Happy Friday, y’all! How was your week? It was our last week of summer break. We’re kicking off the year with an eclipse. How fun is that?

So, the plan was that I would spend some time doing some serious planning this week. That hasn’t happened. I’m not stressing about it, though. We never jump into everything the first week anyway. I’m planning on doing math, reading, and writing every day. We’ll build from there.

Last Friday night, I went to take the dogs out and noticed a tiny green tree frog on the porch rail. Brianna captured him for me since I was dealing with the dogs. My initial reaction was, “New pet!”

Then, I decided that if I were a tiny green tree frog, I wouldn’t want to be someone’s pet. Plus, I really don’t need another creature to care for. So I settled for taking some pictures instead and put him back where we found him.

Probably the coolest thing that happened to me this week – and it’s way up on my all-time list – is that I discovered my name on the back of a book! Like a real, actual, in-print book.

It was the first book in the Bax Classics series, and it included a quote that I gave them – right above a quote from Sarah Mackenzie. Squee!

Maybe one day my name will be on the front of a book.

I probably need to update my curriculum page with what we’re using this year, but I haven’t had time yet. Of course, we’re using Teaching Textbooks for math. Josh doesn’t have to do science this year, so he’s pretty excited about that. Megan is doing biology, and we opted for BJU’s biology, which looks surprisingly colorful and engaging for a textbook.

She’ll also be using Short Lessons in U.S. History as her history spine, and both kids will be using the most long-standing curriculum in our homeschool, Easy Grammar.

Now, I think I’m off to enjoy my last Friday of summer break. Y’all have a great weekend!

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Happy Friday, y’all! I hope you’ve had a wonderful week – especially those of you who started school this week. I’ve had a fairly restful week recuperating from our beach vacation!

Yes, the reason there was no Weekly Wrap-Up last week was because I was in a car on the way back from Florida. I’m sorry to be so secretive, but I’m not a fan of saying, “Hey, Internet, there’s not going to be anyone at my house this week.”

Y’all are all perfectly nice people, but you never know which not perfectly nice people are reading.

There actually were people at my house, but I also didn’t want anyone breaking in on my 16-year-old house sitter. That wouldn’t have been good. Josh’s BFF, Jordan came and stayed with all our creatures while we were gone. His other BFF, Ethan stayed a couple of days, too.

There may or may not have been a video of our dogs in which you can hear Ethan call Peanut, “Devil Dog.” I can’t imagine why anyone would say such about my poor, sweet baby – except, you know, he is a devil dog to just about everyone but me.

He slept with Jordan every night, but was back to growling at him as soon as we got home. He’s definitely my dog.

We had a fantastic time! It was my family, Brianna’s boyfriend, my mom, my aunt, my brother-in-law, and my nieces.

The vacation was not without its hiccups, including calls to two different doctors, a run to the Walmart pharmacy for a called-in prescription and the eye center for replacement glasses (the other pair is floating around in the Atlantic somewhere), and a poorly-chosen fast-food spot that made everyone sick. (Those of us who missed out on that particular adventure because we chose not to go ride go-karts for 7 hours were not sad.)

You know it’s a great vacation when you can still say it was great despite all the issues. The weather cooperated for the most part. We were afraid it was going to rain all week because a tropical storm came through. We did have some rain every day, but not all day – pretty typical for Florida.

It’s the first time we’ve been to the beach in several years (we think it’s been 10 or so). We had a blast in the ocean – just wading for me, but the kids did some body surfing on boogie boards.

There were dozens of sea turtle nests roped off, which was really cool. And, one morning when we got up, the beach was littered with turtle egg remains where some babies had hatched.

We got up early one morning to watch the sunrise. Everyone said they were going to get up. Half of us actually did. It was beautiful. It was cloudy on the horizon, so I’m sure a clear day would have been more impressive, but it was still worth getting up early for – despite the no-see-ums.

You actually can see the hateful little boogers. They were particularly fond of me, Josh, and my aunt. We forgot our bug spray, so for nearly a week I looked like I had chicken pox.

A couple of funny stories from vacation. First, two days before we left, Josh complained that there was nothing to eat in the house. He texted his girlfriend, and said, “My mom went to the store, but the only thing there is to eat around here is 5 gallons of sunscreen.”

Oh, that made my laugh. The life of a family of fair-skinned gingers.

We traveled in 3 cars. We all left to return home at the same time, but only two cars had planned to stay together. (Brianna, Andrew, and Josh rode in Brianna’s car and followed Brian and our carload.) When our crew stopped for lunch, my mom, who as traveling with my 3-year-old niece, texted to see where we were. They were still in Ocala – a good two hours behind us.

Later, she texted a second time to see where we were. The conversation went like this:

Mom: Where are you.

Me: About 30 miles south of Macon. You?

Mom: Valdosta. (For those of you who don’t know. Valdosta is the last big city in Georgia that you go through before crossing into Florida. Macon is in about the middle of the state.)

Me: Wow. How far do you think you’re going to make it today?

Mom: Valdosta. I give up.

It was probably mean to laugh, but I couldn’t help it.

The girls and I were very happy to get home to our fur-babies. The boys were very happy to get home to their cars. It was late Friday when we got home, so they did wait until Saturday to go for a drive – Brian in his car with Josh following behind in his.

It really was a fantastic vacation, though we’re glad to be back home. I took this week to recuperate. Next week, I’ll finally make myself do some serious school planning and we’ll start on August 21 – though our main focus that day will be the eclipse. We’re very near the path of totality, so we’re very excited!

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Happy Friday, y’all! Can you believe we’re right here at the end of July already? Where has the summer gone?

We’ve had a busy week of appointments – doctor, hair, and one unexpected (and rather costly) vet visit. {sigh} Sassy got a shot and is on a round of antibiotics.

Sometimes I think pets are more expensive than kids.

I ordered some glasses for watching the solar eclipse. That’s going to be our first day of school this year. What an amazing way to kick off the school year.

Our local news posted some tips on what to look for in the glasses that you may find helpful:

• Look for a U.S. manufacturer name such as: American Paper Optics, Rainbow Symphony, Thousand Oaks Optical, or TSE17
• The glasses should have the ISO logo with the reference 12312-2
• Don’t reuse old glasses, those older than 3 years, or those with scratches

You’re also supposed to use a filter for your camera lens. We got a pack of 10 glasses, so I think I’m going to cut one of the lenses to use as a filter.

We’re very close to the path of totality so I’m really excited! Now, I’m kind of wishing my mom hadn’t moved closer a few years ago. She used to live in one of the cities that will see a total eclipse.

(Okay, I really am glad my mom lives closer. You know what I mean.)

I think that’s really all the highlights for us this week. I haven’t thought much about school. I’m giving myself another week or so before I get serious about nailing down our plans for this year.

I’m not going to host the Weekly Wrap-Up next week, but I’ll be back the following Friday, August 11, and you can link up your posts from both weeks. See you then!

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Happy Friday, y’all! Have you had a good week? It’s been a rather productive one here. Megan survived her driving class.

That kid cracks me up. She texted me on her lunch break Monday. I asked her how it was going. She told me it was, “only ‘meh boring,’ not ‘bang my head against the wall’ boring.”

It was a 9-5, Monday through Friday class – all seat work. The driving part comes later. That’s a lot for a homeschooled kid used to setting her own schedule. She did well, though.

She took her lunch on Monday like Josh did for the whole week when he took the class. She was the only kid in class who didn’t walk down to Chick-Fil-A. It’s a good little walk. She talked her boyfriend into coming to visit her so she wasn’t alone.

The first day of class, I asked Megan to give me her best, “Mom, you’re ruining my life” look. She’s got it down. {grin}

The rest of the week, I paid for lunch in exchange for Josh going, picking her up, and taking them to lunch. Call me a paranoid, but I didn’t really want her walking all the way to Chick-fil-A with a bunch of kids I don’t know (because kids can be mean) and I didn’t really like her being the only one in the building with the male instructors. It was worth the price of lunch out for four days for my peace of mind.

Megan is extremely happy to have the class behind her.

Today is our local curriculum fair. I need to go look around a bit and pick up a few things. In a very timely and surprising turn of events, Josh voluntarily sat down with me on Wednesday and told me his goals for the upcoming year.

Among other things, he wants me to hold him accountable for reading and writing more. Yay! He also wants me to give him a set of vocabulary words each week, and he wants to start taking ACT practice tests and maybe do some study guides.

Who needs a cat bed when you’ve got a sink? It even comes with a ready source of fresh water.

Those are all his words. I was very impressed. So, any good suggestions for interesting books for teen boys? He’s looking for books a bit challenging, but still doable. He has dyslexia, so, you know, not The Iliad or Don Quixote, but something engaging that will improve his reading skills and expand his vocabulary.

Megan, on the other hand, doesn’t have any ideas what she wants to do this year. I may take her to the fair with me a bit to see if anything sparks her interest.

I guess that’s about it for me this week. Hey, at least it’s starting to get a little more schoolish.

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Happy Friday, y’all! I hope you’ve had a fantastic week. My only complaint is that the summer is going by way too quickly. {sigh} It always seems to happen that way.

Megan had thought about going on a mission trip this week but decided not to go because the rest of the month is so packed. I’m not going to lie – I have not been sad that she stayed home. There have been several times this week when I’ve caught myself thinking how glad I am that she’s home.

There have also been several times this week when I’ve thought about how much I love my family. Josh and Megan were BFFs as young kids. Then, when they hit the tween and early teens years, they did not get along. Sometimes I despaired that they would never have a loving relationship again.

Over the last year or so, they’ve grown close again and it just makes my heart happy.They talk to each other like friends and hang out together. They enjoy each other’s company again. So, hang in there, moms of squabbling teens. It does get better.

One night this week, Josh and Brianna were in the living room “fussing.” He was lying on the couch and she wanted to sit there to play a video game. She really did want to sit there and he really wasn’t going to give up his comfy spot, but they were playing up the fussing like they were little kids. It just made me smile because I knew they were kidding and it made me miss those years just a teeny bit.

In other exciting (to me) news, I picked up our first bulk order of grass-fed beef yesterday. We have friends who raise beef cows and I finally convinced Brian to fork over the funds for the upfront costs of buying bulk.

I was so pleased with our package! We bought a quarter of a cow. We got tons (okay, not “tons” but nearly 50 pounds) of ground beef, which is what we use the most, a few roasts, and several pounds of stew meat, sirloin, and t-bones. There’s probably some other stuff I forgot about, but it packed my freezer with good, grass-fed beef.

The only thing we won’t use is the two packages of beef liver, but I’m going to make my mom happy with those. Funny thing is, I can’t stand beef liver, but I’m all about some fried chicken livers. Maybe I’ll give the beef liver another chance when my mom makes it…but probably not!

A few months ago, we got a family package of pork from the same friends we got the beef from. Next time, I’ll probably get half a pig because yum! Brian loves the sausage, and this week I made pulled pork from a ham pork roast. I had no idea what it was exactly or how to fix it, but I Googled it to see if it would be good as pulled pork.

It was the best pulled pork I’ve ever eaten!

I rubbed it with a mixture of one teaspoon each of paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and brown sugar; and a half teaspoon of red pepper flakes. After it finished cooking, I mixed together 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar, and 1/3 cup cider vinegar, poured that over the shredded pork and cooked it a little longer. I’ll definitely be making that again!

Today, we’re celebrating Brian’s birthday. He’s old, y’all. (Yeah, I’m totally saying that just because he’s older than I am.) Maybe I’ll make it some spaghetti with some of that good, grass-fed beef. I need to learn to use the grill so I can grill him a steak.

That’s it for me this week. No school stuff since I’m refusing to think about it this week. I’ll probably have to break down and do some serious planning next week. When are those of you who took a summer break starting back?

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