getting settled back home

Jonathan likes to get in on the picture-taking....he starts acting up when the attention is on someone else... Sonja having some licorice for dessert....

Camille is a mess! Joseph thought she would like to have an Oreo cookie. She was already teething on an ear of corn.....

Joe has to wash her.

Well, today was wonderful! A little cooler, rainy....perfect for cleaning up the house....Abigail went to the laundry-mat and washed tons of bedding, and some other stuff....I stayed home all day, and cleaned. Sorted, washed, straightened......the older kids did some chores, too. Not an ideal summer day, of course, but we are all settled in. The kids brought in all the stuff from the camper, and we got it all put away. Tomorrow: grocery store, again. And: I need to get Aaron and Samuel some clothes.....while we were gone, it stormed here quite fiercely it seems....and Champ the dog is terrified of storms....so he got in the house (through a window, knocked the screen out), and went in the boys' room....and the door must have slammed closed in the wind....Benjamin was here, and wondered what happened to Champ, never thought to look in their room.....he was a good dog, he didn't poop in there...but he did pee.....and it smelled awful...so they threw away alot of clothes.....Aaron has only a few pair of shorts left....it is always something.

Our pool is in bad shape. We have to decide what to do with it....there are several holes in the liner, where the ladder rests....Joe and Aaron tried to patch them up before we left last week, but the leaking continued....so the water level is to low to run the filter, and the water has turned green....is it worth installing a new liner this late in the year? With Aaron going in the hospital next week, when would we get to it? Oh well.....Joseph, Aaron, and Sam are in the hot tub right now....at least that works....

I am not looking forward to school starting, the first week in in September. We have 9 kids going this year: Joseph, 12th grade, Aaron, 10th grade, Molly, 9th, Samuel 7th, Margaret 6th, Kathryn 5th, Evelyn 3rd, Suzanne 2nd, and Sonja in first grade. No kindergartener this year. I keep thinking about homeschooling. But our school is very small, only 83 graduates last year. The teachers are wonderful. It's just that they are my kids, and I feel it goes against all that is right and normal to get them out of bed every morning and send them out the door. But home-schooling all of them in New York state would be challenging. And I do think it's good for them to have some contact with other kids, such as in school....I don't know. This summer is just so nice. So nice to have them here. So nice to have the peacefulness of them waking when they want, wearing casual around the house clothes....

I think tomorrow I will ask the kids what they still want to do this summer, and when we get home from the hospital with Aaron, we can try to do a few more fun things....before we start collecting school supplies, filling backpacks, and worrying about new shoes and sneakers. And you know what I hate the most? How lonely I'll be when they all go to school.....Emily works, Abigail commutes to college, Benjamin commutes to college and works, and M. ? she doesn't quite know yet.....anyway, I will be lonely with only Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, and baby Camille here with me.