Fall break

This week is fall break for me. The kids had their fall break weeks ago when the co-op took their fall break, but I had to wait until this week, even though there is only just a few weeks left until the end of the semester. Since I don't have school to do, I decided to take a break from bookwork for the girls so they could finish the quilts and curtains they started last summer.

Joy and Sarah are making quilts with zebra print zigzags and matching curtains. Abby and Rachel didn't need quilts because they already had nice comforters, but they needed some good curtains. I had bought the material for it but never had time to help them make them. So this was sort of a "home ec" week. We are almost finished, too--Sarah just has to finish up her quilt and then we still have to make the zebra curtains.

We also bought a new van today--a twelve passenger. Our mini-van had eight seats, but the kids keep growing taller (imagine that) and plus they always want to take their friends places. People used to ask us why we had six kids and one of my favorite answers was to say that if we had more than that, we'd have to supersize everything. I didn't think we'd be supersizing anyway! I guess I'll have to think up another answer to that question.

Anyway, this van was a very good deal. It's a Chevy Express 3500 (and yes, I had to ask my husband because I had no idea) and it's green. It's very pretty on the outside, and very plain on the inside, but there's lots of room. It doesn't have any fancy features, like cruise control or a cassette/CD player, but at least the air conditioning works. It also doesn't have power locks or windows. Timothy thinks it's so cool that you can roll down the windows without even putting in the key!

We are looking forward to taking this van on vacation next year. Lord willing, we're going to go out west and see the Grand Canyon and go to Yellowstone and all of the other neat places that are out that way. We've been north and south and east, but not west, at least no farther than Missouri. It's so big that way. I hope we get to go. I also hope I can handle the Grand Canyon, since I'm terrified of heights. The last time we went on the sky ride at Indiana Beach I spent the whole time clinging tightly to my daughter and telling her to not look down. That's the best way to convince others that you're not scared--pretend like you are trying to keep someone else from being scared. It works fairly well.

I know this blog post was a bit rambly (is rambly a word?), but hey--it's fall break. I'm resting my mind and that means taking a break from being organized. You should feel lucky I posted at all.