Stream of conciousness....

The kids are back in school, Dan is in Seattle, so things are back to normal I guess.  It feels weird getting used to having my kids in two schools.  And the fact that Peter's school is 30 minutes away makes it feel weirder.

I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the car this year.  Thankfully the carpool to high school will only mean one day of the week I have to drive there twice in one day.

I am confident I will get used to it and in no time it will feel like old hat. When my kids went to public school, it was literally 2 minutes from our house AND they rode the bus!  I definitely enjoyed having zero morning/afternoon commute.

When they started at Our Lady of Mercy, the drive to school took about  17 or 18 minutes.  Some days I could do it in 15 if the stop lights cooperated.  The first couple of weeks driving that felt like I was never going to get to school and we were never going to get home.  But in no time, it felt like the quickest most natural drive in the world and I was wondering why it ever bothered me to begin with. Hoping that I feel the same in a couple of weeks about my drive to Bishop!

The people of Texas have been on my heart the last several days and I continue to pray for them.  This morning on our way to school there was a big electronic billboard that rotates different ads and one of them said "Pray for Texas" and had the outline of the state and a heart over Houston. 

Don't worry billboard - I have been! 

Yesterday Peter's school had a big summer reading event.  This year's theme was "Homegrown".  They had to choose a book from a list of about 15 that were either written by someone from North Carolina or was about North Carolina. While they were reading the book they had to find at least 20 quotes that spoke to characterization, plot, theme, etc. and tell how they thought the quote represented that. 

Yesterday they broke off into groups by book and discussed the book.  The upperclassmen led the discussion and teachers were taking note of who participated.  They also had two of the authors come to speak to the kids.  A BBQ lunch was provided and there was a small blue-grass band playing music in the background.

After lunch they broke up into groups and worked together to make 12 Free Libraries that will be placed around the area so that people can take a book and/or leave a book. 

Sounds like a fun day and a great summer reading project!

It's been unseasonably cool around here since this weekend.  Not ready for it to feel like fall yet.  Today in addition to being cool it is also cloudy with a little rain..  It will barely make it to the low 70s by 3:00 pm.  A little too cool for August if you ask me! 

Yesterday at Walmart, I found these little beauties!  After tulips, I would probably say that sunflowers are my next favorite flower.

The blooms are smaller than they appear in this picture and that makes them even cuter!  They had them at 4 for $3.97 but one of the blooms broke off in the car.  :(

And since Sarah can't resist taking a selfie - here's one from Sunday morning before we headed out to church!

Have a great Tuesday y'all!