Summer Fun - Week 1

I'm going to follow a similar plan as last year to keep up with my Summer Fun plans.  I actually really enjoyed reading back through last years plans as I was writing up my calenders for this year.

Basically, I will make my master list below and then add comments at the end of the week of what we actually did.  I still have some more things that are coming up to add to our calendar as ideas - and yes, that is what my calendar's really are, just ideas.  It's a place to write down every idea that interests me that we might do.  It doesn't mean we will do all of them (or any of them) but without the master plan, we would do nothing!

May 31st- June 6th

Friday - We have a field trip with our Co-Op to the Road Commission.  It is their 100th year anniversary so there is a day of fun planned plus we get a tour. This was an awesome trip! 

Saturday - There is a car show in our town.  We went last year and the boys liked looking at the cars.  The weather this year is iffy so this activity is iffy! We got some pretty powerful storms and the car shows was actually shut down early due to the rain.  

Sunday - Nothing is planned :-) This day went exactly as planned and it was marvelous!  After church, the boys and I just relaxed at home and did not much of anything. 

Monday - Nate has a haircut; we need to register for the summer reading program; if the weather is nice we will have a little picnic at the park and take our year end photos. Nate got his haircut; we signed up for the reading program; but instead of a picnic, Josh got his favorite Speedway Pizza and Nate got his favorite Mac and Cheese for lunch (Blue Box of Course!) I did take Nate's year end photo with his fresh haircut but I'm waiting to take Josh's after he gets his hair cut in a week and a half - then I'll share! 

Tuesday - Swimming.  Nate has asked to go see Endgame (a movie) and Josh doesn't want to see it.  Tuesday's are $5.00 tickets so I might take Nate to see the movie. None of this happened.  Instead, I worked in the yard.  

Wednesday - Swimming if the weather is nice We swam!  It was a perfect day for swimming for sure and, bonus, we had the pool to ourselves for a while too! 

Thursday - I have a board meeting; I just realized that I scheduled to post on the same day as the last day of the "week" - Thursday! I'll have to alter that next week.  BUT, since the only thing scheduled today is the Board Meeting, I know it will happen :-) 

My Kids Summer Plan (Or at least my plan for my kids summer plan!)

Every summer, I always create a plan for my kids.  Some type of goals for them to achieve throughout the summer.  Lets keep it real, we never succeed HA!  But, that doesn't stop me from trying!  I used to plan out school review activities and print off booklets, put it all in binders and plan for them to work on it every day.  Well, my kids don't love school (even homeschoolers don't always love school!) so this concept has never worked well!  Instead, they have some "chunks" they have to do each week.  They can do it all in one day or spread it out over the week but it has to be done! 

Here's the plan.
1. Read for 15 minutes a day - this is for Library rewards.  It has to be done to turn their name in! 
2. Practice Cursive - this was school year goal but we didn't get far.  Instead, they will have three worksheets to do a week. 
3. Math Minute - we worked on these during the year so we will just continue.  Again, 3 pages a week is all they have to do.
4. Work on extra Awana pages - this is specifically for Nate who has a goal to finish extra books.
5. Practice the piano 3 days a week - they will have a song to work on, review their old songs, and also work on learning their notes inside and out.  We are taking the summer off from regular lessons but they have to keep working a little to be ready for fall.


It's a pretty simple plan.  I'm in the process of making a check sheet for each of them to they can mark off each item as they finish it.  If you hear screaming at the end of the week - it's because I've told me kids about this plan HA! 

Summer Goals

I've decided to combine June, July and August all into one goal post.  Instead of having monthly goals, I have some goals for the summer.  Now, I might add to the goals throughout the summer or I might not!  But without some goals - I'll end up with none of my projects done.

1. Scrapbooking
    --- Figure out how many page protectors I need to completely finish albums.
    --- Spend about 4 hours a month specifically scrapbooking.  I want to carve out schedule time to scrapbook.  I'm hoping for at least one 4 hour block each month.
2. Desks - Work with the boys to completely clean out their school desks so they are ready for the fall; also do a complete clean out of my desk so it's nice an organized once again.
3. Clean the garage and organize it completely.
4. Clean out the playroom and organize everything
5. Clean out the boys rooms and help them organize all of their stuff.
6. Continue work in the basement - a lot of progress has been made but still more to do!
7. Clean out my flower bed and plant the sunflower seeds
8. Read 6 books throughout the summer.  Setting the bar low!
9. Take year end photos of the boys
10. Take School photos of the boys (End of August)
11. Learn a piano song for July (have to play the piano for church)
12. Learn my special for July (Have to sing at church)
13. Make the elusive dentist appointment HA!
14. Order Halloween Costumes (yes, I do this in the summer before prices start to climb!)
15. Plan two birthdays and Christmas (I like to plan by the end of August to make it easier to accomplish everything)
16. Bake and Cook something new.  Specifically I'd like to try making Macarons. Those delicious little French pastries.  I also have a few great cookbooks I'd like to try a few things from as well.

So for now, this is where it stands.  I'll try to update each month and add any more I come up with along the way!

May Goal Recap

May sure did fly by quickly!  It was busy with the end of the school year and my mom moving!  Here's a recap of my goals!

1.  Finish School.  And I mean everything.  Since my actual goal is May 15th I think getting it done by May 31st should be ok. We did not finish by May 15th but we did finish by May 31st (Ok, we have one 20 minute lesson to finish today but we are counting it done!) 
2. Clean the playroom. Sell the chair and ottoman that are in the playroom. Trash the broken recliner that is in the playroom.  Move our current couch into the playroom to make room for a new couch we are getting from my mom that won't fit in her new home.  (this has to be done by May 9th!) The recliner went to the trash; the chair and ottoman are listed for selling and have been for a few weeks so we will see if they sell; the couch is moved so this was done! 
3.  Clean the laundry room area.  We are being gifted a washer and dryer but, since I haven't had either in over a year, the laundry room has become a storage room.  I have to clean stuff up and out to make room for the delivery people to actually, well, deliver. (this has to be done by May 9th also!) This is in progress!  We removed an old loveseat that had seen better days.  We are still working on organizing some things but it will be done within the next week or so :-) 
4.  Wash all of the upstairs rugs - I usually do this a few times a year and has summer approaches, it is time to get the winter dirt and salt out of the rugs.  I figure I should do this while I'm still making trips to the laundromat! This is done! 
5. Finish the decor in the dining room - just have to have Darryl hang the last few things since he needs to add anchors to a few things (and, well, hang things straight!) This is done! 
6. I have four simple scrapbook goals for this month - a) count how many page protectors I need to finish up some books that don't have them b) Sort the last batch of photos I order last month c) put the digital pages in the protectors I bought last month and add them to the album. d) Order April 2019 photos as well as the next month I'm on in 2014 (I think it's 2014 - I'll double check before I order! )  I'm trying to stay current on my photo order and also work on catching up on some other years - it makes scrapbooking easier when I actually have the photos! I did nothing scrapbook related :-( 
7. Plan our summer - I did this last year and it really helped me focus on some specific things and make sure we didn't miss anything we really wanted to do ! This is done! 
8. Finally set up my dental cleaning - I was going to do this earlier but decided to wait until my mom was here so I have somewhere to drop the kids while I go to the dentist :-) Still need to make that phone call. 
9. Get Josh into the orthodontist.  We've had a couple of delays due to needing a baby tooth pulled; state testing coming up (I wanted him to focus on that and not on his teeth) to name a few things but he should be in braces by the end of the month. Both boys actually started the process in May.
10.  Plant some flowers.  Darryl and I were just talking about this - how we'd like to have some nice flowers/plants but neither one of us enjoy yard work HA!  I do have the goal of planting some sunflowers this year - they are easy and we all enjoy them - and maybe some wild flowers too.  Also, I have a deck planter I want to get some plants in as well.  I also saw a friend did some veggies in some pots . .. I might do that with some zucchini (yes she does hers in a pot) and some beans maybe?  Just some things I like to eat fresh. There are flower seeds planted in my deck planter but that's as far as I've gotten. 

I also had to do a bunch of moving around in the garage because we were going to get our garage door fixed but, that didn't happen before my mom moved so now we have her garage stuff too!  Once her garage is built, we will get ours fixed and be able to really clean it out. 

Sunday Worship - Is He Worthy?

This is just a really good worship song. 

Our Week in Photos #21

Here's our Week!

 On Saturday we celebrated my mom's birthday!  We helped her do some things at her new home, had steaks on the grill for dinner and cupcakes for dessert.

 The best part was the candle.  I bought the candles that re lite and it was beyond funny.  Just about the time she thought they were blown out, they would start burning again HA! 

 We wrapped up the last of our school projects which were science project for both boys.  

 We had a Field Trip with our Co-op to our local road commission as they were celebrating 100 years of service!  We had an amazing tour, great food, and lots of fun. 

We also enjoyed the pool.  This was actually our second time in the pool but on Friday evening we had it to ourselves and it was amazing.  We just plain love the pool. 

Weekly Menu

Can you believe it's June (well tomorrow).  I can't.  Summer is here, that's for sure!  This next week is pretty quiet to be honest.  We've wrapped up school and our friends are still in school so we have lots of free time this week which is actually kind of nice.

(Ironically, I posted about menu planning earlier this week and as I'm writing this I have zero inspiration!)

Here's the plan:

Friday: Chili Dogs, Potato Salad and Chips

Saturday: Hamburgers on the grill and daddy fries. (This was planned for last week but never happened!)

Sunday -  Depends on what is on sale when I go shopping - I really don't know . . chicken? Pork?

Monday: Tacos

The rest of the week . .. it's going to be based on what I find on sale at the store just because I'm lacking inspiration!  :

Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday: