Summer seems like it is slipping right away from me, and no matter how hard I try to "do nothing" these days, the days get full from morning until night. This morning was a tennis round robin, which meant barreling out the door with half-dressed, half-fed children at 8:45 to drop them off at Water Works and the nursery (which was shut down for part of last week with a staph infection and disinfection). I was fairly on this morning--great serving, funky second serve with unexpected spin, and good reflexes at the net. As soon as it was over, we hurried home so I could check my email to see if I needed to change my clothes and rush to a meeting at the Homeschool Place for the Advisory Committee. The meeting was postponed until this afternoon, so I gave the signal for the kids to vacate the car, and the next thing I knew, Rebecca was on the phone with worry in her voice because her period is perhaps several weeks late. Well, duh...take a test!!! Since she was hemming and hawing, I took the liberty of piling the kids back into the car to go buy her a test and take it to her, then stood by while she peed into a cup because she couldn't produce a stream for 5 seconds (it was negative...). Since I was there, I took the tour of her rearranged rooms, checked out her reorganized basement, and suddenly Frances was inviting herself to spend the night. What luck! Given that Frances has been having a rough time lately, it was nice for her to have something that was all about her all day long today. And an evening with one fewer child for me, not that it really slows down the pace any.

Finally I made it home, where Ollie and Walter and I cheated our way through a 500 piece puzzle. How do you cheat? You allow the vast chunks that were already together in the box to stay together. And hence you finish a puzzle in an hour. Then we set out to pick up Frances' bike, which was being repaired at Agee's, popped into gymnastics to give a list of dates she would be missing this summer so August could be prorated, and went to the meeting at the Homeschool Place. All through this, I had a barely controlled migraine, which only now is in remission thanks to an Imitrex sample I picked up from the doctor last week. Amazing, amazing stuff.

Tomorrow we don't have much on the docket. Perhaps going to the pool with some friends. Picking up Frances. Looking at a science book. And of course gymnastics. In the evening I have another tennis round robin. So I suppose tomorrow is full, isn't it?

I haven't had a chance to say much about the conference this past weekend. There were parts of the day that were energizing, even paradigm changing (the session on right-brained learners was especially good, even though I had in the past gone through checklists of traits of right-brained learners and determined that Walter fit all of the 'negatives' and none of the positives). But overall, it felt sparser than in past years and just lacked a certain energy and excitement. It kind of went through the motions. I felt a lack of connection with the other participants, of which I think there were fewer anyway than I'm used to. I'm not sure if the budget there is just stretched too thin to add more opportunities for networking and a larger vendor hall, or if there's just a certain anti-curricula bent that keeps tings at a kind of low level. At any rate, I didn't even get a chance to spend time among the vendors or at the used curriculum sale downstairs because I was either volunteering or attending a few sessions, and the next thing i knew I had bailed to go get margaritas with some friends, and it was over. I realize that I need to register my needs with the organizers as feedback and to let the organization know what I'd like to see next year; they claim to be member run, and I can't complain if I'm not giving them input in the first place.

Ollie and I are making steady progress on Harry Potter. The book has only been out three days, and while it makes me an adult failure to have not read it all by now, considering that we are reading aloud 100 or more pages a day, we're rather ambitious in our own way. Yeah, I want to know what happens, but at the same time, I'm getting to really savor the experience of the book in a way that I might not if I was just reading for information. I'm reading for inflection, expression, and performance! In good time, we'll also be among the initiated. All I have to do is avoid the other people in the world until such a time comes.

This evening I also seem to have volunteered to lead another class at the homeschool place. Hilary and I are going to do Story of the World together, starting in Volume 2, the Medieval World. I'm really excited about this. I realized tonight that I really do wish that I was doing more than was checking some things off our list for next year, things that I'd want to cover anyway and that aren't just extras. This fits the bill quite well, since we spend a lot of time either listening to or reading the books, but never seem to get around to the activities. This will be lots of fun, I'm sure.

I'm headed to bed, hoping for a halfway decent night's sleep. Last night was actually pretty good, for once. There were some wakings, but by and large they weren't memorable. And that's a good thing.

It feels like we live at Busch Gardens sometimes. I think this was our 8th or 9th visit this summer. And at least our second this week. Frances was decidedly wimpy today, even with the peer pressure of friends there. She rode nothing. I was too busy with Rutledge to give her no choice and deal with the fallout of that. So she rode her little kiddie rides and that was that. One day she will come into her own, I hope. But today was not one of her more mature days. She began with wetting her bed, proceeded with whining and crying throughout, and primarily rode rides designed for Rutledge. And we missed both tennis and gymnastics today, which is something that I will not be doing again any time soon (though with as sticky, nasty hot as it was today, I'm glad that I wasn't putting her in Richmond Olympiad for two hours). Overall, though, we had a very fun day without too much incident beyond not finding my car in the parking lot at the end of our visit.

My goal for tomorrow is to stay home. The pace of our schedule and my inability to say no to anything does not bode well for the school year. I'm not very good at marshaling the troops to get us out the door in the morning with all equipment, clothing, and food for an all-day marathon of disparate events. For days now, even a few weeks, it feels like I set out at 9 a.m. or before and don't return home until nearly 9 p.m., with half a dozen stops along the way. Exhausting. So even though we have opportunities tomorrow, we're going to hang out here.

I picked up a few new books at the library tonight, so I am off to do a bit of reading before my eyes roll back in my head.

I'm watching Bob Marley on Youtube, and I was remarking that it has to be hard to do a whole show when you're that high. I mean, I can't even go to Busch Gardens sober, or worse yet, have two sips of beer and not feel like I'm going to pass out and throw up during More Pet Shenanigans. And that's when it hit me what my problem is. I'm not going to Busch Gardens high. That's got to be up there with the oh so controversial three martini playdate that you read about in those goody goody mainstream parenting magazines. Four kids in a theme park alone with me; I'd call that an irresponsible venture under any circumstances.

Tonight was a dinner and dessert discussion with some people I know who are homeschooling older kids--middle and high school. Very, very enlightening. One of the most interesting things was that there was no mention of needing a solid support group, or even a support group at all. Most of their children are plenty plugged in with whatever it is they do--playing the harp, Boy Scouts, choirs, etc. And like with anything else, do you really need more than a couple of good friends? Do you really need a crowd. And even more energizing is the reiteration that we homeschool, that's what we do. Just as with school, or anything else in life, for that matter, there may be good years and less good years, years when math goes well and years when it isn't so great. But you keep moving along. There are no guarantees anywhere. I brought up the question of why so many people seem to send their children to school once they hit middle school or so. There were a couple of responses, including one I hadn't really thought of, which is that maybe after 12 or 13 years, many people are just ready for a break. Or the typical stresses of middle schoolers and teenagers may leave parents wanting to feel less solely responsible or wanting time out from some of the autonomy struggles. Since this still seems in the distant future to me, it hadn't crossed my mind to think about the challenges of extra power struggles...and trying to get in math and science.

I could spend all day watching Discovery and the History Channel. Imhotep is on right now. They are excavating a foot. The other night it was Loch Ness. Isn't it always Loch Ness?

I wish I had positive energy to write interesting posts these days. It's all I can do to stay awake. Perhaps tomorrow, another day, will bring fresh material.

So much for my uncluttered summer. This week is VBS for two children, tennis lessons for one, swim fun team for two, a birthday party, a spelling bee, a tennis clinic, and a double shot of gymnastics. I can barely keep my eyes open with exhaustion from having to often be in two or three places at one time.