i have to say...

is it that time already?

I went to turn the page on my calendar the other day and guess what?  There was nothing left.  No more months to fill out.

So that meant a trip to the store for a new one, because I have the organizing bug.  My shop, my house, and Aubry's school...I am in the mood to write it down and get it done.

I firmly believe that if you have a plan AND work it, you will get where you want to be.

The upcoming new year is always exciting for me...new year, new goals.  But I will say that I have no need to get out of this year and hope that the next one is better...because this one has been just fine. In fact, it's been really good.

And it's been a long time since I have been able to say that!

Have a lovely day, friends!

 

gettin' it together

Am I the only one who is totally ready to get into "organized" mode?

I LOVE summer, but once it gets to be this time of year, I am so over all of the free time and fun.

Don't get me wrong, I do love "fun".  But there is such a thing as too much of it all at once!  I need some order in my house!

We are still homeschooling this year, but we are adding two days a week at an exploratory school for my daughter.  She is almost as excited as I am about this.  The school has all of those fun, hands-on learning activities that I just don't have time for anymore, but that I feel are super important.

Also, two of my boys are moving out by the end of the month, so things they are a changin', and I want to figure out how this will all work.

So, one thing I am doing is getting serious about my schedule.  Those two days that Aubry is gone are gonna be work only.  And I will be able to get so much done. I am actually really excited about that.

Her and I will also be getting better about doing chores around the house.  Chore time has been a little, shall we say, spotty over the summer to say the least.

Here is my partial solution:

I have been looking for a daily calendar page that had enough spaces for me to write out my day, but not so many spaces that it's totally overwhelming.  It was hard to find something in the middle, but this one works well so far.

I love that there are three spaces for must-do things, but a bunch of spots for things I have to do at some point.  That list is always pretty big for me and I will to have it all in one spot.  I will use the little blank space on the right side for writing down my exercise goals for the day. I don't know about you, but I am much better about getting things done if they are written down on a list.

I bought this little page at ALL ABOUT THE HOUSE on Etsy for just a few dollars.  Rachael was great to work with and she will customize your page will print and color, if you desire.

That's my start at gettin' it together. I still have a lot of planning to do, and once September is here, it's simply time to do it.

Can I secretly say that I can't wait for September for that reason?

Yes, I love my summer, but soon I will be ready for something new.

What about you?  Are you feeling the itch to get organized?

 

 

 

 

 

a few facts

***I bought new jeans yesterday.  The beautiful thing?  I now fit into the size I wore 10 years ago.  I was so excited that I bought two pair!

***My weekend is totally open.  No plans at all.  And I like this.  My sewing machine needs me to spend some quality time with it.

***I am taking the kids hiking on Friday with some friends.  Late summer is my favorite time to hike.  It's warm, not hot.  And the trails are free of people.  It feels more like "getting away" to me like that.

***I am going to participate in a Karate tournament in a few weeks.  And I SO out of practice right now!  The event in my incentive to get things into gear!

***We will be starting school next Tuesday and I am SO ready!  Summer's free time is becoming a burden, and I looking forward to a schedule and some actual purpose to our day. 

And you?  Leave me a fact about yourself in the comments!

i don't know where she gets it!

Yesterday we were doing a science project involving fruit and seeds, when all of a sudden she grabs a camera and starts shooting.

I wonder where she get this from?

Hmmm...maybe it's from seeing me grab my own camera to photograph dinner or fabric or simply anything in process.

Makes me laugh!

If she keeps this up, I will need more storage space for our photographs, since what I use is almost full.

I love this kid!

the last weekend...

...before our lives get serious again. 

It was great!

My hubs and I got to spend a little time alone, seeing an Alison Krauss concert at Red Rocks and just generally messing around for a couple of days.  It was much needed time together!

We also went to a Hot Air Balloon Festival in Colorado Springs.  This event is the only time of the year that I am actually functioning and dressed at 5:30 in the morning.  The event started at 7:00 AM so it has to be that way.  Lots of coffee got me through.

We could only talk one of our kids into going with us.  Apparently my kids get the distaste of all things "early-morning" from me.
Hot-air balloon events are so full of fun color and pattern. 

It's really amazing to me that people actually get into these contraptions.  There is no motor or steering wheel, just wind and hot-air to guide the balloonists where they want to go.  The baskets are so tiny and it just freaks me out to think of being up in the air in one.

We completely enjoyed the weekend and then spent Monday cleaning and just generally getting ready for school to start this week.  My boys will be attending a Classical Christian School for some of their classes while doing some at home, and Aubry will be doing homeschool with me. 

I am ready for a routine again.  All of our summer free-time seemed to be losing it's charm lately and the thought of having time slots for things is relieving.  It's funny how we change with the seasons, isn't it?

Have a lovely Tuesday!

my mini-ornitholigist

This past week Aubry's science topic was birds and she has really taken to this one.  She built a birdfeeder with dad's help and spends time each day sitting in a chair with a mini pair of binoculars, just waiting for her subjects to show up.  The cool thing is that I have not asked her to do this, she is just dying to see some action at her feeder.

The problem is that nothing is coming to feed.  Not one bird.  And she is feeling a bit disappointed.

Any tips for attracting birds to a feeder?  We could use some advice.

Hopefully I can post some pics of the birds at her feeder soon.  :)

a brand new school year

Today is our first day back to school.  Yes, I am starting on a holiday, but it is a holiday we don't celebrate and it seemed silly to add one more day to summer vacation.  We are ready--so ready--for a routine!

My schedule looks great on paper, but it remains to be seen how it will work in real life.  This school year my word to remember is "focus".  I need to focus on the task I am working on and quit getting distracted by everything around me.  This summer I have developed a habit of allowing distractions to take me away from the things I want to do the most.  Little time eaters that nibble away at my goals and get me nowhere.  This means that the computer will be off for a good part of the day and if is not mommy's computer time, mommy stays away from the computer.  No more checking the shop, checking comments, checking blogs, checking other shops.......you get the idea. I need to pretend that I am one of the kids with a set time on the computer.  That way it remains a good thing.

Last night we made bagels to bring in our first school morning.  This recipe is simple and the finished product is SO GOOD!.  Give these a try and you won't be disappointed, I promise.  I added some cinnamon and raisins to my dough, but you can keep them plain or get creative.

Happy day to you!

it's baaa-aaack!

Walking through Wallyworld the other day I saw the most amazing sight: the school supplies aisle! It's back already!

Don't the decision-makers in that store know that I am not ready for this?  Don't they care that the sight of those notebooks and pencils and glue sticks makes me feel just a little sick?  Aren't they aware that my summer gotta-do-this list is still really long?

They need to consult me on these things!

On today's schedule is a trip to the library to get the book Backyard Ballistics so that we can make a tennis-ball mortar.  Then I need to dig out my Little House on the Prairie Cookbook so we can make butter.  Swim lessons start next week.  The tomatoes have just barely started getting red.  We need to make homemade ice cream.  When are we gonna go camping?

And on, and on, and on...

What's on your list?

he discovers the microscope

Josiah is my science man.  He is interested in the ways things work and the way they are made.  He also likes to take things apart, so I always toss the broken small appliances to him.  Half the time he gets them to work again!

Yesterday he found the microscope and started playing with it and found all kinds of cool things to look at.

After looking at this website I realized that he was mostly looking at bubbles, but I must say that they were pretty neat looking:

Somehow I need to figure out how to take him past the bubbles and into bacteria.  Where is my biology-lovin' daughter when I need her?  :)  I just love the internet, because there is access to just about anything you want to learn about.  It makes homeschooling a bit easier!

Off to find out how to produce bacteria for my guy...

we went to the olympics

Well, it was the Science Olympiad.  No crazy athletic skills were needed, which is great because I don't think we have any!

My boys competed in Dynamic Planet, Environmental Chemistry, Herpetology, Bridge Building, and Robocross.  The day was great fun and Josiah even brought home a 3rd place medal for Robocross:

He and a group of kids helped to put together a remote-controlled car that is able to pick up objects and put them into a container.  They were thrilled when their names were called during the awards ceremony.  Of course, I had already put the camera in the car and I have no photos of them onstage.   AAARGH!

There was a lot of free time for my hubs and I and Aubry.  We spent some of the time playing The Memory Game, and as you can see Aubry beat me BIG TIME!:

That game has always been a set-up for humility since my children always win me by a large margin.

Pool was also on the agenda: And Hacky-Sack (how do you spell that?):

We left before sunrise and got home right before sunset.   My hubs and I were exhausted! The kids, of course, still had energy to fill the house with noise and activity.   We were happy when bedtime rolled around!

During the pool playing time my hubs was secretly taking pictures of me and he said that I had to post one:

A friend and I played possibly the longest game of pool on record.  We took at least 20 minutes trying to hit our last two balls in, but I succeeded in losing the game by accidentally hitting the 8-ball in before it's time.

Really we were just trying not to make our husband's feel bad about our mad pool skills.  They probably couldn't have handled it if we had set our skills free for all to see.  Men are like that, you know.

There is a possibility that one of our teams made it to the state tournament in April.  Can I be honest and say that while I am very proud of my guys and their hard work, I don't know how I feel about redoing this day all over again, and on a bigger scale.  We will be crossing that bridge when we come to it. 

I do know that we will be requiring our kids to be at least as tired we were when that day is all over!