Things to Remember as a new School year Begins

A good friend of mine shared this wisdom last week and her kids gear up to return to school.  Even as homeschoolers, the start of a new year brings lots of changes so many of these reminders fit! 

Things I thank myself for doing as the school year gets underway…

NOTHING EXTRA. I schedule nothing extra for the evenings of the first week of school, and very little for the weekend after it starts. My kids need good food, a listening ear, extra love, to just BE HOME, and early bedtimes or a mindless hour of TV.

NOTHING EXTRA, PART TWO. No extra appointments in September. No routine doctors, no routine dentists, no haircuts, no oil changes. September already has enough ‘extra’ details and obligations.

TWO WEEKS OF GRACE. It takes us two full weeks to transition into any new schedule. When I get frustrated or overwhelmed, I remind myself that we’re still getting the hang of things.

DINNER DELIVERED. Whether take-out, pizza delivery, or a visit from Grandma, I intentionally plan a few meals to be courtesy of someone else the first two weeks. Anyone can cook. Mom’s hands are best used handling other things that only Mom can handle.

CA$H $TA$H. I go to the bank to get a pile of one dollar bills and a pile of fives. This means I am ready to attend sporting events and send my kid to the concession stand for weeks to come. I can turn in the order form for school photos / the field trip / the team t-shirt immediately. I can hit the carwash and the coffee house. Done and done.

VENDING READY. I turn my fridge, freezer, and pantry into ready-to-go vending machines. There are dozens of options pre-packaged in single serve bags and containers. Packing lunches, grabbing after-school snacks, eating in the car on the way to practice is a piece of cake. Fruit, veggies, pasta salad, hummus and pretzels, meat sticks, individually wrapped muffins, squeeze yogurt, string cheese…

HOUSE HELP. Once the kids are out the door, I like to refresh the house from all our summer fun. This goes way faster and is more fun with a girlfriend or a cleaning lady.

REMEMBER ME? I keep a list of things that come to mind of ways to take care of ME in the midst of taking care of everyone else. This can be adding my favorite lunch foods to the grocery list, scheduling a pedicure, going to the library, or cleaning my closet. Whatever fills me up.

TRAIN THE BRAIN. I have a collection of specific works I reread this time of year (some with my kids) to train our brains. There is a piece on KINDNESS from “For the Love” by Jen Hatmaker. The book of Proverbs from the Bible. Steve Jobs’ commencement speech from 2005. Top Tips for Test Taking. And a list of “Teen Commandments” from my grandparents’ office. These works bring some key things into focus to keep in mind as we kick off each school year.

THIS IS ME. I walk my kids through writing a statement of affirmation about who they are, what they believe in, how to they behave, and what they are striving for. We post this list on their bathroom mirror so they see and read it every day. It proves to be a place for us to later on check behavior against the standards THEY SET for themselves each year

Our week in photos #32

Here's a look back at our week!


Saturday = an unexpected day at home!  We slept in a bit, ran some errands, and I got some things done at home.  After dinner, Darryl surprised the boys with new fishing poles and we took them fishing.  Something Nate has been asking to do since he went fishing with his class from our co-op.

Sunday = Church in the morning with a quiet afternoon at home followed by a church picnic at the lake.

Monday = Swimming in the afternoon followed by TKD in the park and a potluck.

Tuesday = Swimming once again :-)

Wednesday = Our friends returned to school today so to celebrate the fact that we DON'T have to go to school, we went out to lunch.  We had hoped to go swimming but ran out of time!

Thursday = Swimming.  Why?  Because we can while everyone else is already in school!

Friday = Time for our Meet and Greet for Friday School!

Weekly Menu

It might be time to start thinking about actually planning menus and cooking again as we start to wind down from the freedom of summer and begin looking at the schedule.  School, Co-op, Tae Kwon Do, AWANA, Piano lessons and so on.  I'm hoping to be more intentional with meal planning as we go into fall but. .. who knows.  Just one day at a time!

Friday - Tacos.  We have a busy day so an easy dinner is a must!

Saturday -  One of our favorites - BBQ Cups and Homemade Mac and Cheese.  (Josh has informed me that he only likes Homemade Mac and Cheese so we will see how this goes HA!)

Sunday - Grammy's Swiss Steak, Baked Potatoes, and Green Beans. 

Monday - Baked Ziti and Garlic Bread

Tuesday - Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, and Corn

Wednesday - Tomato basil Chicken and French Bread

Thursday - Baked Teriyaki Chicken, Baked Beans and Broccoli

Our week in photos #31

Here's our week in photos and maybe a few comments too!

 This was on my phone HA!  I love it. 

Saturday = just a day to get ready for camping.  Actually, the boys went to VBS with a friend in the morning so I grocery shopped.  Then spent the afternoon packing and getting things ready.   

Sunday = We got up Sunday and loaded everything up to go camping.  After lunch at home, we hit the road.  It was an easy trip and the fastest set up ever - 1 hour and 11 minutes.  BOOM!  (Yes we time it!) After set up, we all went to Meijer to do the rest of the grocery shopping (easier to shop then haul it all) before returning back to the camper for dinner. 

 Joshua 

 Nathan

 Our fun set up.  

 The boys and Darryl headed out to get ice and wood.  Yes, the boys love to ride bikes everywhere. 

We ended the night by the fire! 

Monday = Time at the beach.  We hung out at the camper until after lunch and then went to the beach where we swam and swam.  The water was super warm so it was easy to stay in for awhile. 

 I couldn't see my phone to take a worthwhile photo!

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 Breakfast in the camper! We keep it simple most days and just enjoy cereal and milk. 

 Passing on our tradition of making steak kabobs over the campfire for dinner. 

 Josh found a caterpillar.  

Nate loved the play ground.  He always makes friends! 

Tuesday = We started out at the camper for the morning.  We then headed into South Haven for our annual lunch at Maria's, our favorite Italian place.  From there we headed to South Beach for hours of fun at the beach.  We wrapped up the day eating at an awesome Ice Cream place before heading back to the campground

 South Beach is a favorite beach.  Today the water was COLD! BUT we still went in!  

 This is how much Nate likes ice cream HA! 

Wednesday = Loading up!  I cooked a nice breakfast before we got to work.  Once again, we beat our tear down time (not by much!) It took 2 hours.  (Yes, it takes longer to tear down!!)

 I kept taking pictures but Darryl kept saying "Will you put that down and help me HA!" 

We couldn't leave South Haven without picking Blueberries!  (I hate picking blueberries so I take pictures!!) 

Thursday and Friday = Unpacking and catching up on sleep HA! 

Weekly Menu

The boys and I were supposed to head out on a Homeschool Co-Op overnight camping trip but, as I was standing in line at Meijer on Thursday evening, I got a text that said it was cancelled!  At least I could pull stuff off the belt before I paid for it!! 

Friday - We have Sloppy Joe stuff from camping we didn't use so I'm eating that up along with chips.  Again, super simple after being gone

Saturday - Tonight is Chili Dogs with leftover Sloppy joe stuff and left over hot dogs! 

Sunday - Tonight we are heading to a church gathering at someone's house at the lake. 

Monday - Oh my goodness, it's another potluck!  Nate has another summer Tae Kwon Do practice followed by a potluck.  My plan is to make some tortilla roll-ups and a cheese ball and crackers

Tuesday - Tonight I'm going with a friend to hear another friend speak at a ladies gathering.  So, to keep dinner simple, it's just Tacos.

Wednesday - I think my husband will meet his dad for dinner this week so I think maybe the boys and I will grab something for dinner?  Maybe we will do Pizza Hut - Josh still has a coupon for a free pizza.

Thursday - Chicken, Noodles and Green beans!

Weekly Menu

This week includes some camping.  This is our first camping trip of the season and it kind of sneaked up on us.  I felt like I had another week to plan but nope, here it is!  Last week, I cooked a couple of meals at the end of the week to freeze the extras to help with meal prep for this coming week.  Here's the plan for the coming week.

Friday - Chicken and Mac and Cheese

Saturday - My Mom is starting our vacation off right - by cooking dinner for us!

Sunday - Camping day 1!  This is set up day.  I'm thinking we will do Chicken Fajitas (I can cook them up in the skillet) and corn on the cob in the crock pot.

Monday - Steak Kabobs, Baked Potatoes, and Zucchini yum!

Tuesday - Sloppy joes in the crock pot for an easy dinner after swimming.  Add salads, chips and . . Hot dogs once we get the fire going for chili dogs!  Perfection :-)

Wednesday - We are back home tonight!  Again, it's important to keep this night easy as far as dinner just because we are tired after getting stuff unloaded.  I'll have a pizza in the freezer to cook!

Thursday - I'm going to wait until we get home to figure out dinner on this night in case we have leftovers from camping.

Summer Fun Week 9

I've heard several people comment recently that it feels like our summer just started.  That's in part because it was such a cool start in June that it seemed like summer didn't officially being until almost July!  You may know that I don't love the heat and humidity and normally by this point of the summer, I'm ready for fall.  BUT, this year, I feel like we need another month of summer.  For real.  We've been pretty low key around here this week (which is probably why I forgot to post earlier!) and, sadly, I've having trouble remembering details HA! 

Thursday - We went on a planned, scheduled field trip with our Homeschool group.  It was a beautiful day but did get hot!  My mom went with us and it was a fun time. 

Friday - We enjoyed a great lunch from a BBQ "food truck" at our local farmers market followed by some awesome swimming.  Friday, the boys went home with my mom so Darryl and I could enjoy some outings for our Anniversary which included a nice dinner out after he got home from work.

Saturday - Darryl and I took off to the lake shore for the day.  The boys hung with the Nana. 

Sunday - Darryl and I enjoyed breakfast out, something we used to do alot (and love to do) but now it just doesn't seem to happen often.  After breakfast we actually worked on some camping things.

Monday - This was "recovery day" HA!  Between house projects and yard projects, we were busy most of the day.  BUT it felt good to get some things done!

Tuesday - Swimming!  After working so hard on Monday, I was ready for the pool!

Wednesday - We started our day at the park with co-op friends and then went swimming too! 

I guess maybe it wasn't as low key as I thought HA!