Today was hazy, HOT and humid!!!  One of those day you are VERY glad for air conditioning!!!  Allie played all day with the neighborhood kids.  Maddie babysat down the street for half of the day.  Other than that we had a quiet day.  David, George E and I napped part of the day away!  We really needed it!  David hasn't been sleeping well through the night recently which of course means I haven't been sleeping well. 

I did get a chance to read a book today!!!  George has known this for awhile, but I just realized today that I love to watch and read historical nonfiction!!!  Yesterday while at the Old Coast Guard Station I picked up a book, written and signed by a local author.  It's all about that ship wreck in Virginia Beach in 1891.  Wonderfully written!!!!  I'm glad I got a chance to actually read!  I learned alot about ships and sea rescue.

Tonight George and I took George E to Boy Scouts then went out to dinner.  We had a very yummy dinner!  No little ones with us, so it was a nice time to chat and enjoy dinner.  We picked up George E and let the leaders at Boy Scouts know that we would like to get more involved in the near future. 

George E will leave on Sunday for a week of Boy Scout camp.  Katie also leaves on Sunday, but she's headed to Camp Rudolph.  Now I have the challenge of 2 rooms in 1 week!!!!!  I should either rest up this week or get a head start!!!!

Field Trip Day!

We went to the Old Coast Guard Station http://www.oldcoastguardstation.com/  at the oceanfront in Virginia Beach.  We met another family there and got our own tour.  The kids learned about the history of the Coast Guard and Life Saving Stations.  We had a GREAT tour and learned so much!  My girls are finishing up their Girl Scout badge of the month-lighthouses.  Just one more field trip, work at home and interview some Coast Guard friends and we should be on to next month's badge right on time!!!  After the tour we visited a neat monument at the beach.  It's the "Norweign Lady".  It's a replica of the figurehead from a shipwreak in Virginia Beach in 1891.  We had the original wooden one at first, then someone was commissioned to make 2 bronze monuments.  One is in Virginia Beach facing out to the ocean toward Norway and the other is in Norway facing the ocean toward America.  After that we ran a few errands while in the "big city". 

Here are the kids in front of the Old Coast Guard Station after the tour.

David, my beach baby!!!

It was nice to get home. I planted some plants in the flower garden.  The kids requested burgers and Stouffer's Mac and Cheese for dinner, so I made that.  They really enjoyed it!!!!  I started making a patio out our back steps and put some flowers out there.  The pool is full now and ready for the kids to swim again!

Friday- busy day!  I ran errands and picked Maddie up from camp.  She had a GREAT time!  While I was at camp I saw alot of friends I haven't seen in awhile.  It was very nice to talk to them again.  I got Katie and Allie registered while I was there.  We stopped at Dairy Queen on the way back.  It's a tradition, you just HAVE to!!!!  Maddie totally forgot that her room would be clean when she got back.  She was SO surprised!!! She LOVES it.  It's still clean!!!  Later Friday night George and I went to the neighborhood bonfire for a few hours and hung out with friends.  We had a really good time.  As we were walking back I fell flat on my face!  It was really dark and I tripped in a ditch left by tractor trailor tires!  I was perfectly fine and perfectly embarrassed!!!!  It was really funny!  Maybe a flashlight would be a good idea next time!

Saturday- quiet morning, cleaned up some.  The kids played with neighborhood kids.  I went over to a neighbors for a little while.  She had an open-house with Pampered Chef, Southern Living and jewelry.  It was nice to meet some new people and be with friends for a little bit.

Sunday- we had planned a nice quiet day of yard sales, thrift stores and Lowe's.  Things didn't quite happen like that.  As we were getting ready to leave we noticed our goat, Alex, wasn't doing very well.  He hadn't been very happy/healthy since his girlfriend died.  George and I did end up going out, but there were no yard sales to be found!  We got a call that the goat had died.  We made a quick stop at a thrift store, found cute curtains (don't know where they are going yet) and a pair of shoes for me.  Neither were things we were looking for.  Then ran to Lowe's... they were all out of the lumber we were looking for!  Oh well, back home.  Buried the goat.  George drained, cleaned out the pool and refilled.  I mowed the front 3 acres with the borrowed farm tractor (makes very short work of it), took down the goat pen and cleaned up the front and back yards.  VERY tired!  It was VERY hot and humid!

AHHHH!  I'm finally done cleaning Maddie's room.  Spent last night looking for furniture.  Couldn't find any that would work or that I would pay that much money for.  I finished today!  George put up the shelf I painted to match her room and I celebrated with the finishing touches.  Katie said that I am the "human easy button".  How did you do that Mom?  she said.  Really, I couldn't have posted before pictures, it was that bad!  Now I'm working on Katie's room.  I guess I will get this house cleaned this summer!!!!  We will get some formal schooling done, but mostly learn as we go!  Hopefully alot of house cleaning skills for the kids "classes" this summer!

this is Maddie's bed that I turned to make a "day bed"

this is the corner of her room with her closet

This is her desk/vanity/entertainment center. (it was just used as a desk before)

another corner

Wow, it was quiet here today.  The kids did alot of playing.  Allie played with the next door neighbor. George E helped clean up the kitchen and the living room!  David detroyed the kitchen and living room!  Oh well, there's always tomorrow.  I worked in Maddie's room for a good part of the day, picking out garbage, sorting stuff and moving furniture that no one should be moving alone.  I'm a get it done now person, it was moving!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We had a pretty good scare (boy that's an oximoron) tonight.  There is a forest fire here in our county that started this afternoon.  It burnt 320 acres before they got it under control.  It wasn't far from our house. It's now under control and no homes or people were hurt.  Our county got alot of help from surrounding communities.  We only have 4 sherriffs (no police) and volunteer fire fighters.  We have 911 service, but really how fast will they get here?

Busy day at home!  What do you think of when you send your kids off to camp?  I used to be worried about them when they were younger, but now that they are older and have gone to camp for many years I don't worry so much any more.  I think..... I'm gonna clean their rooms!!!!!!! The only time a year when I can get in there without them crying over their favorite scrap of paper!!!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not ruthless.  They keep many, many things that hold memories to them!  But garbage shoved under a bed is still garbage!!!!  I have been working in Maddie's room since she left.  I'm not sure what she took to camp because it seems all her personal undergarments where shoved in remote corners of her room!!!!  She should be very pleased if I can pull this off before Friday night.  She wanted to have a comforatable room with a couch and coffee table!  Her room isn't that big, but I'm working on it.  Now to find someone giving away some furniture!

It's almost the end of June.  Time to look back at those New Year's Resolutions- Goals, as I like to call them.  I have done a few things, but it's time to get motivated. And I am!!!  I have been working on my scrapbooks again.  I don't know if I'll get them caught up anytime soon, but working on it is a good place to start.  Also, it's time again to loose the baby weight I have put on.  I did it once and I AM going to do it again!!!!  I did it after baby #3, now after 3 more pregnancies and 2 babies later it's times to do it again!  It's taking me a long time to be "ready".  It's time to get me back!!!!

Father's Day!!!!  I hope George had a good day.  We tried to make it nice for him.  We just hung around the house for awhile then did gifts.  In addition to the gun cabinet he got last night, I gave him some cards and a memory card for his phone.  Some of the kids made some things for him, but their big gift to him was a photo album he can carry around.  It has pictures of each child as a newborn to the present and a handwritten note about why they love their Daddy so much!  It came out really nice! 

Late this afternoon we left to take Maddie to camp.  After she was registered and picked out her bunk, the rest of us stopped for dinner and dessert.  It was very nice. (Except for my migrane which lasted a few hours).

Maddie will be at camp until Friday.  She is crushed that she can't have her phone with her!!!!  If you would like to send her mail, make sure it will get there by Friday.  Send it to: Camp Rudolph, Maddie Hackett, 19320 Darling Dr. Yale, VA 23897-5747.  Sometimes they have to do crazy things to get their mail.  One year she had to sing "I'm a little tea pot" at mail call!

Allie and I went to Rowena's for tea!  We had a wonderful lunch.  I had some great tea.  Allie had apple juice!  It was very nice in there.  Lunch was served on silver tiered trays.  We were there with another homeschool Girl Scout family.  After lunch they gave us a tour of the kitchen and showed us where they make and package all their yummy, yummy cakes!  You can buy them online for any occasion!  We shopped alittle in the gift shop.  Rowena wrote a few children's books so we got one of those.   I also bought a cookbook to add to my extensive collection!!!!

Allie got bored waiting for everyone else to get done, so she made some bunnies!!!

Here's us, a little silly in the gift shop!

We stopped at the Dollar Store on the way home to pick up some things for Maddie's camp.  Allie was able to pick out ice cream!  She was REALLY happy.

We had a quiet evening at home with Friday night pizza!

Field Trip Day!  We were up early (for us) and headed into Virginia Beach to tour the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse.  We have been working on lighthouses as our Girl Scout badges of the month.   There are two lighthouses here.  One is active and one is retired.  They are located on a military base, Fort Story, so we needed to have the van searched.  The kids did good with that.  We cleaned out the van so the guards wouldn't have to go through all the McDonald's bags!!!! 

Katie, Maddie, George E and Allie went to the top of the old lighthouse with another homeschool family.  David was too little so I stayed in the gift shop with him.  We got one of those really cool baby back packs yesterday so I don't have to chase him around anymore and it worked great...except that he kept taking things off the shelves and I didn't know it!!!!

Here's my kids and the Dassel kids in the VERY top of the lighthouse!

When it wasn't raining David and I walked outside.  On the fence there were yellow, black and white ribbons.  These were neat because they had names of military personel from all branches of service on them.  Unfortunately there were alot of black ribbons there with names and dates.

We had planned on having a picnic lunch after seeing the lighthouse, but the weather was kinda icky!  So we did was all good homeschoolers do....we ate in the van of course!

We skipped the state park visit because of the weather and picked up a used wagon.  We have always wanted one.

Then off to the library.  We all left with not handfulls but armloads of books!!!  We love the library!!!!  We came home and George made us a wonderful spaghetti and meatball dinner.  David really liked it!

After dinner they broke in our new wagon! 

More play dough.....

The best thing that happened today is....David slept last night!!!!!  That means I slept last night and had a good start to my day.  I got the kitchen, living room and my room straightened up!  I spent a big part of the day burning garbage. Boy, do I miss having garbage pick up!  Public school is out here so we had friends here most of the day.  The kids played nice and kept pretty occupied for most of the day.  Not much schooling done, but happy kids!  Allie worked on Birthday thank you notes and Katie painted a really pretty picture on a piece of poster board.  I weeded my beautiful garden and priced the mulch I hope to put on it.

George E. had his Boy Scout Court of Honor tonight.  We had a GREAT potluck dinner!  Yummy!  George E. got recognized for making his "Scout" achievement.  All he needs for his "Tenderfoot" is a Scout Master Conference.

He also received beads for things he has done since joining the troop in February.  He got 3 green ones for camping in warm weather and a clear one.  I forgot what it was for, but I think it is for service.  He helped place flags on the Veteran's graves for Memorial Day at a local cemetary.

George and I have been looking for things we can do together and are seriously thinking about getting more involved with George E's Boy Scout troop.  George as a Assistant Scoutmaster (leader type position) and me as a Merit Badge Councilor.  George E. is excited and not at all embarrassed!

We worked on caves and lighthouses some more today.  I made some playdough.  I will include the recipe.  This is the BEST playdough.  It doesn't get stuck in the carpet like the commercial stuff does.  Allie made a cave, complete with stalagmites, stalactites and flowstone.  We read some books about bats and Allie colored a bat. David "colored" a picture.  Only ate a few crayons.  It seems that he's going to be right handed.  We will watch and see. 

Our garden is coming along well.  We have some green tomatoes out there!  We have lots of tomato plants, some corn, peppers (something keeps eating them), watermelon, zucchini, lettuce and green beans.  So far this is the best garden we have had.  We also have a bed of flowers.  These are doing well too!  I have also revived most of the house plants!  So many living things to take care of!!!!!

We have 9 yellow puppies right now.  They are about 3 weeks old.  They are SOOO cute and chubby!  They are beginning to take over the laundry room!

Play dough

2c flour, 1c salt, 1t cream of tartar, 2T oil, 1t food coloring (optional), 2c water

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients, blend well.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the dough leaves the sides of the pan.  Turn out on a work surface and knead for a few minutes.  Keep in a ziploc bag when not using.

We had a pretty quiet weekend.  I painted more of the kitchen.  The end is in sight!  Hope to put up tile behind the stove and sink someday. 

The girls are involved in a summer Girl Scout program.  They are working on lighthouses this month.  We learned about lightships on Saturday.  They are pretty neat.  We found out there is one retired here in Portsmouth.  We will be touring it at the end of the month.  We are reading stories about lighthouse keepers and lighthouse mysteries/ghost stories. George E. is also enjoying learning along with the girls. 

We are also learning about caves and caving.  There is a Girl Scout badge the girls can earn for this too.  We visited Indian Echo Caverns last weekend and got a great video made for IMAX.  We watched that tonight and learned alot.

Hi Everyone!

I have decided to start this homeschool blog because we are SO busy and it's hard to keep everyone up to date with everything we have been doing.  Come check it out and see what we've been up to!