It's been a stressful and difficult summer. Between Mark's surgery and then dealing with 2 rounds of c. diff colitis, it was over 2 months of health stress - pretty much June, July and well into August. We're so glad he's doing better and that we're getting back on track.
We recently got 3 pairs of new glasses around here. I know they say you're supposed to get your eyes checked every year, but um, it's been more like 8 or 9 for me and Mark, so we figured we should get in there.
Speaking of 3, we've been at our new business location for over 3 years. We found out just before our beach trip that the man who owns the property out there (and who runs the place and who invited us to join him there as part of that integrative health community) died. We're not sure what that means for us and our business. We sold our farmhouse and moved our in-home business there 3 years ago and now it's a very real possibility that we won't have that location for our clinic if his family/estate sells it, which looks likely. We're not stressing too much. We're choosing to look at it as a sort of crossroads and perhaps an opportunity for different possibilities. We'll see.
We've done 4 official college visits so far (as well as many, more informal visits at various schools, so we've explored 8 total so far). A couple of schools (one we've visited and one we haven't yet) are standing out as front runners and others are dropping much lower on the list if they even stay at all. These adventures are FUN and we're having so much fun exploring possibilities and seeing what's out there and seeing what is a good fit and what makes Kate thrive. We have several more to check out and she's already working on her applications. Mind blowing.
5 more weeks until NaNoWriMo! A favorite time of year around here. :)
We enjoyed a lovely week at the beach. It has to be one of my very favorite times of year and never have I looked forward to it more than I did this year (again, reference the stressful summer). We made sure to go for as long as we could considering work and school schedules so we managed a 6-day trip! That's longer than we're usually able to go, so it was super relaxing. We don't get there nearly enough.
7 - the number of times we pulled in and out of our driveway today. That should give you some idea of how things are around here. Today has been a bit stressful, too. Lots of running around and barely keeping up. It's the middle of the night right now and I haven't finished this and I have to get up tomorrow to do more running around! If I'm doing my math correctly, tomorrow should be 5 in and outs of the driveway. And another college visit, though this time for Max (long story, but neat opportunity - more as we learn more).
8 - the number of times I've cried in the past few days? Hahahaha . . . whaaaaaaaaa! Maybe. I haven't counted. Nah, I'm just kidding. Hmm, let me see. 8 . . . the number of conflicting events and activities we've tried scheduling today. I mean, probably, but no . . . what else, what else. Ah! The number of books I've completed so far for my 2017 Goodreads challenge. I'm in the middle of about 5 different books at any given time, too. So I am on track for my challenge!
So, we were hoping to have our student loans paid off before we started paying for our kids college, but that's not happening. However, we have consolidated and paid extra here and there and done our best to expedite paying them off and we've got 9 years to go! Seems weird to celebrate that because it's still a lot, but at least it's not 30 anymore. These stupid loans just hang over our heads.
In a few days, we celebrate 10 years of running our business together. 10! We've also, incidentally, been running our homeschool group and book club for over 10 years as well.
So there you are. A little 1-10 check in from us. :)
