The Vote

Will these flags still fly side by side after tomorrow?

The Machine

...that is life.

So school is back into full swing, which means that my life now revolves around 11 six year olds. You heard right, I only have 11 students this year. Our school was rezoned and we lost a lot of students. Most of the kids who are now zoned for our school go to private schools. We lost two teachers this year and will lose another two next year. Enough about that. If you want to check out my school website, including pictures of my classroom click here.

Well, Madeleine has complained that I am not keeping her up-to-date on home happenings with this blog. So I took a walk around the house and took some random pictures to show just how uneventful things are here. Here's the tour:

Caleb has been hit hard by the ragweed this week and has a regime of prescription and OTC meds to take, on top of his allergy shots. He missed two days of rowing and one of school this week.

 

The basil is about done for this year. Chicken has her eye on the last few leaves.

Caleb still thinks everything should be dropped in the kitchen, including deodorant. Some things never change.

Lizzie spends all her time pretending to be a fur rug.

Mr. Socks hangs out with Eric and me, watching our Spanish show. It's impossible to watch and work at the same time, since you have to keep up with the subtitles. On the plus side, I'm picking up phrases like "los ciento" and "por favor". I'm sure I've completely screwed up the spelling but you get the idea. I've also started being able to tell when the subtitles don't exactly match what the characters are saying. But by no means would I be able to follow along without the subtitles.

You can decide if this update was worth it or not. In all honesty, most of the time we are on our computers doing work of some kind or another. Not a swash-buckling life of adventure.

Growing Up

Last month Sadie turned 21! Wow! We celebrated early because we knew we wouldn't see her on her actual birthday.

She is now a senior in college and taking her final semester of classes to complete her bachelor's degree in accounting. After Christmas she will complete an internship with an accounting firm before graduating. She has already interviewed with two firms in Atlanta for her internship. They are not allowed to offer her a position until September (Auburn sets this requirement so students can look at all offers at one time and make a decision) but both told her that they were going to. Furthermore, they both also told her that the offer of an internship would also lead to an offer of employment after she completes her graduate work. So as of right now she is looking at two job offers! Good news!!!

But there's more. After completing her bachelor's degree, Sadie is going to begin graduate school (for 3 semesters) in order to complete the requirement to take the CPA exam. She has taken the GMAT for admissions and her advisor told her that she should be admitted and that she should also be able to have all of her graduate tuition paid while working her current campus job (which would also pay her a healthy stipend on top of covering tuition). Great news!!!

We have always promised the kids that if they finish college we will buy them a car. Although it's a little early, we went out and got Sadie hers this weekend. The combination of the wonderful model year-end clearance prices and the fact that she'll need something reliable to drive around Atlanta in a few months helped us make the leap a bit early. She loves her current 2001 Toyota Corolla, with 200,000 miles, but I'm sure she'll like the 2014 just as much.

Words cannot express the feelings of pride and excitement I have for Sadie as she starts this next phase of her life! Almost all grown up.

First Day Photobombed

Caleb started his high school career last week. Madeleine photobombed his first day photo. Yes, she hid in the pantry and waited to pop out just in time to be in the picture. That girl! We'll miss her next week when she returns to school.

Caleb seemed to like his classes. I can't remember all of them. They changed the scheduling this year, so he has eight classes all year instead of four each semester. I think he has German, geometry, physics, personal finance, English, principles of engineering, and a couple of other things.

2014-15, here we go!

Summer Flowers

                                 

In an effort to fill the dirt bed next to our front walk, I planted three hydrangea bushes. I am very pleased with how they are doing. They start out creamy with blue tinges and then darken into a violet color. I have a drip hose around them for watering purposes because I read that they can get a fungus on their leaves if they are watered from above.

Dinner is Served

                                 

 About a year ago I started getting Ladies Home Journal. I still haven't figured out who signed me up for the subscription. In the meantime, LHJ has gone out of business and the remainder of my subscription is being filled with other magazines. This month I got an issue of Parents. I wasn't too thrilled since I've moved beyond the stages of parenthood that are covered in the magazine. But then I found the food section. There is a section that has a grocery list for a week's worth of meals, along with the recipes. I was a little hesitant, since the main ingredient for the week is quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) and I had never even heard of it.

So far this week we have had Quinoa Salmon Salad, Peachy Pork Chops, and Quinoa Patties. We still have Chicken & Potato Salad and Fresh Tomato Pasta to look forward to. Everything has been delicious! Surprisingly so. The key to making the meals quickly was the weekend prep ahead of time. I cooked the quinoa, cut corn off the cob, prepared fresh green beans, and stored it all in pre-measured containers in the fridge. I could use a year's worth of these meals in a cookbook. Let me know if you see one!

Traditions

             

Some traditions are started deliberately and others by accident. Granny kept pictures of her kids from their senior year in high school on her dining room wall. Grandma M. had a large photo of her kids on her dining room wall. I am turning it into a tradition with these photos of the kids in my dining room. Maybe they'll continue the tradition in the next generation. 

This room is much brighter during the day, but I was so excited to get the pictures back today and wanted to share as soon as I got them up!