Swimming, Baseball and False Alarms

Making it through our summer bucket list has been challenging this year. The almost daily non-stop rain has put a real damper on outdoor plans. We are entering the last week of our summer vacation and we are trying harder to fit in activities around the raindrops. We never made it to the free movie camp at the theater or to a single library program. We had a good summer, anyway. The kids loved theater camp and they did two rounds of swimming lessons (two weeks each round). It has rained on them during lessons three times (no lighting). We are just about done with our Around the World in 80 Days summer unit study. It turned into primarily cooking and DVD documentaries over the last few weeks.

This week we ~

Baseball ~ The kids really wanted to see a baseball game at our local field. Our baseball team is a "Class A" team and are doing well this year. Many of their games have been cancelled and postponed due to rain, but we finally got to attend one Monday night. Baseball is my favorite spectator sport. I enjoy the atmosphere of the stadium and I actually understand what is going on most of the time. I also appreciate that baseball teaches patience to kids. Patience is one of those big character flaws lacking in American society so I am often on the look out for how to increase it in my crew. They scheduled a seven inning game because they are trying to do so many make up games. It was just the perfect length for my kids. Our team won; the weather was delightful for a change; and the kids got to stay up late (but not too late). It was a win-win evening.

Swimming ~ The water is much warmer this second round of swimming. That is a huge relief to the kids. Tom Sawyer is managing to stay in the pool for the whole hour. Due to his cerebral palsy, being able to stay in the water for the full lesson is a first for him. I love how much the physical therapy is helping him. He hates doing the exercises, but now that I know what is wrong with his musculature, it is easier to trick him into doing activities that help his core muscles. Goldilocks is doing really well in Level 5. The non-stop lap swimming is great for her. Helping her use up her energy is a big challenge for me every day. They are all making great progress this summer.

A Birthday Party ~ We attended a party for a nine year old friend, whom we have known since he was in diapers. There is nothing like a birthday party to remind you of the quick passage of time. I am so glad to have these years with my kids. I feel so blessed and privileged to be able to stay home with them. So many mom's actually are craving the sight of the yellow school bus right now. I am not one of them!

False Alarms ~ For the last few months we have been awoken by our smoke alarms going off between 2 am and 4 am. Sometimes it happens several times in a week and other weeks we get a break from the nuisance alarms. They are all wired together and it is really deafening when they go off. The electrician, our contractor, the power company and the fire chief have all been baffled. My Mother (who is a research queen) thinks it might be a condensation issue. Condensation buildup takes place mostly during the night. We know our home is too moist due to the endless rain and lack of air conditioning. In fact, the humidity in our house is almost unbearable as I sit here typing at 8 in the morning. With my Mom's suggestion, we ran a dehumidifier in the hallway all last night. It did improve the humidity, but put out a giant amount of heat and ran our sleeping areas up into the 90s!! That is not going to work to solve our problem. It did keep the smoke alarms from going off, though. I think we are going to have to break down and figure out where we can put an A/C unit or two (even if it is not the ideal location in the house). The ideal place for one to be located does not have adequate wiring to accommodate it, and it is not in the budget to make such wiring happen.

Last But Not Least ~ The kids all earned their books from the library and Barnes & Noble reading programs this week. They also started planning their goals for what they want to learn during the first month or two of school. Little Red Riding Hood wants to learn to cook breakfast food, so she made fried bread with eggs in the middle this week. Yum! Tim is really enjoying his day program for adults with brain injuries. He went four days this week and enjoyed three field trips with the program. I think we've finally found a good place for him.

Blessings, Dawn