Summer routine & update

• Wake up

• Read scriptures

• Check email/blogs/facebook

• Breakfast

• Shower/dress

• Watch kids play Wii or morning cartoons & get ready for piano students

• Teach piano (currently 19 students)

• Lunch

• Get the kids to do their chores & piano practicing

• Run any necessary errands

• Swim

• Wii or a movie while I get a few things done, OR read a chapter or two of whichever book we're on (I read outloud to the kids)

• Dinner

• Play with Juno

• Kids: bedtime. Hubs & me: Rockband 2 (now we have it too! Yay!)

(I am working on "exercise" being included in my morning routine but so far that hasn't quite happened.)

The kids had two weeks of swimming lessons right after school got out (at which they learned a LOT in a short amount of time for a very reasonable price and I'll give you the name & number of their teacher if you email me; I would highly recommend her!) so we had that every morning in addition to all of the above. Remarkably, even though we haven't been "out" much, the kids are getting along really well, sharing, doing their chores when asked, going to bed on time, etc. As I may have told you before, I'm a bit of a homebody and am perfectly content to spent days in a row in and around my house. In fact yesterday on our way back from a trip to Goodwill (the kids got rid of nearly half of their stuffed animal collection!!) I stopped to get the mail and realized I wasn't sure how many days it had been since I'd last gotten it. Maybe three??

The kids & I read the first Harry Potter book a couple of weeks ago, and when we had finished it we watched the movie. Some parts of the movie are a little scary for the younger kids, so we skip a couple of scenes when we've watched it since, but they love the story. I haven't read the rest of the books but I'm told that each is more "mature" than the last so we're taking a break from Harry Potter (but I'll preview the rest of the books myself and determine which are okay to read to the kids) and we're currently reading the last 3 of the 7 Chronicles of Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. Last summer we read the first four; through Prince Caspian. The writing style of C.S. Lewis is at times hard for my kids to follow and I end up stopping to explain things quite often, but the stories are wonderful and we are all enjoying them.

My ♥camera♥ has been repaired and shipped back to me, good as new! However, since I went almost 3 months without it, I am out of the habit of taking pictures regularly. We do have a few vacation plans this summer, at which I will definitely take pictures. Please pardon my lack of posting lately, but with nearly every day being the aforementioned schedule, it hasn't seemed too exciting around here! But I am enjoying the kids being out of school.