Adventures in La La Land

1. What a busy, fun, hot  week! I'm trying not to complain about the heat, since I've been wanting summer for so long, but a little moderation would be nice. Heat indexes below 90 would be great. Honestly I can't complain. We have central air (that doesn't work super  great, but at least cuts the humidity and keeps the house bearable), and access to an amazing pool! Justin's been working on a tin roof in this weather while I've been lounging in the pool, so I better just keep my mouth shut . . . 2. We had kind of a frustrating start to the week. Lena has a friend from ACS whose mom works full time. We always intend to have playdates, but it's hard to work around schedules. Anyway, we finally got one on the calendar for Monday. Mrs. M. and her daughter drove 20 minutes to meet us at the splash pad in our town. Usually Lena adores the splash pad, but she was overcome by an inexplicable case of "Bratty Bessie." She was so rude  the whole time. She r...

1. Finally, summer has arrived!!! We spent lots of time at the pool this week. Lena is really getting the hang of swimming, Lucy's been working on her dive, and Levi has mastered going underwater without gagging, crying, and rushing to wipe his face on his towel! (The girls still have yet to master that. They only go under with goggles.) All week, Lena has been working up the courage to jump off the diving board (wearing a life jacket). She jumps off the side and bobs under the water numerous times every day, but the diving board was so daunting. She's my anxious child who has to be talked through all the scenarios: "How far down will I go?" "Will I hit the bottom?" "How fast will I come back up?" "Will I like it?" I was sooooo tempted to push her off the board because I knew she'd like it once she tried it. But, having been an anxious child myself, I know that will only destroy her trust in me. Today, I finally asked if she wanted to...

1. We did it! After months of planning, we had a successful week of VBS! I think I found my sweet spot as the Director of Crafts (a title I made up and bestowed upon myself). My forte is planning and prepping, but not necessarily executing (which is why I'm a bad homeschool mom). I spent months looking up ideas, testing them out, refining them, and figuring out how to get the supplies in the most cost effective manner. Then I spent weeks cutting things out and organizing supplies. Finally, I assembled an extremely talented group of volunteers to help me do the craft with the kids every day. And because I had done lots of work ahead of time, the week of VBS itself was pretty low-stress for me! Don't get me wrong. I'm not used to getting up that early so I definitely took a nap every afternoon, but it was one of the easiest VBS experiences I've had. And my kids enjoyed it for the most part. Lena was a good sport. Lucy was done by Thursday. Levi came down with a fever on...