We have light

At the end of July the last of the bulbs in our kitchen track lighting burned out. After a few days of flipping the switch and nothing happening (I have the same disorder when the electricity goes off), I packed up the kids and headed to the store for new bulbs. Unfortunately, these are not normal bulbs. Little, tiny stick in halogen bulbs...of which there are a multitude of slightly different ones. Of course being my luck we could not find hide-nor-hair of the bulb in the store, even with store help. Went to a different store, still no luck. Lots of bulbs that were 'almost' right. Since I figured that the bulbs were already going to set us back almost $20 I wasn't going to keep wasting my gas, so we purchased a new light fixture with more normal bulbs for $22. Then the light fixture sat for three more weeks while we waited for life to slow down enough for DH to change out the fixtures.

I've been working in the kitchen using daylight and the fluorescent light over the sink. It has been like working in a cave. We finally had the time last night, with a little push from me and a bribe of roasted chicken. So, now we have what amounts to 200W of light in the kitchen. Wow, I can see all the dirt now.

The public schools started today. I impressed myself and slept through the first Senior Parade since we have lived here. I wonder if it has to do with those new windows. Needless to say most of my kids are still nestled in bed having wonderful dreams.

Later we will actually start our week of testing for Mary. We do it in the Fall since our school year begins in January. I had thoughts of switching it over to late Spring, but Mary had such anxiety over it that we just kept working through various test prep books...which she actually enjoyed. I sent off for the testing materials last week and had planned for a couple of weeks from now. But, they came on Friday and Mary was so excited (Yes, Excited!) that I had to hold her off all weekend. So, we will test this week and next week we will go visit a museum of Mary's choice.
We are making a quick detour in our history unit study. Mary found our copy of "The Queens Progress: An Elizabethan Alphabet" by Celeste Davidson Mannis, and had me read it to her last night. Midnight found us flipping through our "Kingfisher History Encyclopedia" and discussing when we would make it next to the library so we could get more books on Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. So, it appears the Mayans and the Aztecs will be pushed aside for awhile.

Off to do some online library browsing while I have the opportunity.

Peace,
Amy