ah... summer

Well, I'm done with my second semester of grad school! Whew. The last few weeks have been extra busy, but now we can relax a bit and roll into the summer schedule. I've had to put off some of the projects around the house and some activities with the boys, but we'll get back into it now that I'm not completely consumed with research and writing. The boys need to keep working on some school subjects (math, hello!), but it's not a huge deal for them since they aren't chomping at the bit to be released from a six- or eight-hour grind. They actually haven't done much academically at all the last few weeks, since I have been too busy to provide good guidance or activities. So, ironically, my guys get to participate in more school stuff during the summer, since I have more time to teach them! Lucky devils.

We will also have more time (and better weather) to get out and exercise and practice baseball and soccer. We're still going to focus on martial arts over other organized sports, for now. Zander just got his green belt, and we love how much the boys are learning about focus, respect, dedication, and commitment, as well as the physical skills. Otherwise, we'll keep practicing our other favorite sports on our own, preparing for the day when our family schedule can handle more real extracurricular activities.

We used our weekend to get started, playing baseball every day for the last three. We also got back into working on Cub Scout stuff with Zan, who will be moving up to Bear cub this week. We got twenty more electives done, which means two more silver arrow points before he moves up. We also FINALLY repaired Zander's electric car, which had been damaged and wouldn't run for 9 or 10 months. I took the sucker apart, with some trepidation from the boy ("I kinda trust you, Dad." gee, thanks, son --), tightened up some things, relocated some things, and got it all back together. Zander breathed a big sigh of relief when we took it off the charger the next day and it actually worked as good as new. He's been bombing around on it ever since!

The boys love comics and have been drawing comics of their own just about every night. They are developing quite a repertoire of doodles, and are starting to understand how practicing a LOT can give you the skill to whip out an idea without sweating the details of the drawing too much. (I'll post some actual drawings when I get some scanned).

Adon was has been beta-testing a new MMO videogame; we can't tell you the details since we are sworn to secrecy, but suffice to say that it combines one of Adon's big loves with another. It's a lot of fun. Zan and I have also been jumping on, using extra character slots in Adon's account, so we get to have fun too. Once the testing period is over, we will post news of our adventures in virtual reality!