Weekend Away....

It's been a crazy-busy week with driving into the city Tuesday-Saturday, even twice on Thursday. So this weekend, I'll take E down into El Cajon for her SATs. While she tries to gain the extra 50 points she needs for the $4000/yr academic scholarship at PLNU, I will park myself in the nearest Starbucks with my fountain pen and a stack of MLA essays to grade, all due on Thursday plus student semester grades which are cumulative since September. I definitely have my work cut out for me.

After the SATs, we'll run a couple of errands before heading down to my parents' place at the beach. They're arriving home from their eight weeks in Hawaii and after my dad's double bypass surgery last month, they have no desire to come home to a house messy with construction dirt and the dusty footprints of the many workers (including Keith) who have been installing their elevator--which is being installed to help my mom climb the two flights of stairs in the house but now will also be used by my dad as he continues to recover from his surgery. So my parents have hired E to clean their home in preparation for their homecoming this week. Keith and the boys will be there as well as he finishes the few details of the installation--applying trim, etc. while she vacuums, dusts, cleans bathrooms and kitchen....

And me? I hope to finish grading essays but also stroll the half-block to the beach, dig my toes into the sand, and read the new Mary Higgins Clark novel I picked up from the library this week: The Shadow of Your Smile. It looks intriguing; she's one of the few contemporary mystery writers whose whole canon of work I've read and continue to read as each new book is released--including Anne Perry, Victoria Thompson, Lilian Jackson Braun-- although I started reading Mary Higgins Clark's books from the very beginning of her career with Where Are the Children? and A Cry in the Night under my desk in my high school Algebra II class.

So my plans for this weekend include sitting in the sun, slathered in organic sunscreen, the sea breezes fluttering my hair, and toes digging deep past hot surface sands into the deep, sea-cooled dampness that clings darkly to toenails. My laptop will remain chastely at home, gathering dust and able to also rest--for once.

So I shall see you all on Monday when I return to "real life"--our last week of homeschooling for the year, and my last week of officially homeschooling all four children. Ever. But I'm not going to think about that--at least not until E's graduation a week from tonight....