Life Around These Parts

I was going to do a quick takes post but just couldn't think of anything to write.  I definitely have blog block these days.  I sit in front of the blank screen and try to type a post but I think that everything I have to say is boring and nobody would want to read it.  I'm not sure anybody really reads blogs much anymore anyway but I do like having this journal of our life so I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.  Maybe I'll try some short quick takes and then lots of pictures.
1.  Pinocchio show week and weekend went well but was incredibly busy with me doing a lot of tutoring and the kids doing a lot of rehearsing and Ollie doing a lot of working.  The Monday after show weekend, the girls and I had Senior Tour for half the day and then again on Tuesday for the entire day.  These things shouldn't be so exhausting, I am just sitting there watching most of the time but just being out of the house so much and juggling everything else wears me out.
2.  On Wednesday Hannah took the PERT test to go to the local community college next year to dual enroll.  Scroll down to see how that went.  :0)
3.  We are ALMOST done with school here at PP.  Grace has 3 math lessons and too much history but she can chip away at that a little each day and hopefully be done in a few weeks.  Joe is 80% done with his FLVS class, Critical Thinking.  Overall, it has been a good class for him to take but I am so ready to be done.  It is tempting just to quit now, especially because his last few assignments are going to be difficult for him.  We are going to press on though...I am thinking he will be done by end of next week.  He also has to finish spelling.  Hannah just has history but she is not working on it very much because she is in summer mode already.  That's her deal though...all I have to do is grade it.
4.  After a VERY busy tutoring year, I am mostly done with my students.  A few want to continue over the summer but I only tutored 3 hours this week compared to about 10 to 15 hours a week.  I am thankful that my little business has taken off.
5.  I am still walking although it's getting hotter...It is becoming such a routine that I naturally wake up early and don't feel like my day is complete if I haven't walked.  I love the quiet time and I am enjoying all of the sermons and podcasts I'm listening to.  For the first time in years, I am consistently listening to messages from my church from Sundays that I miss church.  I love it.
6.  Enjoy the pictures...May was busy but fun.  I am blessed to live where I live and to have a great family and friends.

 I just went through all of my pictures in May and picked out some to share here....just a smattering of life from the last month.  Above and below...Hannah's friend, Devin, hangs out here a couple of nights a week.  They play a lot of games and a couple of weeks ago decided to play "airplane."  It was seriously funny.

 Aunt Lane and Uncle Barry stopped in for a short visit and we went out to lunch and hung out downtown for a little while.  Fun day!

 We walked downtown a few weeks ago with friends, sat by the lake, got ice cream and walked back home.  We have such a nice town and I love doing touristy stuff just minutes from home.

 Grace took me out for coffee for Mother's day and we hung out for a while playing Skip-Bo and drinking Frappucinos.

 We have spent three days over the last two weeks going to local elementary schools performing a show that the kids in Senior Tour wrote about being a buddy, not a bully.  They wrote parodies to 6 popular songs and the kids in every school loved it!

 Above is a picture of Joe's soccer picture.  I didn't buy it this time because Joe didn't want one but I took a picture of someone else's.  :0)

 We usually have some time between schools and lunch on senior tour days and so we go hang out at Tarbucks.  I got everyone doing logic puzzles in our down time...fun nerdy math stuff.  :0)

 Lunch at the local Japanese place....yum!

 Joe and Jake joined us for shows one afternoon.  The rest of the days they hung out together at Jake's house like big kids.  During his days of hanging out with Jake, he decided that he really likes football and picked his favorite teams.

 Hannah took the PERT test to dual enroll at the local college and the night before we hung out at Tarbucks to do some studying.  My favorite barista gave us free pumpkin bread.  Thankfully Hannah doesn't read my blog or she would kill me for posting this picture.  Her studying paid off because she passed all three of her exams and made a perfect score on the math one!!  We celebrated with frapps!

 Joe finished out his soccer season, Grace and I joined Anabel and her mom for dinner at the Melting Pot which was amazing.

 Harry and Amber spent a couple of nights with us...we played games, went downtown, shopped, Amber studied, and ate some good food...now they are at Disney having the time of their lives.

My Son, Pinocchio

 We had a show this past weekend..."My Son, Pinocchio, Jr."  It was a great show, I saw 6 of them and enjoyed them all.  We did two shows Thursday for local schools and then did our normal weekend of shows.  Hannah played three different roles over the course of the weekend, her favorite was the Blue Fairy but she was also one of the fairies in training, Sue, and the Ringleader of Pleasure Island.  Grace was Rosa, a fairy in training, and Joe was Pinocchio.  In the picture below, Hannah is Blue Fairy and Grace is the one in the blue dress on the end, that little bitty Pinocchio is not Joe.  :0)  He was ensemble in this performance. It was a fun weekend and although I'm tired and need a day to catch up...that isn't happening today.  The girls and the other kids in Senior Tour will be traveling to an elementary school today to perform a show they wrote about being a good friend and not bullying.  We do that today and tomorrow and then we can start catching up on everything that didn't get done last week.  We are almost done with school...almost but not quite.

Walking

 I set a goal for myself on March 31...starting April 1, I was going to walk every day until the end of June.  Well, it's May 3 and aside from 3 days (I think...) I have walked every day for at least half an hour and usually about 45 minutes.  I have been reminded of what a beautiful town I live in.  I occasionally take pictures of my view on my walk and this post is some of those pictures.  Today I changed things up a little and had Ollie drop me off at a beautiful path on one of the small lakes about 3.5 miles from our house and I walked home from there.  I enjoyed having different scenery and even got to "shop" at one of those cute little libraries.  I want one of these in my front yard.  We get lots of teens walking past our house and I would love to fill one of these with young adult books and biographies of good, christian people doing amazing things.  That is my dream...we'll see what Ollie says.  :0)

Daybook Style

Outside my window...it is a beautiful day here in Florida, I think the high is only about 80 and the humidity is low.  It feels great outside and considering we were in the 90s last week, I am enjoying this!

I am thinking...my mind is full these days managing everyone's schedule.  For example...Grace has an oral exam in Science at 3 on my phone, I have a student arriving at 3 to tutor, the kids are getting picked up to go play games with H and B at 3:15 (gotta make sure they are ready before I start tutoring), I tutor from 3 to 4, then 4:30 to 5:30.  Kids will be home by 5, Joe and I leave for his soccer game as soon as I'm done tutoring....I can't forget the water bottle like I have every soccer game and practice so far!  I need to remember to put a blanket in the car if Hannah and Ollie are going to come because I only have two chairs.  Gotta get Joe's soccer uniform out of the dryer between tutoring sessions and eat something since I won't have time for dinner (going out right after the game...)....and on and on my mind goes.  Oh, and I'm also working on finding a dorcas for Sunday's children's ministry.  Oh, and as I type this it is 2:50.

From the kitchen...Ollie is cooking dinner every night and that has been great since my afternoons are typically full of tutoring and taxiing.  I helped Joe make an omelet for lunch today, that was one of his choices for school today...culinary skills is school, right?

I am reading...I just finished reading Finding Alice by Melody Carlson.  It's about a young woman's journey into schizophrenia and into healing.  It had a christian approach to it, needing God but also needing therapy and meds.  It was really good and interesting and a little disturbing.  The last book I read was Still Alice by Lisa Genova about a 52 year old woman with Alzheimer's.  It was the same--really good, interesting and a little disturbing.  Still Alice was sad too, this woman knew the path she was going down and it was heartbreaking in many ways.  I just started Running With Scissors which is a memoir.  I'm only a few pages in and can't decide if I like it yet.

With the kids...We just finished Around the World in Eighty Days.  Joe loved it, Hannah hated it, and Grace was lukewarm about it.  I ended up really enjoying it and am eager to see one or two of the movies made about the book.  There is also a documentary on Netflix that follows the exact route of Phileas Fogg which we will definitely be watching!  We just started Left Behind and that one will easily take us through the end of the school year and into the summer probably.  I read it in college and even though it is entirely fictional--it gave me an idea of what the end times might look like and helped me understand Revelation more.  Joe and I have been making our way through the Sunshine State Readers this school year.  We are reading Far, Far Away right now.  It's a little odd but we are starting to get more into it.  It's narrated by the ghost of one of the Brothers Grimm.  The book before this one was Apothecary and we loved that one!  Hannah is really into reading books about teens going through hard things, specifically eating disorders.  She has decided that she would like to be a mental health counselor when she grows up and is learning alot through these books she is reading.  Grace has been completely absorbed in the Twilight series and is almost done.  She is probably the biggest reader in the house and often has a book with her.  I love it of course.

I am hoping...for some good family time this weekend.  With three kids and two of them teenagers, it often seems that we are all going in different directions too much of the time.  Tomorrow is Ollie's birthday though and he has requested that we all go on a hike.  I'm looking forward to some nice time together.

I am praying...for many people suffering, some local that I know, many that I do not know.  I am praying for Nepal and Baltimore.

In other news...I have internet diagnosed myself with a form of reflux called Silent Reflux.  It's called silent because it isn't painful at all.  In fact, my biggest symptom is chronic post nasal drip and feeling like I am always swallowing mucus.  I have cut out caffeine, alcohol, limited chocolate, I am eating smaller portions and exercising everyday.  I am noticing some positive results but I think it just takes time.  I believe that I got this due to taking Nsaids for many years as well as stress.  Hopefully I am on the way to recovery!

It has taken me two days to finish this post...such is life in the fast lane.  :0)