I realized recently, that while I spend lots of time with my kids, too often it’s easy for me to spend the day with them, without really playing with them. So, these past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot more playing. And I gotta say, I’m loving it. One hit with the circus crew recently has been beauty shop. To make it an equal opportunity for all, I did a little hair spiking for my son.

After spending many hours on the sidelines watching her big brother play soccer or baseball, today my middle child had a chance to shine in a sport of her own… GYMNASTICS And my fearless and flexible tumbler, LOVED it, much like I anticipated she would.  She told me at the end of class, “Mommy, I’m a gymnast!” Watch out Shawn Johnson, the 2020 Olympics could be all hers!

With the arrival of cool, autumn like weather this week and Labor Day weekend approaching at the weeks end, I suppose it’s time to admit that summer is over. To commemorate it’s end, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite things about summer here at the circus. So here they are…in no particular order… Lightening Bug Catching Wednesday Night Races Swimming Fishing Corn on the Cob

I once read or heard somewhere that kids need to draw in spaces bigger than 8x11 sheets of paper. I tucked that little nugget of info away and to be honest did absolutely nothing with it, till last week. During one of our 3 sick days last week, I looked down at a brown bag and got inspiration!!   I cut the bag open much like you do when making book covers and gave each kid one half of a brown bag to draw on.

I saw this line on a tee shirt this weekend at the Annapolis 10 Mile and loved it. But, it cost $27 so I decided instead of buying the tee shirt, I’d make it my blog title. Yea, I was so excited when I signed up back in June to run this race with my high school friends. And somehow 3 months came and went and I ummm didn’t really train adequately for it.

Have you ever experienced complete darkness? I’m not talking about shutting out the lights before you crawl under the covers, but total darkness. In our electronic world of LEDs, it’s something we don’t often experience. During our time exploring Carlsbad earlier this week, the ranger brought us into a cavern 830 feet below the earth and shut off the lights. No flash lights. No matches. No floor lights. Nothing. It was dark.

Well, the local public schools went back in session at the beginning of the week and even though we are homeschooling this year, we’ve already got sick germs at the circus. Seems we’re not holding out for long sleeves and sweaters to welcome in those lovely, little germs. But, can I tell you a little secret? Part of me likes sick days. No, I don’t like to see my kids suffering, and no I am not a big fan of the whining or continual moaning.

Here’s a random Crystal factoid for you. I hate flying. It not the getting to the airport hrs early or the waiting in lines for security that gets me. It’s the act of actually flying that I am opposed to. Don’t get me wrong. I do it and though I am no frequent flier I would say I fly with some frequency; at least once sometimes twice a year. But, I hate the feeling of queasiness I get during take off and landing.

During our recent visit to El Paso, we survived the desert trek to reach Carlsbad Caverns ( number 23 of the 47 U.S. National Parks we plan to visit in our life together). It was a perfect day alone with the man of my dreams exploring and enjoying God’s creation. We spent 5 hours exploring the caves 800 feet below the earth’s surface. Pictures truly can’t do it justice, but I’ll try.

Our continual quest to visit each of the US National parks, prompted us to take a day trip to Carlsbad caverns while in El Paso this weekend. Oddly enough we were quite familiar with the route has we were only about 11 miles from there this April when we visited Guadeloupe. To get to Carlsbad from El Paso you travel 138 miles on a rather barren and desolate road in the desert.