First Day

Like many families, homeschooling or otherwise, we went back to school today.  Although I've had everything I needed for this school year since last spring, I hadn't opened boxes or gathered materials so that they made any sense.  We've been so busy this summer and the littlest of our crew is busy, busy, BUSY which makes planning time non-existent.

Monday morning came around regardless of how I felt about it.  All in all we had a great day.  I'm trying to provide the flexibility that comes with homeschooling with my little ones while at the same time trying to instill responsibility with those older ones.  Alarms were set, routines were implemented, and every one was happy.  Well, almost every one.  The 3-year-old and 18 month-old were starved, STARVED I tell you, for attention.  I have a very wise friend who, although she homeschools, has sent her pre-schoolers to pre-school.  How very, very wise.  My pre-schooler is giving me a run for my money, already.  I entered this year with a workable "schedule/routine" and a pep-talk I'd given myself about welcoming interruptions because, after all, what amazing little blessings these "interruptions" were.  For the most part my trickery worked, however, I'm not quite as psyched for the rest of the year as I would like to be at this point. 

Coming in a following post is what we are doing for school this year.  You don't want to miss it.  Okay, really, it's no big deal, but I love reading what everyone else is doing.  I love it more now that I'm fairly confident in our approach and a blog-post at the beginning of the school year no longer sends me on an internet search for a brand-new curriculum because what I have is just not going to work, because so-and-so@somerandomblog.com says so.  :-) 

And with that, I present the ever-so-popular first day of school pictures!

Robin, His Merry (Wo)Men, and Lucy

I don't think it is bragging to say that my children have wonderful imaginations.  Their most recent "imaginings" have brought them to "Falcon Camp" where they all wear capes and sling bows and have quivers.

Aidan has painstakingly cut down mini-trees with his "Christmas Hatchet" and made bows out of them.  For the past three mornings the kids have set their alarms for 6:40am (not that they need alarms since they are usually up with that sunshine anyway) which is the exact time Brett has been getting back from his morning run (go him!) and is available for bow-stringing.

I have informed the motley crew that tomorrow morning's archery tournament has to postponed until after breakfast and morning chores, but secretly I wish I didn't have to be the grown up.  I want to be out there shooting those bows too.  They are really something else.

Sunshine and Laughter

We've had several visitors this summer and we have some more coming at the end of the weekend.  I love hosting family, friends, strangers (well, strangers turned friends).  I feel so blessed to live in an area that is 1)Beautiful and 2)Beautiful.  We can tell ourselves that we are going to take time to play tourist, but in the end unless we are hosting guests we rarely get out and enjoy the beauty that is surrounding us.

Our friends' sweet 2-year-old.  Those curls, enough said.

Priest turned brewmaster.  Drinking beer is, apparently, very serious business.

Impressive

My almost 11-year-old son to me, "Mom!  You're rockin' on the laundry.  I just wore those two days ago, and it's already clean and in my dresser.  Impressive!"

I'll take it.  There will be a time when he is not so easily impressed by his mother.

Note to self:  Don't take any more boy-does-the-dishes pictures or he will have evidence years later when saying, "I was the only one who ever did dishes."

Beach Day

When Aidan was small we had a book called, "Beach Day". 

"Sun-kissed skin, contented grin, what a happy day it's been. Beach Day"

For those of you who know me, the contents of this post might be surprising to you.  I am not a water person.  I am not a beach person.  I don't enjoy kids in sand or smelly lake water.  But, we were invited to a friend's lake cabin and they have a lake (duh) and a beach and the kids love all those things which I detest, naturally.  So, here ya go!  Our beach day!

Trying something new

I'm not sure when it happened, but Brett and I have become a multi-media couple. Here we are, sitting in bed. Me with my hand-me-down iPad and him with the "Acer" which is the cheapest netbook we could find when our computer kicked the bucket last summer. I'm trying to figure out blogging with this device and he's watching YouTube tutorials on how to install a window in a garage loft without hurting himself or others. How far we've come. We actually have a rule about media in bed because it's to easy to get sucked into our own little worlds and not even spend a single moment together. Tonight I arrived in our room first due to a baby who needed me and so there you are. Our quality time. So here I am, blogging on an iPad. Not sure what I think about it. It's a fun little device, but I'm not sure I'll be utilizing it as much as I thought I would. We'll see. For now, "hello", things have been a bit crazy. Crazy-fun, not crazy-crazy.

Caught!

This girl is trouble, but oh my, she is so much fun.