And furthermore ...

Non-homeschool things we've been doing:

1. Lost one of the phone handsets. Again. It showed up several days later in the laundry room, an apparent victim of multi-tasking. Last time we lost the handset it was weeks until we discovered it rolled up in a sleeping bag.

In related news, I finally found the mini-muffin tins I couldn't find back in June (and already purchased a replacement for).

2. The kids went to see the Winnie the Pooh movie at the theater, which they said was quite charming. Annabeth dressed as Piglet for the occasion, using bits from a very old Halloween costume I'd made from Butterick 5172 when Thalia was 2 or 3 years old. Only the vest and hat fit; she wore a pink shirt and pink skirt under them. The other kids who went didn't see this as a cosplay opportunity -- go figure.

3. Went to Target and Walmart to see if they had floor cushions and beanbag chairs in stock, which typically happens during the back-to-school sales, after which they disappear. We found both. The color of the year seems to be black, as we found both items in that color. This means we tend to lose track of the cat:


Ack! The flash woke me up! Prepare to die!

4. Went to Bye Bye Birdie at the Muny, which was the final performance of the season. We thought it was really fun. Rick's aunt went on Wednesday and thought it was awful -- nearly left at intermission. On one hand, this is the woman who DID leave during Little Mermaid, declaring she really disliked Ursula (the best character of a great show!). On the other hand, I think maybe the shows vary quite a bit with the weather. She really loved Seven Brides for Seven Brothers the Wednesday before, while we thought it was rushed and disjoint on Saturday. The Saturday we went was hot, and the show lasted less that 2 hours; when she saw it on Wednesday the weather was cooler and the show lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes. Interesting, yes?

Anyway, the entire Muny-season-ticket experience has been fun this summer. We loved taking various friends and relatives. We loved discussing the shows with other friends and relatives. I don't know if we'll do it again -- sort of depends on what shows they offer.

5. Enoyed the cooler weather, which meant we could do things like sit on the playset and read



and also leave the windows open for hours at a time



6. Spent quite a bit of time reading. I checked 2 books out of the library -- Scratch Beginnings and How to Become a Straight-A Student. I couldn't decide which to read first, so I decided to alternate chapters. Wow, what a bizarre experience -- the authors are guys about the same age, and frankly their writing sounds a bit alike. Yet one is telling about how to work hard and succeed in college while the other is telling how to work hard and get out of a homeless shelter. The undertone of each book, though, is that it really sucks to drift through life without goals since that tends to lead to a downward spiral. But it's been a weird juxtaposition that's really affecting how I view each book.