Hello Blogger! I've missed you...

Dear family and friends, Hello! Sorry I've been so sluggish to post lately. I have taken pictures and all--I am just slow. I have been running through the days, trying to catch the summer I somehow missed!? I remember it being the end of the school year, I was going to get so much done at home with the children and then...? Perhaps it was aliens. Maybe I was abducted? That must be it! Joseph has been busy (and stressed) at work. Hannah, in Sixth Grade now, is busy with Egyptian Projects, learning the Cello for school Orchestra, Chess Club, (grudgingly and beautifully) still playing the piano, and is excited about Ballroom Dance classes starting soon. She is also busy being a new mother to a kitten we thought was a boy and turned out to be a girl...She is also much younger than said and a LOT of WORK. Hannah is learning. Living creatures--eat, eat, eat, play, and POOP! Rebekah is in Fourth Grade. She enjoys Concert Choir, still playing the piano, will learn the recorder in school, and is in an integrated computer classroom this year. Rebekah is taking care of guinea pigs and the other cat, Huckleberry, a boy. She is not crazy about cleaning up poop (and this makes her dad a bit crazy). She is smart and funny (except when she can't find her homework) but cannot record her true reading minutes. Shouldn't reading be for escape and fun anyway? Jonathan is loving First Grade and his art centered teacher. He cried yesterday because he couldn't play. He is our social guy. It's a hard life surrounded by all girls... He has little interest in a clean room and zips through reading and homework (the First Grade is more regimented than my older children's grades: Reading, Spelling, Math, Penmanship, every night!) Susannah is our little princess. She is spoiled and sweet. She likes to snuggle and ends up in our bed every morning somehow. She is Princess Dara some days. Other days she is Cinderella and I'm the mother. I must be a nice mother but when I am Cinderella and she is the Mother, she is not very nice! I am learning to be a JUGGLER! I am trying to be a mother, menu planner, chief, chauffeur, homework nazi, instrument mentor, laundress, maid, teacher, visiting teacher, beginning scriptorian, primary worker, LLL leader (counseling woman who want to breastfeed), friend, daughter, sister, and spouse. I like my jobs. I am afraid I will be fired soon. I do not do them all well, all of the time. It is hard to find balance. What works for you and your house?