Summer Schedule?

I headed to the gym.

The minute I walked into the house Zander wanted in the pool. I had decided we'd do school and I'd leave at lunch for my appointment, then they'd swim this afternoon when I got home. I quickly realized that if they swam in the a.m., they could do school while I was gone, which would help the older boys. We shifted to summer schedule.

I let them in the pool. I discovered that I can do many things sitting on the patio with my laptop: put together a produce order, call the produce order in, email produce co-op members, package paperback swap books (link in sidebar), search ingredients for United products, return several phone calls....

Then it was lunch time and I was off.

It was my every 6 week appointment with Heather. She has promised to tell me when I am 60% gray and then I'll let it go......but today she covered the gray again.

I stopped by a local scrapbook store, but it is closed until tomorrow.

Back at home we did school.

I had to make yet another trip to Walmart. Stacia needed swimsuits that would fit. I'm not sure I got a photo that shows it, but she's been INSISTING in swimming in her dress. Mom, she reminds me of the students and our swim parties in Mangagoy. I also needed to buy pool chemicals. I didn't need, but bought anyway, some swim noodles and a little chair thing so when everyone is tired of holding Stacia she can float. She was such a daredevil before her scary jump into the pool at the end of last pool season. I'm sure she'll be daring again, but for now she's timid - and that's fine with me.

We all went to Mr. G's. - Wed night - children eat free with an adult. Josiah and friends met us there. We all came home for a bit of visiting. Steve and Debbie arrived to pick up Steven and Michael.

The older 3 young men went to the gym to play basketball. Mike got home a few minutes after they left and we all jumped in the pool (little ones, he and I).

You can almost see Stacia's dress in this shot





This is the little chair I got for Stacia but I think she feels insecure in it.

"Mom, I'm Bored"

This week we are asked to share what works when our children say, "Mom, I'm bored."

It may be surprising given the number of children in our home, but we dont' hear this phrase often at our home. Several things work for me - planning a few special summer outings, planning special summer school projects, playing with the kids more, including them in my outings and projects.....but mostly...years ago....I realized how to handle the phrase.

Any summer you will find two lists on my fridge. The children know that they can chose anything on the list if they are bored. Our Summer Fun list (click words) is pretty much, well, FUN. I believe this list was sent to SHS (link in sidebar) years ago. I would give credit, but there is no author listed. It's generic enough that I can think of subsitutes as we move around the country.

If that doesn't provide enough guidance there is another list. This list is ever-evolving and contains chores that they may help me with if they cannot find anything else to occupy them.

For more of my WFMW posts click here . To view hundreds of this week's tips from others go here.

Tuesday?

I made it to the gym. 60 minutes on the Bike as I finsihed reading Fatal Deduction. Yes, I was pleased with the twists and ending of the book.

I came home, picked up Jared and we went to Lowe's to get sand.

Josiah and Jamin were leveling the spot for the pool when we got home. Jared joined them.

Josiah and I made another trip to Walmart for stepping stones.

They worked all morning and most the afternoon - then the wait began as we filled the pool.

Julie, a youner than me homeschool Mom, and her children come over this afternoon. I showed her how I use Tapestry of Grace (link in the sidebar). They have a 4 month old Nolan, what fun it was to watch our Nolan and Stacia with him. I have baby envy again tonight....but I'm learning to release that.

We finally got in the pool when we could wait no longer. Unfortunately, the ground is settling and it's not perfectly level - but we sure tried......Mike says we'll see what happens for a bit of time. We had a blast in the pool. It is going to be so nice; it was 101* today.

I already "scrapped" the photos from yesterday and today (brings my total to 21 pages today). I used the same design I used for our Pool Date at Deja's. LOL And these ARE fussier. LOL I'm not sure you can read the journaling....basically I told the story from Zander's viewpoint as he shows up in many of the photos; he faithfully hounded us through the whole process....

In the photo of Nolan above, and the younger 3 in the one below you see the longing anticipation....as they WATCHED THE HOSE FILL THE POOL! ::snort::

Finally! We'll finish filling it tomorrow...but it was full enough to swim.

KRISTA TURNS 21 TODAY!!!!!

What a strange bit of feeling we all have knowing it is her birthday and not being with her for the big milestone. We did call last night so we could sing our traditonal "Happy Birthday Elemdorf Gospel Style" rendition.

We had to call last night because she is flying to TRINIDAD today. Please pray for her and the group she is with. They will be exploring the possibilities of setting up a new program in Trinidad....similar to the Master Commission model but for missions. In addition to this they will have various ministry opportunities. They will be living in host homes.

Pray for fruit, clarity, direction, safety and whatever else God leads you to pray for. Krista is seeking God about missions. Specficially, she wants to go to Israel/West Bank and work with displaced children. This is her last year with Master's Commission. She will be taking steps in the fall to follow her heart to missions. I'm praying God uses this trip to really speak to her while she's in a new environment and close to the heart of missions.

Alright- I'm also praying she doesn't get any dreadful diseases or mugged while she is out of country.

Things that made this day great!

Josiah and Jamin both had the day off work! YES.

Stacia woke me up at 4:30 a.m. and so I had lots of quiet morning hours once I got her to sleep.

Mike passed another ACSC test. (I never remember what that means but it is a class he has to take as a Major. If you are lucky you get to go spend a year in AL and take it in residence. If not, you get to run a Protestant Program or deploy while you do it correspondence. ::snort::)

We are making real progress in school. I'll confess I fell asleep reading "Famous Men of Rome" to Arielle and Nolan - but Arielle kept on and they got it done. I am seriously thinking of letting Arielle go on on her own and Nolan and I dropping back to Lower Grammar books which look much more interesting on Rome than this Famous Man book. Nolan is in 3rd grade and we would have been doing Lower Grammar all along if he didn't have a sister a couple of years older.

Josiah drove Nolan, Zander, Stacia and I around town picking up supplies for our newest project...so photos below.

I received an email that my application as a homeschool teacher for the Teacher's Toolbox at Smilebox was accepted.....scan down to the first post with layouts and you'll find the link. I just put G Homeschool for name of school, my personal email, my address....anyway - they KNOW I homeschool and still let me have it. I'm glad that I don't have to make my decision between them or new software in the next two weeks now. LOL

We had dinner TOGETHER - grilled steak, salads, huge fruit selection, corn on the cob, tortiallas..... yum.

Jamin and Jared had an end of the year pool party at the ministry they volunteer for.

I finished 10 more scrapbook pages....making 52 since Friday. I don't think I'll get any more done tonight because I need to go to BED.

Funnies from the day:

*I ran into Albertsons as they had milk on sale. They also had peaches, cantaloupe and grapes on sale. I picked some up. I thought I'd help the checkers by doing the self check out......the machine squawked and insisted I get assistance after EACH of the 8 gal of milk.

*While out shopping a "man in a purple shirt" smiled and talked to Stacia. On the way to the parking lot she said, "That man in the purple shirt smiled to me."

"Yes, Stacia."

"Does that man LUF me?"

"No, Stacia, not every stranger that smiles at you loves you."

Projects of the Day:

Our United order is on. I've still not been able to go back and put my order in.....but I've been fielding questions.

THIS......I was going to wait until it was up and we had before and after shots...but this entry needs some photos.

Early this a.m. Jamin and Josiah took down the trampoline. I'm not sure why ZANDER is in the photo.

Finally on the North side of town we found a store that wasn't sold out....


Of THIS! It wasn't the size I wanted (it's bigger) but it was the only metal framed one we could find.


Which led to THIS...

and an AMAZING moment when I looked up and realized I have grown men for sons...and they were all pitching in for this big job.....leveling our sloping yard which is more unlevel than we thought. LOL

THIS little boy wants desperately to help the other G boys.....he found a shovel left in the garage, which he doesn't seem too impressed with....but....

he dug in!

Tool time

Zander waited ALL DAY for the pool....but we are still leveling....maybe tomorrow.


I really felt bad that this project mushroomed into such a big one. I think, even Mike, was surprised that we had to do so much digging. Poor Mike came right home from work and worked until he broke for dinner and then worked until after 9 p.m. What a hero.

Giveaway Winner

We drew Jodi as the winner of last week's giveaway, Skid.

I'll try to get it in the mail tomorrow, Jodi.

I just realized I have no other books in the wings to review for Multnomah or Waterbrook. Oh my......It appears I may have to go buy some books from the authors I've been meeting and enjoying. ::snort::

Congrats to Jodi.

Simple Pages

My pages have been fussy. I wanted to be sure you know that Smilebox does allow you to do simple pages too. This "storybook" design template is simple and less fussy.....I wish it had more options to customize the layouts, BUT they are done. LOL I hear that smilebox is very open to suggestions....

Stacia woke up at 4 and needed ME and I can't go back to sleep....so I did 7 or 8 pages from Religious Education. These two I can share because they are either my children (or Debbie said I can show her family) or adults.

If I had a program I could manipulate Ivan there and the text box would be switched....

AND I would add text or some title to the white space here....


I also realized sometime in the night that I have MY writing ready to scan and send to Darcy to get my OWN writing in a font. With a program I THINK I could use my own writing for journaling and I would like that.

I signed up for a 2 week free trial at smilebox. The learning curve is about zero. I have made 49 pages in 3 days. I plan to keep making them, saving them, and searching for somewhere to print them. I am quickly noting that I like digital scrapbooking. I'm debating if simply doing these quickly with design templates saves me enough time that it is worth the lack of total choice....or since I enjoy this so much I would perfer to learn a program that allows me to do just what I see in my mind. LOL In other words I am trying to decide if I will want to learn the program softwares in the next year or if I'd be happy using templates for a year or so. LOL It is nice to have new design templates pop up every week or so.....

The great thing about smilebox is that if I see nothing in my mind - I can simply put a photo in THEIR vision and wala - it looks fussy and fancy. ::snort::

I hear stirring so I must head to the gym.