So Far In July

Yesterday we enjoyed a fantastic 4th of July celebration.  We began the day bright and early by running the Tupelo Running Club's annual Green Street Mile.  The race began at 7:00 AM, but we arrived at 6:30 in order to have time to register and warm up.  The race participants park at the finish line area, and then walk or jog 1 mile up the road to the starting line.  I actually warmed up 1.6 miles, and I wished that I had time to warm up more.

All seven of us ran the Green St. Mile, and everyone was happy with their time.  This was my first time to race a mile---in the past I have either pushed the double jogging stroller or ran with Leah and/or Sam.  My friend Scott graciously agreed to run with Sam, and Leah is fine to run by herself.  So, I ran! And I was happy with my time too!

After the race I bought groceries while my hard-working daughters prepared a delicious lunch!  We invited Scott and his family over for lunch, and we had a fun time!  As usual, when the Doles come over there is much laughter and usually hymn singing as well.

After the Doles left, I was spontaneous!  Jimmy asked me if I wanted to go see Monsters University--in about 15 minutes--and I said YES.  So I told all the children, excitement ensued, and we all went to see the movie, in 3D.  It was fun!

So Far In July

• We hosted a young man from the preacher training in our home for the weekend.  He was a pleasure to have around and to get to know.  We also invited the two teachers of the preacher training for supper, two Saturdays in a row, and that was such a fun time as well.  The men enjoyed a tour of Clay's forge and seeing his handiwork, and they all had a blast riding four-wheelers on our trails.  We made many fun memories last weekend!
• I had a semi-nervous breakdown earlier in the week when I realized the length of my summer-to-do-list, and how the summer is rapidly slipping away!  This list coupled with the fact that it looked like something exploded in my storage room and my schoolroom just about put me over the edge.  I had a therapy session with my good friend Heather on Tuesday morning, and then I was good to go!  I came home and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned in my storage room and schoolroom, and with my girls awesome help, we have it looking good as new!
• I have been plugging away at my race training.  I cycle through being discouraged about all that I have to do and how in the world can I even imagine trying to train for a goal pace for the 14.2 Miler, and being confident that I CAN DO IT.  My mental status concerning running and training varies from day to day.  We will see how it all pans out on September 1. (BTW, this race is on a Sunday, and as a rule, our family does not race on Sundays--so we don't miss our worship service--but the Tupelo 14.2 Miler begins at 5:00 AM, and I am always finished in plenty of time to get home to get ready for Sunday School which begins at 9:30.)
• I tried to recall my focus word for 2013.  Sad, isn't it?  I must not be focusing on it anymore since I can't even remember what it is!  I will have to look at my January archives of this blog to see what my focus word is supposed to be.  However, I am choosing a new focus word (and it may be my original one!), and that is SIMPLIFY.  I am not setting any concrete rules for simplifying, but each day, each challenge or task that I am presented with, I am going to consider how can I simplify this.  Simplifying my life right now may involve cutting some activity, or scaling back my involvement.  I am still pondering how to simplify, and what I want to simplify.
• I have begun my 2013-2014 school planning.  I cleaned out the children's work buckets from the previous school year.  I averaged grades.  I filed samples of their work.  Now I am ready to tackle the upcoming school year.  I plan to order all of my schoolbooks and supplies for the upcoming school year in the next day or two.  I don't really have that much to order.  Now that I have graduated one student, I have all of the curriculum that I need--I just have to order consumable items.  I now own all of the Sonlight Cores PreK through Core 100, plus select books from Cores 200, 300, 400, and the upper level literature courses.  My biggest purchase this year will be two DVD courses from IEW, one for Julie and one for Clay.

I think that is all for July so far.  Oh, I finally finished my homemaking binder, and I am so happy with it!  I will take pictures of it and share the details soon!