Oops...

I didn't intend to let August slip away without a single post, but it happened anyway.  I knew there would be a gap because of vacation.  I did not intend to let the last week slip by though.

Vacation was lovely, so very lovely.  Three parts, two full weeks and not nearly long enough.  We found another city to love and explore, a return to a favorite spot at the beach, and much needed and unexpected rest and relaxation in a home from long ago.  I will eventually put up some posts about all of it, complete with pictures.

The rest of August ended in a flurry of back to school activities and illness recovery, all at once!  So many people at the beach had various bits of whatnot lingering it was inevitable that we would catch something.  I did not share it at the time, but I managed to also catch the strep that was making the rounds.  I managed to fend it off with my little oily pharmacy.  Chalk up another few points for essential oils!  The boys only suffered fevers for a day or so, again put to rapid demise by the oils.  I credit rampant use of oils for keeping the strep from spreading to them.  Mike managed to end up catching some variation of the strep as well.  His official strep test was negative, but something definitely gave him the same symptoms.  Sadly, I had exhausted my oil supply and had only enough to help him survive his business trip.  After a long week of suffering, a trip to the doc and some antibiotics finally cleared him up.  And yes, more healing oils are on order, in fact maybe they are sitting in my mailbox right now.

School started off with a bang for the boys.  They have some fabulous teachers this year and are very excited to be back amongst their friends.  My days are most certainly quiet without them around.  More on back to school later.

To wrap up loose ends, Tucker bounced back from whatever little episode he had at the end of our vacation.  Confirmation from a vet today that it was an idiopathic vestibular episode.  In other words, old dog disease.  He's hanging on for now, looking pretty good for 15.  We'll keep fingers crossed that he makes it through the winter, the cold is always so hard on him.  The other animals are also all doing well.

Heading into fall I'll try not to wish my life away - wishing I was someplace more exciting and fun, wishing the boys weren't at school and Mike at work, wishing I didn't have to do the mundane school things I have to do.  I'll try to enjoy my time, maybe tackle a few projects here and there, try to be productive at least some of the time.