HeatherA Writes Stuff

We are having the loveliest of times this week, vacationing on a lake in New Hampshire. The lake is actually a pond, but it's big enough that we did not successfully cross or circumnavigate it  during an hour-long boating excusion this afternoon, so let's call it a lake. Honestly, it was more due to our inefficiency and lack of skill, but I still don't mind calling it a lake. Hell, I was at one of the Finger Lakes last weekend, which one of my traveling companions called "the ocean" all weekend, so it works. I am out on the deck now, overlooking the lake, enjoying the view and the breeze. Matt is out on a kayak and the boys are inside playing Minecraft. Obviously I would not (and did not) choose to be inside on a day like today, but it is vacation and we can all do what we want. We have nowhere to be and nothing particular to do. I love that the boys are old enough to allow for this level of freedom. We are taking vacation for the fourth summer in a row with M...

I started a new blog a couple of months ago to explain to the world a bit about our homeschooling situation and activities. I've been hiding out there more than here. But enough about that--it's summertime. In principle, we are done with homeschool. The boys are slated to start public school in the fall (insofar as the end of August is the fall). I've been making effort to get to know more families in our neighborhood so that we'll all start to feel more at home here, especially the kids. I have work and I'm basically fine by myself, but I know from experience that the boys need at least one or two good friends to make it all work. I signed the kids up for our town's neighborhood 4th of July relay races, which was good fun. My kids range from not especially athletic to really not athletic (depending on the kid and the activity), so it is to the other kids' credit that our neighborhood won second place overall. Good thing too--it turns out some of the other ...