Pumice Stone Rocks (heehee laughing at own lame pun)!

I have used it for toilet ring and hard water behind the sink before, but yesterday I used it to scour the entire tub, and I am thrilled with the results!  Not a trace of soap scum, nor hard water spots.  Yay!  Took a lot longer than Comet and a sponge, and took off my finger prints, but soooo worth it.  Of course, it does not disinfect so one must still wipe it down with Lysol, but for pure shine and sparkle ya can't beat it!

What June is over already?! A tale in 3 parts...

And this is why it has taken us soooo long to get into the Summer school groove!  June was a crazy month! 

Feel like we are getting the groove of summer...

Like today for example, I did some housework, paid some bills and then went to work for a couple of hours while the kids practiced their Music and did some Math.  Then I took them to a mid morning movie after which we had lunch and then they did their Bible class lesson, read aloud to each other and had 45 min of silent reading while I ran errands to the bank, the post office, gas station and the pet store.  When everything was done, and I had put a roast in the crock pot, we went to a water park for a few hours.  The kids ran into some friends from band, and other classes and I saw 4 or 5 homeschooling moms from the neighborhood attached to these children.  I got a couple of calls from work while we were there, but nothing I couldn't deal with by phone and email without leaving.  We came home around 5:30 and I gave the kids each a dish of peach ice cream, before they folded the laundry while I cut up veggies and put them on to cook and unloaded the dishwasher, and started more laundry.  Then they started a movie, and picked up their toys, ate dinner and now are in their jammies brushing their teeth, while watching the end of it. 

The rest of the week has pretty much gone the same way.  I feel like we have hit our summer groove, and have stopped struggling with finding a rhythm.

Blue lovin' the Scout life!

  After 5 years of being involved with Girl Scouts with the girls, I am really enjoying watching my son be super excited at his first Cub Scout year.  He joined at the end of this school year, 2nd grade, which is not the usual routine, so he has only had a few months to do all of the first grade and second grade work.  Fortunately the first grade work was not very involved; memorizing promise, law, meanings of things.  He earned, and was awarded his Bobcat for that work last night.  He has also been working on all of the Wolf year things to get that earned by the end of this month.  He is almost there, and has done pretty much all of the work for the wolf itself, and just needs to be confirmed on some arrow points.   So basically we have compacted 2 scouting years into 3 months.  Fortunatley they were the beginning years where not a lot is required,a nd most of the things he needs to do are things that he would be doing anyway, like putting on skits, collecting things, learning about taking care of his bike, trying out different sports, writing things in code, learning about Native Americans, and his religious heritage.  He has also hung out with our Girl Scouts when we did archery and first aid so he has those done.  By the end of June he will have his Wolf, so he can move on to Bear with the other boys his age.

  This week we have to go get his mess kit.  He is very excited.  And I really appreciated his leader's faith in him.  When Blue said he would have everything done for his badge his leader went out and bought the badge, believing that he would, before he had even proven himself.  I thought that was pretty cool, and it gave Blue a great feeling, and a lot of confidence seeing his leader's faith in him.

  He is beyond excited about Cub Scout camp next week!

Summer Reading Book Lists

These are the lists I made up for my kids for their assigned Summer reading

Yellow's List (1st grade going into 2nd)

1) Romona the Brave

2) James and the Giant Peach

3) Superfudge

4) all 10 Baby Mouse graphic novels

*bonus book for a prize- A Bear Called Paddington

Blue's List (2nd grade going into 3rd)

1) The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

2) Prince Caspian

3) Voyage of the Dawn Treader

4) The Silver Chair

5) The Horse and His Boy

6) The Magician's Nephew

7) The Last Battle

*bonus book for a prize- From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankeweiler

Red's List (4th grade going going into 5th)

1) Little Women

2) The Strange Case of Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

3) The Hunchback of Norte Dame

4) Despereaux

5) A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Minerva

*bonus book for a prize- A Wind in the Door

Summer family read alouds-

1) Inkheart

2) Adam of the Road

open to ideas!