Sunday Salon: Life in the household

Honey Bee

I guess you could say life has been busy as bees for us this summer. The past two months have passed in a flash and can't believe it's August already.  We are downsizing and have been busy cleaning out our garage and purging all the stuff that we haven't used in several years.   I'm almost at the point to start getting rid of all the old books  **gasp**  stored in the garage and those in my shelves that I'll never read again.  Shocking, I know.  If there is anything I hoard, it's books.  Note, I said almost. Give me a few more days and we'll see if the feeling passes.  **grin**.

In the midst of purging and decluttering, Hubby finally gave up his 1971 Cadillac which has been sitting in the driveway for several years.  He'd been dreaming of he and James working on the engine together, but James isn't technically or mechanically inclined.  He's rather write or draw and play video games. 

We've repainted and redecorated James room (turned it into a teenage room) and I'm waiting for cooler days to tackle the hallway, bathroom and living room. 

Our days have also been taken up with taking James to speech, occupational and physical therapy.  All on different days, of course.  Which has lead us to doing multiple errands while we are out, so we've been spending lots of time running around as well.

In the midst of all that, I've been taking an online creative writing course which is helping me get back into the writing mode after a long dry spell.  I've not been in the mood for reading new books and have just been rereading older books in my library by Nora Roberts, Patricia Briggs and Laurel K. Hamilton, among others. 

And now that it's August, it's time to start working on 8th grade lesson plans. The good news is we already received all his curriculum, so now just need to sit my butt down and start figuring out his schedule. Fun, fun, fun.



So what has your summer been like?

Happy Father's Day

Me and My Dad

James and John

Happy Fathers day to the special dads in my life!

Congratulations to my Nephew

Attended my nephew's high school graduation in Texas. He's a cutie and always been a bit extra special to me since I was my sister's birth coach and was there when he was born. He'll be studying engineering with a minor in Math in college. 

Dallas World Aquarium

My sisters, one of my nieces and I had a girls day out and went to the Dallas World Aquarium while I was in Texas for my nephew's high school graduation.  It was the neatest place with a rainforest, plants and animals from Mayan folklore.  They even had dancers doing a mayan dance.  It was a lot of fun.

Albino Alligator

Black Jaguar

Carpet Anemone

Japanese Spider Crab - right out of a sci fi movie. It was huge.

Feeding of the Sharks

Rain Forest

Sea Dragon

Needlenose Shark

Fish - don't remember the name but beautiful

Mayan Painting

Owl

Red Flamingos

7th Grade - check!

It's official. James has finished 7th Grade. James says "part one of Junior high complete. Mission achieved."

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy mother's day!  Since I became a mother, I've learned that a mother's love is unconditional (or should be)  When my son was little, we used to read Lisa McCourt's I Love You Stinky Face and it's one book I never could get rid of.  The binding is taped together now because of how often we read it and to this day the sentiment in the story has stuck with us. Even though my son is now 13, he still ends the day with 'Mom, I love you no matter what.'   

Yesterday we went to Marshall Gold Discovery Park and explored, learning more about the gold rush and visiting the spot where James Marshall first discovered gold.  

 James Marshall learning about James Marshall

Happy Mother's Day!

April Wrap up - Spring makes its own statement

I'm so happy to bid adieu to April.  It's been a month of stress with taxes, lessons, fixing cars and cats, standardized and developmental testing which is why it's been so quiet here on the blog.  I'm optimistic May is going to be a lot less stressful since have four more weeks of lessons left and we are winding down 7th grade. Plans are in the works for a fun family gold mining trip and my sister and I going to Texas for my nephew's graduation while the guys have their own fun time at home. 

I've spent most of my free time with my head buried in a book and have been on a urban fantasy / paranormal kick. I discovered several new to me authors and read through all of Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series.  Checked out Kelly Meding's Three Days to Dead, and Illona Andrews' On the Edge and delved into the 2nd book in Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series One Foot in the Grave.   Finally got around to finishing the Larisa Ione Deliverance series about the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypses. 

Immersed myself in Christa Faust's hard to classify paranormal noir pulp fiction detective story Money Shot.  Went back and listened to Patricia Brigg's Mercedes Thomas series books 1 through 6 (awesome in audio) before reading her newest book Frost Burned.   Nora Roberts hits it out of the park as always with her latest Whiskey Beach.  I feel in love with Menna Van Praag's magical story The House at the End of Hope Street and discovered a new magical England through Alex Verus story in Benedict Jacka's Fated. 

I started a readalong of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami with my 52 Books group and unfortunately I got sidelined when discovered my copy had missing pages.  Presently waiting for my replacement copy which should be here any day now.   

What's on the nightstand for May?

A few are calling my name including Stephen King's The Dark Tower IV Wizard and Glass, Joe Hill's NOS4A2, Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse plus Cold Fire,  Graham Moore's The Sherlockian, as well as Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.  A rather eclectic mix with a few more paranormals thrown in here and there.

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."  ~John Quincy Adams

Cheers to a happy, less stress, more carefree May.