August

We are still alive....just in case you were worried! :o) I think the summer of 2011 is going to be forever remembered as the sick, sick days of summer. I have been sick pretty much since the beginning of June and the girls (except for Maddie who hasn't been sick at all) have been sick off and on since then as well. Throw in a bit of illness for Dan here and there and this summer has ROCKED! Not. Right now I still have a chest cold, what appears to be conjunctivitis and a swollen tonsil and lymph nodes on the left side. I also feel like I have another ear infection. Yep, I said another.....that would be the second one since the start of summer! I feel awesome. But, I'm now taking antibiotics so hopefully this will clear up. I am ready to not be sick!

We have been trying to stay busy & with all the sickness that unfortunately means staying at home. I've planned crafts and school type activities to get them ready for this coming school year. We've been cooking and playing and watching too much TV. But what's a mom to do with this crazy heat and the crazy illness. We're trying to survive! We get out when we can and play at the park and in the sprinklers......I just wish that we could get to the pool and lake a few more times before the summer is over. I think that I will make that our new goal, you know.....along with all of the other goals I have right now like setting up our homeschool classroom, tie dyeing, making curtains, painting a dresser and a couple other sewing /crafty items. There is always something on the back burner in our house.

As I mentioned above, we are going to be homeschooling Maddie in kindergarten this fall. This topic deserves a post all on its own, but here is the (brief) skinny. Maddie misses the public school cut off for kinder by 12 days and instead of just having her do another year of preschool (which she will be going to as well) we have decided to take this "free" year and take a stab at homeschooling. I've been debating whether to teach my kids at home for a long time. I can see all of the great benefits of doing so, the only thing that was holding me back was that I didn't really want to homeschool. I didn't want to do it.....it seemed like too much work. And I think that overall it is a lot more work, but so is dealing with hours of homework after my kids get home from public school. Parenting is work! So since this is a bonus year for us I decided that I needed to give homeschooling a try. I might hate it, but I might also LOVE it and I feel like we all deserve the chance to find out. Stick around and watch as we wade through the unknown waters of homeschool......I'm sure there will be plenty of posts about it! (If I can manage to actually update my blog on a regular basis)

The garden is doing okay.....not great, but okay. I have not devoted the attention that it really needs to thrive and although a few of our plants are doing well that's about it. My cucumbers are done, my squash got bugs and is done, tomatoes and peppers and herbs and and sweet potatoes and beans are all doing well. Corn is getting taller and growing corn, but it is too soon to see if it will be any good. I got that planted really late and it could either be a good thing (yummy corn late in the season when all the other corn is gone) or it could be a bad thing (dies). Only time will tell. My non food producing plants are all doing great! Flowers and berry bushes are all so much easier to maintain......I don't really have to do anything! I am contemplating a fall garden, but I don't know if that will be too much on my already full plate. We shall see.

We don't really have much planned for this week or weekend other than more of the same. Yard work, laundry, playing and I am currently on a crazy mission to rid our house of all unnecessary toys and clutter. I've already filled 3 trash bags full of toys we don't use and we'll be donating them somewhere. I am also trying to reorganize our entire house which is proving to be quite a chore. Furniture is being moved around and spaces are being defined. I need plastic bins and baskets.....at least that's my current solution to the chaos. If anyone has any other handy suggestions I would love to hear about it! I am always looking for a better way to organize our life.

Sprinkler fun

I gave Charlotte a haircut the other day
Her hair looks far less crazy now!

Eleanor loves a balloon
She'll carry one all over the house

Doesn't Ellie look like such a big girl up there?

Afternoon grump

I LOVE the two different shoes

My wild yellow tomatoes

She was upset about something.....
I can't remember what

Children have been here
It's hard to keep any of my flowers growing
Too tempting for little hands to pick

Writing practice

Dangerous?!? Perhaps.

Child of the corn