Weekly Preview

I think the only reason I keep writing these Weekly Previews is that it helps ME to keep my week in order. But that's a good enough reason. I hope you still find them useful.

Saturday - Chores & book club
Sunday - Father's Day (decided against the day away due to the long drive)
Monday - WORK (4 hrs daily), Swim Lessons (J&S)
Tuesday - Lessons, WORK, Swim Lessons, Soccer conditioning (S,J,E)
Wednesday - Lessons, WORK, Swim Lessons, Meeting
Thursday - Lessons, WORK, Swim Lessons, Beach Day
Friday - Lessons, WORK, Project Day
Saturday - Wedding

This is VBS week at our church (and a whole lot of other churches); however, I am not sure we will be attending. I did put our names on a list, but the week is hectic enough and VBS is only 90 minutes long. They can't go Tuesday night and probably not Friday anyway.

James and Suzy will be doing Swim Lessons this week and next. Suzy has never done any and it's been about 4 years for James.

We went to some yard sales this week. Two of them had all the clothes for a quarter. I got quite a few things for Suzy. Bought a Japanese dictionary for David for 50 cents. My kids found a Legolas pen for me for a dime - I think that was the best buy! I used to have one (different design) that I bought at Hot Topic years back. I kept it so long that I wore all the design off the outside. LOL So, now I have a new one. It writes! The same garage sale had a Legolas binder filled with Legolas notebook paper (and some POTC paper) for another dime. That paper was about $2-3 for 50 sheets back in the day. OK, I know I am a geek fangirl.

Took the kids to the dollar matinee in a nearby town to see Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief. Love the dollar movie. Enjoyed the show, but it was far too intense for Suzy. I should have thought about that ahead of time, but I just didn't.

We also picked strawberries at a nearby farm this past week and I put some (not enough!) in the freezer. Our freezer is small though, so I guess that's OK. The kids were not all that excited about the picking and I remember all those fruit picking outings we used to go on and wonder how in the world the adults dealt with all our bad attitudes! Or did we just enjoy it because we were with our friends?

There was apparently a home intrusion that turned into a stabbing of a teen girl here in Dryden. I only know the details from facebook (!) so I don't know the official version or the outcome, but the girl surprised an intruder and he grabbed up a hunting knife and stabbed her then she fought him off and he knocked her out. In Dryden village, people. Dryden! Eeek! We are a bit freaked out.

Only two more weeks before we go camping! We are borrowing a camper since we have not found a suitable camper for the money we have. We may decide to save up a little more money through the winter and buy a nicer one next spring.

The daylilies on the west side of the house are in bloom. I just love those, and they are no work at all! LOL

We may be putting up our pool this week. Today?

Lisa

Weekly Preview

Saturday - Chores around the house, library?, movie w/friend, Book Club, groceries
Sunday - Church, Youth Group (D,E)
Monday - Spanish, WORK (4 hrs daily)
Tuesday - Lessons, WORK
Wednesday - Lessons, WORK
Thursday - Lessons, WORK, teach make-up Spanish class
Friday - Co-op, WORK
Saturday - Sister Weekend!!!

Quickly now, Lisa, there's a lot to do....

-Foot feels better, haven't exercised on it yet.
-Yesterday's weather was gorgeous; today - snow.... Spring in Michigan....
-Took 3 of the kids to Cranbrook Institute of Science yesterday. Will post about that at Cornerstone.
-David stayed home by himself Monday because he was feeling ill and yesterday because I couldn't get him a spot on the field trip.
-We posted the popup on Craigslist and had a flurry of inquiries. One guy came to see it last night.
-A older class C motorhome would be our choice to replace the popup. We'll see what we can find.
-Working 20-25 hours a week pretty much eats up all my free time.
-Bob only has 3 days scheduled next week. Good thing I took the extra hours when I had the chance.
-Bob got his handicapped parking permit renewed.
-We still haven't replaced the water heater or gotten the sump pump. Argh.
-I have sister weekend questions to finish!
-I need to plan this week's and next week's Spanish classes this weekend since I will be gone next weekend.
-I taught my last essay class this week and I was really pleased with the students' progress. I heard good feedback from some of the parents.

OK, off to accomplish some tasks before I get to go have FUN!

Family Camp Photos

Finally here are some photos of Family Camp, along with my captions. I'll try to write out a few thoughts on the week to go along with them soon.



As always, if the slideshow won't load for you OR if you'd like to see bigger versions of the photos, just click on the slideshow and it should take you to the album in picasa where you can view the pictures.

Perfect Summer Friday

Yesterday was THE MOST PERFECT weather! Mid-70's, sunshine, no clouds, slight breeze, no bugs. Idyllic!

We trekked over to a local park to share Park Day with a few other homeschool families. Perhaps ten families? The kids ages 1-16 got along great! There were no "issues" - parents, you know what I mean! LOL The moms had several hours to sit and chat and catch up while the kids played near (in) the creek, ran on the grass, played baseball and soccer, and just generally ran around.

Emily went home with a friend and James brought home a friend. Before dinner, I made the drive to get the kids back to their proper homes.

On the way there, we saw two turtles in the road. Yep, we stopped. Picked them up. Brought them home. James' friend took one and we have the other. We won't keep him forever, just long enough to learn all about him. He's a fairly big one. I'm sure James will snap his portrait before long. His name is Skipperdee, Jr. (Pic in this post is from the web, not taken by me.)

Last night we walked down to check out the carnival down the street. Wristbands were $15 for just five or six inflatables and some carnival games! (School fundraiser) I'd warned the kids ahead that if it was expensive that I wouldn't pay. So, we talked to people for a while then walked to the gas station and bought frozen pop. (Yep, even me! I drank REAL pop, although I didn't finish it. But, it's one of my pet peeves that the scientists can't seem to make a Diet Frozen Coke. Sigh. But wait, if anyone KNOWS of one, you'd be my best best friend! Really! I'll buy you one! hehehe)

After that, the kids watched a movie and Bob started a campfire. On the spur of the moment, we'd decided to make S'mores and allow them the opportunity to sleep in the camper. Bob popped it up earlier today to check it out before camping seasons starts. I posted pix of the campfire time below.

Suzy chose to sleep in the house with me, but Bob and Emily and James took the adventurous route and camped in the yard. (Remember, David is at Cedar Point.)

I exercised (4th workout of the week! Met my goal!) while watching He's Just Not That Into You and then finished entering the soccer registrations. I'm amazed at what passes for PG-13 nowadays. No WAY would I let my young teen watch THIS.

Went to bed FAR too late, but slept in this am. The weather looks lovely, although maybe a tad chillier than yesterday. I think we'll hit some garage sales and maybe cook-out.

Tuesday Tidbits

Have been attempting some lesson planning. Updating Cornerstone blog with info on that.

Met a friend at the waterpark today and sent one kid home with her for the night. (One down!)

Taking the girls to their first Keepers at Home meeting tonight. Picking up a friend and her daughter on the way and taking them too. Emily is going home with a friend afterwards. (Two down!)

Need to think of something for dinner.

Need to get the camper cleaned up and popped back down, ready for our next trip! When will that be? Not sure yet.

Bob's CPAP machine arrived today. He has sleep apnea, recently diagnosed, and we are hoping this will make a big difference for him. During one of his recent sleep tests, he slept 3 hours out of 7-1/2 and he quit breathing 12 times. I'm hopeful that more sleep (and better quality) will make a big difference to his pain and cognitive abilities.

Off to do some lesson planning.....

Nearly Ready

The camper is getting packed. The kitchen is covered with food and dishes that need to make it into the van. The house is fairly clean. By dinnertime, hopefully we'll be at the campground.

I've oh-so-thoughtfully posted ahead for you, so there should be a new post here every day this week, even though I'm not here! So, don't stay away.

I'll be back with news and hopefully pictures on Friday. Have a great week!

Camper Sold!

We sold our old popup camper! YAY! I listed it on craigslist last week and someone came last night and bought it!

We also bought our 'new' camper from a craigslist posting.

Have you tried Craigslist?

New Camper

Our new camper is in our yard right now!

Campers and Cell Phones

We looked at one camper and we liked it ok, but we didn't make an offer on it. There are more people supposedly looking at it tomorrow, so if we don't make a move real quick, it will likely be sold. Two other campers we were going to go look at WERE sold. But I have 3 more I've found on craigslist to look at. No shortage of campers to buy.

Got my cell phone today. Here it is. It's an LG VX8350 in red. I like it so far. If you need my number, let me know.

What's Up

We're off to look at some campers tonight! Hoping to have one purchased by August 15th. Bob also has to get a hitch on our minivan so we can pull the camper.

We spent the day at the lake with homeschool friends. It was a lovely day with blue skies and not very hot, at just around 80 degrees. The kids had a blast!

I am ALMOST done with Breaking Dawn - just about 100 pages left. Will finish it tonight.

Co-op registration is tomorrow. Will post more about that on my Cornerstone blog. (link in sidebar)

I have posted some stuff at Mirkwood lately too and more will be coming. (link in sidebar)

Just now it rained a little bit. The sun was shining and it was raining on one side of our house and not on the other. Very strange! lol