An update, of sorts

We have been moving right along at the new house, which is why I have not written this last week.
We are very, very close to moving in (How close? you ask. There are couches and beds inside the house!) and have about a week to a week and a half worth of work before it is completely ready. We are wanting to have everything done, done, done, so we are not looking around in six months, a year, ten years and saying, "we still have to . . . "
The family room will still be incomplete, but we can shut off that part of the house from the main part, and work on it while we are living there.
To say it has been busy would leave you with a muted understanding of what it's really been like around here.
That said, I do need to post updates on a few things, like
~the trip to Texas
~the ACCS conference
~riding lessons last week, during which I got on a horse (yes, me!), we learned some really cool things about wild mares, we acquired two new "members" of the family, and we had dinner at this totally neat pizza place called Portelli's with Rachel and Kevin
~our Fourth of July happenings
~Isaac's surprise birthday party
~blackberry picking
~the status of the house
I am not able to do this now, but let me leave you with this conversation I recently had with my kids (though I am a very minor player here). . .

Isaac: Mom, the British Empire has lost a lot of it's acquisitions.
Mom: What do you mean?
Isaac: Well, Hong Kong, India . . .
Josiah: Are we a part of the British Empire?
Isaac: That's what the Revolutionary War was about, Jo. We fought them and won our independence from them.
Josiah: Oh, good.
Mom: (feeling by now like she better read some good history books in the near future, and completely wowed by her son's vocabulary) Are Ireland and Scotland still a part? I know they fought a lot against British rule.
Josiah: IRELAND AND SCOTLAND?! NO WAY!
Isaac: Let's face it, Josiah, England just isn't the world superpower it used to be.

Ahhhhh, kids these days.