Friday, August 03, 2007

• The winding down has started.  As August began, dance camp has ended.  This is good, for me anyway.  For Miss A., too.  She's danced out, I think.  Gymnastics will continue for a couple more weeks.  She may choose to take gymnastics next session in the fall, instead of dance.  The exception will be if they are offering hip-hop dance classes at a time that is convenient for us.  She's dying to learn hip-hop.  I'm going to let J. choose, but I think she will also pick gymnastics.  They are both really enjoying themselves and this gym is a good fit for us.
  
  Before the summer is through, though, we still have two mini vacations to the beach to enjoy... starting next weekend.
  
  I've been reading a lot this summer, I just finished "The Painted Drum" by Louise Erdrich.  A good thing about older children as opposed to babies... having more time to read.  In addition to this last book (which had a very slow start, for me, but was excellent once I broke through), I have read "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky (an amazing real-time novel about the Nazi occupation of France.  The author, a Jew, wrote this story as events were unfolding in France.  She was arrested and killed before she finished the novel completely.  The manuscript was kept but never read by her oldest daughter, who late in life finally read it and had it translated/edited.  This story has stuck with me.); and "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan (historical story of the dustbowl in America in the 1930s, about the ones who stayed through it all... gripping and desperate to read).
  
  This past spring, I also read all the stories of the Old Testament that interest me, I skipped the endless name lists and such, but I found the reading otherwise fascinating.  As a cultural Catholic, I was raised on the New Testament, with short glances into the Old.  I know the stories, in general, but reading them directly from the book was not difficult or uninteresting.  I read it as though I was reading any holy and spiritual book.  I think I shall attempt another religious holy book... Bhagavad Vita, maybe... or maybe the Koran.  I've read a lot about what other people have to say about other holy books.  It's time to read these books for myself, so I started with the most familiar to me... the Bible.
  
  I reorganized our bedroom walk-in closet, or rather I moved out of it and into the small closet while I was keeping an eye on the playdate gathering upstairs this morning (they were playing fashion show in their bedrooms).  I simply do not have, nor do I need, a whole bunch of clothing anymore.  I've... ahem... grown out of most of what I had before this spring and even that was outdated.  I don't buy so trendy these days, so I don't think I'll have that problem again.  I spent my birthday money on everyday clothes I needed, since nothing fit anymore.  I have what I need with a few nicer outfits that I won't touch and ruin until I need them (I'm a bit rough on my clothes).  So I purged what was hanging of mine and condensed my wardrobe... what remains fits nicely in the small closet.  Ed now has room for his clothing, which has always dwarfed mine in number of garments (my husband is a clothes horse).  That was satisfying, to get that done.
  
  I'm in for a busy weekend, looking forward to it.
  Hope you have a fun end of the week.
  Good night.
  

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