Summa-time

This Florida sky!

Things always heat up in the summers down here in Florida, literally and figuratively-speaking.
It is starting to get feisty-hot outside, and you can tell that the summer storms are beginning to move their way into our afternoons to relieve the almost constant humidity.  Thus far, though, some of the humidity that marks our Florida summers has been kept at bay, so we have been enjoying the outdoors as much as we can until it literally becomes unbearable!

Our family life has recently become much busier as well.  It seems schedules can change quite quickly, and so they have.

Just a few weeks ago, at the suggestion of a friend, I was encouraged to look into my guidance counseling certificate renewal requirements, as I knew my FL state certificate would expire this summer.  I kind of brushed it off initially, thinking, Ah well, if it expires, it expires.  I don't think I'll be working anytime soon, so what's the rush?  but something caught my attention again that made me think, I should really look into this!
So, I contacted the Department of Education and after a few clarifying phone calls, I figured out what the requirements were.  Which then required a few calls to institutions of higher learning, such as my alma mater, USF.  Within a matter of days I had submitted my non-degree seeking application to USF, signed up for a class and completed a few checklists to make sure my online course in Anthropology (whaaat!?) would count towards my certification renewal.  According to Courtney at FL DOE, it does :D  So, in addition to this online course I'm taking, I have to retake a professional subject exam for the state in guidance counseling, and I plan to take that soon after some intense spurts of studying.
I learned that if I let my certificate lapse and expire, it would be about twice the amount of work to reinstate it as it would to renew it, and I just felt it would be the wiser route to go.

I'm actually enjoying hitting the books again and it is requiring that I add a bit more structure into my day-to-day for the next few weeks, which I invite at the moment.

These children!

Not only am I exercising my brain, but Greg and I collectively are exercising our hearts & brains right now as well as we have started a parenting class with a small group from our congregation. We are studying a parenting curriculum that is bible-based and is focused on getting at the heart of our children in training and discipline. We have only had 2 meetings so far (next one is tonight)! but we are already gleaning a lot from it.  I'm thankful we have this opportunity to grow and learn and to also study it alongside an older couple with older children, as well as a few of our peers who are in similar family stages such as us.  I've had several friends go through this curriculum as well and they have only said good things about the results it produces, so we are excited about that.  Sometimes growth is hard, but I'm feeling good about growth that improves our family dynamics! It can only benefit :)

That was a whole lot of information about me and Greg, but that's been part of the reason we've very much been MIA (missing in action) the last little while.  Things will only get busier over the next little while as we travel to Indiana for my younger brother's wedding (ahh! the final child will be married off!) and spend some time with the fam.  We are looking forward to the trip but I won't lie, I'm a little nervous about my youngest child's behavior, as he has entered the squirmy-worm, temper-tantrum phase that so often plagues the little ones.  We are doing the best we can to communicate with him, show proper boundaries, and work with him, and sometimes it is just a guessing game.  Fingers crossed he makes it through the wedding ceremony!  With that said...

We'll catch you on the flip side.