Nearing the end of summer

I feel like someone just hit the fast forward button on the summer! This Saturday, our meat chickens will meet their fateful end as farm poultry and their new beginning into the freezer. (many mixed feelings about this whole thing.......). And our beach trips are right around the corner. This is also my busiest time of year with the conference 2 months away. So the thought of starting our homeschool year (7th and 3rd grade and pre-k) in less then a month is incredibly daunting. But I have been plugging away, ordering curriculum and feeling the pull to clean out the cabinets from the end of last school year (by the time we are done for the year, I don't want to even think about homeschooling for at least a few months. So I stick everything in the cabinet, shut the door, and don't open it again for as long as I can hold off.)

This past weekend I really dove in and got my act together! I glued magnets on all of the letter tiles on our spelling program, I ordered a bunch of art supplies, I opened the box that the curriculum came in (yea, it has been sitting unopened in the cabinet for at least 6 weeks....another testament to my summer out of sight out of mind practice) and put all the books in the appropriate baskets, bought planners and all the school supplies, and finally dealt with all of last years stuff! A great success it was! I feel much more, even if not yet totally, ready for the upcoming year. Now we just need to figure out our schedule with extra classes in town and with our co-op. We are getting there.......

As the approaching school year becomes more of a reality, I realize there are some wonderful summer activites that we have not made time for this year (not too suprising when I think of all the new farm animals and the whole bathroom addition thing). So before summers end, we must:
1. go blueberry picking
2. visit the waterfalls down the road
3. have at least one more dance party
4. go to the beach