July

Well it has been a busy last few weeks to say the least. I am preparing for our biggest KidzArt event of the summer, the week-long summer camp. Also, I've been averaging 28 hours per week for RISE - on top of my usual 30ish hours for KidzArt - I really don't know about this two job thing.. luckily it will be coming to an end soon (I am training my KA replacement in August).

The only good thing is that RJ has taken over the majority of the house-work. 

I can't complain at all because I truly enjoy both of my jobs. It just always seem like there aren't enough hours in the day.

I did take a break last weekend to go to the pool with Laura in Hudson, while RJ went to the Indian's Game with <Big> Reed, Chelsey and Trevor. They recently joined Lake Forest Country Club which is just beautiful. It's only about 2 minutes from their house, so it was just a matter of time before Reed convinced Laura to join :) They are going to be quite the golfers. I'm happy for them and needless to say, it works out pretty well for us as pool guests too!

The problem with having a home office...

I tried my hand at spicy thai peanut sauce a few weeks ago. We chopped up cucumber, carrot, peanuts and celery and tossed the peanut sauce with whole wheat soba noodles (Ohio City Pasta, of course! Thanks, Trevor). I wasn't sure if we would like it or not but it was actually pretty good!

On Tuesday's in July we take the RISE kids on education field trips, like I mentioned in my last post. On the 17th we went to Amish country (that trip I ended up in the Millersburg hospital until 6:30pm with a child who had an allergic reaction - yikes! We got to Amish country at 8:30am, so yes, that was a long day!)

This Tuesday we went to the zoo, the kids loved it! We've been having 120-130 come on the trips. It's a lot of planning, organizing and coordinating, which explains my elevated hours for July. I love going on the trips though.

Part of my job with RISE is continuing with the educational art programming at the shelters. After we went to the zoo, the next day I had the kids do a monkey project (and snack on animal crackers of course) and they were so darn cute. This was my sample:

 This is what happens when RJ does the grocery shopping. I know we usually eat pretty healthy, but last weekend we just had to make these.

What is the point of eating healthy if you can't splurge every once in awhile anyway?

Lately..

We've been going for Bike Rides on the Towpath (a beautiful trail close to our house. You can jump on it through multiple parks and it goes all the way to Cleveland! We haven't gone that far..)

 Mary gave me a lemon tree that I love!

 We celebrated July 4th at Chelsey and Trevor's with cornhole, delicious food and family (Harvey included).

We beat the heat by buying a $30 plastic pool from Target. It's been so nice when we can find time to sit in there in the backyard! RJ worked hard blowing it up. I took a few turns too.

I've been helping coordinate our Project RISE summer field trips. The first one was at the Botanical Gardens/Natural History Museum in Cleveland.. saw some beautiful creatures!

On Friday we got to go to a really cool grand opening event for Olive My Heart, a really neat olive oil/balsamic vinegar shop in Hudson. Can you tell we enjoyed it by how many bottles we bought? Don't worry, only two are for us. The rest we're giving away as gifts.

They had some fun cheese/fruit pairings with the different oils and vinegars. The food was delicious! 

On Saturday we celebrated Halley's birthday :

Trevor has RJ hooked on this "Oil of Oregano" stuff. It is pretty interesting.. it's a very strong tasting oil you take a drop a day of and it has some natural health benefits. We got some during our grocery trip.

This picture makes me smile.. so cute.

On Sunday we tried out a diner that was voted #1 breakfast in Akron.. according to RJ it lived up to it's title. I'm not a big breakfast-food person.. but I can tell you their Greek salad is pretty darn good!

Things have been busy lately trying to get things squared away with KidzArt. After August I will take on more hours with Project RISE and no longer be with KidzArt. I love the program but it's been 4 years and I'm ready for a change. I'm training the new people and transitioning out.. it will be a nice change for me!

In the mean time, I'm trying to balance all the hours I'm putting in for my new job. You read above that we're doing our summer field trips, which means during the month of July I'm gone all day on Tuesdays (and spend a good amount of time during the week coordinating!). Tomorrow we're going to Amish country and I have to leave by 6:40am to meet everyone on time.. yikes! I love it though. It will be a fun day with the kids.

More soon!

♥Rachel