This and That

• The kids are out of town visiting Grammy and Pop this week. I am really enjoying the quiet although I haven't been terribly productive yet. I have high hopes of getting my whole life straightened out during these 5 days of quiet. That's a little ambitious but I am hoping to sort of catch my breath after a very busy and stressful month.
  
• I cannot believe that September is almost over. October is definitely my favorite month of the year. I know I say this every year but there is so much hope in October. It means that cooler weather is in the very near future. The holidays are upon us and for the next 3 months the house will be decorated and we will be planning and looking forward to celebrating fall, halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. So much to look forward to! One disappointment so far though is that there has not been any Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer at the grocery store. I have had a Pumpkin Spice latte and it just wasn't very good and that was super sad.
  
• We are about 6 weeks into our school year and this is the point where I really start evaluating what's working and what's not working and I start tweaking things. That's another good reason to have a quiet week. I can think better and the kids have a break and we can start fresh with the new tweaked school next week. I have decided to stop using Lesson Pathways for Science with Grace and Joe. I only successfully made it through two lessons and then realized that it requires too much planning ahead on my part and so it wasn't really getting done. Soooo....we will be starting Evan Moor's Chemistry next week. I plan to get the whole unit planned out this week so that won't hold us back. After that we will probably do another Evan Moor unit--maybe Weather or possibly some earth science. We'll see. I also hope to get the kids going on some of the experiments in the science kits that we have. I am also going to allot about a half hour a day for Hannah to study and explore the digital/video type things she's interested in. We have a few books that she got for her birthday that she's hardly looked at. If it's part of school then she will read them and probably do some of the projects.
• I just finished reading Heaven Is Real by Todd Burpo. It's a really good book and a fast read. Really cool to hear how this little boy's experience matches up with scripture about heaven. I also read What Alice Forgot over the last week or so. I loved that book too, just simple and a good story. It's about this woman, Alice, who comes to after a bad fall off a cycle at the gym and she has lost all her memory of the last 10 years. Last thing she remembers is being pregnant with her first child and happily married. Now she has 3 children and is getting a divorce. It's a great story, I highly recommend it. My next read is called, Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens. It's a psychological thriller. I was super excited to read it but not sure if my fragile nerves can take it. I'm going to start it and see though.
  
• Well, that's all I've got. I had to stop to tutor and my mind has gone blank. I'll try to post again soon.