From the Eclipse to Adoption Day to Hurricane Irma

The last blog posted the morning of the eclipse.  Later that afternoon, millions and millions and millions of people looked toward the sky to catch a glimpse of the sun being eclipsed by the moon.  We were not in the path of totality, but I believe 93% coverage.  It got a little bit darker but not too much.  The sky sort of looked like an eerie storm was looming.

Todd pulled Mercer out of school to watch the eclipse.  It was considered an excused absence.  We also read up on requirements for Mercer to earn a special badge for Cub Scouts, so he tracked the eclipse / drew images of the different "phases" and will have to talk to his Den Leader about what he saw + safety in viewing.  Here's a photo of the first Cut Scout meeting of the year - bottle rocket launch and picnic.  

I was in school / couldn't get out, but got to experience it off-and-on throughout the several hour process.  I even pulled Isabella out for a few minutes.  She said it looked like the moon and wasn't too impressed.  (Maybe next time?)





Here is a shot through my cell phone camera through the eclipse glasses. 

School is in full swing.  I am enjoying the middle-school Gardening class and Building Arts class (so far, I've been doing mostly art-related things to start with... dipping my toe into the water).  The really young kids - K and 1st grade - are a big adjustment, but it's been fun.  I still have a science club after school and help out with some (garden-related) science lessons with 4th grade science teacher, so I still get to do some fun science things.  I've also offered an after school jewelry club.... maybe using this to try to get back into that while teaching a few girls some new "real" jewelry-making skills with real jewelry-making tools?


Isabella is learning how to sound out words now and read a little bit.  Mercer says that he's enjoying writing stories in class.  (but he won't say what he's writing about... better not be tales about his family !?!)  We had a parent-teacher conference and we were actually concerned about reading/writing, but he seems to be doing OK in that area and getting pretty decent scores on his quizzes.  Let's hope that pattern keeps up!  No photos to go with the reading comments, so here are pictures of bugs & critters with our bug-and-critter loving girl.

We started Isabella back in gymnastics.  She just has so much energy!  She participated in a 4 year old session at the end of the summer, but they said in the fall (now) she needed to move up to the 5 year old class. A woman who had an older girl in gymnastics came to talk to me about Isabella... she made a point to come tell me how STRONG Isabella is and how well-coordinated she is.  

She also said something about no fear.  (sigh - yes....)  I suppose all of those reasons are why they suggested she move up to the 5 year old class before she's 5?  She had a behavior issue her first class, but hopefully we've got that in check.

Here's are some photos after gymnastics (at the ball field).... what do you do when you're 4 and you don't care about baseball:  build a campfire!  (it kept her busy, but no fire was actually ever created!!)

Mercer is back in Mission Possible Kids at church.  He just earned a badge / title call "Chief Officer" having completed 42 missions over the years.  He is one of the older kids in the program a this point.  

Also, baseball has started back.  Todd is coaching baseball again, so, the team is called the Mets, of course!  Mercer is now one of the older kids in this level of his league.  He's playing pitcher and 1st base again.  He's doing well & even earned the first game ball, but he may be over-doing it a bit... he's having to take a break from pitching and ice down his arm for the next couple of weeks.     

 We celebrated Mercer's Adoption Day last week.  9 years.  wow!   We had lunch together as a family at his school.  (He's eating "adult" meals.) I can't remember the last time all of us went to have lunch together.... but while he still wants us there, we're happy to go when we can!  He was supposed to have a baseball game, but it was cancelled due to rain.  We had dinner and cupcakes (that we made for him... with Met's orange sprinkles.)

Isabella and I had 4 days off last week that Mercer and Todd did not.  They both got Labor Day, of course, but the days after that - she and I hung out.  We picked Mercer up from the bus stop each day - he doesn't normally get to ride the bus home, so it's sort of a big deal for him.  We did stuff for Mercer's adoption day one day.  I had dental work another day.  We cleaned and we did some little projects together.   I was really wanting to go out of town close to the end of the week, but there were gas shortages + lots of traffic due to Hurricane Irma evacuations.  It was not an exciting week at all, but - grateful to not have the stress of traveling in some potentially "dire" conditions.  My family in Florida stayed put (with some preparations of course) and they did fine outside of losing power.  By the time Irma got to us, it was downgraded to a tropical storm.  Mercer's school was cancelled and so was mine.  It rained and rained and rained.  

We had a "bizarre" leak at our house:  water was leaking in, running down the roof joist and then finding it's way into our smoke detector!!  It went off at least a dozen times.  Mercer had fun climbing up into the attic and reporting on some water coming in , but poor Todd spent an entire day on the roof fixing the decking and replacing vents later in the week.    

On a positive note -- we made the best of getting outdoors that same weekend Todd repaired the roof.  We went to an evening Braves' game and then we went to a Community Garden fundraiser festival.   There was a unique band that played, silent auction, storytelling, food and bouncy houses.  

Two of the highlights:  Feed and Seed Marching Abomination band and Chicken Bingo.  (Chicken Bingo?! ....where ever the chicken pooped determined who won the prize!)  

It was a nice way to end a tough week.