Emerging

 If you are wondering why I've been hidden over here for the last few weeks, read on.

If not and you are like I have been with minimal time to read catch up posts from estranged bloggers, click on past since there's really not a whole lot monumental in this post.

Sometimes our vocation calls us away from the online world to draw us back closer to our real world. Much to the chagrin of the blogger, we back away and hope to return soon.

I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things here in order to reconnect. The chapter of summer is closing and routine is resuming, so hopefully my days and weekends will allow for time again to nurture my own spirit (and hopefully yours) with more writing again.

When July's calendar was awfully full, I eagerly awaited to turn the page on August thinking it wouldn't nearly be so bad. What awaited me were a number of unexpected things that really didn't fill my calendar, but did consume parts of my days and parts of me.

It was little things like finishing off my lesson plans for school that demanded extra attention and uninterrupted times to get accomplished. Thankfully, I was able to plug away at the lesson plans during naptime, evenings and finally on a Saturday when hubby sent me to his work office to finish the last bit of it. Sure, with the help of my Homeschool Tracker, I can plan more easily our hodge podge of school subjects from numerous sources, but it's still time consuming.

Right around that same time, the unexpected event of potty training entered the scene. While the end goal and big girl underwear was a welcome step, the actual potty training has never been my favorite season as a mom. Gianna was ready and we pressed on. Looking at it on this side, with several days now without accidents, her actually telling me she needs to go and her sweet little bottom in BIG GIRL UNDIES....well, it makes it all worth it. Sure, there have been setbacks and less than perfect days, but we have come a long way and have much more success. In a month, I'd say that wasn't bad.

It seems that the enticement of stickers and M&M's (3 for every time she went potty) worked for Gianna. Oh, and as with all my kids, the ultimate goal of a Potty Party. Coming soon!

Last weekend we had our summer's last hurrah and we picked the perfect day to go to a local water park. It was well into the 90's and unknown to us until we arrived, it was the last day of the summer season at the pool which entitled us to 1/2 off admission. Extra hurrah!

While we've been preoccupied with life in our household, my extended family has been dealing with their own set of life changes. My dad and his siblings decided that it was time to move forward and make the difficult decision to put my grandparents into the nursing home. While this was an inevitable change that was in the future, it wasn't until the last two weeks that it became evident the time was now. In only the recent months have my grandparents needs and health changed enough that they could not be cared for by just family members at home any longer. My grandpa's hospitalization earlier in the summer and another more recent one, began to put into motion plans to move he and grandma sooner rather than later. While I am not nearly affected so much in this decision, it does mean changes for everyone and some that my grandma especially, is not ready to make. A prayer or two would still be appreciated as everyone makes this transition and hopefully things get a little easier.

And here we are, Labor Day weekend. How did another summer whisk us away so quickly?

I'm looking forward to Tuesday knowing that it's not our first official day of school for once. We're already 8 days in and still getting our feet wet rather than me scurrying about still fretting about the 'perfect' first day.

Time moves on and another summer passes while we move into a new and yet familiar routine.

As we settle back in I'll be looking forward to hopefully reading more from each of you, commenting when possible and posting a little more again

We'll see what happens this week as I have a very special project for hubby (our 12th anniversary is next Sunday) I need to get busy on. I'm sure I'll share it when it's complete. *wink*