Ketchup, ketchup, ketchup... (now I want some fries!!!)
Where to start? How about with KMan - he's 8 y'all. EIGHT. I have no idea how that happened, but it did. He loves Minecraft and, well, Minecraft. haha! His favorite part of Minecraft seems to be coding, so I think that might be a segue into learning more about computer programming & such this year. He's very into American Ninja Warrior stuff (and he's actually pretty good, being part monkey & all). He goes to a gym once a week to work on his monkey skills & he just gets better & better every week! I can't wait to see how good he is at that stuff in a few more years! He still enjoys Legos & Bionicles, but not as much as he used to, even just a year ago. He has really found a desire to be with daddy & be like daddy lately. He gets so very happy when he gets to do special things with him. One of their favorite things to do together is fossil hunting. KMan actually has a good eye for finding cool rocks & fossils, so it stays pretty exciting for him. On his birthday we took him to Six Flags, where he rode his first roller coaster (plus a few more). We spent the day with just him (left little brother with his grandparents & Auntie), and he loved having all the attention. It was a HOT, exhausting day, but we all really enjoyed it. He has a birthday party this weekend & he's really looking forward to his last birthday celebration of the year. Seriously though, he's 8!!
Sweetiepie Sparkles is 3. Also pretty crazy to believe! He has been showing his independent side & a bit of his rebellious attitude lately, but he's still a pretty sweet kid most of the time. He loves action figures, Legos, Bionicles, playing the Wii, PlayDoh, coloring, playing in water, and cuddling with mom & dad. He's still quite attached to mommy, but he's starting to latch on to daddy at times too. He is pretty funny & while he's not as fearless as his brother, he's still pretty adventurous.
Both boys (and our neighbor friends) went to VBS this year. I volunteered with the Smilemakers so that KMan would have me with him this year (last year was a nightmare), and he did pretty well. He even asked to pray for his class one day, which is such a huge deal! Hopefully next year he'll be able to be in a class without me... (thought I thoroughly enjoyed volunteering & will do so again!) I think we've had a pretty fun summer so far. We've been to the beach, we've gone swimming & played at splash pads, played late into the night with neighborhood friends, and taken a couple of trips up to Dallas to see friends & family. We are starting school back up on 8/31, so we still have lots of summer fun ahead of us!
As for hubby & I... well, I feel like I haven't had lots of time to just sit & relax, but I'm not complaining. We stay so very busy & there is always a pile of laundry & a sink of dishes waiting for me. Always. Hubby is just super busy with work & he finally gets to take over the full territory on 8/1, so I imagine he'll be even busier! We sat down this past weekend & wrote up a budget & we're now using the envelope system for our normal expenses. It's going to be a big adjustment (especially grocery shopping!), but we want to chip away at our mortgage so we can be debt free. How great that feeling will be! So many things to look forward to with no debt, my favorite being all the traveling we'll be able to do! We made it through The Year Without (follow the link if you didn't know us then, we were CRAZY), so we can certainly do this! As Dave Ramsey says, "Live like no one else today, so you can live like no one else tomorrow". I can't wait to live like no one else tomorrow! I also spent a lot of time planning our first month of school, and I'm excited to get started. KMan will be doing 2nd grade work until we take our winter break, then (if all goes well) he will be promoted to 3rd grade. Really, grade levels are kinda sill in homeschool, but if he should ever want to go back to (or if we ever have to put him back in) public school, he will be with the "correct" age group.
Everything else in our lives is good. We're settled into the house (it's been a year now!), and loving our neighborhood. We've mostly got a new normal down, with the homeschool thing, and all being in the same house 24/7/365. Life is certainly hard at times, but for the most part, we're all good.
