Day 162

Lots of surgery recovery; and for more than just Fina. And oh my goodness, for the love of blueberries. Matteo went to orientation in person, first time at his new school, Evangelical Christian Academy. He also got his passport photo done today. Lynn's cat scan was clean (from her fall/concussion a few days ago), but she still gets to go to concussion therapy, therapy for the brain, oh boy. Simple and very good chicken chili verde (in the pressure cooker, no fuss, no muss) over rice for dinner. And pina coladas (Mr. T's mix, just follow the directions on the bottle) came out for the first time in quite a while. Fosters watched an interesting movie: The Last Word (2017, Shirley MacLaine, Amanda Seyfried). 

How does she sleep like that?

Day 161

Guess who got her tonsils out today. She got home AOK and is just chillin'. So is all the ice cream in the fridge. The blue walls of the bathroom off the kitchen will remain. All the tan-with-dark-tan-trim from the mudroom through the living room is being replaced with off-white-with-even-whiter-trim. Lexi got some art work done today, of course. And, she removed yet another link from her Back to School Advent Chain; the time draws near! The baby loved sitting up on Matt's feet and belly laughing while watching the dogs. On the other hand, the baby has not got his aim down very well for eating. Watched a great, hot off the press, movie last night: Irresistible. Pretty timely.

From Facebook, this teacher is ready. Reminded Jamie of what his student
teaching teacher always said, "Wowie, think of that."

Not even close.

Day 160

Guess who got her learner's permit today! Papa took her out for a first time on the road. One hour down, 49 (plus) to go! Lexi loves playing card games like the one pictured below. This passion developed while Aunt Vickie was here a couple weeks ago and shows no sign of diminishing. Matteo had an online orientation with his new school this morning. He's probably got the biggest change this year as he's going to a new (for us) private school, Evangelical Christian Academy (ECA) - it's a classical education, Latin and all, much like SLOCA was back in CA, though ECA is overtly Christian. We weren't big on the options DCC had for middle school (Matteo) this year. At this point, ECA is planning on full-time in the classroom. Fina, as you may recall, is doing pretty much everything online but in such a way as to allow her to do extra-curricular stuff, e.g. improv and theatre, should those become available. The littles (Lexi through AJ) are going back to DCC which also is planning on mostly in the classroom (though as many as 30% have opted to stay home and do online which gets the in-classroom teacher-student ratio down to a much better level). Jamie went out to the Ranch for his horse program volunteering this afternoon, but alas none of the kids showed up. It is a weird in-between time with schools starting up, orientations anyway, and the like. I guess the whole schedule is being reworked at the Ranch. No loss though, Jamie had a great chat with Katie about the horse program, and the horses themselves in particular. Like, how do you "qualify" a horse to be trusted around kids that weigh as little as 5% of what the horse weighs? And I'm not sure who's less predictable, a horse or a kid. Anyway, she went to Cal Poly SLO (love that school, Trevor went there) in the Ag department and then got a Masters in social work. She's been pretty hands-on in the horse and horse-therapy world for 20+ years! Tracy is continuing her painting rampage on the mud room through living room; I'll get a little photo collage of all that tomorrow, I promise.

Day 159

Sorry for the lack of pics again. I was a little under the weather from my flu shot yesterday. I did the Noah's Ark session of my Bible study class (online, anyone may join; recordings available after the fact). Village Arts released a trailer today for the film I'm in, Voices Beyond the Veil: the Story of God, Humanly Speaking. The film releases on August 28th. And Fina had a little cohort gathering in the backyard this evening.

Day 158

Yeah, that's the only pic I got today. Puzzling, isn't it. It was a pretty active day, though. We went to the pool 9-12. Tracy continues painting. AJ had baseball practice. Did you know he got the game ball (virtually) at his last game a couple days ago?! Second time. I finished the first pass of the Give! Campaign's database de-duping project. Next we clean up some field usage (like making sure the right thing is in the Last Name field) and then make a second pass for dupes. We began in March.

Day 157

It's Sunday, so off to church. Tracy and Kids Crew had its largest population since the re-opening a few weeks ago. At home, things remain puzzling. Working on the huge bowl of fresh corn kernels that Lynn chopped of the cob a few days ago, Matt did some corn and bacon sauted in bacon grease. Oh, yes, please. And it came with some kielbasa and mustard. Another smoke-colored sunset. Tracy's repainting the living room, kitchen, and mud room areas. That project just popped up out of nowhere. And Fina found the ring in her candle! Jackpot Candles. Fosters watched the Les Miserables movie (2012) last night; what a great movie that is. Just as gripping and spectacular as the stage version, amazing cast.

There were even more on the grass.
And 5th/6th met further up the hill.

Day 156

A game-ball day for AJ. Hit the ball a couple times. Fielded the ball for an out a couple times. Played a number of positions including catcher and 2nd. And Matt got to puppy sit. Big hail storm today, golf ball size in some areas (not ours). Some family discussions. And a colorful sunset thanks to smoke in the air from the fires.