dog days of summer

The pool is chilly after a few moderate, rainy days. But the humidity today is oppressive, so hot, near 90 degrees...Only the kitchen and l.r. are a.c.'d-and not very effectively. So, we stay in the kitchen and l.r....We usually don't get enough unbearable weather here in the Northeast to require whole house ac, especially in a house as big as this.
The specter that is school is looming again. Here at home, breakfast time blends with lunch, and some slacker teens are having lunch right before dinner...but I fervently love having my kids here. I can never, in the summer, say that the house is clean, my work is done....but that's okay. We stay up too late. I dread getting them back on schedule, I hate schedules. But : I also hate sticky and dirty. So even though we have some chaos, no eating on the l.r.furniture AT ALL, no dirty feet either. If you go barefoot, go wash those feet right now. The kitchen /dining tables are always cleaned off, floor swept and clean, l.r. vacuumed at least once a day...A bit crazy, and not spotless, but not dirty. Anyway, back to the school thing: I hate sending them. They are my children! So I cheat. I let them skip here and there, to have special time at home, or to go someplace fun. I pick them early randomly, and take them shopping. If they have stupid field trips, I give them the money we would have paid, and take them to get something. The day after Halloween is a holiday at our house.

I don't homeschool them because: We have a nice, small school district. We have ten children going this year. Kids need some exposure to real life. We have friends with large families in the district, whom our kids go to school with. The teachers at our school are wonderful.

So, we went to Wallymart and got 6 or 7 new backpacks. I usually buy them on clearance and store them in the closet, but I gave some away for b'day gifts....Lots of pencils, crayons, ect. One needs a disposable camera, gallon sized ziplocks, take out a loan!! We bought sneakers in June on clearance for 4 little girls...

When that bus leaves our house on September 5, it'll leave behind one seven and 1/2 month pregnant crying mommy, one crazy vehicle obsessed 3yr old boy, 15 month old Charlotte Claire, who just started walking, the two kittens, Champ the barking dog, the chinchilla, and the bunny rabbit. We will rattle around like peas in a pod.....