Update

Lots has happened since the camping posts. Emily started band camp, Avritt started football, Isaac signed up for soccer and is waiting for the first practice, the drywall was finished in the basement, the finish carpenter started working in the basement (the doors are hung, the window casing is almost done, and the baseboard is half done), I started teaching again, I accidentally ran into Isaac's eyelid with a hot cookie sheet and burned him (he turned around and I turned around with the cookie sheet and we collided), a skunk was hit in the road right in front of our house, sprayed the stinky stuff, and crawled under our pine tree and died, I had to move the said skunk back beside the road (so that the local road commission would pick it up) after it was dragged behind our shed by a neighborhood dog, Avritt was baptized, and Isaac had a birthday.

The kids finally start back next Tuesday. All of us would have loved another month off, but since I'm back to teaching, it will be good for the kids to be in school. I don't want to repeat this last week again for awhile (I guess a year, actually). My classes did go well this week despite everything. I have two sections (25 students each) of the core math class, and one section of remedial algebra with 6 students.

The house has kept me busy all summer. I have been making decisions about paint colors, how the trim will look, the design of the bathroom upstairs (we're gutting it and redoing everything in there), the design of the kids' windowseats, the tile designs in the both bathrooms, the new front door, the design of the french doors upstairs, and the cabinet and door hardware, among other things. I have discovered that I really enjoy all the work that goes into a major remodel. The design work and coordination of all the details is interesting and challenging. I like the intricacy of how everything fits together. It has been rewarding. We are finishing the basement (except the Master Bedroom area) and then we will move in down there while the upstairs is being finished. We have a lot of work to do, and many times over the last few weeks I have been frustrated to my limits with the dust, mess, and chaos of it all, but progress is exciting and enough to overcome the struggles.