My Little Monkeys

 

How can you resist such a face?



And that hair?



This summer is going so fast. School is going to be starting up so soon and I am trying to get myself back in school mode. It will be here before I know it. In the mean time I am enjoying summer and some of the sweet moments I catch!

Brooklyn is growing so much. It is hard for me to believe that she is already six months old. She is figuring out what food is and she likes to eat!

Bodie has really matured over the summer. I have seen some changes for the better in him. He has relaxed and settled down a lot and I have

really been able to enjoy him! He is such a funny boy and cracks me up sometimes.



And my great warrior!













My other monkey!

Thank God Bodie has settled down for the moment because Brylee has amped it up! She has really worked me over time and keeping up with her right now is a full time job. She is like a whirlwind. Beautiful, but up close she can be down right ugly at times.


They are all blessings in my life and I wouldn't trade a thing. It will be a joy to watch them continue to grow and see all the changes they go through on their journey.

Summer Time Squabbles

Summer time arrives and regardless of whether you homeschool or not you are ready for a change. Those who don't homeschool look forward to having some time to spend with their kids.  Those who do homeschool are looking forward to some time away from their kids.

So summer starts off  with a bang! There are camps, VBS, swimming lessons, trips to the grandparents, and maybe even vacation. Suddenly the whirlwind  of activity slows down a bit and we are left with half the summer trying to figure out what to do.

 Then summertime squabbles begin and you find yourself wishing they were back in school. I realized the other day the big difference in summertime and school. We are still at home either way, but school time is much more structured. I don't know why it takes me so long to realize that me getting a break should not mean no schedule. No schedule equals chaos and more fighting. Once you have more than one child it gets harder and harder to let the day just happen. When I let the day "happen" it is not pretty.

So, I am pulling myself up by the bootstraps and reeling them in again.

Today every time I had fighting I gave them a job to do. The funny thing is I never had whining about the jobs I handed out. They were happy to have something to besides making their own fun. Bonus for me: no fighting and getting more things accomplished around the house.

I have moved through my day with purpose. After we got some things around here finished we went to the Florence pool.(who knew they had a pool) The kids had a great time and they were tired when they finished.

I know that if I keep them busy I have much better days, but I have a tendency to wait until I am having problems to try to come up with things,and I am not good with spur of the moment plans. One of my favorite blogs Preschoolersandpeace says with young kids you must have a battle plan. This is so true because otherwise they make you the battle and at the end of the day you feel like you've been in battle.

So write out your battle plan.......your list of things that you can use to entertain your kids. Keep it handy, write as many ideas as you can. When the battles around your house begins you don't have to think, you have your ideas all on paper. Better yet look at your list at the beginning of the day and steer your kids through the day that way. I promise it will be so much better, less whining, claims of being bored, and less fighting. Now if I can just remember that summer is a time to relax, but routines can still help with that I'll have more days like today and less wild frontier days!

Summer Time

Summer time is here and with it the blazing heat. Such is to be expected in Texas, but some how every year I get a little less tolerent. Ok so I was dreading the swim lessons for Brylee this summer because I have to get in the water with her. Now I actually look forward to it because I get the chance to stop sweating for a few minutes. This is her first year in swim lessons and she is loving it. I am excited for her too because Bodie gets to go to camps and she gets left out because of her age. Finally this is something just for her and she is eating it up.

The first weeks of summer have been so busy that I had not had a chance to slow down. This week has really been nice though. It's the first time I have not had school since Brook was born aside from her first few weeks and I am realizing now that I really needed the break. I actually have some free time. I have  noticed that I am so much more relaxed. I know Bodie was ready for the break also. We had a good school year. I am over all impressed with all he learned. I wil be making some changes in some of his curriculum for first grade though. I think I am going to go with Abeka math this time and also Abeka English. I really do like their phonetics program and think it will help him later if he has a good start with phonics. Also, still realizing that I have to relax a little and not so much pressure on myself or Bodie with school.

Brooklyn is growing so fast. She is fastinated by Bodie and Brylee both and loves to watch them. She has started saying  da da da. I am trying to convince her that she should say mamama, but so far no luck. Oh well you can't win um all. I am so glad that she is pretty low key right now. I think I would have cracked had she been a fussy baby like Brylee was. Thank God he knows how much we can handle.

Our garden is still hanging in there despite the heat. We are just getting ready ( if all goes well) to have good amounts of tomatos, peppers, beans, and peas. I canned my first two jars of peppers a couple of days ago and am about to have more to put away.

Also, I decided that I am going to take one room at a time and start doing some little improvements. I think I am going to start with our bedroom, since it is least seen. If I make mistakes no one will notice as much. I'll do before and after pictures of what you can do on a shoestring budget.

Looking forward to the summer and getting a few things done around here.