Hi, out there…
Sorry to be gone for so long. Our computers were out of the internet loop for awhile, and well, I’ve just been not really focused on blogging and such lately. So what’s been going on?

We love our house. It is so well-suited to us. While it has roughly the same amount of liveable space as our apartment, the space itself is much better divided, and we really appreciate that. The “zones” of public and private/adult and child, are much better placed. We even have a room, the living room, that has no TV in it. And, yes, I’m writing about us, the TV-loving Barlows, not some other family. It is nice to have a space like that. It is a nice place to read. The boys have a playroom with toys and media-stuff. It is off to one side of the house and has a door that shuts to hide their mess and muffle their noise. What a lovely thing. 🙂 So far, we have not been in the yard as much as I thought, but that is my fault, really, and the heat until this week has been opressive, too. I can hardly believe that I get to live in this house, in this cute little neighborhood where everyone walks, less than 2 minutes to the boys school and so convenient in many other ways. We definitely feel blessed. That is for sure.

Meanwhile, we have a little less than 2 weeks before the 3 oldest go to school. I’m trying to not get nervous about it. And, I’m not nervous about the younger 2 going, but I am nervous about my eldest son going to a new school. Even though the school has an excellent reputation with special education and autism, I’m still nervous. I think that the reality is that I’m just going to be nervous about him a lot in his life. There is just a lot more unknown with him than with the other boys. You think I’d be used to it by now, but I’m not. Maybe I’ll never be used to it.

I have a few projects around the house to do after the boys go back to school. I’m planning on upholstering one chair and doing a fitted slipcover for my Miss Liz couch. I was thinking about reupholstering the couch, until the other night at dinner when the 2 year old, having gotten down out of his chair before being cleaned up, wandered over to the couch and gave it a kiss with his ketchuped mouth. Any piece of furniture within 10 feet of a dinner table should be readily cleanable and his little smooch proved that to me anew. I also have to hang stuff on the walls, but I like to wait on that and think a little. Blank walls don’t bother me but stuff hanging where I don’t like/want it really does bother me. So, waiting is part of the plan for me for now.

So, that is all of my boring news. Oh, and I wore the brown dress that I wrote of earlier this summer. Even though it is not exactly as I want it to be, I wore it to a wedding over the weekend and thought that it looked pretty good. Maybe I’ll even wear it to church sometime. Maybe my sons will recognize me in a skirt — the last time I wore one, my 8 year old asked me what I was wearing. He didn’t know the name for it. I live in such a male household.

Thanks for dropping by.