Nothin.

That's basically what I got done today. Not much. I am trying to work tonight but it's not going well because of my internet connection. I was planning to give the house a good cleaning, do some laundry, go see my parents and go to the library. I did go see mom and dad and I did go to the library and get a bunch of good reading material. The cleaning, not so much. I let my inner brat win today and spent some time on the internet, watched an episode of Mythbusters and read a little. I am so good at procrastinating about cleaning; especially since the house is messier (because of VBS and the painting and moving the boys rooms, etc.) than it has been in a long time. I may throw some laundry in now since I can't get a job to download. At least that way, SOMETHING will have gotten done.

Naps are good for you.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sleep-newzzz/200907/nap-vs-caffeine-vs-more-nighttime-sleep

I knew it.

VBS over, now back to regular life.

That was a fun break and it ended on a high note last night. The music at the commencement went well (even I remembered the motions, mostly) and then after commencement, we got to see real live Australian animals. Kentucky Down Under, the Australian animal park here in Kentucky, had brought a baby kangaroo, a kookaburra and a blue tongued skink. It was very cool. My spellchecker says that skink is not spelled right, but I know it is. That's a good scrabble word, so I'm familiar with it. :-) Anyway, today we HAVE to clean the house and take books back to the library that are overdue. Back to normal, in other words.

A different week.

I've enjoyed VBS more than I thought I would this week. It's been fun and kind of like going to camp or something. I've got to catch up and spend time with people I haven't got to say anything more than 'hello' to for quite a while. I really said I'd do it because I thought it would be good for my daughter, because she's so talented at this sort of thing; who knew I'd enjoy it so much. I sure didn't. Tomorrow's the last day and even though I've had a good time, I guess I need to get back to real life. I know my house needs a good cleaning and we need to decide what to do about the strays. They're still here. I kind of wouldn't mind keeping Sardina Bandana because she's not much trouble, smaller than our large dog and not aggressive at all (it seems to me) but the big boy dog, Hankie, he needs to find another home. He tries to be dominant with our big dog Lucy and fights with her quite a bit. I do so hate to call animal control but we might have to. Does anyone want a good natured big old boy dog? We deliver within the state of Kentucky and some parts of Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana and Illinois. Please!

Another day.

I got through another day of VBS.  Actually I'm mostly enjoying it.  I wasn't as tired today as yesterday.  I didn't volunteer to do a bunch of errands today like I did yesterday and it wasn't as hot in our little back room.  Someone had cranked the AC down to 69 and that was fine with me.  Dancing warms you right up.   I took in a big glass of Iced tea today too and that helped immeasurably.   I even felt well enough to go to the giant Walmart and buy my daughter some bermuda shorts.  The stinker.  I really am missing her help this week and I really do need it, but I guess I'm doing all right.  I'm only embarrassing myself about every 5 minutes or so with my inability to remember the hand motions.  I think I may be missing the hand-motions gene, although how my daughter got it, I don't know.  Maybe it's recessive and I'm a carrier? 

Tired.

I am really tired from VBS.  My body is just not made for the dancing.  To top it off, my daughter wanted to go be in a class (even though she's technically a year too old, nobody cares, we're very informal)  so she went.  She has several friends who are a little bit younger and they were all in there, so she had a really good time.  Meanwhile, I had to do it all myself with the help of my trusty DVD.  I got it done though and now only 3 more days.  Whew!  I'll probably lose 5 pounds!

I should probably do this every week.

Working again.

I'm working again today.  I did take a break and go out and decorate my VBS room and then later another break to get in the pool for a little while.  I hope VBS doesn't kill me.  I'm going to spend several hours each day doing hand motions (3-5 steps behind all the while) to a bunch of songs with different groups of kids.  I'm hoping that my daughter will overcome her shyness once she gets there and do most of the work.  She's so good at it and I am so not.  At least I can provide comic relief to everyone else.  I'm taking the instruction DVD in case she won't do it, so I can play the DVD for them.  Eeek.  Why did I say we'd do this? 

My weird sense of humor at work.

I'm working tonight and I keep getting reports from this one nurse over and over. She is dictating for a lot of people who are going in for hip and knee replacements and she frequently mentions something she calls "SCD stockings". They are sequential compression devices for the legs that inflate and deflate in a rhythm and keep people from getting blood clots in their legs. I've never really heard them called SCD stockings before and my word expansion software is not prepared for this abbreviation either. I am too lazy to turn off my software every time she says this. Supposedly I can push the control key and stop the expansion, but that only works about half the time. I'm telling you all this, to tell you this one funny thing that I keep accidentally typing.

"We ordered SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH stockings for the patient."
(Because I'm trying to capitalize the abbreviation, the whole phrase gets capitalized like that)

I don't believe I want to wear those, thanks.

For some reason, this seems funny to me. Maybe it's just because I'm so tired!

Sometimes I like these.

I found this one in my blog travels and liked it.

1. How come I can never find: Money in my purse?

2. I wish I'd never started: Working. (LoL!)

3. I wonder why: Cafepress decided to cut my profits?

4. Mama always told me: Don't lie.

5. There's this thing in my closet that I just can't get rid of: Actually, there's a bunch of junk in my closet.

6. My favorite guilty pleasure is: Chocolate.

7. I always forget to: Put my purse somewhere where I can find it again.

8.I have never: Been in an airplane.

9. I am obsessed with: Trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and getting my house in order.

10. One of my favorite memories is: When my kids were born. I remember the first time I ever had to make a doctors appointment and called on the phone and said I'd like to schedule an appointment for my son. The first time I ever said those words was cool.

What we're reading.

I'm reading the Septimus Heap series, Magyk, Flyte and Physik by Angie Sage.  Actually I'm on the third book.  I haven't started it yet.  I got sidetracked from beginning it yesterday by, believe it or not, the biology book I got.  I've been reading that when I get a minute.

Oldest son is reading one of the Star Wars series.  There are many.

Daughter is reading On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, Adventure, Peril, Lost Jewels and the Fearsome Toothy Cows of Skree.  By Andrew Peterson.  She says that it is good so far.  She really likes the title of this book.

Youngest is reading the Alex Rider series, by Anthony Horowitz, about a kid who is a spy.

Husband is reading Monsoon by Wilbur Smith.

Are we proud, a post that is not about D-O-G-S.

Still thinking a little about my fall planning.

I went to a yard sale today and picked up a biology textbook for my oldest son. We'll probably all do biology together with it. The man at the yardsale offered me a dead frog in a box to dissect, but I declined. I think we'll just do an on-line virtual dissection. I dissected a frog in high school, but I really don't think it helped me with my life. At all. I just wanted to get it overwith.

I can't get on Facebook right now (?) but the timeline I ordered is this one. http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Concise-History-World/dp/0792283643 It's a timeline in a book. I have no idea if we'll like it. I'll let you know. After I get the few things I ordered, I'll put them together with what I bought at the book-swap/sale in May and the things we didn't get finished from last year and we'll be ready to get started.

Stray dogs.

Today in the pool, my daughter and I were discussing best/worst outcomes the situation with these stray dogs. For her, the best would be if we kept the dogs and the worst would be animal control coming to get the dogs. For me, it's complicated.

Here are my best to worst.
1. The dogs wealthy owners see the ad in the paper, come to get the dogs and offer us a lot of money for our trouble
2. The dogs poor but nice owners see the ad in the paper and come get the dogs.
3. Some other dog-loving family volunteers to take the dogs.
4. We call the dog catcher to take the dogs.
5. We keep the dogs.

As you can see, our goals are quite different. If I didn't feel it would scar my 2 younger kids for life, I'd call animal control right now. Unfortunately, we don't have a no-kill shelter in our community.

It's a sad situation, but I don't enjoy the poo in the yard, the chewed up items, the fact that they are making our outside dog Lucy, a nervous wreck, or my ruined front door.

We are between a rock and a hard place here. The ad should be in the paper today. I hope we get a call! I hope we get a call!

A few things.

I've done a few things to plan for this fall's school session. I'm trying not to spend much money, but I bought a few used books. I bought a history timeline and I'm toying with the idea of using it as a history "spine" and doing World History again this year. It's been a while since we did that and everything can branch off of it. I bought a grammar book and a book a friend of mine recommended, Backyard Ballistics, which will hopefully be good for science/physics. I'm getting about ready to have some structure back, but we do still need to finish our cleaning/remodeling projects. I'm just having a hard time focusing these days.

Thursday.

The stray dogs are still here. 
The paint on front door is halfway gone.
The other fish died.
It's garbage day.
I'm feeling kind of blah.

Can you tell?

The dog days of summer.

This morning I awoke to the sound of the new dogs scratching on the door.  I was afraid that the big one, Hank, would scratch the paint off my front door, so I went out there to give them some cat food.  (We're out of dog food for some odd reason).  I found that Hank had indeed scratched some of the paint off my front door and while I was noticing this, Sardina Bandana ran inside and under my desk.  Joy.  She has no collar on, so had to climb under there and just grab her and carry her outside.  She was difficult to put out.  She apparently does not like rain.   At all.

I put an ad in the newspaper, but I have very little hope that anyone will want them back. 

Changes in the number of pets.

One of our fish has passed away. We're afraid that maybe the fish were fed too much at first and we contacted the aquarium manufacturer and followed all the instructions, but Flamie passed away anyway. We tried to prepare our youngest son that something like this might happen, but he was pretty sad about it anyway. Now we are trying to decide whether to buy another fish to keep what-his-face company (Pinkie?) or not.

Also, we've had 2 stray dogs just basically move in. One is male, very big, white and tan and the other is a female beagle. The kids have named them Hank and Sardina Bandana (from a Hank the Cowdog book). We've discussed calling the dog catcher, but we know they'd likely be destroyed and they're nice dogs. (And this would upset the kids a lot!) It looks like they've had collars on recently and they scratch like they want to come into the house. They look well cared for. We think someone took their collars off and dumped them, maybe because of economic reasons?

Of course we'll check the lost dogs ads in the newspaper and maybe place a "found dogs" one, but I kind of doubt anyone will want them. Poor things. I'm not sure what we're going to do. Maybe we should take them to the humane society and see if they've been microchipped. As if we didn't have enough to do around here.

Something I need.

My youngest son found something I need while looking through the American Science and Surplus catalog. It's called an auto-nagger. Apparently, according to my son, this would save me a lot of time. :-)

Actually, I do think it's pretty cool. I might have to get a couple of these to say some of my mom stuff "Turn out the light". "Put your dishes in the sink" "Feed the dogs and cats".  "Do your school work."   etc. I might also have to use it the way the catalog suggests and put it in the fridge to say "do you really need another snack?" ;-p

You know, now that I think about it. I might need even more, 5? 10?

Today's News.

Dad's still in the hospital but seems to be doing a lot better. They are going to keep him until tomorrow and then maybe let him come home. I went to visit him this morning at 6:30-ish, trying to be sure and be there before the doctor came in. You never know when this is going to be, somewhere, usually, between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. but it can vary even from that. When I got back home, my kitchen had been put back mostly in order and everyone was still working on it. It was great. Then, since I'd only had a few hours sleep last night, I took a huge nap.

Yesterday, before all this happened, we went to the county fair to pick up the kids 4H art entries. They got a ton of red, blue and even 1 purple (champion ribbon). My daughter's drawing of a tiger won and will be going to the state fair.

Again.

My Dad's in the hospital again.  I'm really worried.  He's really not feeling well at all.  Please pray and send warm thoughts. 

The Extra Terrestrial.

Hollywood's version and our version.

Bargaining.

My daughter has gotten so good at this painting thing. Last night I asked her how much she'd charge to paint our bedroom all by herself and she said "One hundred dollars. Or fifty." She really drives a hard bargain there, doesn't she? :-) I may take her up on it, but then I'd help her ... still, while we are in the painting mood, maybe we should.

I'm going to give that some thought.

Done?!

We are finished painting the walls and the countertops!  This picture shows a little bit of the tan colored wall, a bit of the white wall we were covering up and the blue countertops.  (In my defense, when we built the house and I chose these countertops, I was choosing the lesser of several evils.  There was nothing I liked.)

The countertop paint smelled horrible, but if it works and stays on, I'll forgive it.  It certainly looks better.  In fact, it looks like chocolate, which isn't what I was going for (I wanted black, but it wasn't available in the countertop paint!), but I like it.  Hopefully, it won't make me crave chocolate more than I already do.  (Is that even possible?)   In this picture, it's still wet looking and there's still painting tape up and the outlet covers aren't on.  I didn't do any panoramic shots of the whole room, because it is a total mess.  

Anyway, we're done and just need to decide what to do about the floor.  It's another one of those builder choices where I didn't like any of them.  11 years later, I could not hate it more.   As you can tell, I left the wallpaper border up.  I kind of wanted to take it down, but kind of didn't want to work that hard, so I left it up.  It's kind of country, but hey, we are too.  (Also lazy.)

Anyway,

we're done!

Ahh.

Working on it again today.

We're getting there.  I'm so excited to be getting this done, you just would not believe!  I'm so glad my daughter is such a trooper and so good at painting.   The boys are helping too, but since the paint on the ceiling incident, have not had rollers in their hands.  Actually, the oldest has avoided painting all together preferring to do other things to help.  After this is done, maybe I'll be able to concentrate on home school planning, but right now, I'm obsessed with getting done.  It's funny how that works. 

Finished for the day already.

We did the one wall, 2 coats and then we ran out of paint. We'll need to go to Lowes and get another gallon. The good news is that now we can move the microwave and the homeschool shelves back where they belong. That will help the morale around here a lot, getting everything out of the middle of the floor. The boys taped off the cabinets today, took down the curtains and did a few other things while we girls painted, so that area will be ready for us when we are ready to tackle it. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe in a couple of weeks. Who knows? Probably sooner rather than later, although if we get the furniture moved back, the drive to finish, finish, finish, will be a bit less.

I'll get the paint this afternoon and then we'll see how we feel tomorrow (at least one of us has a sore arm and knees that do not want to climb in chairs anymore!) We're supposed to go see the Harry Potter movie some time this weekend, but probably Sunday rather than Saturday, which would give us all day Saturday for painting.

Another day, another wall?

We haven't started yet.  We're tired from yesterday.  It's really cloudy and overcast which kind of makes a person lethargic for some reason.  Anyway, yesterday we painted the biggest wall with no cabinets on it, the first coat.  So today, we need to do that wall completely again and then we'll only have the 2 walls with cabinets.  I'm hoping they'll go pretty quickly.  I'm ready to be done.  The mess is getting to me.   When I get done with this one, I'll still have 2 rooms in my house that need to be painted.  One is the master bedroom, which has 4 huge walls with no cabinets on any of them and the laundry/mudroom, which is always full of junk.  Neither one will be any fun.  I don't know when we'll tackle those.  Next summer and the summer after that?  Maybe we will and maybe we'll just decide we like builder's flat white paint.  Hey, we've lived with it this long. 

As I was typing this, my daughter, who is my number one helper, said she's ready to start.  A nice breakfast of fetticini alfredo with chicken and broccoli and she's raring to go.  Maybe I should try some of that stuff?

Progress.

My daughter actually put the second coat on that wall last night, so it's done, except for the very top that she can't reach even when standing on a chair. I'll get that today and then we'll move onto the other walls. My boys will probably be helping today too, because they've discovered that if they're not helping with the paint, they're doing "other duties as assigned" and they weren't really fond of the chores they were assigned yesterday. LoL.

I'm excited about the project now. It's funny how just getting started changes your attitude about things. Now I'm pushing to get DONE!

One day, one wall, one coat.

Yes, I realize it looks awful. The wall was dark blue at the bottom and white at the top and neither got covered well with the first coat, but anyway, we got started. At this rate, it will take at least 8 days, 4 walls, 2 coats each. I'm not going to focus on that though, I'm going to focus on the victory of finally getting started.

Getting something done.

Maybe today is the magical day I'll actually get something done.  It could happen!  My husband has been doing great on his to-do list this summer, getting a couple of really big projects done, but I still haven't.  I'm thinking of sliding a couple of my things over onto his list.  Do you think he'd notice?  ;-)

Good day.

We had an event with our larger homeschool group today, the one in which I am a leader for the teen group.  We had a water day with squirt guns and water balloons and a water balloon slingshot.  The kids also started just throwing coolers and buckets of water on each other after a while.  It was a hot day and a good way to cool off.  They had a lot of fun. 

Meanwhile, the moms of the group sat in the kitchen and planned activities for this group through December.  We're trying to do one educational and one social activity each month.  I'm excited about this group.  The kids really seem to be hitting it off and the moms do too, so it's all good.

In other news, I kind of volunteered to do the music for VBS.  It's probably going to be quite entertaining.  I can sing, but all those complicated hand motions, forget it.  I'm pretty much always 3 steps behind.  I'll get 2 or 3 right, then get all excited about that and miss the next 5.  My daughter is going to help me and she has a gift in this area, thankfully, so it should be okay. 

Why?

I posted on Facebook yesterday about how much I hate my job. It was kind of a spur of the moment post. I didn't think about it before I posted it, but it's true, at least at the moment. I know I quit another job this year to take this one back and I don't hate this one as bad as that one. But losing my familiar accounts has been really difficult for me. I had those same accounts for 8 years. I only had to type a couple of work types on those accounts, leaving me pretty rusty when it came to all of the other kinds of reports. Now, I've got 2 different hospitals with 2 very different formats, new doctors, new place names and worst of all, report types I haven't had to do in 8 years. The other day, I had to type a multivessel bypass of the leg and I realized that I'd forgotten a lot of the leg muscles names. It's just really hard for an old dog to learn new tricks. I'll be okay in a couple of months. Or maybe 5. Or 6.

New additions.

These are youngest sons new fish, Pinkie and Flamie, (as in Flame). They are tetras. In this photo, they seem to be looking at their reflections, probably wondering if this aquarium makes them look fat (if they're girls anyway!)

He's been wanting to have fish for a long, long time and we finally said yes. We've had them about 2 hours and already I keep forgetting their names. I told my oldest to go take a picture of Pinkie and whats-his-face (or maybe I should have said her face?). Really, some days I'm lucky to remember my own name.

Three weeks.

The local public schools go back in a little bit over 3 weeks.  I like to start at the same time that they do and have not really planned much of anything.  I really need to get on that.  Soon.

Hank the Cowdog revisited.

We can't find any adventure series of books to read right now, so we've gone back to reading our beloved Hank the Cowdog. I had gotten The Case of the Vampire Vacuum Sweeper on audio CD last week at the library and it had 3 CDs, with 4 chapters on each. I kept falling asleep every night during the book (along with Freckles; we always hear her start snoring about 5 minutes after we start any book), so I think I heard chapters 1, 5 and 9 and slept through the rest. Last night, we picked another Hank book from our own collection and started it. Trouble is, it is a plain old book, not an audio book, so I have to read it and that makes it difficult to fall asleep during it. (not impossible, just difficult!) . I didn't fall asleep, but I did make some reading errors due to tiredness, which the kids thought were hilarious. The most notable one was when I read the word "Coyotes" as "Clouds" which made the sentence say "The clouds didn't see Drover or weren't interested in eating him for breakfast" My 11-year-old thought this was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. It took us a while to get back to reading after that. :-)

Good morning!

I'm feeling pretty good today.  Still haven't painted.  Still haven't planned anything much for fall, beyond what I posted a couple of weeks ago.  The house is a mess, but I have lost 9 pounds and I've been keeping up with my exercising.  At least I'm doing something well this summer.  We've been spending some time in the pool and kind of kicking back and enjoying the summertime whenever we can, but I am going to try and make an effort to paint at least a tiny section this afternoon when I get back from taking Dad to the doctor. 

I saw a shirt yesterday that says "Time flies when you're procrastinating".

So true.

Putting off painting. Still.

I was just looking at my kitchen. It's still waiting to be painted and I bought the paint in April. I've got 2 kid doctor appointments today in 2 different towns so I'll be busy at least half of the day with that. I think I'm going to have to just grab 15 minutes here and there and paint for all I'm worth for 15 minutes at a time. I think that getting a big block of time to come available, in my life, is really just too much to hope for. Besides, painting all day would make my arm really sore and tired and cranky. I'm just going to grab whatever time I can and go for it. After the orthodontist appointment today at 1:00, I should be done for the day with that stuff and ready to go for it. We'll see.

Does it show that I want it done, but I don't want to actually do it? I really do not enjoy painting.

Zelda.

A friend asked for pictures of Zelda Ziggy.  Here they are.  She didn't particularly want her picture made, but I finally got a couple.  One is through the glass and one is not (I think maybe I need to wash the glass doors!)  She's a pretty cat and very sweet. 

I'm going to the grocery today.  I've been in touch with Dad by phone and he's doing okay.   We've got swimming at the city pool tonight (at 6:00, $2.00 per person in case anyone local is reading this and wants to come!)   

I'm not getting as much done this summer as I would like, but I guess that's just how it goes. 

Tuesday.

Dad did go into the hospital but he's back home now.  Hopefully, he will be able to stay home for a while now. 

I just have to share a cute thing my youngest said last night.  He's really been into magic tricks lately and has bought some marked cards at dollar tree.  He'll tell you to pick a card, then stare at the back of it for 5 minutes, squinting, and then tell you what your card is.  It's cute.  Last night, he was practicing a new trick, over and over again.  Finally he said "I can't do it.  I keep trying this trick on myself but I can't get it right.  I'm not trying to amaze or astonish myself, but just to get it to work.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong." 

I love the part about "trying to amaze and astonish myself."  :-)

The trouble ...

with exercising in the pool first thing in the morning, is that it saps my energy for the rest of the day.  I didn't get anything else done, after that, so it's a very good thing that I got the house cleaned up before I went out there.  Whew.  My legs still hurt.  I think maybe I started a little too fast. 

Anyway, if any of you all are praying people, please pray for my Dad as he's not feeling well today.  We don't want him to have to go to the hospital again. 

Nothing on the calendar today!

I love days when we don't have anything!  I think we'll clean a bit, get in the pool for exercise and then go see the grandparents.   I love it when we don't have a set schedule, did I mention that?  Right now I'm on my second cup of coffee, reading a bunch of things on the internet, blogging and waiting for the kids to finish breakfast so we can get started on the cleaning.  We may even paint a little bit today, but probably not.  :-)   I keep procrastinating about painting the kitchen because I hate to paint.  I'll be glad when it's done though.

In other news, for the last couple of nights, we haven't really had anything to read.  I find it difficult to find books that are not scary in any way but will entertain everyone.  Our favorite read alouds have been Harry Potter, Peter and the Starcatchers, The Thief Lord, Dragon Rider, Hank the Cowdog, Esperanza Rising and Becoming Naomi Leone.   Does anyone have any suggestions?  (Please!)

Endlessly facinated with absolutely nothing.

Does anyone remember Designing Women? There's a line in there about Charlene being "endlessly facinated with absolutely nothing". Sometimes I think I'm kind of that way too. I loved that show. I may have to get it on DVD if Netflix has it. I started thinking about it this morning when I saw this picture of a floor that was tiled entirely with pennies.





I find it facinating, which led me to think about that quote, then I looked up a Designing Women website and started looking for that quote. I found it and some others I enjoy.


JULIA: I’ve just never before noticed the extent of your unequalled ability to be fascinated at absolutely nothing.


SUZANNE: Oh, oh!! I've got one... this just makes me furious!! Y'know...when men...use Women's Liberation as an excuse not to kill bugs for you...oh, I just hate that!!! I don't care what anybody says, I think the man should have to kill the bug!!


MARY JO: You've been on a diet for 12 hours and already you're this cranky? SUZANNE: Yes. As a matter of fact, after work I'll probably be crashing my car into a Taco Bell. What's it to you?


MARY JO: And why do you know all the capitols of every country, Charlene?
CHARLENE: Because, Mary Jo, I love knowledge. As a matter of fact, I yearn for it.

Thinking of blog posts.

Last night, as I was dreaming, I realized that I was dreaming about blogging, planning a post.  I've forgotten it since I woke up but I think it's interesting that I dream about blogging.  I guess it's just like everything else you think about during the day, ending up in your dreams.  Too bad I can't think of it this morning, it would probably make a really interesting post, if my usual dreams are anything to go by.  :-)

Happy 4TH!

Have a great day today! I'm going to be working to make up for last night, at least part of the day, but I had a really great time last night, so it's worth it.

The look.

This is the look that Freckles gives me when I won't share my sandwich with her.

Planning without really thinking about it too much.

Since I've been spending so much time thinking in the back of my mind that I should focus on curriculum choices for the fall and not really thinking about it in the front of my mind, its actually been kind of good.  I'm getting some ideas of what I want to accomplish the next year. 

Oldest son.
Drivers Ed.
Geometry.
Studying for CLEP/Dantes tests one at a time.  I haven't decided which topics yet, but I'd like him to have at least some college done before he graduates high school, so that he can just transfer in to college once he decides what he wants to do. 
Whichever science kits we are all doing together, probably Home Science Adventures with notebooking.
Writing/Novel Way.
PE.
? Other duties as assigned. 

Girl.
Writing/Novel Way.
Sequential Spelling.
Saxon Math 1/2 or 8/7 whichever she tests ready for.
Science kits with notebooking.
PE
Language arts -haven't decided what to use yet. 

Youngest
Writing/Novel Way.
Sequential spelling.
All about Spelling.
Handwriting practice.
Saxon math (as above.)
Science kits with notebooking.  (I really want this one.)
PE

I have a lot of things that influence my choices, money, my husband's opinion, the kids whining (shouldn't let it, but it does), the amount of time that I think that I will have ... etc.   The good news about this plan, is I have most of this stuff already.  I want to get the science kit and I'll need to get some study materials for my oldest depending on which CLEP/Dantes test he's going to take. 

We may take a week at the beginning of the year and do that geography unit on Asia that I've been procrastinating about for who knows how long.  Hit it while my enthusiasm is highest. 

I hate trying to think up a title.

I have no idea how to title today.  It was busy, but I've already titled a post 'busy day"  I tried using the title "well" but it was used already too.  I've used "okay" before too.  Today was really just okay.  We did some things, none of them too terribly exciting and now I'm supposed to be working.  Actually I am working, except for right this minute, when I'm transmitting reports on the world's slowest internet and so having a minute to blog.  

I finished the Bartimaeus Trilogy of books by Johnathon Stroud.  (spoiler alert!!!)  I was a little disappointed in it.  I enjoyed every minute reading it until the last page and then, not so much.   I need happy endings in my life.  I guess every now and then you need to read one that doesn't have a happy ending so you feel a little tension reading the next book?  Maybe. 

I still haven't made one decision regarding our homeschool for next year.  I took my big old catalog (you know the one I'm always mentioning but never actually looking at!) to the pool tonight, but didn't crack it open.  Again.

I spoke too soon.

I did not get the easy dictations last night.  Oh well.  Nothing is ever easy is it?