Did anyone notice that my darling husband actually blogged on my last post?  This is unthinkable!  Just kidding!  He inserted a nice little paragraph of appreciation in my last post, what a sweet guy.  See if you can find it!

     Silly me - I thought June would be a quieter month.  Wrong.  Suddenly, the last two weeks have become booked.  That's just not us, you know?  Found out yesterday that testing for my boys is this coming Wednesday!  They are a little shaken but I keep telling them it will be fine.  Best to get it over with instead of dreading it until Aug, which is when we all thought the testing would be.  Add to the mix Grandpa's birthday, dental appts for the kids, Todd's cardiology appt in Portland and our homeschool curriculum fair the day after that, also in Portland (which means an overnighter probably) and boom - June will be over!  Considering the weather has been rainy, I guess it's fine that we are busy with indoor stuff.  We'll do the outdoor stuff in July when, God willing, it will be warm and sunny.

We officially stopped our regular school schedule, such as it was, last Friday.  We don't do anything to mark the end of the year, I just tell the kids and they say something like, "O.k." or "cool", and there you have it.  I sometimes wonder if we should do more but then I think that if I make a big deal about it being the "last" day of school, that just sends the message that school is something you want to end.  I like stressing that learning goes on all the time and that it's enjoyable.  (You're going to learn and enjoy it or else!)  Not really!  I've told the kids that we will continue working on a few things throughout the summer, especially with Carmen since she's doing so well with math and reading.  I really want to work on character training this summer.  Today I had the kids doing various cleaning chores, including cleaning their homeschool shelves so that's one job out of the way.  Except Alec, he still has his shelf to do.  He's busy driving us crazy because he wants to make a wooden marionette, complete with puppet theatre, and is frustrated when things don't work out like the picture in his head.  What do you do?  The kid needs to learn patience.  I'm so glad he has such big ideas and I wish we were better equipped to help him complete his projects but he always gets into things way over his (and my) head.  He's content for the moment by attaching strings to his Lego creations and working them.  My dh also helped Alec make a soft sculpture marionette that he's enjoyed playing with.  I got him a book on marionette making but I don't know it that made things better or worse!

We are hoping to do some outdoor things in July, like the zoo, which is much more fun to visit when it's not raining.  Today was one of those wet, drizzly days with the wind whipping up the Columbia River and slapping that drizzle in your face as you run from the Safeway parking lot into the store.  What were they thinking when they built a Safeway right on the water front - as if you can see the view from inside the store with no windows!  It's ALWAYS windy in the parking lot.  And Fred Meyer, across the bay, is no better.  The wind whips up across that parking lot, too.  Which brings up the subject of hair.  (Stay with me, I do have a point.)  No wonder ponytails are, like, everywhere in our town.  Always have been.  The women (and some men, this is a laid-back town, remember?) here know that it's pointless to try and have a decent hairstyle and live in Astoria.  Goody must make a fortune here.  I've had all kinds of hairstyles since we moved here and the one that works best for this area is my French twist with a big clip.  Well, my intent is for it to be a French twist, whether it is or not is debatable.  And lots of hairspray.  You can't go wrong.  The minute you step outside, even to get the mail, your hairstyle is a goner so it doesn't matter anyway.  I've been working on a hairstyle that combines clipping up some of it and curling the rest and even when it gets wind-blown and wet, it still looks o.k. because it looks like I meant to have it that way. 

How did I get on the subject of hair?  Dh is gonna roll his eyes at this post!  Sorry, hon!  Anyway, if anyone has any helpful tips on making testing go better, please let me know.  If only the exams would ask questions about WWII airplanes or volcanoes or geography.  Sigh.