picked them up, and we noticed every hole was torn very neatly and carefully. Someone had been going through our bags. We guessed they saw us cleaning out our garage and were looking for personal information. Needless to say, we had NO paperwork at all in those bags and I'm happy they wasted their time.

That, and we will be making good use of our little Amazon Basics shredder when we go through those other boxes! Some people....

But yesterday we didn't do much of anything responsible. We went to our favorite island and ate lunch at our favorite little drug store. And we went to an historic library that the girls and I had toured this summer, but Steve had not seen. It was an enjoyable day. It was really nice for Steve to be off. Preaching pretty much means he works all weekend. Many preachers take Mondays off since Sunday is essentially a work day, but he can't do that because he works another job as well. So the day off was very appreciated.

Also yesterday we found a neat little barber shop here in our city. A guy from work told my husband about it. It was like stepping back in time when we walked in.

Steve got a great haircut and we were noticing how relaxed the atmosphere was. The barber on the right (you can see his back in the mirror) was so chill and I noticed how his job was so very NOT stressful. Told Steve he should become a barber and preach on the side. Or preach and barber on the side.

Cleaning up your hairline and cleaning up your soul.

What do you think? :)

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Signing off,

NOT Back to School

I loved seeing all my friend's pictures yesterday on Facebook of their children all shiny and dressed and ready for school. I love first day of school pictures. My favorite might have been Steve's cousin, who snapped a blurry picture of her 10th grade son riding his bike to school from about 2 houses away. There. She remembered.

Of course, we took our first day of school pictures 2 1/2 weeks ago so the excitement was over for us. I was actually kind of glad. We've already settled into routine a bit and I'm glad we have that many days under our belt.

I realize not every area of the country has gone back to school, but where we live the major districts have all started. And this, my friends, is when the homeschoolers REALLY celebrate!

We love you, public schoolers and private schoolers......but we are profoundly thankful when you start back. Now we have our parks back. Our museums. Our libraries. Our beaches.

Our homeschool group is meeting at the beach this morning for our NOT Back to School Bash. We picked this day on purpose because--no crowds. Summer is exhausting for those of us who are used to having play places to ourselves. I'm sure the preschool moms understand. I bet they are all flocking to Chick-fil-a this week.

But what the Not Back to School Bash is really about, is celebrating the fact that we don't have to send our kids back to school. See, most homeschool moms I know truly WANT to be with their children. They like them. And they like homeschooling. And they like the lifestyle and freedom of it. Many of us have done public school at some point and we're thankful to have our children home with us now. Thankful to not have to worry about being late all the time. Glad to not have so much homework to deal with. Happy to be in charge of our children's education.

So today we celebrate by not getting much school done at all. Makes sense, huh?

Don't worry. We'll be back at it tomorrow--in our dining rooms, our homeschool rooms, our cars, on the couch, on the trampoline in the backyard. There will be math, and reading, and history, and extra things to run to like lessons and sports. Homeschoolers do all that stuff too. We're crazy and run around a lot.

Just not today. Today we celebrate with sand in our cars.

Signing off,