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...

The week in pictures - May 28th - June 3rd

This happens at my house a lot. 

My mom sent me this picture this week. It proves two things:

1. I have always had a book in my hand.

2. I have always had crazy hair. 

We are about to switch the kids' rooms. The girl kid has the big room and the boys share a small room. In order to swap them, we have to paint them. 

These were the middle kid's choices for his room color.

Um. No. 

These are my choices for the girl's room and for the boy's room. 

It's my house, so I win. 

The middle kid and I had a date. He chose Waffle House. 

I was so proud.

And why do they now have calorie information on their menu? 

No one needs to know how many calories they are eating when they are at Waffle House. 

This was too fun to pass up. 

(The baby kid was terrified and scurried across as quick as lightning. Wouldn't even stop for the picture.)

This is the best stuff ever. You should go get your own.

Found this picture of the baby kid on an old phone. 

I may or may not miss these days.

I still haven't forgotten that he tried to kill me during these years.

But, gosh. He was cute. 

The girl kid went to the beach with her grandmother.

I probably wasn't okay with that. 

See?

She, on the other hand, appears to be fine with it. 

(She did call me homesick. That made me feel better.)

A kitten's favorite game. 

Most of my summer reading list. 

(non-school related, that is)

The boys played basketball after we ate outside on our first sisterless night. 

Muzzy and I hung out and watched. 

I must have been pretty boring. She fell right to sleep. 

The "give the kittens away" clock is still ticking. (two and a half more weeks)

The week in pictures - May 21th - 27th

The baby kid and I wrote a letter to his Compassion Friend and this was the picture we took to send to him. 

So I accidentally worked in the yard. My neighbor's kids were over for the morning on Tuesday, and I was outside puttering around while they played. I decided to see if the garden claw we had would somehow wrench monkey grass from some beds we have. 

I need to add here that I abhor monkey grass. This entire bed that used to be trimmed in monkey grass was just a huge tangle of it. The garden claw worked, with tons of elbow grease. What ensued was literally four (plus) hours of hard labor. 

I even broke the garden claw. Since my mother's day present was landscaping supplies, I decided we'd load up and go to Home Depot and get my present, which now included a new garden claw.

Yep. I went like this. And ran into an old friend who just happens to go to our church now. And a guy that works with him that also goes to our church. He's in construction, so he understood. (I hope.) And he was super impressed that my mother's day present was a garden claw. (Or amused. I couldn't tell which.)

And I took this picture in response to the usual text question from a friend: 

How's your hair?

It was not good.

Not good at all. 

My present ended up being a little bit more than just a garden claw. 

I also got these super cool solar lights that go around the sidewalk and patio. If you come to my house any time soon, I will make you look at them. Over and over again.

 Just ask my poor friend that was here Friday night. 

Bless her. 

These kids worked all day. I was really amazed. They even asked to do more yard work the next day.

 I, however, needed a week to recover. 

This is the after picture of one of the beds. I wish I had taken a good before shot. I do love a good before/after picture. Since I have a whole other bed to do, I'll be sure and take better pictures.

Another (big) bed. 

*sob*

Anyway, 

Wednesday night was our last Mission Friends. I miss these kids so much during the summer. 

Since they are going to be in first grade next year, my friend and I that have taught this class for 3 years now have to move upstairs to the "big kid floor." 

I still don't have a place to put that. 

My sweet friend gave me an elephant from Morocco. 

He's my new favorite thing.

Yes, my friends are infinitely cooler than I am.

And are world travelers. 

I had a crappy day one day and that late afternoon, I was hauling the garbage out. There on my doorstep was this. I sat down and cried. 

Sweet friends make it all better. Really.

"What is that thing?" you ask?

Only the coolest thing ever. 

The whole present was for our outdoor living phase that we are in right now. 

That's what made it so special. 

It's a food cover to keep the flies off. 

I mean, come on. How cool is that?

There was also a pitcher that has a frozen part that screw into the lid to keep your beverage cold. I have used that sucker every day. 

There were also peanut M&M's. 

I have great friends. 

This is still my favorite place to be right now. Since it's hot, I added a fan to the set up. 

Nya and I love it out there. 

And don't you love my super cute necklace? It's new. I love it and have worn it everyday.

I think you should go get one for you.

I was at a friend's house and found the most gigantic gardenia bush you have ever seen. I cannot tell you how happy it made me. 

Gosh, I love those flowers.

I think they are my favorite favorite. 

Since I love flowers a lot, this is huge. 

To have picked a favorite favorite, I mean. 

One of our neighbors had a birthday party for their son. Her friend KT is also my friend from long ago. They met at church when my neighbor friend moved here a couple of years ago. I never get to see KT anymore, and we sat and talked and laughed for a long time. We decided we needed to get together more often this summer. 

I'm so glad about that. 

See? There we are. Obviously at my wedding. This was, um, oh boy. Well, do we really need to think about how many years ago it was? 

*coughcoughseventeencoughcough*

Whew. 

Anyway...

Her daughter and my daughter were born only six weeks apart. They used to play together a lot, but not recently. They had a blast at the party and have big plans to spend the night together and play this summer. 

That made me happy. 

This was the middle kid's mohawk. 

Yes, he's very sad. And grumpy.

Hopefully he and his therapist can work through this when he's grown. 

His hair is so much easier to wash and deal with now that summer is (almost) here. 

And that kid has so much hair it isn't even funny. 

He gets to regrow it. He'll be fine. Really.

Yes, I'm telling myself that. 

I have to add just one more kitten picture. Three more weeks and they are out of here. So I need to post them while I can. 

The week ended with the hubs at work and the baby kid and I snuggled down watching the race. 

There were people that texted me Sunday night and said, "What are you doing?" and I said, "Watching the race..." 

They were confused. NASCAR. I like it. I have watched it for years. I've even been to a race. 

I think I may have been called a "redneck hippie." 

I am sure it was said in love.

I think. 

Oh well. 

I guess there are worse things than being a redneck hippie.

Whatever that is. 

I prefer "free spirit."

That likes to watch a race now and then. 

Ain't nothing wrong with that...