School Blogging

My computer has gone off the deep end. It is beyond it's last leg. The last few days it wouldn't power on. I get lucky every now and then. Right now I'm lucky and it's on, so I am blogging. We are waiting until it gets closer to school starting so hopefully there'll be a sale. And maybe, I'll have a coupon. Things were pretty dicey these past few weeks so here's the run down of the good, bad, and ugly.

• We are doing science co-op this year. There are 5 families involved. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I need to put notebooks together for the two big kids. The baby is going to be in a group of younger kids. They'll be using a different curriculum from the olders. It's going to be so much fun. I'll be teaching every 8 weeks I think. We already have a tentative schedule put together so that helps tremedously.
• The baby will be involved in Girls Club again this year. She had the best time last year. I try to let each kid participate in an activity that their siblings aren't involved in and this is hers. My friend M put a schedule together that runs until after Christmas break. Thank you! That helps me get everything on the calendar and in the lesson plan book. The baby is ready to get back to it and seeing her friends on a regular basis again. 
• The kids will get to take two dance classes this year. I think, because we have so many activities, and a couple of new ones, that I may skip dance this year.  It's just one more thing. I might just pay by the lesson instead of pay for a month and not be able to make any of the classes. The kids are ready. We had to skip dance this summer so we could go to Texas. The boy is taking tap and hip hop. He's gonna wear my shoes. He has big feet, but me not so much. I really hope he needs black tap shoes because that's what mine are. The big girl wants to take ballet and jazz. Hair in a bun every week. I have flashbacks of putting a bun in a 5 year old's hair. Thank goodness she can do her own bun now. The baby is taking tap and jazz. She loves her some tap dancing! She has shoes for both of her classes, too. Recital is going to be awesome!!
• I am a little nervous about our upcoming school year. There is so much to keep track of. I have schedules for everything printed out and in at least three calendars. I have my master calendar, my phone calendar, and the lesson plan book. I know at this point what day and time two of our activities are going to be. We don't get our dance schedule until the beginning of August. I am hoping for classes that take place on the same day. Same time would be a huge bonus, that's for sure. Then we have to plan guitar and piano. Chores still have to get done. And the chickens are a huge chore every day. Our schedule is full and we haven't even started school yet. School? When do we have time to do that? Taking a breath, taking a breath.
• We started a youth garden. One of the girls in our youth group wanted to start a garden. So we did. It's taken us a while to get our stuff together, but we finally got the square foot forms together and seeds started. Planting day will hopefully be in about two weeks. I need to keep an eye on the seeds and make sure they're germinating. We started 2 kinds of pumpkins, bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach, snow peas, and something else I can't remember right now. We would really like to get enough supplies to build at least four more forms. That would be awesome.  
• And because I am not crazy enough, I am thinking about flag football and cheerleading in the winter. Our church is going to start a league after the NFL season is over. The boy wants to play and the baby is going to cheerlead. I am nuts. And my kids will be soon. It sounds crazy, and we spend a lot of time in the van, but we only do the activities that my kids want to do. If it ever got to the point that it was too much, we would drop something. We have before and we will again. My kids mean more to me than "Look how much stuff we can do!" But when the activities stop, we all look at each other and twiddle our thumbs. We do not do downtime well.
• We are participating in an Arts and Music camp and VBS that our church is running. The big girl and I will volunteer and the boy and the baby get to participate. The boy asked if he could help with VBS. He is part of youth now, but he will age out of VBS after this summer. I remember when the kids participated in at least 4 VBS's. Those were the days. Homeschoolers refer to it as mom's best friend. Kids are gone for a couple hours a day. We make lots of plans, but really only get naps done. Sometimes, that's the most important thing to accomplish. 

We didn't get all of our summer plans accomplished. We didn't even get half of them accomplished, but we had a rough start. The pool is up and running, we still have our Disney passes, and I'm trying to plan some field trips. I'm exhausted. Is it summer yet?