no more pencils, no more books....

no more teacher's dirty looks. Or phone calls from the school wondering where the kids are today. It is the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! It is a half day, and I made them go because they missed Friday and Monday and Tuesday. For good reasons, of course.

Ben and Ashley are gone, the party is over, summer is here. The house is still relatively clean, and I would like to keep it that way. I offered Evelyn fifteen bucks to clean Charlotte Claire's room, and she accepted. Evelyn is an excellent room cleaner. She doesn't do just a shove-y job, never sneaks stuff under the bed.

We live just a couple miles from a pick-your-own strawberry patch. I haven't been yet this year, but the older kids have been three times. If it isn't raining after school I might take some of the kids again. The berries are too delicious for words, healthy, reasonably priced, and not off limits for me. And they are fleeting...just a short window of ripeness, then they are gone until next year.

It is summer here. The birds are singing, the smell of wild flowers is in the air. It is overcast now and the branches are still, it rained and thundered last night. I woke up with the storm, it was really magnificent. A few of the lightening bolts were almost in sync with the thunder, it was very close by. I was awake for so long I barely woke up in time to get the kids on the bus. Good thing I had bought them some donuts for their Last Day Of School breakfast.

Taking walks in this weather is lovely except for the deerflys. They bite, and they are persistent. They fly around my head and I walk down the road with Rosie's leash in one hand, the other hand swatting myself all over my head in vain, I never seem to actually hit the fly. It is more challenging to walk in the heat, so going first thing in the morning is better. This morning, however, I overslept, so Rosie only had her cheaty little walk to the mailbox....

My new scale: I am still losing. Slowly but surely. A few pounds a week, I am down about 26 pounds now. The day before yesterday I went a mile and a half on the treadmill, plus my mile walk with Rosie, and some excercise in the pool. If I have days like that a few times a week, with some weight-lifting days in between, I should stay on track. It takes a lot of time. And I see that I go about my week living my life, then realize that if I want to reach my goal, I need to give more and suffer more and work harder. It is like the spiritual life, there is no place for lukewarmness. I need to be radical! Faithful in the thoughts, faithful to work out. And faithful in eating good things.

After the airport yesterday, I took nine of the kids to Burger King for an Icee (four of the kids went home in the minivan) (they have one dollar Icees, 16 and 20 ounce sizes, which brought up the question, "Who would order the smaller one?").....I ordered a Coke Icee, but couldn't enjoy it because of it's excessive sugary-ness. I drank half, gave it to Sam, and asked for the cup back when he was done. On the way home from, after getting groceries, I filled the cup with ice and diet Lime Coke....Target was fun with nine kids. I bought some four dollar beach towels, but that doesn't mean at least one of them won't bring a ratty old towel to the beach, just for my salvation. I found some shorts for Evelyn and Sonja for 75% off, and bought the new scale. The grocery store was even more fun! My "little' brother, Casey, was in there. I knew I would see him there! I was pushing a cart with stuff in it (a watermelon, milk and bananas and romaine and donuts and chicken and yogurt and cheese....), and Jonathan was pushing a car cart with the two little princesses in it. We bought four packages of 15 calorie Popsicles, some regular Popsicles, some Fudgcicles, and some Bombpops, which are red-white-blue Popsicles. They were half price, and yum. I told the cashier that we had just said goodbye to my son, the kids' brother, and that he is a soldier, and she told me about her son who just signed on for another four years....she said the year he was in Iraq was the hardest year of her life. I can believe that.

Home....pool! Then Evelyn made French toast for the kids, I made myself a huge salad, and Paul grilled some chicken. Aah, summer.

I am thankful for that swimming pool.

The garden is growing well. A hummingbird comes to visit when I water the garden, flitting in the hose water.

Anyway....the party went well, it went by fast, I hardly talked to my brother Bob, but I did talk to my brother Joe, and my brother Tom, and Casey. And to my sister Cheryl. And to Paul's parents. And his brother and sister-in-law. And a few of my nephews and their wives. And my other sister-in-law. The chicken was good, we cooked about 55 pounds of drumsticks and thighs, marinated, baked, and put in the electric roasting pan to keep warm. The cakes were very yummy, I had a small piece of both kinds, then cheered inside when it was all gone and I didn't have to suffer anymore. ha.

I am still very inspired to stick to my goals, and to eat healthy. I want to see this thing through, I want to ride a bike with Jonny!!!