Because I really ought to go to bed, I now present to you...

A series of unrelated comments with an unintentional common thread of "weather".

(Really.  I had to go back and add that "common thread of weather" bit.  I was at #3 or 4 before I realized I had sort of a theme going.  Apparently I live in Michigan, where weather is always a hot conversational topic, no pun intended.)  Anyway...

ONE:
I was on a cabin retreat all weekend and I actually got my youngest child born and my house cleaned.

Stop looking at me like that and let me explain.  I have managed to get myself an entire decade behind on my scrapbooks.  I love to scrapbook, but I take way too long at it and hardly ever make time to do it.  But I did seven pages this weekend, which is great for me, and best of all, I have FINALLY scrapbooked September of 1998 - or part of it, anyway.  That means that -ta-da- my youngest child now exists in the scrapbook!  (And boy, did those pages bring back memories.  That teeny little baby?  My 21-year-old a little eleven-year-old boy?  Hard to imagine now.)

As for the clean house, my hubby, who ordinarily gets downright ornery if he has to do "my" work, always delights in cleaning the house when I am gone for a weekend.  Yes, I am spoiled.  My house gets cleaner when I go away than it does when I stay home.

In case you are wondering, this was not a scrapbooking weekend, except for me.  It was a do-whatever-you-want weekend with a few friends from church.

And a bonus:  we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful weekend.

TWO:
The weather has been gorgeous, and it's driving me nuts that I haven't been able to let the kids have much outdoor playtime during our schooldays.  Because that is supposed to be part of homeschooling, right?-- kids having ample time to run around and play together and enjoy beautiful weather while their schooled counterparts sit miserably in stuffy classrooms... Except that hours of outdoor fun just don't happen when we are busy running to drama on Tuesday afternoons and piano on Wednesdays and INDOOR homeschool soccer on Thursdays and middle-school enrichment classes on Fridays, and trying to get some schoolwork done at home to boot.

THREE:
There is somehow something very special and nostalgic and deja-vuey for me about having the leaves crunch under my feet as I hang laundry while the kids are on a "trampoline break". Perhaps it evokes memories of the beginning of our first schoolyear in this house, when *everything* was special.  I don't know.

FOUR:
As of today, the beautiful weather is, alas, all but over, and we are slated to have rain, rain, and more rain for the rest of the week.  Which is fine as long as none of it seeps into the storage room again.  Because I'm not finished cleaning up from the last time.

FIVE:
Tonight the rain began, and we sat under our big golf-size umbrellas and drank hot chocolate and watched football, and it was fun.  Spaz' team lost 34-18, which really stinks because the opponents' final touchdown was during the last 14 seconds of the game.  28-18 just looked so much better.  We were all so ecstatic when the first half ended with us trailing only 14-6.  And the fact that that was cause for celebration seems rather pathetic.

SIX:
I need to go to bed, but my favorite pj's and robe are still out on the clothesline.  Did I mention that it rained tonight?  (Actually, if you read here regularly, you probabnly know already that leaving laundry out hanging in the rain is not uncommon for me.  It's just that it normally doesn't involve my favorite jammies.)