Thursday, July 28, 2011

Shooting Stars

{photo by Mila via Wikimedia Commons}

I am fascinated with astronomy and outer space. I love star watching, shooting stars, and imagining the possibilities out there. The time, space, and distance of the universe utterly enthralls me and boggles my mind at the same time. On vacation in Yosemite last summer, one of my favorite activities we did was an evening star gazing "tour" where we went out into a field and were "led" on a tour of the stars. Just beautiful!

Every year in August, the Perseid meteor shower peaks. Around August 12-13, up to 60 meteor's an hour can be seen! You need to be somewhere dark, far away from city lights for best viewing. I'm hoping to see lots of shooting stars this year!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Mid-Summer Check In

Wow. It's been a month since I've posted. Who would have thought I'd be busier in the summer than during the school year! This is what I've been up to:




Between the boys' year-round swim team practices and meets and our summer pool swim team I've spent a lot of time driving to and from pools, sitting at meets, and helping manage our summer swim team. We've had qualifiers, State championships, weekly summer meets, a distance meet, and finally Divisionals and end of summer Age Group championships. One more meet next weekend (Relay All Stars) and all swimming will end for us . . . for one month. We get the month of August off. And boy do I plan to enjoy that month!

What else have we been up to this summer?

We cried through the final Harry Potter movie, watched the garden shrivel in the heat, tried to avoid cooking as much as possible, spent 30-40 hours making the swim team video, read the Dragon Tattoo trilogy,  and spent time with good friends.

The boys have obviously spent a great deal of time swimming. They also (individually) battled a swimmer's ear infection, got a driver's permit and took driver's ed, had sleepovers, tried to avoid summer work, and spent lots of time with friends.

I got the best news the other day; Kieran's school is moving into a brand new school and due to permitting issues, the start date of school has been pushed back a week! He was due to start school two full weeks before his brothers, effectively ending our summer vacation mid-August. Having that extra week is an amazing gift!

So what do we still want to do with the rest of the summer?

1. Go on vacation! We leave soon and can't wait!

2. Calder exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.

3. Have a cocktail party.

4. Watch for shooting stars.

5. Make milkshakes.

6. Watch a TV series.

7. Play games.

Other things not on our original list I'd like to do:

1. Plan an amazing 40th birthday party for my husband.

2. Back to school shopping.

3. Go to a couple summer concerts.

4. Sleep in.

And a few housekeeping things that need to be done:

1. Organize the basement.

2. Sell a few things on Craig's List.

3. Menu planning for the fall.

As of today we have four weeks of summer left before the youngest goes back to school, with one additional week for his older brothers. That time will fly by.