heavenly homemaker: Crazy. Hot. Summer. (and lots of fun in it!)

Though this summer has shattered heat records, I cannot complain at all! We have a working a/c, a van with a/c, a pool membership, and we live in a place with plenty of free/cheap indoor activities for children. I often think of the days when women had to live without a/c and use a horse/wagon for transportation on top of doing laundry by hand, washing dishes by hand, cooking from scratch with meat they butchered and vegetables they grew. Any time I start to think I have it hard, I remember this and realize I am truly living in luxury and ease.

Ethan imitating our fave lifeguard with his own homemade whistle of linked rubberbands and some rubber toy. She brought it to my attention and we both cracked up!

The boys and I have been enjoying our summer together, reading lots of books for our library book club, playing at the pool, seeing free movies at the theater, playing at the pool, starting homeschool with Ethan, and yes, playing at the pool. I plan to start homeschooling Ethan 1/2 days this coming Fall semester, so I've been preparing for that knowing what a big life change it will be for me. He will continue receiving speech, language, and auditory training at his school, while I teach him academics like Reading and Math at home. We've been waiting for this day for a long time and are glad it's finally here since we believe he now knows enough language to make it possible. Praying for much, much grace since teaching a deaf child (who relies on reading lips) is a very complex, time-consuming undertaking. And I know God will give the grace that's needed as He is always so faithful to do.

Waiting for the fun library program to start

Ethan "reading" to his cousins (my brother and his family of 5 blessed us with a visit last week!)...gotta love Ethan's homemade hat composed of an Ace bandage, swim hat, and headlight, with a necklace to boot!

Jeff is scheduled to return home by the end of August, so we are counting down the days by emptying our jelly bean containers one jelly bean per day! Now that the time is so close, it seems to be slowing down considerably! See past posts for our plans upon Jeff's return.