Actually, we never did stop homeschooling this year; we just slowed down the pace to allow for more time to enjoy our Summer.  We are going ahead and kicking things back into high gear today.  Can you feel the excitement?  

I have children ranging in age from senior in high school all the way down to preschool and I don’t even have that many children!  The children I do have make my heart sing every time I look at or think of them.  I’m so grateful that I get to be both their mother and their teacher!  Life is good.  It is also exhausting as we will be starting back to school with four of us sick and feverish.  Do you think that’s a good enough excuse to take an extra-long lunch today?  How about an extra recess?

I am pleased to share that I no longer feel as though I were swimming upstream through quicksand.  In fact I’ve improved so much that I’m only wading about in waist-deep quicksand.   Seriously, who knew it would take so long for me to recover?

I haven’t been lazily wasting ALL of my time (children don’t let you do that anyway!).  I’ve been trying hard to stay on top of housework, doing some baking, and sewing a bit.  In fact, I have found all sorts of fun little free sewing patterns on the web lately, and I thought I would share them with you.  After all, you never know WHEN you are going to need a stuffed platypus, a beanbag frog, a life-sized ducky, or a toy bat!

The frog pattern (which was so cute that I made a bunch) can be found here at The Frog Store.

Plattie the Pink and Purple Platypus pattern was designed by Pauline McArthur of www.funkyfriendsfactory.com and can be found here.  Just too cute although I must confess that the one I sewed was brown and brown as my boys are not overly fond of pink and purple!

Kate Erbach’s adorable Hello Ducky pattern can be found here at The Domestic Diva’s “Sew Many Toys And Games” page along with a bunch of other adorable patterns I haven’t tried yet.

The Batty the Bat pattern was found here at the Cloth Doll Connection’s Free Patterns and Tips page along with links to more doll and toy patterns than you could probably sew in a year! 

Have fun sewing!

What am I celebrating?  I dunno…  G-d is good…  I’m alive and reasonably healthy…  I have a wonderful family…  Just fill in that blank with whatever blessings you have in your life!  

When?  Right now!  

Why?  Because you are probably just as sick of my whining as I am.

What are you celebrating?

Eaglewood is out of town right now so of course the air conditioner picked this as the perfect time to freeze over and become useless.  Everyone is hot, miserable and at each other’s throats because of it.  Even the cat is acting cranky and weird.

On the bright side, I am finally beginning to feel a little less like I am swimming upstream through quicksand these days.  Good timing, Huh?

Updated to add:  Rumor has it that the A/C guy, our beloved “Mr. Joe” will soon be here to rescue us!  Even better than that, Eaglewood is on his way home!

So… I was sitting in my favorite of the computer chairs just chatting with my daughter when the back of the chair suddenly snapped completely off and I found myself staring up at the ceiling and at my children’s shocked faces….  

I laughed.  Not only did I laugh when it happened, I’m still chuckling.