Busy week!

And I thought things were going to be easier this year! I just found out a few days ago that our Touchstone staff person is resigning to accept an amazing position at an orphanage in Peru. Initially it looked like a mountain of work just fell into my lap. Writing and running ads, sorting through hundreds of resumes, telephone and in person interviews and board meeting after board meeting... Lucky for me (and Touchstone) none of that happened! The right person was right in front of my face. I just didn't know it at first. Just hours and a quite a rollercoaster ride and we have a new staff person! One of our Rocktown managers applied for the position. She just returned from her Peace Corps tour in Africa. She is extremely accomplished and has an extraordinary resume - Masters in Social Work, National Merit Scholar, President of this and President of that... And she is amazing! I'm very sad to lose our first program manager but I think she has an incredible opportunity that was meant for her. I think Touchstone is at the start of a new era and I am super excited. And I'm relived it all worked out as easily as it did.



On the homeschooling front, we're trying to establish some new routines. The ever reluctant Robby is finally showing signs of accepting that he can't play all day every day. Having said that I am trying fun and creative approaches. Yesterday we worked on matching uppercase and lowercase letters using sidewalk chalk - in the hot tub! And it worked. He still mixes up lowercase b with d and p with q but I am astounded how quickly he picks things up. He definitely has a knack for math. Reading and writing don't interest him as much but I am seeing improvements every day.

Below Robby is working on the sequence of the alphabet.

William is so cute. He insists on homeschooling and doing all of the same things as big brother! I teach him the very same things with a slightly lower expectations. I still can't get over the fact that if they were to go to school they'd only be one grade apart! 

Yes he's in pajamas again - both of them insist on "getting naked" or putting on pajamas the minute we walk in the door!

I am always looking for ways to get the boys out to play with other kids. We have been doing a lot of playdates lately. Below are my boys with one of Robby's oldest buddy and his adorable and precious little sister at the zoo. The Big Brothers have been playing together since they were infants!

I've also signed them up for some classes so that they have a chance to make new friends and get accustomed to teachers too. Last week we went to "Music with Susan" for 4-5 year olds at the Edmond Library.  Robby was awesome, William was mesmerized. 

Next time William and I will go to the 2-3 year old class while Andrew takes Robby to the Fine Arts Institute for "Magical Journeys", a class where the kids dress up and act out children's books. That's just the kind of thing Robby loves!



On the real estate front there isn't a lot to report. Our realtor has shown our house several times but no offers yet. I'm keeping my hopes up that it's just going to take the right family to come along and it'll happen. Our realtor reassures us that we're getting tons of views on her website and realtor.com and she also tells us there were only 3 home sales in Oklahoma County in August in our price range. I guess I just need to be patient. Too bad patience does not come naturally!


Now would be a great time to sell though because we have no travel plans to speak of. I haven't been able to say that in over a year. We originally planned on going back to Oregon in October but changed our minds. After the year we had last year I needed to stay home and get organized to homeschool. And I really didn't want to travel during the height of flu season. The thought of having the flu while on vacation or dealing with a sick kid on a cross country travel day did not thrill me one bit. Even though we don't have a trip planned, Andrew keeps checking flights so you never know for sure!