Morning Glory

I hope I don't regret planting this.  I know it can be so invasive but I am trying to get some privacy from our neighbors and thought an arbor would work well. Then I just couldn't resist the beauiful Heavenly Blue variety of Morning Glory.  It grows like 10 inches/day and I love the leaves.  Hopefully it will bloom in the fall or spring.  I love plants.  The back yard is my escape when the kids get too noisy.  :)

 

I can't believe school starts next week.  The end of summer had flown.  Overall it's been good.  I still can't decide if my "summer school" efforts are worth all the contention they bring.  But seriously I don't think that an hour or two of work each day is too much to ask.  Here's what we tried to do:

 

 

One Math Worksheet

Write in a journal (this was usually only one sentence btw!)

Practice Geography with the globe

Practice piano for 15 minutes

Play the typing game on the computre

Read one Scripture

Do a Chore

Read (this one is easy)

Exercise (We usually swim everyday so this is a no brainer)

Do one Good Deed

 

We really only did it for probably 7 weeks of the summer and we are taking this week off.  I know the boys actually enjoy doing most of the things on that list. Really only one of my kiddos gave me trouble with it so I guess I shouldn't judge the whole experience on one person.  But isn't that so easy to do?!  Just talked to my mom recently and she reminded me of great advice for mothers.  Don't tie your happiness to your children's happiness.  Especially if you have several kids.  I mean someone is always going to be down about something and you cannot take all the negativity in the whole household and claim it.  But dang it's easy to do. 

 

Anyway school will bring some postive changes.  Both Isaac and Daniel are excited about their teachers next year and looking forward to seeing their friends again.  Lucy will be in preschool 2 days/week and we are doing a fun playgroup one other day of the week.  I'm homeschooling Jonah with the K12 program.  Pretty nervous about it but it feels right and I am looking forward to lots of quality time with him. 

 

Okay Lucy needs some attention.  :)

 

 

 

South Dakota Road Trip

Well we survived the big summer road trip.  22 hours each way to Custer National Park.  We have always wanted to visit and finally made it happen.  It was such a beautiful place!  We saw buffalo, prairie dogs, elk, deer and of course Mount Rushmore.  I think the kids enjoyed it although Lucy pretty much asked to go "back to Texas" everday.  :)  The boys had a lot of fun playing on all the huge rocks in the area and even took a swim in icy Sylvan Lake. 

One night we drove to Keystone and did all the touristy stuff we never do.  Watched an old west gunfight, had old fashioned family pics taken, bought pointless souveniers and ate lots of ice cream.  It was actually a lot of fun. 

At our campside one night we went on a wagon ride, singing songs the whole way and had dinner and dancing in a valley.  We had all been a little grumpy with eachother and it was just what we needed.  Of course I will never forget this night because at some point the gentleman in charge asked any man with a lovely wife to come up front.  No one did and then... up jumps Curtis.  A bunch of other guys followed and they all did their best Elvis impressions.  That would NOT have happened 5 years ago.  Yes it's on film.  No I can't post it because he'd pretty much kill me.  :O

These kinds of family trips are not cheap, exhausting and sometimes I wonder if it's worth the trouble.  But I'm realizing that even if the boys are having full on fist fights in the back of the car, they're also creating memories.  Hopefully as times goes by they'll just remember the good stuff.  :) 

We took 3 days to drive up and had planned to do the same on the way back but we were just sick of driving, staying in cramped hotels and eating junky food so we did the last 18 hours straight.  zowie!  The tools that helped us to survive were: sunflower seeds, Coke, Mike N Ikes, puffy Cheetoes and oh that 5 hour energy totally worked for me.  :)  We also listened to the first two Artemis Fowl books and thoroughly enjoyed them. 

I was surprised to realize as we rode into Texas that I really was happy to be back.  I complain about how ugly it is but it's downright beauiful when compared to Kansas & Nebraska.  We were worried about our trees dying while we were gone but it actually poured the whole time so everything looked so green and vibrant.  We crashed the next day and are finally back into a nice summer routine.  It's good to be home.