A Summer Recap

I've been neglecting the Argonne Chronicles.

It's certainly not because there's been nothing to chronicle.  In fact,there's probably been too much.  Every day has seemed just a bit too full, so that at the end of the day, I've only had time to tumble into bed.  Even the weekends have been full.  However, I think I'll steal a page from one of my very favorite blogs of all, The Dao of Doing, and do a bit of an update based on what's been good and what's been not so good.

What's been good

• Dylan and I have done some fun things like attending the City Park Friend's Night at the Carousel Garden and seeing the new Winnie the Pooh movie, which unfortunately didn't live up to the very first one, IMO. 
• In fact, he's done some fun things that I helped get him to, like a party at Bounce Spectrum, a visit to the zoo's new Cool Zoo splash park, and I took him and his friend to laser tag
• RockStar and I got to see Part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Okay, that was sort of a sad thing - I cried to think that this was the last one.  Harry and his classmates have become like friends. 
• I had my book club at my house for a lively discussion of The Help.  If you haven't read it, I recommend it!  Definitely thought-provoking.
• I finally got a new assistant at work.  I had four wonderful candidates - I just hope I made the right decision.
• RockStar will be getting a weekly paid gig playing in a church band.

What's been questionable

• I finally got Dylan started on his summer schoolwork.  Although there have been some good times reading, there have been even more times with me struggling to get him going.  It makes me dread the start of school. 

What's been not-so-good

• My mom's been diagnosed with bone cancer.  The plus is that she has been pretty upbeat, which is unusual for her.  What I'm not sure is whether I can make a trip up there, especially if I can arrange it to bring Dylan.
• The pastor nominating process at our church is at a crossroads and we are having a hard time getting past it, when we really need to get on with it and hire a new pastor.
• Although I'm happy with Dylan's medication vacation, we have had some major melt downs.  Sometimes it really affects my day and makes me feel like a bad mom.
• I'm definitely feeling over-committed.  Church, work, Dylan, the house, meals, etc.  I am struggling to keep up and haven't had any good quality me time.  

The latter piece may make it hard to keep up with the blog, which is sort of a shame since I really would like to keep it up.  I've ad some ideas about things that would be good to write about.  I hope to try for shorter, perhaps serialized pieces that won't take as much of a commitment.