We went to the beach yesterday. It was wonderful. This past week has been a really rough one--both for us homeschoolers and for our distance learner. The kids seemed tired of being cooped up and nothing would make them un-cranky, which of course led to a very stressed out and cranky mom. Getting lost in Nashua for an hour didn't help. And Nathan's classes via Northwestern ramped up this week giving him one all-nighter and not letting him to bed before 2 am any other night!

We needed the fresh salty sea air. We needed the space to run and the sound of the ocean. We needed the clam chowder. But maybe most of all we needed the ice cream. The wonderful homemade ice cream only available at Just the Wright Place off Rt 108. Actually, the clam chowder at Ray's in Rye, NH is unbeatable, too. Both are very soothing to the stressed out soul.

And as soon as we got home, the rain began. Total downpour from 4pm until sometime after we went to sleep at 2am. Falling asleep to rain is also very soothing.

Oh, here's an aside: Lil'Nathan read the Tales from the Odyssey this week. He read books 1-4, written by the author of the Magic Treehouse series. He wants to read the last 2, but they need to come in from another library first. He keeps referring to the main character as "Odious."

Anyway, rambling needs to stop now. I need to get the biscuits started for dinner since the soup is almost done. I'll get some beach pics up later.

Then I'll tell you about the fish that nearly died and Joseph's latest climbing feats.