Full Schoolhouse

I love this time of year.  Of course the weather is awesome and I love the sunshine.  But, one of the biggest reasons I like this time of year is contemplating school for next year.  We are never really finished with our school year.  It doesn't really have an official start date or an end date.  We will take off the month of June.  And start back after the 4th of July.  We have done this, more or less, for the last couple of years.  If we school when it is crazy hot here, then when the weather is nice we can take days off.

The kids don't mind.  I don't think.  I have explained to them about all the great things that we get to do during the school year that we "take days off" for.  And I think they get it.  Also, our summer school days are pretty simple.  Math, some writing and a ton of reading.  And we will usually done in about two hours depending on how motivated they are.  They also know if something fun comes up we will take the day off.

Anyway, this is the time of year I like to assess what we have done in the past and think about ways to improve or change or tweak what we will do in the future.  I love the way we do school.  I would not change the backbone of how we do it.  But, as the kids get older and I add my last student, things have to evolve.

Yes, adding a student!  EG will be starting Kindergarten this year so I will have a full schoolhouse.  I can hardly believe it!  She has always been included in the school we do anyway.  But now she will be a little more intentional in what she learns.  She has been doing math for a couple of weeks just because she wants to.  She will work on handwriting and we will spend a lot of time reading together.  I have books lined up for history and science and fun.  I am still a big fan of learning everything through really great literature!

In the weeks to come, I will be posting a little bit more about how and what we will be doing for school next year.  I love learning.  I love teaching.  I love homeschooling  . . . .

Laundry

I am one of those weirdos who likes laundry.  I have figured out, that in order to have clean clothes and not get buried in dirty clothes, I must do about two loads a day.  I try to take Sundays off.  I wash full loads.  I separate out between colors, darks, whites and towels.

I wash them with our big mac daddy washer and then put them in the dryer.  I fold right out of the dryer and place the clothes on top of the washer to be put away by children, immediately.  (I hang a lot of our clothes on hangers because I am not a big fan of wrinkles.)   The kids help when needed or as a discipline for some type of offense.

I like laundry.  As my to-do list grows everyday and much of it does not get completed when I want.  I know I can always count on laundry to give me a sense of accomplishment.  I can see the huge piles of dirty clothes get clean and put away.  It isn't really all that hard to do.  Sometimes timing is an issue, like not letting the dryer run while we aren't at home but that is the extent of my problems with laundry.

OK, well that isn't entirely true, I do have a problem with washing, let's say the same pair of baseball pants twice in less then 10 days.  When my son doesn't even play baseball.  Obviously we have some tweaking to do over the summer about what constitutes dirty clothes and where clean clothes are actually suppose to go.

But, even with that little hiccup, I still like laundry . . .

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

The girls and I were out shopping for Easter dresses.  At least I think it was for Easter.  It seems so long ago.  Anyway, guess what we found?  EG was over the moon for Olaf . . . 

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Every once in awhile our church does something on a Sunday afternoon that the whole family can enjoy.  A bunch of Sundays ago, that little activity was to make and fly kites.  I had no idea how hard it would be to actually make the kite.  But, we finished what we started.

There were some families who were really smart and actually bought and brought kites.  Even thought the kite making was challenging, the kids and I had fun.  Not to mention it was a beautiful day to run around, fly kites, enjoy the sunshine and the company of friends . . . 

All in the Family

Well, most of the family.  The kids and I participated in our church's Easter Musical.  One of the nicer things about the kids growing up is, we can all be involved in stuff.  Together.

I love to sing.  I am not real good at it but I love it.  I love music and I can sing with the best of 'em in the car with the music blaring and the windows rolled up.  Around Easter and in the fall our choir director is always looking for bodies to fill the choir loft so this spring I volunteered.  This year he also invited the Youth Choir to sing with the adults.  So NG and one of her friends participated in the adult choir.  It was way cool to sing with my daughter right beside me.  She is an awesome singer if I do say so myself.  Much, much better than I am.

The three kids' choirs, in which LM, EG and Boop participate in, were able to sing a couple parts of the concert as well.  We would put the CD in the car and we would all practice together.  All of us but daddy, were up on the stage singing our hearts out for both programs (he was able to come to one of the performances.)  The program was fabulous.  We all had a great time.  My dad and stepmom were in town for one of the rehearsals and they really, really enjoyed it.

It took a lot of our time but I think it was well worth it.  Good times . . .

Speaking of Geography

Two Saturday mornings ago we had the opportunity to raise some money for a family traveling all the way to Uganda to adopt three orphan girls.  They were having a bike-a-thon to show support and maybe raise a little money.  So, we decided to participate by raising money depending on how far we road as a family. Even EG rode.  She and I ended up riding almost five miles!  Daddy and the rest of the kids road 19 miles along with about 15 other people who also came out to raise money and show support.

This is one of the neatest families I know.  They currently are the foster parents of a young boy and are working through the system to get him permanently placed in the home that is best for him.  They have been caring for him for months while his family situation is sorted out.  They are a young couple who don't have children of their own.  But, they knew before they even got married that they wanted to care "for the least of these" by adopting orphans.  They have run into some unfortunate circumstances recently and are working through what to do next.  But, we continue to pray for them and support them in anyway we can.

Then that Saturday night we went out to our local airport to welcome back our church's mission team that had just come back from Haiti.  They went to for the week to help build a church.  It was back breaking work. There are no modern conveniences there to help build buildings.  It is all done by hand.  And the congregation was sooo grateful.

Not only did they go to build a church but they brought clothes and helped feed hungry children.  They visited orphanages and shared a message of hope.  The message of Jesus.  Our church has been there twice in the past year.  And there are plans to go again sooner rather than later.

My hope is to some day go with the team.  Pastor Don preached on that Sunday, we are called to be a sender or a go-er.  Until the day I go, we will continue to be a sender by praying for and supporting those that do go . . .

Mother's Day

I not a mom who needs cards, cakes or even a special dinner.  I just need them.  Blessed beyond measure . . . 

Geo Fair

Last week was the geography fair.  We just happened to be studying Egypt in school so Egypt it was.  The kids worked pretty hard but I will have to admit, it was kind of a last minute deal.  We have quite a few books on Egypt because we had been studying the ancient countries of the Bible.  We also had made a salt map from when we did our Bible study so we brought that along as well.

Their main theme was the four geographical regions of Egypt: the Sinai Peninsula, the Eastern and Western Deserts and the Nile River and Delta.  We brought dates to share because that is one of the products grown in Egypt.

Some interesting facts we learned:  the Nile River runs south to north, the garbage collectors and their families live in the garbage dump and some people make their homes in the City of Death stringing their clothes lines from tombstone to tombstone.  Cairo is overpopulated to say the least.  Also, most all Egyptians live within a 12 mile radius of the Nile River.

Only LM and Boop are pictured because EG and NG were at ballet. When their class was over I picked them up and brought them back so they could participate as well.  The Geography Fair is something I always hope to participate in.  I feel the kids learn just a little bit more about hte world around them.  And they always seem to have a good time.   And I LOVE geography . . .