Well here we go again, another September, school back in session, the end of trying to keep the kids from boredom or from beating each up, and back to the bedtime and homework battles.  I have to say I was ready for the routine again.

We have had a fun and eventful summer.  I am blessed that I was able to take quite a little bit of time off to spend with my kids.  I am experiencing an epic school year, with the youngest starting Kindergarten and my oldest starting her Senior year of High School.  It will be a very full year, I predict.

We have been spending the last several weekends at the family cabin, doing some much-needed upkeep.  There are always pine needles to rake away from the cabin, trees to trim, cobwebs to dust…

On one of our last visits we had scheduled to meet with a tree trimmer about one particular tree that was dead and leaning precariously over the cabin.  Unfortunately when we arrived at the cabin, the tree had decided not to wait for the professional tree trimmer and had fallen to a dangerous angle, breaking the deck railing and hanging by a thread.  James broke out his chainsaw and with an audience of our three boys along with our nephew and me with a video camera, finished off that dead tree.  It was really exciting for the boys (and the videographer)  The tree decided to take theentire deck rail with it, thought the floor of the structure survived intact.  Another future project as you can imagine will be rebuilding the deck rail.

We were surprised and impressed by the stamina of our boys a couple of weeks ago.  Instead of our usual trip to the lake to play on the beach (Pinecrest Lake), we took them on a hike around the perimeter of the lake.  It is a 4 1/2 mile hike, and we made it with only one episode of tears in an amazing 3 hours.  I know that doesn’t sound very fast, but believe me, with three brothers, and two dogs, it was a real accomplishment for us to make it around that lake without injury.  The loop led us right to the snack bar, where we rewarded ourselves with soft serve frosty ice cream cones-so yummy, sweet and cold after the hot, long hike.  Good memories for our kids. That’s what we are all about.