School's out for summer!

School is over!

Yay!

It ended with a wimper more than a bang, but that's immaterial.

It's still over.

I love the before and after pictures:

Several months ago I got a summer dance party Wii game on sale. I waited until the last day of school to give it to them.





They had a blast.

This is how we celebrated quickly the afternoon we finished school before we ran off to do other things.

We even celebrated the end of school in a hurry.

I found these snakes on Amazon after reading a homeschool blog about them. 

The ninja/nascar guy and his brother and sister watched this video about them, and spent nearly the whole day playing with them. 

I'm thinking that can still be "school." 

I'm calling it summer school. 

Summer school will include some work in the mornings and fun field trips too. 

(I love how kitten pictures are everywhere. My phone, my computer, and now even popping up in my blog posts. I must have added it by mistake. I'm leaving it because she's cute.)

I'm deeply reflective this time of year. I'm thinking over what went right this year, and what went  wrong. I ponder our strengths and weaknesses. I cringe at the ways I failed. I think of what I should have done better, been stronger at and how things could have been better. 

I wonder if the kids really learned anything at all. 

It can be exhausting. 

I look at my house, which looks like multiple tornadoes hit it all at once. 

This sort of feels like post traumatic stress disorder. 

All I want to do right now is get my house clean. 

Then we'll have some fun. 

I have learned from my past mistakes, though. Last summer we didn't do anything during the two months off, and I didn't prepare well for this year. And we suffered this year because of that. 

So starting Monday morning, we have a tiny amount of things we will do each morning. 

And I have homework to do.

But it's okay. I don't want to have the same problems this year that we had last year do to my lack of preparation. 

I allow myself a couple of days of fretting about the past year, and then I say,

Oh well. 

The year is over and we will do more/better next year in some areas and hopefully maintain the good we did this year. 

Because there was some good. 

And I'm praying God will cover with grace the areas that I failed these kids.

I know that we are walking in obedience on this path. And I'm asking Him to show me where to do better. I'm also asking Him to help me be a better steward of my time this summer than I was last summer. 

I do want to have fun this summer with the kids and our friends we don't get to see enough during the school year. I want to eat grilled out food and sit on the patio. I want to swim and play and laugh and read and sleep late some days. 

I want to rest and play and pray over next year. 

I am thankful that I get to school my kids at home. I'm thankful another year is done. I know that one day I'll be sad that they are all over. I resolve to treasure these days and appreciate them more...