Schools Out For Summer

School is officially out for summer. I wondered if it would feel like summer break since we haven’t been in the school building since before spring break. Well, it feels like summer indeed. The kiddos adjusted really well to distance leaning and they both received academic accolades for for all A’s and B’s as well as for reciting each months memory verse at once. I was blown away by their ability to memorize and recite so many scriptures at once without any mistakes or helps.
(Psalm 1, Psalm 8, Psalm 34:1-11, Psalm 19:1-3, 7-11, 14 , Psalm 23, 100, Psalm 103:1-12, Psalm 62:1-2, 5-12, Psalm 96:1-10, Psalm 119:9-11, 97-105) its A LOT look it up. I’m so proud of both of them!!! We’ll have a Sophomore and a 6th grader in the fall. I’m in complete denial about this fact. They are still in pre-k and 2nd grade in my mind. My house has been a wreck all week, which is always an indicator of summer. We have cooked and baked and I’m teaching kids art workshops a few days a week so we have painted and glued and cut and colored. Paper and glitter cover the studio floors. I love it. It feels like we’re living in this home which is something I never felt in our last home. We were always on the go and rarely home to enjoy it. I ride my bike to neighbors for a visit and we usually walk every day. Maybe its the silver lining to this pandemic. We’ve been forced to slow it down so much. We’re not running from piano practice to tennis practice to swim practice and back to school the next day. We eat all of our meals together at our table. And because we’ve been preparing meals at home, a fine layer of flour currently coats every inch of our kitchen and needs to be cleaned asap! Libbie made homemade lasagna basically on her own with very little assistance. She and one of her good friends worked together on Zoom while the moms were acting sous chefs. It was delicious. We followed Barefoot Contessa’s recipe with only a minor adjustment. We used ground beef in lieu of sausage. If your new to reading this blog, which probably all two of you are, and if one of you are not my mom, well then you don’t know that we live in The Astrohood , for real… Many of the original Apollo crew built and resided in our neighborhood back in the 60′ and 70’s. We live on the same street that John Glen and Scott Carpenter lived on. There are a handful of astronauts that currently live in our neighborhood today. It’s a very unique and tight knit neighborhood. If you’ve lived here for a long time then you knew the original owners and now the new owners. We live in the old Frazier home. Mr. Frazier was an attorney and Mrs. Frazier was an artist. I knew this house was home the moment we first viewed it with our realtor. We had been stalking this neighborhood for almost 5 years when the opportunity to buy finally happened. When I’m painting in the studio I often think about Mrs. Frazier and her work. It’s very inspiring.I have a few of her pieces that were left behind. I’ve hung them in our living room, Libbie’s room, and our master bath. I feel very connected to this house and our community. And because we’re in the Astrohood we got to take part in a very special send off parade for our own astronaut, Bob Behnken. We lined our streets with banners and flags and cute kids and friends as he paraded down our beloved esplanade. We waved and wished him Godspeed as he departed for Florida. The world will be watching as history is made with NASA/SPACEX DM-2. The news crews came out and we also made the Houston Chronicle. I know we will all be anxiously watching live when they launch this week. One of our friends lives in the Lovell home, just down the canal from us, where the iconic images of all the astronauts wives gathered around the television as the Apollo 13 mission launched. I have a feeling it will be a similar scene in the Astrohood. How fun would it be to recreate that scene in the old Lovell house? We could all dress up in 60’s garb and tease our hair real big and put out bowls of snacks and drink cocktails. But… Social Distancing. booooo! Its Memorial Day weekend and we’re going no where this year! Lambert and I hit an Estate Sale in a neighboring hood and totally scored. I picked up some vintage linens, a couple Christmas blow molds and some garden tools. Two of my wonderful neighbors schooled me in composting this afternoon and I came home with a compost bin. It was too large to drag home on my bike so Lambert picked it up for me and also brought home a weight bench for Hoot. (I can’t believe we’re at the weightlifting stage of parenting a boy. I liked the Lego stage so much better.) So I’ve started a little compost bin and added our first lawn clippings, my coffee grinds and some produce peels. I feel like we have become the Engles and I’m Caroline. I’ve home schooled, baked from scratch with active dry yeast, not a Betty Crocker box, started a real garden, made home made soap and now we’re composting too! What could be next on Little House on the Prairie? We made a very quick trip to Galveston early this morning to beat the crowds. It was wonderful. Few people had made it out to the sand when we arrived. Libbie follows her Daddy everywhere and he spoils her rotten. I think we all do. It may be unhealthy. He pushed her out on the board over and over and when he was too tired and beaten down from the waves, her brother helped her. She loves to ride the board in to shore and can’t understand why the guys are so tired… By the time we left, beach goers were ascending the shore like crabs coming down the seawall. It was time to get out quickly! I’m baking a lemon cake with strawberry buttercream icing for a friends birthday party this evening. Lambert made cocktails and they’re in the freezer. I’m ready for an evening poolside with great friends. Enjoy your long weekend and take time to remember those who gave all so that we may have our freedoms. May God bless the USA.