Winding down

Curly Sue's recital was Saturday and she did very well. She was a Raggedy Ann doll in ballet and a Hot Wheels car in jazz. She had two performances and I was backstage for both, helping with costumes and makeup and general peacekeeping. All went well except that someone boneheadedly set the AC in the low 60s and froze up the unit, so it was bone-meltingly hot and smelled of sweaty feet all six or eight hours we were back there.

Oh, and she has been promoted into Ballet 3 and starts pre-pointe classes next year. Hooray!

Our summer plans have changed a bit. Larry has decided he wants to go on the youth campout at Fall Creek Falls this summer instead of Lego Mindstorm camp, and Moe decided that Youth Police Academy is enough structured summer days and doesn't want to do the bug camp. Apparently, that leaves more time to play war with the neighborhood kiddos, and I'm absolutely fine with that! Curly Sue's dance camp is in July beginning just after noon, so that will work out well for us, too.

This is our last official week of school, though Larry will work most days on a lesson or two in Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra so he can start algebra early in the school year. I am waffling between starting school in July or August, and so far August is winning because we enjoyed a longer summer so much last year.

Larry has expressed great interest in police work and archaeology, and my brother Bubby happens to have majored in history and minored in criminal justice, in addition to serving as a police officer for 10 years. Bubby is excited that Larry is excited, and they have lots to talk about now. Next year, when Larry turns 14, he will be eligible to join the Police Explorers. It helps that the city police chief is Larry's small group leader at church and that another officer leads Moe's small group, and he admires them both very much.

Bubby told me about an archaeology Bible he found, which will fit in nicely with Larry's study of Mystery of History next year. It will give him extra research opportunities while allowing us to study history/Bible with all three children at once. Larry will continue in TT math and Apologia General Science, as well as start the Latin Road to English Grammar. He will continue to read literature and write essays regularly but we are allowing him a period of independent study time each day as well, when he can pursue computer programming, architecture, meteorology and anything else educational -- his choice.

The one thing new I've bought for the littles is a book on teaching math by Marilyn Burns, who wrote Math for Smarty Pants and the I Hate Mathematics Book, among others. She includes overviews and lots of math games, which will fit in perfectly with our math notebooking we started last year. We still have Horizons workbooks for hectic days. We have Sequential Spelling, many specialized science books and leftovers from last year's k12 -- I just have to put my resources together in some kind of plan that addresses our needs. (Another reason to start in August instead of July.) We will fill in with literature; what we don't have can easily be found at the library, and I have downloaded many free unit studies from CurrClick as well.

I am looking forward to the new school year, but even more to the end of this one.

Never underestimate the power of a good night's sleep

I say this because I haven't had one in...oh, several months. I'd been recommended melatonin by my doctor and it worked for a few weeks but lately, not at all.

Yesterday, he prescribed Ambien and for the first time in longer than I can remember, I awoke rested. The doctor says a few weeks' worth should reset my sleep schedule (oh, joy!) and then I won't need it any longer.

Meanwhile, I am working on eating better, taking vitamins and getting some exercise. I am way too heavy right now, and I've joined Sparkpeople. It's free and the support is phenomenal. I especially enjoy the nutrition and exercise tracker features.

We have about three weeks left in school and most of our stuff in place for next year. I likely will not start school until the first week of August, though we usually start the first Monday after July 4. We enjoyed our long summer last year and have several plans in place for this year's break.

Curly Sue and Moe are registered for the city's youth police academy, which they greatly enjoyed last year. Curly Sue will be going to dance camp and the boys want to do day camps at the college. Larry wants to register for the Lego Mindstorm robotics camp and Moe for the Bugs for Breakfast insect camp.

The local recreation department is bringing in a college track star to do a day camp and I think the children would love that as well, but they don't seem too interested. Oh, well...they'll have plenty to do anyway!

Off to stretch my well-rested muscles.

Happy early Mother's Day!

We just returned from a glorious week at Orange Beach, Alabama. We weren't able to see the Blue Angels this time around but we did visit the Naval Air Museum and Fort Barrancus. We were slightly hindered by my sore foot and Curly Sue's ear infection (we rarely make it through an entire vacation without visiting at least one fine urgent care facility).

During our trip, we dined at LuLu's, where my sweet family bought an autographed copy of Crazy Sista Cooking for me. My Webkinz-crazy kiddos chose a bullfrog for me as well. Ain't he cute? Happy Mother's Day to me!