busy as a beaver

The past few weeks I haven't had the energy or inclination to blog about anything. The election results were so depressing that I didn't turn on the computer except to check email or turn on the radio except to get my daily dose of encouragement from Rush. 

I finished the lap quilt I was working on and started a Christmas twisted pinwheel table runner that we worked on at quilt group. I am currently free-motion quilting feathers in the pinwheeels and pebbles in the background. Hopefully I can have it finished by December 25th. 

I also offered to pick out fabrics and put together bags for the group to make a calendar quilt for the town's library and just getting it all organized and cut out took several hours last weekend. All 12 blocks were taken home so my portion of the project is complete.  While waiting for end to the school dance I picked up some machine quilting books at BooksAMillion, which I will put under the tree for me from the kids. 

We are finding the ongoing transition from homeschooling to Catholic school a challenge for the older two children, the amount of homework each night is sometimes overwhelming and the lure of Minecraft on the laptops they are given is too much for Will to resist most days. Mary is more conscious of time management in terms of getting her work completed, but her issues are the lure of fashion status and the increased facination with the opposite sex. I guess all this should have been expected with puberty, but I find it very hard on the parents.

I'm still running every day, but hoping to take a short break after I give blood tomorrow. Last week I caught a cold and it hampered my race pace on Sunday's Turkey Trot. I did shave off 23 seconds off last year's race, but still didn't come home with a free bird. A friend mentioned that my name is mentioned in a local newspaper article about the Sub5 series and suggested that I might be up for "most improved" runner at the awards dinner in January. My goal for next year's series is to win my age bracket again and to run in all the races, including the County Half Marathon, the Cobscook 10K, and the Machais Blueberry Run which all involve spending the night in a hotel the night beforehand. 

Homeschooling the boys is proceeding along at a fast clip, Timmy is on lesson 20 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and will be moving up to 1st grade by the end of next week. Charlie is 3/4 of the way through history and science for 3rd grade and is slowly working on memorizing the times tables. 

All in all, the last month has been the equivalent of a hamster on a wheel, running faster and faster just to keep up. The reason for this is the number of children (6) times the number of activities (piano, theater, Scouts, swimming, and altar serving) makes logistics and driving all over midcoast Maine inevitable. Luckily theater and swimming are over for the winter, but basketball for Mary and cross country sking for the little ones is just about to begin...