Getting It All Done

I'm actually not getting as much summer school done as I generally do, in part because I'm trying to have all next year lined up this summer. I have never pre-made plans and copies for an entire year before, but I think it will flow more smoothly if I am not trying to school one section while I plan for the next. This goes for all my kids as well as the CC class I will tutor. We are trying a note booking approach this year, which means everyone will work together on the CC subjects and read and write about the topic at their own level and everything is recorded in each child's notebook. 

I don't swap curriculums much anymore, but just our consumable math, grammar and phonics workbooks are a sizeable pile. Julia wanted to get started on her new math, but unfortunately the excitement only lasted one day.

Julia identifying her math workbook
 

I spent almost an entire day making copies for the kids notebooks of just the timeline, geography and history papers I plan to utilize. I hope I can get it all done, otherwise I killed a bunch of trees and blew out print cartridges for no reason. Once I put the kids to bed, I kept going because I was accomplishing so much more than I did while they were interrupting me. JD took a break from taxes (we filed an extension - they still aren't done!) to tell me it was almost 1:00 and we should go to bed. It isn't too often these days I actually work that late.

This was long before 1:00 as evidenced by Ben vegetating there.

I am also rearranging some kid furniture. The boys are getting too big for their bunk beds, so we bought a captain bed on Craig*list for James and are currently looking for another for Ben. James sanded and painted his with chalkboard paint and it looks really nice.  My contribution was painting their walls a light grey to match the dark grey beds. That is the third time, and third color, in seven years that I have painted that room!

Since I get on Craig*list everyday to hunt for a Ben bed, I decided that I would start looking for a trundle bed to put under Elijah and Selah's bunk bed. Elijah has furniture waiting when he has a room, but someone has to move out before he actually gets a room. In the meantime, Bella has been in a toddler bed next to Elijah and Selah's bunk bed and she is just too big for it. I thought a trundle would work for her for a while and then be a nice extra bed for friends once the girls have the bunk bed. So, of course, the one I found was in the Richmond area, and while I was going anyway, I was also picking up a good many things from my friend, Wendy, for a local friend's baby.

I bought the trundle bed which fit along the side of the van as I hoped. The nice mattress he was including, however, did not fit. While I had taken out the back seat, that area was for a large dresser, crib, two swings, a stroller and a few Rubbermaids I was getting from Wendy. The man that I bought the trundle bed had no idea that I had more furniture in my plan and told me that mattresses fold. He then shoved it in half and barely crammed it in the back and slammed the door shut.

I called Wendy and told her that worse case, she'd have to take the mattress. She responded with, "I don't want your mattress, we will make it fit". Now I break to say that I often pride myself in fitting more things in any vehicle than any sane man would encourage.  Wendy may be the only person that thinks like me, so she was the perfect packing partner for the job.

We did feed the children at our usual Richmond Chick Fil A before we went to work.


bad picture but cute Bella



12 of our combined 19 children

When we opened the back of my van, the mattress sprang out like a snake in a can. It took four of us pushing and tugging, but we crammed it in between the trundle and the wall - over the tire hump, under the roof, and wedged between the wheels on the bed. Lesser women would have abandoned that mattress in the Chick Fil A parking lot.

Beyond business, Ms. Wendy is fun and brought the younger kids new Build-A-Bears. I had some happy youngsters on the drive home.

It's almost Julia and Elijah's birthdays

This is a pretty packed Chick Fil A with three live order-takers manned in the parking lot. We provided plenty of interesting viewing for the cars as they rolled through.

Here's Ruth parked on the furniture.

There is our successful packing job - the third seat also was packed full which forced the children to ride nice and snug together on the first two benches.

We are still working on James and Ben's room, but Bella's bed is the next in the paint cue. In the meantime, the new bears and old bears have had a chance to get acquainted.