"My Sweet Summer Is Gone..."

Pacific Beach--taken by moi

It's a depressing thought that summer is gone--it feels as if it just started, and somehow, summer slipped through my fingers. We had grand plans for going to the beach often...which we only managed over the 4th of July despite the fact that my parents live half a block from Law Street Beach in Pacific Beach, just south of La Jolla. J went on his nine-day missions trip to the Utah/Arizona border with a group of 20+ high schoolers, college-agers, and adults in July.

I had grand plans for writing this summer, especially during my Fan Fiction class at Brave Writer. (BTW, have you seen the new Brave Writer website? Click on the hyperlink and enjoy! And I even have my own teacher page here!) Anywhoooo, this if my fifth year of teaching this fun writing course, and I've averaged about eight, perhaps ten, students each July in this class. But this summer, we had 24 students enrolled in Fan Fiction! It was a lovely surprise, but it also derailed my writing plans for the month. And as summer classes are much more relaxed and tend to drag out a bit with so many kids at camp, on vacation, etc., I just graded and returned my last two stories tonight, August 23, for a class that "officially" finished July 31.

I spent most of the summer continuing to read and absorb more Jane Austen Fan Fiction (JAFF); I'll have some more Goodreads/Amazon reviews for you in a week, perhaps less. I've started to write two JAFF stories myself, but I've only written a handful of chapters. I'm hoping to have more time after school begins and I get back on a regular schedule. But after the craziness of last year with more all-night grading sessions than I can count with teaching nine online classes at Brave Writer, including four of the crazy-intensive literary analysis classes, plus two courses at Heritage Christian School's ECII Class Day, I needed this summer to rest and recover.

On Tuesday, B and I will open our books and begin my 19th year of home education. Fortunately, we don't begin Class Day courses or Brave Writer classes until after Labor Day, so we have two weeks of just US while we adjust to his sophomore year of home schooling. Later on, he wants to study American Sign Language (ASL) as his foreign language, so he'll take community college classes his senior year to study ASL and perhaps some other courses.

His and my schedules for the 2015-2016 school year may be seen HERE.

Once we start into our full schedule after September 8, I plan to schedule in an hour of writing for myself each day, along with grading time for Expository Essay assignments and Brave Writer responses, plus time for Morning, Midday, and Vespers/Compline Prayers. I also set aside an hour for exercise on my stationary bicycle and twenty minutes in the spa (designed for those with rheumatoid arthritis) before bed. I'll be busy, but productive, too.

Plus, I'll still have my Online Essay Grading Service via e-mail for homeschooling parents who need some help with evaluating their students' junior high and high school essays.  I'm also swapping tutoring with an amazing mathematics teacher; she teaches B high school math while I teach her high school daughters writing. It's definitely a win-win situation as we meet each Thursday afternoon all year.

Oh, and August 13 was the Ninth Anniversary of Meditative Meanderings! It started on a homeschooling blog site and then moved to Blogger in 2007. With over 1500 posts, 2500 comments, and more than 225,000 views, I've thoroughly enjoyed blogging here and do not plan to stop anytime soon. :)

We're hoping to get some beach time after Labor Day when all of the kids return to school and we can descend upon my parents' place and enjoy the beach in relative serenity. Crowds really aren't our thing. So although summer is gone, we do have plans to enjoy some beach and Balboa Park time as we can once the crowds dissipate and we can enjoy San Diego sans tourists.

Welcome to autumn (I guess...),