Summertime once again

Well, a year has passed, and then some....
I've survived Jenna's first year of college.  We've kind of gotten used to her being gone, though we miss her terribly.  This summer, she's been working in Colorado at Deer Valley  Ranch.  She'll be home for two weeks before heading off to London for her international studies semester.  Good thing we've gotten used to her being gone.

I'm working at Ozark Actors Theatre again this summer as the props mistress.  It's been great fun!  And I've added a little acting into the mix also.  I'm currently playing the role of Goldie Short in "The Diviners."  We have 5 more shows this weekend before wrapping up OAT's 25th Anniversary Season.

Meredith made her OAT debut as a munchkin, poppy and flying monkey in "The Wizard of Oz" earlier this season.  She had a lot of fun and finally got over her stage fright---I think!

Clarissa has been working hard this summer at the Centre.  She works 5 hours/day with the Fun Fest program.  She's now 16 and has her driver's license.  I'm thankful that I don't have to drive her into work everyday anymore!

School will be starting soon, and Matthew is being added to the schedule.  We started kindergarten with him earlier this summer.  He  was so anxious to start!  Meredith is now in 2nd grade, Rebecca, 9th and Clarissa 11th.  13 years down, 13 to go! (unless I can move Matthew ahead a bit---He thinks Kindergarten is boring and wants to do 2nd grade work with Meredith!)  I think we now own all the Sonlight books that we could possibly own! I'm excited to read them all again to the younger kids.  I think I might just enjoy schooling them more than I did the older ones.  I hope I've learned a lot in the past 13 years and will be a better teacher, a more relaxed, "lets have some fun" kind of teacher. 

At the beginning of the year, I'm always hopeful for a "normal" year---but I've come to the conclusion that there is no such thing.  We'll take each day, each week, each month and year as it comes and relax and enjoy the journey.