The Dreaded School Room

I'm thinking it's time to clean the school room. Some how the piles have just grown and shelves are over-flowing. I'm not really sure how this happened because our 2 week summer vacation turned into 4. You would think that a room not used would stay clean, right? Well, for some reason it has become the dumping ground for clutter.

We are scheduled to start the new school year on August 1st so I better get busy. Sorry, I'm not going to show anymore pictures until it's clean. Way to embarrassing! I think the calendar says it all...

Paperback Swap

Paperbackswap.com is an amazing site. Curriculum is SO expensive and I've been able to get some great finds off of there. Here's how it works: You list books you want to trade. When someone requests your book, you mail it to them. When they receive it, you get a credit to request a book for yourself! There is over 5 million books listed and just in case they don't have something you want, you can put it on your "wish list" and they will notify you when it becomes available.

Money is really tight at our house so this has been such a blessing. I was able to find 6 years worth of spelling (normally about $10 a book), reading comprehension for Mason, and Nate's algebra books. The algebra set is $85 new!

They have much more than homeschool curriculum. In fact, that is just a small portion of what you can find. If you decide to sign up, put my name down as a reference and I will get a free credit. It's definitely worth a look :)

I Did It!!!

What did I do? I finally cleaned up my email inbox. If you think that isn't quite blog-worthy, well...then you have never seen my inbox. You see, I have this terrible habit of not deleting things. I would always "plan" on organizing it later. It quickly got out of hand. I've been trying to clean it up little-by-little, but I never seem to make any headway. Tonight I did it- I selected "all" and "delete"! 845 pages. Almost 19,000 emails. It feels good to have a clean slate. I just hope there was nothing important in there that I deleted. I don't even dare look!

Scout Camp

The boys seemed to have a great time at scout camp, but they sure were dirty when they came home! Mud got tracked in everywhere. I've never seen so much stinky, dirty laundry either. I guess that's what happens when you send 3 boys into the wild for a week. They were very happy to get home to their soft clean beds. Mason was happy to finally have "the big boys" home too. I guess mom and sis just don't cut it for an entire week. He and I did have some fun, though. We went to the movie with grandma, watched way too much T.V. and ate way to much junk food. Fun times!

Pictures of Scout Camp

More Pictures of Scout Camp

Hiking Fun

I made everyone get up early last Saturday and go hiking on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Well, everyone except Lexii because she had to work. Yes, everyone complained and tried to get out of it, but in the end we had a great time! The funniest thing was that Nate and I had done that same hike with Nate's youth group the week before. We were all so proud of ourselves because we figured we had gone at least 5 or more miles. Ummm....Yeah.... this time we had Kyle track it on his phone and we went a whopping....2 miles!!!!!! That was total- not one way. I'm thinking we all need to get in better shape :) I love spending family time together!

To school or not to school......during the summer, that is!

That used to be such a simple decision. We were on a year round schedule in public school. I loved it! A few weeks off here and there- perfect. Now as homeschoolers we can school whenever, right?

Well, last summer we took it all off. We did math a few times a week and read everyday. The kids fought and drove me crazy with the "I'm bored" thing almost daily. I really don't have heat tolerant kids either. They love to play outside in the spring and fall, but not so much in the summer. It was miserable for everyone!

This summer we decided we were having school. Well, I decided, that is. It's been great so far. We aren't as "hard-core" as we are during the winter months, but we are getting a lot accomplished and having some fun too. We've even had a few weeks off and plan to take the last few weeks of August off, too.

So if everything is so great, why am I bringing this up? Because I WANT SUMMER! I want to sleep late and do things at the drop of a hat. I want to feel those lazy days of summer and maybe do a project or two around the house. More importantly- when am I going to find the time to put together school for next year? Definitely things to think about for next year :)

I'm A Bad, Bad Blogger....

OK, I know I've said this before- I'm a terrible blogger! I don't know why because I've always got something to say. It might be because of Facebook. On Facebook you can say something quick and right at that moment, with a blog it takes a little more time. Yeah I know, more excuses. I haven't been here for about 6 months so I need to either delete- or get my act together.

OK, one last chance................