So, yeah, I still haven’t finished posting about our trip. What happened is, we started traveling fast and internet coverage was spotty. From Dubai, we headed to Jordan for a night at the Dead Sea, then down the King’s Highway for a night at Petra, then back up to Amman and into Israel for Holy Week in Jerusalem and back into Jordan for a night in Madaba before heading back to the states for a night in New York…phew. It was a whirlwind. We got back from New York around midnight and I headed to work later that morning and it hasn’t slowed down since. All of that to say, I will post about our trip, but a 7QT is in order to get me back to the blog since I’ve been gone for Two. Months. (How does that even happen?)

1. School’s (almost) out for summer! – My, oh my. I cannot wait to see the back of this school year. I blogged earlier about how we’ve been half homeschooling. The kids will go to a full-time school in August. While I am a bit trepidatious about the change, I am looking forward to it. The headmaster of their current school just announced that he’s not coming back in August and I just can’t imagine the place without him, so I feel better about the decision.
2. I teach my first professional continuing education seminar – Honestly, I signed up for this as a marketing tool and to get free admission to a yearly conference that focuses on professional development in my field. However, as the deadline for submitting my materials approached and I actually sat down to plan out the seminar, I realized how much fun it will be to teach something again. I spent years as a teacher before I went back to school to become an attorney and I never thought I’d miss it. Granted, this is teaching adults and not children.
3. Walking pneumonia and the boogie-woogie blues – My eldest came down with a case of atypical pneumonia…while my husband was on a business trip. Thank God we have our lovely nanny! My husband usually takes sick kid duty because his job is a bit more flexible than mine and, wow, did I miss him.
4. Game of Thrones – I binged on this while up listening to a crackly-lunged, coughing sickie. (He was sleeping, but I couldn’t rest easy with all his worrisome noise.) I have not read the books, but the story is really intriguing. Unfortunately the sexual content is over the top. Why do they do that? It’s such lazy writing because it aims to hook you through titillation instead of a good yarn. At any rate, it’s too much. I can’t. I hope the books don’t have that content because I’m going to try that next, but not before…
5. Audio Books – I buy an Audible book a month. I just finished part one of Edward Lacey’s Great Tales of English History and it was fantastic. I love English history. These books are short vignettes of various lesser-known stories from English history in a “Rest of the Story” format. I highly recommend it. I can’t wait to finish the other audio book I have right now so that I can get volume two.
6. StitchFix – I am anxiously awaiting my first arrival. Both of my sisters were here last week and wearing outfits they got from StitchFix. They looked sleek and polished next to my 10yo jeans that I’d rolled up in lieu of actually shopping for shorts. It was time. If I like the selections they send, I’ll link to it in a later post.
7. The Bishop is coming! – We have a packed weekend. Our Bishop, who just retired, is coming to our parish to ordain a new deacon. He is also baptizing the 12th baby of our largest parish family and presiding over a hierarchical divine liturgy for Pentecost. Oh, and it’s the last All Souls Saturday for the year. This means that there will be choir duties on Saturday morning, Saturday evening for Vespers and Divine Liturgy, and Sunday morning, otherwise known as 8+ hours at church this weekend. And, one of the men in our parish is having a graduation party on Saturday in celebration of his completion of nursing school. And, I’m supposed to be planning a party for my brother, who, while he is eschewing the actual graduation ceremony, has finished his Bachelor’s. We’re so proud of him and he needs a send-off before he and his wife head off to another state for him to begin law school. Busy times. I hope you have a wonderful week and I’ll get to those vacation posts soon…

Evie