End of August!?

{I have no idea what the deal is with Blogger.  It is getting to where it doesn't want to work anymore.    At least now I can insert pictures, but I can't use my signature that I love so much.  :(  }

This picture is one we took last Christmas when doing family pictures with my family.  We each took turns getting some shots of our kids and our families and the grandparents with the kids, etc.  Fun times.  I'm so thankful I had/have a camera that enabled us to get this done so well.  But while my family was "posing" my nephew was snapping the pics.  When I was going through them, I came across this one that he snapped when we were apparently being goofy.  Shocker, eh?  Although you can't see PadaThree's face in this shot, it's still just a perfect shot of our family and is my favorite of all the ones we took.

We're nearing the end of our 3rd week of school and so far things are going well.  PadaTwo is still putting massive pressures on himself, but so far this year he seems to be doing very well with the rather rigorous school schedule I've set for him.  He's managing and for that I'm thankful.  PadaOne is rocking his school, naturally.  And PadaThree is fumbling through dealing with the times that she can't get her way with her bubbies.  I'm grateful for the schedule we seem to be keeping.  It has helped me tremendously to have a schedule again.  I'm not being a nazi about it, but I'm trying to keep them on task to get their work done each day.  Sometimes we start at 9:30 and some days (like today!) we don't start until 11.

We begin moving things down to the basement this weekend and I'm thankful and fearful.  Now comes the hard work for me:  organizing it all!  Not only do we have to clean out and go through all the items in storage, but now I have to find a new home for everything.  I know how we are...we'll get it all in the basement and we'll start using stuff before it's all set up and we'll work out of boxes for a while and stuff will never get fully unpacked/put away.  I sincerely do NOT want to do that this time and desperately want to get it all organized before I let the kids move down there for school.  SO thankful mom is coming to help with this portion of it!  Hopefully before too long I can start using all those things on Pinterest I've been pinning for my homeschool room.  And also hopefully I can post pictures of my own to share what my new basement/school room looks like!  Woot!

I cannot believe that August is over already.  This weekend is Labor Day weekend and we jump into September with both feet.  Crazy.  Fall is here....and our schedule is just as crazy as ever!  Bring it!

Summer is gone!

Summer is officially over, which means school is back in session.  I could.not.be.more.relieved!  Our summer has been extremely crazy and busy and we're just exhausted.  Now, we're turning our sites to the fall and our fall schedule, which is already starting to look equally crazy, and we're looking at making some tough decisions regarding what we take part in and what we skip.  I'm so happy to be back to a schedule for our days so that we all know what to expect and everything gets done like it's supposed to.  

Brent is starting 7th grade this year...and he's already jumping in with both feet.  Clayton is still finishing up 2nd grade stuff from last year.  Sure he's behind, according the Public School standards, but thankfully I don't have to worry about that yet.  I know he will catch up!  The cool thing this year is that already he's starting off with such a great attitude and he's doing GREAT!  He is reading so much better and actually *comprehending* what he's reading.  He still has to do things in small snippets, but he's doing it and that's what matters!  Alivia has decided she needs to do school as well this year, so I have purchased the Rod & Staff Preschool set for her.  So far, she is loving it.  Does a couple pages every other day or so.  I'm also making some activities for her that I got off Pinterest (love my Pinning!) that I hope will occupy her while the boys are both doing independent work.  

I've rearranged our schedule this year a bit too....the boys will have work that they will both do at the same time and I will work with Alivia while they do.  Then, when I need to work individually with one boy or the other, I have them occupying her in another room.  It's working okay....not perfect yet.  But we're only in the second week of school!  

We are still upstairs working in the kitchen for school.  It's not my ideal setup, but we'll manage till the basement is finished.  Hopefully we're only a few weeks from officially starting school downstairs.  Hopefully.  

Time to get back to the madness!