A Week, Briefly (We're Getting a Start on Summer)

Pictures from last week's homeschool camp out that I forgot to upload from my phone:

Mister Man had a lot of fun jumping in the hoops.

One sweet mom helped a passel of kids play a trivia game.  The kids howled with glee every time she got a question wrong--it was kids against grown-up.

This is little friend T--who loved Lola so much all day long. 

Baymax played with little friend I--.  We will miss her family so much when they leave this summer for an extended trip around the world!  Best homeschooling adventure ever!  But really, we are going to ache with missing them.

And Lola loved, loved, loved this little megaphone.  She sang and hollered in it often throughout the day. 

There are few pictures because the teens were off huddled around their own firepit, and the medium kids were running hither and yon with friends all day.

Since then the older girls have partied with friends, read library books, watched movies, and worked at their paying jobs.

Otherwise they've done a lot of loafing and sleeping.

The little kids have spent abundant hours outside picking mulberries from our trees and eating them warm from the sunshine, splashing in the wading pools, watching the baby robins nesting near our blueberry bushes, and riding bikes.

Nature Angel finished her math book!!!

"I feel so free!" she says.
 

A few of the kids have asked what happened to school, but for the most part, they are handling the days well--probably because there is little change for them.  Their 20-ish minutes per day of school coupled with hours and hours of outdoor play are the norm, and all we've eliminated is the 20-ish minutes each.

However, that's opened up nearly 3 hours for me. :)

I'm keeping up with laundry (the kids use an unreasonable number of towels each day) and dishes.

I'm also suddenly studying like my life depends upon it.  I guess the kids finished their subjects, and now I get a turn.  :)

I've pulled some of my favorite encouragements from our home bookshelves and borrowed others from the library.  I've selected a few new challenges, too.

It's a summer intensive for Mom.

We had a church pancake breakfast at the lake for Memorial Day and breakfast at the park on Friday.  I've put several hundred miles on the van shuttling teens from place to place, but the days are actually spent at home, watching the spring come to a close and the summer begin.

The camera stays mostly on the shelf because Pixie has been gone so much and my hands are full with books and marking pencils.  The mornings are busy with chores and Morning Meeting, but the afternoons are slow with play and books.

I used a freebie deal for online piano lessons that showed up in my inbox recently, and Nature Angel and Little Princess are enjoying those.  Ladybug wants some lessons, but hers will need to be live, person-to-person lessons.

I sent the kids out early one morning in their jammies to play in the rain.  They only lasted a few minutes, but they got rather a thrill out of playing in the pool until they were too shivery and cold.  We had hot pancakes for breakfast that day.

Next week the older girls leave for camp, and it will just be the littles and me (unless Dad is home).  We had one day of that this week, and it was such a sweet time.  I love my teens, but I'm still learning the ropes with them, and their demands on my time and mind are so different from the simple needs of the smaller children.  I'm far more experienced caring for little ones, and I can relax into that role quite easily.

Giving the cat a bath . . .

I'm off to purchase bug repellent, sunscreen, and work gloves . . . and then I'm gonna open another book.


(linking here)