Cactus Flower

Dalton celebrated his fifteenth birthday this week.  We rented the fifth season of Stargate, ate lunch at McDonald's in Petro one day, went to the skate park, had a fancy chocolate dessert one night and ate chocolate ice cream on another.  And, we did not start school!  He always complains about having to start school near his birthday.  He's a funny fellow.  He loves certain shirts and will wear them to the end of their life expectancy!  Take this old soccer shirt.  You might notice that there are actually two shirts.  The darker purple is the oldest and a size smaller.  He wore it for years and still owns it.  The lighter colored one replaced it and can still be seen on his back from time to time. It used to bother me to no end thinking he had some phobia about throwing things out.  Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't.  Maybe it's a way of hanging on to things in this crazy life we live of moving here and there and all things ...

So what's wrong with you?  Dog die? Yup, My dog died ... I was already in an incredible personal slump. My best friend had just left on furlough. Things were not going well at home. Another friend had broken off our friendship. My part-time job was losing its joy Money was getting tight. My boys were growing up way too fast... And then this little book showed up in the mail one day from Booksneeze! It was like a breathe of fresh air at just the right crucial moment.  I had opened the package with the book the morning before the wild night when my twelve year old dog went into total arrest because of canine distemper. As we made the decision to go into the big city to take our old dog to see the vet after a wild night of convulsions and seizures, little phrases from the first pages I had browsed ran through my head.  When the doctor said there was little hope and we considered putting our dear dog to sleep, I just kept repeating to myself that somewhere in all ...

This week I'm cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.  Cleaning up the house, cleaning up the schoolroom, cleaning up my life.  Today I've deleted two misc., little read blogs (Yes, I exported them first) and cancelled my membership on several little used sites.  Cutting done and throwing out things is an important part of life from time to time.  All my Tiny's Tale posts can now be seen here on this blog.  Anyone looking for the Atha School Essays entries can find them on the main Atha School for Boys blog. Seems my life is segmented in four year slots and close to the end of each slot, I get the itchy, need-to-clean feeling that starts the process of preparing for the great furlough packing rush.  I'm not sure that this might be the beginning of those feelings to get ready... Take care!

Last week found us with twenty-one girls heading out to the island for a three day retreat.  This was a special group with about ten young ladies from one school of our little hometown.  These ten along with about that many from another nearby town were to participate in our first ever ESL event on the island.  Stories were told in half English and half Portuguese.  Choruses were taught and sung in English.  Counselors were English speakers from the States.  All in all it seemed to go well. Sadly, I've been super busy all month getting ready for this retreat and the restart of my ESL classes this week, and now I have the start of homeschooling looming in the near future.  Will try to post more retreat photos and a little story later this week! Yours,

What can I say?  I love the smell of a good shoe!

Just call me a laundry fanatic!  I love all those dirty clothes, especially socks!