Weather Related

So, any post this week is going to contain weather related topics in it. Why, you ask? Because, it is HOT!

Yesterday's forecast:

At the moment, it is 4:45pm and 106 degrees. And it will be hotter this week. The daily "lows" are not exactly low, are they?
Yikes! The ground around my house has pulled back, kind of like a cake that is a little over-baked.

Trying not to think about our foundation....

We are getting ready for the twice yearly Court of Honor for Boy Scouts. We have had some trouble getting The Young Adult motivated to work on merit badges. He is finally getting some done, but will only be honored for one tonight. Still, I am proud of him. Cookie Boy should get his first rank advancement tonight!

I have been working very hard on getting  ready for the Monkey's first homeschooled preschool. Look for pictures to come!

Steee-rike!

Strike as in bowling, that it, not baseball!

Today we went for our first "Kid's Bowl Free" bowling. It was a little crowded when we got there.  The bowling alley we went to has many, many loud, obnoxious games in the arcade, and laser tag and all that, so there was a lot of noise.

For some reason, I have a headache. Not sure why.

We finally got a lane after a 20 minute wait, but not without drama (see - what did I tell you before - a houseful of boys does not mean an absence of drama). I have talked to the boys about this before - sometimes I have to interact with another person - usually a cashier - like this time. When I do that, my head actually turns away from the Mad Toddler for a moment. Since the Mad Toddler is two, he senses my attention is elsewhere and off he goes! No one else notices. No one else sees. My head was turned for 40 seconds to give the nice young man our shoe sizes and to hand him my card, when I looked around and managed to see the flash of the Mad Toddler's shirt disappearing in the bowling lanes.

It was longer and messier than this, so I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say I was shouting like a banshee by the end (trying to make my voice louder than the combined noise of bowling balls, kids, arcade noise, and piped-in music). I think I amused some other moms and am sure I disgusted some. But, as I pointed out to the boys, that is the price they pay. They want to do fun things? Then, I may have to turn my head to pay for those fun things, leaving them to watch the Mad Toddler for a moment.  To quote one of my favorite book series - CONSTANT VIGILANCE! (name that book!)

The drama finally resolved and we got around to gearing up to bowl. It has been a while since I put on a pair of them there fancy bowling shoes and hit the lanes. And it showed!  But, oh! It was so much fun! Even the Mad Toddler had a good time. I would like to personally thank his guardian angels for protecting his feet each time he managed to grab his 5 pound bowling ball and haul it to the ramp before I could reach him (usually dropping it millimeters from his tootsies!). Who know a toddler hefting a 5 pound large, round weight could be so fast?

Romeo trounced us all. I managed to come in second, after finding a better groove in the later part of the game, ending with a strike! Cookie Boy came in a respectable third, followed by the Young Adult (who surrendered to the bumpers after a terrible beginning), and then the Mad Toddler.

I told the boys we would go back in the morning, but I totally forgot the US World Cup match in the morning! So, no deal, boys! Besides, we are going to purchase shoes. If we want to go bowling often, then shoes will pay for themselves in as little as a week!

Finally, a Break!

    
 Ahhhh - a full jar of M&Ms! I am ready for summer!
This week will be a school-free week! Call it a mini-vacation, if you will. We are all excited for a break from books and homework (and planning and grading)!

This is our 7th year of homeschool (oh my gosh - really!), and every year I plan to end on a certain date and then do some neat summer activities. Every year I poop out in early May and we just call it quits for the year. Not this year! This year we have really stuck to our plan. We will be taking this week off, but next week we will resume. We are not finished with several of our subjects.

Plus, this year, I want to try not having a summer break. We will have breaks, just not a break that lasts 2 or 3 months. I think we will take all of July off. That should give us all time to rest and relax. It should give me time to plan, prepare, and organize.
So, June 1-4 - school break
June 7-30 - school, finishing subjects, drills, and projects
August...who knows!

Of course, we will still hit the pool as much as possible!

The Mad Toddler and I took an awesome (short) trip to Austin this weekend to see my “Little brother” (the irony, and thence the quotes, comes from the fact that while he is two years younger, my little bro' is a foot taller than I am!). I had fun seeing my niece and nephew and came away, as usual, with a million new thoughts and ideas inspired by my brother and his wife. They are hip enough to live in Austin! I am barely hip enough to visit!
My brother and I made a quick trip to Half-Price Books for their Memorial Day sale – everything was 20% off. I only picked up four things, and they were all school related. But very cool, nonetheless! One of my favorites is a book about the US Constitution - in graphic form! It will be an awesome addition to us wrapping up our semester studying the Constitution!

  And this little retro gem that will be fun to do with Texas history this next year: