The last few weeks have been lovely. Fall is here, the leaves are turning orange, and I am spending weekdays alone with William. He loves being the center of attention for a few hours every day.
The house becomes quiet, he climbs into my lap, and we read together. He loves to go online and look at pictures of farm animals and trucks. When the bus pulls up and the girls come home, there is such a sense of excitement. The art board in their room is covered in paint and construction paper creations. I am so happy that they love school.
Sean Lennon – Idea [mp3_embed playlst="http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/7/2502016/sean%20lennon%20idea.mp3" colors="#e48299" id="9" nums="1"]
I can’t believe it. My babies started kindergarten today. I am waiting for them to return home and tell me all about their day! Will loved the attention he got from being alone with us today, which surprised me. I thought he would really miss his sisters, but he didn’t mention them once. I’m sure that will be different once he realizes how often they will be gone at school.
My heart was pounding as they hopped onto the bus. I just wanted to yell, “No, stop! They’re too little”, but of course I couldn’t.
We have survived much of this summer without air conditioning. We have a fan in the attic to circulate air outside, window fans, and roman shades. I actually saved about $125 in June and $125 in July by doing this. August, however, is not as bearable. The humidity has been terrible. Here’s a video I took of one of the storms that has kept us awake at night:
I was enjoying this season, but now I wish it would be over soon. I am anxious to start school shopping for the girls and do some work around the outside of the house. It is too hot to try right now.
On the upside, I may have a few clients lined up for web sites. I love any opportunity I can find to work from home and build on my portfolio.
Summer is passing by so quickly. We uprooted our lives so I could take a full time job, and in the end it turned out to be a disaster. In a single day I went from working mother back to SAHM again. It was discouraging, but I know it was best for my family. There are moments I don’t have to miss, and I am going to catch every one.
Needtobreathe – More Time [mp3_embed playlst="http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/7/2502016/Needtobreathe%20-%20More%20Time.mp3" colors="#e48299" id="9" nums="1"]
Micah has been talking about writing and recording songs for a while. I can take credit for only a few things here (the name, photos, the concept of the retail song, and a few lines in “Nobody’s Hero”). This is win.
Fortune Devoid – Wish You Were Here (Cover) [mp3_embed playlst="http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/7/2502016/wishyouwerehere.mp3" colors="#e48299" id="7" nums="1"]
I have spent many hours working on this. My site is almost completely XHTML 1.0 transitional. I have to say “almost” because of a few exceptions I have to work out. The twitter script is not compliant. Everything gets a bit messy when you use PHP includes from WordPress and Gallery2. Those are things I could fix over time, but there are many files and I’m not sure when I’ll get around to it. Lastly, I need to work with the “cam preview” feature on the main page of Our Home Life. It uses JavaScript which is provided by WebcamXP. I am beginning to hate JavaScript.
There was so much code to run through. I had never even added a valid doctype to these pages. I just never had the time to sort through each one, but I was determined. I had to train myself to avoid tables at all costs and learn how to make pure CSS layouts. I learned, quite painstakingly, which elements could not be nested. Working with HTML that is upwards of 12 years old is tricky – especially when it has been morphed repeatedly over the years.
In the end, it was worth all of the hard work. The physical appearance of each page has changed very little, but there is one wonderful difference:
Switching to strict will be next. This will have to come in stages, but right now, my eyes are glazing over from staring at Notepad for 2 days.
Now that we’re home from church and finished a few things around the house, we can sit down and relax. The kids want to have a picnic lunch in the backyard. Here are some sights from this morning:
The Alternate Routes – Ordinary [mp3_embed playlst="http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/7/2502016/Alternate%20Routes%20-%20Ordinary.mp3" colors="#e48299" id="7" nums="1"]
It doesn’t take much to make me happy. Micah and I spent hours clearing part of the yard so we could plant grass, and it’s sprouting. I scraped my elbow while playing with the kids and chasing them around. We had so much fun, even though we had nowhere special to go. It can be so nice to just spend a day at home.
Jamie Cullum – These Are The Days [mp3_embed playlst="http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/7/2502016/Jamie%20Cullum%20-%20These%20are%20the%20Days.mp3" colors="#e48299" id="6" nums="1"]
My certificate from OCC finally arrived this week. There’s a wall in our office that reminds me of my accomplishments.
Left: Curriculum Honor award, Onondaga Community College. Top: B.A. English, Salem State College (cum laude). Bottom: Certificate of Web Technology. Onondaga Community College (summa cum laude).
Sean Lennon – Idea [mp3_embed playlst="http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/7/2502016/sean%20lennon%20idea.mp3" colors="#e48299" id="9" nums="1"]
