What We're Up To...

SCHOOL
We finished Sonlight Core C last week--yippee! I admit we didn't do EVERY single science experiment, nor did I make Charis and Tobin do EVERY single writing assignment. But we DID read EVERYTHING!! And we loved it all! The kids are already asking when we'll get to do Sonlight reading again. Tobin in particular is eager to get his new Explode the Code books, and he's excited that he gets to do Wordly Wise A, the vocab book Charis did last year. I suspect he's just going to plow through it and have it finished in a week or two. I'm not sure how I'll make it last the whole year!! I guess if he finishes early it doesn't really matter in the big scheme of things, right?! I'd rather have an eager student than a reluctant one, so I'll try to keep fanning those flames instead of dousing them with a negative answer just because we're not "there" in the schedule yet!

So, in light of our hard work over the past year, not to mention the fact that Mom was getting major spring/summer fever (it usually feels like summer around here at this point), we are taking at least 2-3 weeks off school. My big goals are to clean and organize the house and spend one-on-one time with the kids doing fun stuff. So far this week I've played Yahtzee, Chinese checkers, checkers, Battleship, and Rat-a-Tat-Cat, and I've bounced on the trampoline and snuggled on the couch to read stories. If I get ambitious, we may go back and do some of those experiments we missed--the kids really did love the science stuff, and though we watched Justin on the DVD do all the experiments, it really is fun to do it ourselves.

HOUSE
I've also cleaned and organized the two bookshelves in the school room to make room for more books! I took all of Charis and Tobin's collections off the shelves (things like the Bobbsey twin series, Little House series, Chronicles of Narnia, Tobin's Star Wars books, etc.) and put them on a little shelf upstairs that I found at a garage sale for $7. That freed up a lot of space. Today I finished going through all the books, and I came up with 4 sacks full of stuff to sell or give away!

One of my goals for the bookshelves was to have a place out of Kenna's reach where I could store "table time" activities. I like to have the kids doing quiet activities at times--sometimes during our school schedule, and other times when I'm on the phone or trying to spend some one-on-one time with another kid. So we have things like our Mighty Mind set, Magna-stix, Pattern Blocks, Leap Pads, and so on on that shelf. Things that are great toys but aren't allowed in the kids' rooms or on a lower shelf for people to play with willy-nilly.

I have the Table Time activities shelves complete, as well as my "teacher" shelf with various resources for me. Now I'm debating about whether I'll put out the next year's worth of Sonlight books on a shelf or keep them hidden in my closet until it's time to be reading them! Really, Sonlight is so great that my kids would take all the books and read them on their own if I would let them, and I was hard pressed to keep the read-alouds OUT of their hands until the scheduled time. It's much more fun to go through those together as a family when we're all enjoying it for the first time.

Today I also did some random things, like finally putting some nails in the kids' rooms to put up their little footprint pictures, clearing off the boys' dresser tops, and tacking a navy blue flannel sheet over Kenna's window to make her room dark enough for sleeping (we are not a Pottery Barn kind of family when it comes to room decor, LOL).

Also on my house to-do list: Help Charis find her craft desk under the heap in the corner of my stamp room; help Charis organize the craft desk so she can actually use the crafting items I've given her and find what she needs; clear out the stamp room closet, which is full of boxes that really just need to be stored, not accessed; re-evaluate my toy rotation system and sort/organize toys accordingly. Those are just a few things. :-)

BUSINESS
I've had one workshop so far this month, with the next few events being bunched up in a row. There's one hostess who may flake out on me, but if she doesn't, I have 4 events in 8 days, which is not typical for me. Daytime stamp club Friday the 16th; home workshop Monday the 19th; Tuesday morning hands-on class for my deaf friends downtown; and Friday evening the 23rd another home workshop. The week after that should be a scrap club meeting, though we're working on nailing down a date for that, since it will be the first meeting for this group.

I'm thrilled and thankful for these opportunities. I'm working hard to earn a trip to Hawaii and am actually pretty close to making it! I didn't earn the Bermuda cruise for the past Stampin' Up! year, and though I did earn a cruise to the Panama Canal the year before, I couldn't go on it because it happened when Ted was deployed and Kenna was a newborn. We talked about maybe taking the kids with us if I do earn the Hawaii trip, so now Charis is praying. And those of you who know Charis, you know that means I have a pretty good chance of earning this trip!! It helps that last month and this month the company is giving double incentive trip points for each dollar we submit in sales. If it weren't for that, I probably would not even be thinking about going for it.

But we're starting to dream a little! The trip would begin on Ted's birthday next year...what a great birthday present, eh?! My good friend Debi may possibly keep Kenna for us if we do get to go and decide to take the older 3. I wouldn't really want to pay for Kenna to go, as she would just be over 2 years old at that point and wouldn't remember anything, not to mention a likely nightmare of a trip TO Hawaii and probably the next few days trying to recover from that!

Anyway, we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'm thrilled to be able to keep sharing these fun and special times with my friends and customers. Now, if I can just get motivated to keep working on my own personal scrapbooks. :-)