Good-bye Summer Leisure

Right now I am cracked up. Wil is reading to his 8 year old neighbor friend. Maybe that is a good indication for me that my kids are ready to start school. I hope so because we will do so this Monday. I am very eager and enthusiastic about this school year (obviously...what else would make me want to post a blog). I have put in a lot, a lot of time preparing so that we [including Trey] might have a fun, profitable home school year. In order to make a path that will end in such a way, I have had to squeeze out all the creative mental energy that is within me. Intentions are good, but unless we make decisions that will keep us on the right path, intentions are useless. That is what I keep telling myself. When the LORD created me, He chose not to bless me with a creative mind. He did however set in me a determined spirit with a self-disciplined way AND the need to have organization and a plan. Prayerfully that makes up for the lack of creativeness in a big way. But let me just say it is a lot more work than if I were just able to see it in my mind easily and do it. My sister in law would make an awesome home school mom, but lucky for Brookland she is an awesome school teacher!!

Here are some things I'm excited about: Tommy is doing ancient history with Wil and Mags. We went with a neat history program that has a lot of hands on activities. He is going to take them on an arrow head hunt at the beginning of the year and lots of other neat things. My partner in home schooling, Rachel, got me hooked on Tot School. This is where I spend some concentrated time with Trey doing activities that will engage him and start a love for learning. The website is http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/ . Thanks Rach. It took me a while but now I see why you like it so. Another cool thing is that I am going to co-teach Maggie's K4 class at our home school co-op's Monday school. Last year I taught p.e. and didn't enjoy it. CHE has been a huge asset for our family. There are 200+ families that are members in CHE and from them we have met some wonderful people. Anyway hopefully I will get to blog a lot of our home school days. I won't promise it. My blogging drive has virtually died, but we'll see.

I wanted to post some pictures from a fun play date with our friends the Moix's. Doesn't Trey look guilty in this picture. I can't say he wasn't responsible for the majority of it. This was our final play date time before they vacation and school starts and these times aren't quite as frequent. Thankfully we do this home

schooling thing together. My house is much smaller than hers so when our kids are here I laugh at the mess we make. At her house, the mess is confined upstairs. We have added Trey (my baby) and Noah (her baby) and they have added their contribution to the fun mess. Believe it or not this play date enabled me to get some little tasks done. How many pictures do I have of my living room looking this way. I promise it doesn't always look like this. At least you'll never see it this way!

Guess what got them all settled on the couch like this? Let me just say " a little show".