This weekend has all of us wiped out for today.

The three of us here at home are lucky, and can take it easy. In the ongoing efforts to keep the lodge open, we've hired lawyers, and the kids and I were at a fundraising concert at the lodge on Sunday, followed by a swim. Why listening to someone sing, then watching people swim can make me so sore the next day I do not understand,but I've decided blaming the kids will give me the least amount of mental distress.

Rone is watching animal shows, and Cotton just finished her art project. This week her book is The Rag Coat, so she was making 'rag' coats for paper dolls out of paper.

At one point while driving around on Saturday, all three kids decided that while our house is big enough, there is too much stuff in it. And it's not as clean as it should be. Cue riotous laughter in my head. I did manage to not point out that most of the stuff in our house belongs to them/clothes them/feeds them/entertains them. Here is to a new era of cleanliness at the house, based on everyone taking personal responsibility for their own messes and also pitching in on the more general tasks necessary to have a home as clean as ones that are professionally attended to.

Or just more whining in about a month about how nothing seems cleaner than it did before this realization. One of those.

"If you're a thief, you can get un-thiefed, right, if you just stop stealing things?"

Me: "Yes, if you stop stealing, you're not a thief any more."

"Good. But if you keep thieving, you'll end up in jail."

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Update: I just read this out loud to Chance. His response? Not a chuckle. Or a chortle. But instead, "Good."

Me: "Good?"

"Yes. I'm glad she knows what 'steal' means."

Me: ?????

"Every morning she comes in our room, and says, 'Can I steal the ipad?' I worried she didn't know what it meant."

I am the bus. That's what I've learned over the last two weeks. For the last ten years, I've been the cook. Now the kids can mash peanutbutter onto bread by themselves, and I'm the bus.

School started for Seph two weeks ago, and our homeschooling 'officially' began on Tuesday. Between the homeschooling activities, and Seph's after-school/social calendar, I'm the Little Minivan That Could.

7th grade is proving more work than 6th for Seph, which seems like the proper order of things. She's got French, Choir and Theater this year, all classes she'd been looking forward to. To accommodate all of this, she's not taking PE, and is taking dance classes 4 days a week to make up for it. She's got classes with many of her friends, and the new bus stop is more walkable. Overall, she's had a good start.

Rone and Tiny are slowly working into a school-like schedule, which involves far less screen time than they had become accustomed to, and also waking up before 9am. Both of these are big changes, after the Summer Of Minecraft and Sleeping In. They both start Wilderness Wednesdays next week. Cotton's got ballet, and Rone has soccer, and both have spelling/reading/math at home. I'm going to devise some sort of Chemistry unit at Rone's request.

Overall, I think we've got a happy schedule, and didn't over-commit. It's just when taken as a whole with Seph's schedule, my schedule, and Chance's car troubles (please be over! thank you Baby Jesus!) that things start to look wonky.

With the homestretch of 100 degree days upon us, the kids are glad to be busy again. We finally made it to the coast this summer, and with luck we'll be able to visit a few times this fall. Football Saturdays will keep Chance home, but the kids enjoy the beach more than he does--while he can crack open a Fireman's 4 at home, they can't build sandcastles in the living room.

Or at least they haven't yet. Don't bring that up, I don't think the Electrolux can deal with it.