How fast summer has gone! Sprinkler changing jobs, clinic work, gardening, lawns, flower beds, swim lessons and more have occupied our time. I remembered about half way through the summer the old saying "Lazy Days of Summer". I haven't seen them and wondered why we missed out.
The Wonders seem to go through the usual 2-3 week adjustment from school schedules to summer home life. From the time children have blessed our home they have heard me say "You are on vacation from school NOT life and being a part of this family." They do not like that statement because it means get up and be an active participant in the day to day life of our family. Laundry and dishes still happen even in the summer:) Shocking I know;)
I set a goal to complete some of last years summer goals. Sad that those projects waited another year but satisfying to see there completion.
Goal#1 Refinish the front and back doors to our home including trim.
The kids and I worked hours on stripping off stain that was peeling and bumpy to get back to the original surface of the doors. We repainted the back doors and trim a clean white to match the house trim. The result was beautiful as well as cooling. Our garden doors were letting in a fair amount of heat due to the previous dark color. In changing to white we have seen a 10 degree drop in our living room temperature. (November-the exterior doors and trim look great. We now sport green frog tape on the inside of the front door. The blue tape lasted two years. Hmm...really not wanting to take that long to finish interior of same door. I think it can get done over the winter. Fumes...pfft! With a hubby who likes to crank up the wood stove we will have the front door wide open to keep from melting.)
Goal#2 Switch out summer/winter clothes while downsizing quantities and delivering to the local thrift store. (Done, yah! Since October I have been working on getting the little boys snow boots. I have re-discovered ebay. It is a time consumer but the results have been good. Popcorn now has "new to him" snow boots and camo insulated snow pants.)
Goal#3 Give the house a good cleaning. (Can I just say what a pain in the bu**! Seriously how in the world does a Gal keep anything clean with six Wonders trucking through it at F-4 levels of destruction? Oh...but what a clever Sunshine we have. She invited two young fellows to a double date for the Harvest Ball tonight. The plans were made and the dates were coming back here to clean up for the dance. So... today.... while she was out.... the other Wonders were cleaning along side Gal. DID WE EVER CLEAN!!! Our home for the next 12-ish hours has three sparkling bathrooms, vacuumed carpets, dusted furniture, swept tile, clean dishes and EMPTY garbage cans. The irony in this is that Sunshine and friends decided to get ready for the dance elsewhere. Popcorn said with a solemn look, "So, did we clean the house for nothing?" Hubby and I said NO, we cleaned it for us to enjoy. He didn't buy it.)
Goal#4 Organize the classroom, selecting fall materials and planning for the school year. (Ahem, still have the same Wonders trucking through this room! BUT they are getting used to the idea of cleaning it when Mom says so. Back in May I took a weekend and went up to a home school convention. It turned out to be a great trip. I got to personally speak with Steve Demme, creator of Math U See. I wrestled with how to change math programs and justify the expense when we already have a full K-12 curriculum in place. Turns out a dear friend of ours had been inspired to make the same changes in October. She found the resources from friends and Ebay and was seeing great success in her son's math growth. I followed her lead and we now own most of the Math U See levels. Thank you Ebay! I love bargain shopping! Smiley is gaining confidence in math, NO TEARS, and he picks math FIRST!!! Popcorn has also switched over to Math U See and we are seeing similar success.)
Goal#5 Assist specific children as they progress through advancements in Young Women's, Young Men's, Scouts, and Activity Day's. (This is a work in progress, Ladybug graduated from Primary completing her Faith in God just in time. Peanut advanced to Webelos. Popcorn earned his Wolf this fall and is ready to advance in December. Smiley needs some more one on one to get ready for Eagle requirements. Hmm... working on that. Sunshine completed her Personal Progress previously and decided to do it again.)
Goal#6 Finish out the summer with fun activities for our Girl Scout troop including retiring the troop. ( We went to a mini-golf park and almost sweat to death. It seems that we picked the hottest day on record for the summer to stand out in the wide open with no shade and play golf. We wrapped it up with water balloon fights. Success!) (The troop is officially retired. We have one unofficial activity left for the girls to get their awards. Planning on this before Christmas, our finale)
Garden is done for the year, most of the canning is done(tomatoes), house is clean today, kids are up late and Gal wants to go to bed, please!
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