Needless to say, it has been a busy month!  I don't know where to start, really, so I'll start at the beginning.

The second week of June, we had visitors.  One of the families we met on our travels last summer repaid the visit.  We had such a relaxing time of fellowship with them that I was sad to see them go.  Belle got lots of practice caring for a baby, including changing diapers.  She was ecstatic!  I thought she did very well.  Our friends have three little boys, the youngest being about 3 months old. 

We had prepared the main meals and frozen them ahead of time, so I had lots of time to sit and visit and relax without having to worry about major meal preparation.  I used a lot of that time to get started on a knitting project.  It is a blanket, and I get to use circular needles--a first for me.  My friend knits too, so when the baby was sleeping or being held by Belle, she had a chance to knit also.

Right after they left, we had Friday and Saturday to prepare for our trip to our annual church meetings and family camp.  This year it was held in Southern Indiana.  We left early Monday morning, and drove as far as the nearest Cabela's store!  We browsed there and had supper, and then went to a nearby motel where we had a swim before going to bed.  That was a highlight of the trip for the children.

The next day we traveled to the State Park where we stayed in the lodge for the remainder of the week.  It was great to get together with friends and fellow-minister's wives for a few days.  The children played in the newly opened water park and had a great time.  It was funny to see the children Boo's age.  It took them nearly the entire week to start talking to each other.  The women pulled some late nights catching up too--and it didn't take us as long to warm up either.

On the way back, we stopped to visit my sister and nephews.  Had a nice visit with them over the space of about one and a half days, and then drove on to a place about 3 hours from home where we spent a night with friends who formerly attended our church. We had a great time with them also!

It was a great trip, and while I am glad to be sleeping in my own bed at night, I have lots of happy memories.  Now I am back to the "too much to do, too little time" schedule of summer.

That's it in a nutshell.  You now know where I've been lately.  With limited internet access on the trip, I just didn't have time to blog.

We went to Iowa last week.  Left home on Monday, and got back on Saturday.  For a couple of days I had no computer access.  The rest of the time, I was either too tired from driving, or too busy visiting to blog.  We had a great time with friends!  One of the highlights of the trip was getting to see my friend, MishinIA, who was so sick in December.  She looks great!--even better because I was afraid (back in December) that I might never get to see her again.

We spent most of a day together.  I really enjoyed getting to know her kids, and so did our kids.  The children played really well together.

Other highlights were going to the Science Center in Des Moines--counts as a field trip for the children, and getting together with the minister and his wife from the church there.  And of course, spending time with the friends we stayed with.

On Friday, on the trip home, Belle came down with a bug.  Fortunately her throwing up was done in the hotel bathroom and not the van.  She is better from that now, but seems to have a cold.  She wasn't feeling well again tonight.  The rest of us seemed to have mild versions of the same bug, but none of us are really sick.

Today was spent mostly catching up on laundry and on a trip to the dentist.  (As if we hadn't already spent enough in the past week!)  My husband and I both needed fillings replaced.  I had a slight problem in that the anesthetic wasn't adequate at first.  Ow!  The drilling sure hurt.  Fortunately I could communicate that, and he gave me some more anesthetic.  Now my jaw is just a bit sore.  Hopefully that will go away soon.   I've only had two cavities so far in my entire life, and interestingly enough, they were found when I had dental insurance....  I've since had to have both of them re-filled--when I didn't have insurance.

The other interesting thing was that I didn't miss the computer much at all.  Now I'm home, and swamped in email (I really am going to take myself off some lists very soon).  I like to keep up with blogs, but I just don't have time to read everything. 

Now I really need to try and figure out how much of our lessons we will attempt tomorrow.  I still have laundry to finish and other things to catch up on.  Trying not to be overwhelmed....

I had a legitimate reason for not blogging this week.  We went away for almost three days.  The previous two were busy with dinner guests one night and getting ready to leave the next day.

We had a lovely time with the Grandparents, and with the dear Auntie whom the children had not seen for something like 2 1/2 years.  Auntie I and Uncle N work overseas.  Auntie has come home a bit ahead of Uncle, who has stayed to finish up some work, and will be following in a month.  We look forward to seeing him also.

We went down on Wednesday morning and spent the afternoon (it is a three hour drive) with Grandma and Grandpa.  When we go down, we stay with them.  On Thursday we went to the home of Auntie's parents and had a lovely lunch and visit with them. 

Auntie I. brought lots of presents.  I will soon have some photos to post of the beautiful bedspread she brought us and the lovely Pashmina scarf/shawl she gave to me.  She brought Belle a beautiful outfit complete with shoes in the style worn in the country in which she works.  I've discovered that Belle is very photogenic, but as I don't post photos of the children, you will not be able to see her on my blog.  She had a great time dressing up in her new outfit.  Auntie also dressed her in clothes that she wears when she is there.

The highlight for me was seeing Belle's actions and face when she read the title of the book that Auntie brought her.  Belle has never been enthusiastic about books because she has had so much trouble learning to read.  However, when we were in Scotland we bought her a set of books on CD by one of my favorite childhood authors--Enid Blyton.  She loves them.  Auntie brought her the books.  Once she figured out the title she suddenly held the book to her chest with a look of pure joy!  And she is highly motivated to read it, on her own!  She was so proud when we got home that she had read the first page to herself in the car, that she told her grandparents when we called them.

Boo's favorite gift was the clay elephant "piggy" bank.  He has named it "Tembo".  Of course no one could let him take it home empty, so it has a few coins in it already.  It has pride of place on our mantel in the living room, since he has no shelf big enough to keep it safely in his room.

As all good times away come to an end, we left Friday morning to return home, via Costco of course.  The nearest Costco to us is inconveniently two hours away, so we make the most of our trips away.  I hadn't been to Costco since October.  We were out of everything we usually buy there.

Now it is back to reality--cleaning house today, church with dinner guests to follow tomorrow, and back to the books on Monday.  Oh well, spring is on the way, and so is our "local" homeschool conference.

Several of you have asked about our upcoming trip.  I don't like to give too many details but I can tell you a bit.

We are a "blended" family--culturally.  My husband is from Scotland--you only have to listen to him to know.  His mother and sister still live there.  His father passed away last October.  The special thing about everything in the past year and a half was that they celebrated their Golden Wedding in the spring of last year.  We were there, and had a wonderful time.  It was the last time I was able to see my Father-in-law, and the last time the children saw their Grandpa.

This trip will be the first for them with Grandpa no longer there.  I went over for the funeral, and my husband went when his father became ill.  Granny wants to see her only grandchildren again.  So away we go.

While we are away I will not have computer access, so you will know I am gone by my absence on the blog.  I am really looking forward to the trip.  I love my Mother and Sister -in-law, and am looking forward to spending time with them.  I also love to visit Scotland.  The country is so full of history!

Now if only I didn't have to pack to go....  Who else loves to travel but hates to pack?

A week ago Friday, when we were still in NC, several of the ladies went to the local laundromat to do our laundry.  Several of our husbands, and my son, went up to the lake to go fishing.  Sometime during the morning we got a phone call from one of the husbands, saying that they had heard a bear up around the lake.  They apparently did not see it though, and on Saturday I found out why.  There had been bear sightings in the area, so we were on the alert.

Saturday afternoon, another Mom and my kids and I decided to hike up to the lake.  It wasn't a long walk from where we were parked, and the lake was beautiful--fully enclosed with trees (possibly the reason why no one had seen the bear the day before) and clear enough to see fish from the bridge and floating docks.  We hadn't been up there ten minutes before I heard a noise that I had never heard before--a strange moaning/grunting noise--and it was LOUD!  I looked at Boo and he looked at me, and I said "Is that what you heard yesterday?"  He said that it was, which immediately gave Belle a fright.  We walked back to the little bridge at the top of the trail and I took out my binoculars and scanned the area.  I couldn't see anything through the trees surrounding the lake, and we didn't hear any other noise such as the crashing of underbrush, but we were still scared enough to hightail it back down the trail!  Belle was in Mommy-mode, bossing us back down the trail while shivering with fright.

On Monday we left NC and traveled through VA to WV where we stayed the night.  Tuesday morning we drove to PA where we met a couple that my husband had met online.  They are very nice and we had a delightful time, visiting with them and going for walks in their town.

Wednesday early afternoon took us to the home of TeacherPerson and her family.  I never dreamed that we could hit it off as well IRL as we did online!  We had a lovely time visiting and meeting folk in their community, as we accompanied them to a local event.  It was hard to leave.

While at their house, Boo ran face-first into a frisbee game and caught the frisbee with his eyebrow.  He is now sporting a black eye--which wasn't as bad as I thought it could be--with the swelling and bruising confined to his upper eyelid.  We are very very thankful that the frisbee didn't hit him right in the eye!  Apart from the pain at the time, and some that night, he hasn't complained at all.

Thursday afternoon we drove to NY, and Friday we drove home.

Today I have spent the day doing laundry and putting stuff away.  Finally the house looks picked up enough that I won't be fretting all day tomorrow at what still needs to be done.  I am looking forward to the Lord's Day tomorrow, and to fellowshipping with folk in our church.  I do hope that Boo's cold will be well enough that we can all go.  And I plan for breakfast to include those yummy blueberry muffins that come from the mix that TeacherPerson gave me!

That is the story of  the end of our vacation. 

We arrived home at about 6 this evening--tired and a bit sneezy.  I hope that the sneezy-ness is only due to allergies (I haven't taken any meds for the past couple of days) and not to the cold that Boo picked up along the way. 

Now I am facing the contents of the van which we unloaded into our living room.  I feel like it will take a week to catch up.  Hopefully a good night of sleep will make a difference.

We had a wonderful time with both old and new friends!  I intend to blog more about our experiences when I'm a bit more rested.  Just for the record though, we traveled through 10 States on this trip--and at least three of those were new to me.  That was an experience in itself.

Belle did her first performance in front of a room full of people and carried it off like a pro!  I am so proud of her!

The event was a talent show held at our church family camp.  Belle and six other little girls sang a song from the Sound of Music.  Each of the girls had a line to sing on their own and they all did so well!  I know I wasn't the only proud Mommy in the group.

On another note entirely (ha-ha):  I didn't realize that when we were told that we would be staying in the mountains in NC that they really meant mountains!  My hips hurt, my feet hurt, and I have shinsplints--all from walking up and down really steep hills--just to get to the dining hall and back!! 

I think I am showing my age.  I grew up going to a school on an escarpment.  We walked up and down hills all the time.  Having knee surgery at the age of 14 (or was it 15?) was the only problem I ever had with the hills in those days. 

Think of me on Sunday--downhill to dining room, back uphill to room, up another hill to church, back down to dining room, up to room, uphill to church, down to room, down to dining room, back up to room and uphill to church again (I think--I can't remember if we are having the evening sing service in our building or at the chapel).  My only consolation is that I didn't bring my heels--and my sandals just have a slightly raised heel.

Part one of our vacation was wonderful!  TN is a beautiful state, and we had a marvelous time with our friends there.  The children played so well with their daughter that they could have all been siblings.

Now we are in NC at a very comfortable conference center.  The men are in meetings today, and the children and I are lounging in our room at the moment.  We plan to take a walk of exploration in a little while.
I was delighted to discover that I still have internet access, and can blog!

Not too much to describe at the moment.  We went swimming while in TN, and basically just enjoyed the company of our friends.

Today we will explore the area and do things in our room.  This afternoon there is an activity planned for the children.  I'm just glad for the nice place to stay.

We had a good trip down to our friends' place 3 states south of home.  The first day, the timing went very well, and we had a few very fun hours at Cabelas where we shopped and ate dinner.  We all came away with a couple of things--among them a set of binoculars for me that is a bit better than the pair I had (those will eventually go to Boo.)

The interesting thing that happened on the way is that the glass on my drivers side mirror started to shake after lunch.  I wondered what the matter was, and worried that we might be having a tire problem at first.  Then realizing that the rest of the car was not shaking, I figured that something was wrong with the mirror.  Sure enough, eventually there was a "clunk" as the mirror hit the van on the way off and splintered into a million pieces on the freeway behind me.  Fortunately there was a large enough gap between us and the cars behind, that I don't think the glass hit anyone else.
So I spent the rest of the trip that day craning my neck to look behind me every time I changed lanes.

The next day our start was delayed as we looked for a replacement piece of glass.  All we could find was a cut to size piece of plastic that would be a temporary fix.  It was better than nothing.  At least you could see cars coming up to your left as you drove.

We arrived just before dinner time at our friends house.  Our friend is the man who did our wedding 11 years ago.  It was my first opportunity to meet his lovely wife and children.  We are having a great visit.

This afternoon we took the children swimming, and they had a great time.  Boo and Belle are both becoming more comfortable in the water.

Now I am off for a cup of tea.  Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!

We drove down to the city yesterday in horrible cold and blowy weather with a mixture of rain, sleet and snow for a good part of the trip.  It was so cold, and my arms are sore from fighting the steering wheel in a cross-wind with gusts of up to 70 km/hr.

We took Mom and Dad out for a curry supper last night.  It was very good.  Then we spent a pleasant evening chatting about Mom's current writing projects.  She has written a book (the one in my sidebar), and is now taking an advanced writing course by correspondence. (at the age of 72)  While we chatted, I copied files of old slides from my childhood and before onto a disk, for me.  My sister, Photogal, has spent many hours scanning those slides and getting them onto disks for Mom and Dad.  Thanks for all your hard work.  Now I have to figure out the best way to view those on my computer.

This morning I spent my time downtown getting the business done.  We navigated the city by bus and subway, and having made the same trip two weeks ago, we (husband and I) were able to go without Dad as our guide.  Mom and Dad looked after the children for us.  Then it was home to them for lunch, and back in the van for a much smoother 3 hour trip home.

I am tired tonight--too tired to prep school for tomorrow.  My feeling is that we will take it as it comes.  We have haircutting appointments in the afternoon (desperately needed), so it will be a short day anyway.

We are shocked and saddened by the Virginia Tech shooting.  It was all over the papers here today too.

I think I was going to say something else, but I forgot what it was.

We're just back this evening from a trip down to the big City.  We spent the night with my parents, and the morning at the American Consulate, getting Boo's passport renewal application in.  My passport also expires this month, but the paperwork said I need to mail it to the States to renew.  So I didn't take it with me.  I was kicking myself when the lady told me I could do it there--my paperwork was three hours away--and that the turnaround time is about two weeks.  The turnaround time for mailing it--about ten weeks!  So the plan is for another trip down about two weeks to do my application---hopefully there will be no snags, or my passport will expire.

Now we're home--to a very cold house.  Did I mention we have an oil leak somewhere?  We've turned off the oil to the furnace, so now the furnace isn't running, and being away, we haven't had a fire in the woodstove for two days.  The house temp was 54 degrees when we got home.  Now that the woodstove is going, it has risen to almost 60 degrees in the dining room.  It isn't that warm upstairs yet.  And I'm sitting by the window where my computer is plugged in, blowing on my hands to warm them.

I'm also hobbling about, due to a fungal infection in my feet.  Looks horrible, itches like crazy, and hurts to walk on.  I have treated it for weeks, and it was getting worse, so I went to the doctor on Friday evening--wonderful to have an urgent care in our tiny ER in the evenings!  Now I am using an expensive prescription, and I think it has improved ever so slightly.  But my toe is still very swollen, and feels at times like I tied a string around it.  It doesn't help that I've done a lot of walking the past few days.

I really enjoyed the homeschool conference I attended on Saturday.  I thought it was the best one I have attended so far.  I managed to make it through with only spending the price of a magazine subscription.  I have trouble with sticker-shock up here.  Homeschool books are expensive!  I'm still reeling at the price of a book on training your daughters to be keepers at home-- $99.00!!!  It was a beautiful book, but honestly I couldn't justify that at all.  There was a CDRom of the book for $42, but that still seems like a lot.

Well we're back home to much less snow, but still more than we saw anywhere on our trip.  It rained almost all of our last three hours drive.  Our basement is wet, but probably not as wet as it could be, since we asked a friend to check on it and sweep water to the drain if the puddles got too big.  Our basement is not finished, and the water leaks through the walls.  Such is life in an old house.

I've waded through stacks of mail, done a bit of unpacking and putting away of perishables from our Costco visit.  I still haven't caught up on email despite having taken my computer with me.  Tomorrow will be an organizing, laundry and catch-up kind of day.  Friday may be much the same.  I'll be happy if I can just get school ready for Monday.

I am exhausted!  I think I slept the whole night through on maybe only two of the nights that we were away.  Last night was especially bad.  I kept waking up and having trouble getting back to sleep.  Tonight in my own bed maybe it will be better, and I don't have to get up so early in the morning.  I drove for four hours yesterday and three today.  My husband drove the rest.

The kids seem way over-tired, but both are having trouble settling down tonight.  Hopefully they will sleep in tomorrow.  Then I think they will have fun re-discovering their toys.

My favourite purchase of the trip was a programmable coffee-maker with an insulated carafe.  We were able to get a refurbished one for much less than the price of a new one.  The problem I am having just now is that it doesn't fit under my kitchen cabinets.  Aaaargh!  It has a smaller footprint than the coffee-maker I was using, but sticking out on the counter, it still uses a lot of space.  I think my other position of choice would be on the trolley in the dining room, but the disadvantages to that is that are that 1) there is no outlet within easy reach, and 2) the floor in that corner dips down so badly that it would take some doing to level the trolley in the corner.   I will address this problem further when I have had some sleep.

All in all though, it was a great time away, a good break from home routines, a great visit with friends, and for the most part, it was relaxing too.  I hope that now we can get settled back home and into our routines and feel better for having the time away.

Well, I am now in a house with four men (including my husband) and two children, who are at the moment, peacefully sleeping.  The gentlemen have found another room to visit in, and I am sitting comfortably ensconced in a recliner with my feet up and my laptop on my knee.  Aah, bliss, comfort and delight!

Tomorrow the men will be involved in meetings all day, and the children and I will be amusing ourselves here.   The weather promises to be yucky, so there is not likely to be much outdoors time.  I have access to a television--something we don't have at home.   Hopefully I will be able to find some interesting and edifying programming.  Somehow I think that edifying and television don't go together--but I am hoping for some Discovery channel stuff or something like that.

Belle has discovered Sudoku.  She had two American dollars collected from two birthdays (one of her Great Aunts sends $1 every year) and was excited to be able to spend them.  We found a children's Sudoku book for $2 and she spent quite a bit of time today, happily working the puzzles.  Boxes of four make them doable for her.

Boo was a bit at loose ends today, although he spent some time reading.

Yesterday we got together with another family and visited the zoo.  The first time Boo has been to the zoo in his life.  We had a great time, and saw some animals that even I (who has seen many animals in the wilds of Africa) have never seen before.  I haven't yet looked to see whether I managed to get some good photographs.

Well, my cross-stitch is sitting beside me and I have time for some guilt-free (guilt as in "I really should be doing something else") stitching, so I'm away.

Tomorrow we are planning a trip to the city to visit my parents and my brother and his wife.  They are visiting from farther west in Canada.  We are planning to drive down tomorrow morning, shop and visit, and come back early Tuesday.  DH has a funeral to conduct Tuesday afternoon.  I am looking forward to seeing my family very much.  We have spent so much time apart over the years that I relish any time I have with them now.

Those who know me from earlier in my blog may remember that I am an MK who basically grew up away from home--boarding school from age 6 1/2 to grade 12, apart from furlough years.  After I graduated from highschool, I went to college when my parents were still in Africa.  I haven't lived with my parents for more than about 6 weeks at a time since I was 18.  When I finished college, I settled down on the West Coast of the States, and lived there for 12 years--away from most of my family (although I do have relatives there with whom I am very close).  It is wonderful now to live only 3 hours away from my parents!  But my siblings are scattered -  in two other countries besides Canada--and Canada itself is a big country.

Well, I have rambled on enough for now.