Cherries and The Purple Gold

Summertime.  A List.

1)  I went on a trip.  Sans David and the children.  Can you believe it?  I can’t.  I went with fellow teachers at the the school THAT I NOW TEACH AT to get all “professionally developed” and such.  Teacher stuff.  It’s kind of my life now.

As luck would have it, I found out I am most definitely teaching kindergarten AND the other kindergarten teacher went to the professional development  with me.  And even though I am like, oh, about 7 years her senior, she tolerates me and we seem to get along swimmingly.

The conference was during my anniversary, so here is a picture of she and I on David and I’s wedding anniversary.

She is a bit more smiley than David.

She is great and I think we are going to be epic kindergarten teachers together.

2)  Yes!  David and I!  Wedded bliss for 14 years and counting!

14!

Go us!

3)  Cats are my all time favorite animals we have gotten since we moved to Ruralville.  They are so easy!  You go outside and see them-only when you want to.  You don’t have to take them camping.  And they visit you when you pull weeds!

Here is Mrs. Poppers and three of her kittens.

We are keeping the lighter gray one and giving the black and striped ones to David’s parents.

Cats!

And we still have Mr. Poppers, but he is too cool to be a part of his cat family.  Of which he hath no relation to.

4)  Cherries!  You may or may not recall that my parents have a huge cherry tree.  And last year, we spent hours picking cherries.

Hours.

And more hours.

Then we had a pitting party. Not to be confused with a pity party, mind you.  Although have you ever pitted numerous amounts of cherries.

Tedious.

Whilst we were pitting said cherries, we noticed several worms swimming amongst our cherries.  We were so committed to these cherries, we tried to convince ourselves that we didn’t care about eating worms and were going to keep the cherries anyways.

Thankfully, we came to our senses.

This year, my parents had the cherries sprayed in preparation.  We were ready for some cherry action!  David even brought his Bobcat along to ensure he would pick a plethora of cherry goodness.

David:1

Cherry Tree: 0

5)  Our kids are eating us out of house and home.  I kid you not.  It’s a good thing I am going to be bringing in some money now.  I am certain my entire paycheck will go towards feeding the dudes alone.

I have to limit Little Dude to no more than 4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during one meal.  And even then, I worry.  Am I encouraging overeating?  Probably.

BUT HE IS SO STARVING!

And his pants fall off when he runs.

6)  I have sorrowfully started going through my homeschool curriculum in an effort to let it go.  I have found that I have an unhealthy obsession with curriculum.

I cannot let go of my First Language Lessons (grammar), Writing with Ease, Story of the World, Math U See, All About Reading, and Latin.

Why Latin?

Because when I look at it, I think:

“Oh, but wouldn’t it be AWESOME if my kids knew Latin.”

Because I have good thinking and reasoning skills.  You know.  I didn’t have time to teach them Latin when I homeschooled, but surely I will when I am teaching kindergarten full time.

I need to just let it all go, but it is hard.  I just WANT TO DO ALL THE THINGS!

When we were cleaning things out, the boys fell back in love with their Math U See and spent the entire day working on it:

Look!  There they are!  Eating!  Again!

Incredulous.

7)  Here is a thought that will blow your mind:

Sweet Pea goes to Middle School Youth Group at our church now.

And pigs can fly.

8)  We went hucklberry picking yesterday.  We spent hours picking and harvested  . . .  wait for it . . .

10 cups!

Oh, for the excitement of it all.

I neglected to take a picture, but I do have one picture of Sweet Pea, my eldest, who, for reasons unbeknownst to me, decided to smear huckleberry juice on her face.  And this was a ridiculous waste of The Purple Gold, mind you.

Even Little Dude is looking at her like she is a Looney Tune.

And you can’t see it, but Little Dude has a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his lap.

Mmm-hmmm.

Later, Gators.