Happy Friday, y’all! Did you have a great week? I hope all of my U.S. friends had a safe and happy 4th. Most of my 4th of July weekend – from Saturday night to Tuesday night – was spent trying to calm a terrorized dog.

I’ve had dogs all my life and I’ve never seen a dog as scared of fireworks as Belle. Sunday night, the people down the street set off tons of huge, loud fireworks. Belle was outside when the first one went off. (I was trying to let all the dogs take care of their business before the fireworks started. I didn’t time it well, apparently.)

The calming music didn’t really help.

I seriously thought she was going to break the glass in our storm door trying to get in. Once inside, she shot up the stairs and under our bed. When Brianna got home, Belle moved from under my bed to under Brianna’s where she stayed until 3 in the morning.

Is anyone else fascinated by mushrooms?

Peanut, on the other hand, went outside and hardly even glanced up at the sky. It was odd seeing how drastically different they reacted. On Tuesday, a friend gave me some stress-relieving chews for dogs to try. They seemed to help. Belle still preferred to be under the bed, but she wasn’t completely terrified and did come out a few times to see her people before going back into hiding.

I did get some school planning done this week. Yay me! Okay, it was super minimal planning, but still. I got out my pretty new planner and mapped out our school calendar for the year.

We’re not starting until August 21 this year. That is so late for us. That’s just how packed our summer has been, though. And, really, some of what the kids are doing this summer will be credit for school – like Megan’s driving class.

She drove us to Brian’s parents’ house for 4th of July dinner. Yikes! (She did fine.)

Yesterday, Josh and Megan went rafting with our church youth group. Megan has gone every year she’s been in youth. This is the first time Josh has ever wanted to go. There may or may not have been a girl who influenced that decision. {ahem}

Those are the highlights of our rather low-key holiday week. I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I hope you have a great one!

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Happy Friday, y’all! Can y’all believe it’s the last day of June?! Where does the time go?

We enjoyed the most low-key week of the summer so far. Y’all know I loved that. We haven’t had anywhere pressing to go, and the places the kids did need (or want) to go didn’t require my presence.

Teens who can drive are a beautiful thing.

Speaking of beautiful things, my girls’ boyfriends were over on Sunday. They wanted to play – are you ready for it?? Scrabble!

Brianna even played, though Megan chose to watch. I’ve decided that it’s perfectly okay if my girls decide to marry these boys someday. Because y’all. Scrabble. I’ve had the special Deluxe Edition for years, and it’s been played less than a dozen times because I never can get anyone to play.

I came in second, but only because I couldn’t let Brianna’s boyfriend, Andrew, miss the opportunity to play a Q and a Z in the same word on a triple letter space just because he didn’t see it. It was a cooperative game. {grin}

Plus, now he says I’m his second-favorite mom, so there is that.

Monday afternoon I thought Megan’s cat had escaped our screened-in deck. The door was closed but unlocked so that the dogs can go in and out (because super-smart Belle has been trained to open the door with a piece of fabric tied to the handle).

We searched the house for her when I didn’t see her in the yard. Then, we searched the yard again. Then, the house some more. Brian had just pulled the car out of the garage to search the neighborhood for her when I heard her scratching on the basement door. He had looked down there, but apparently, she’s good at hide-and-seek.

The next day, I locked the door, but someone – either Sassy or Belle – has pulled a bit of screen loose on the door. Apparently, she just climbed through there because she did escape that time.

After searching the yard and house – again – I checked on the front porch before getting in the car to search and she came waltzing across the porch.

I think she is as determined to be an indoor/outdoor cat as her person is for her to be an indoor-only cat.

I also think I got into poison ivy while I was looking for her. Grrrr! It’s a good thing she’s cute.

Just an artsy-looking picture I made while waiting for the train to pass.

So, it’s almost time for me to start thinking about school again. I’ll probably start planning in my snazzy new planner after the 4th. Our local curriculum fair is toward the end of July, so I need to nail down our courses for next year so I can make sure I have everything we need.

I’m thinking we’ll start in mid-August this year.

Do you have any fun plans for the holiday weekend? I think my “fun” plans consist of catching up on laundry. In addition to a few loads of dirty laundry, we have 2 or 3 baskets of clean laundry lying around waiting to be folded. That “2 or 3 baskets” comment is a bit deceptive. It doesn’t sound like much, but they are piled high with little laundry mountains.

It’s not all mine, so I’m thinking of calling for a laundry-specific work day.

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Happy Friday, y’all! Yay! We did it! We survived another wisdom tooth extraction. I guess it’s easy to say “we” when you’re not the one in pain, but I have had to play the nurse, so I should get some credit.

Josh had his wisdom teeth removed Tuesday. There are pictures and there is a video, but I’m not that mean. {grin}

It should be noted that he made the video himself. He has found it amusing and hasn’t minded showing it to people, but I’m guessing he doesn’t want me posting it online.

Really he wasn’t as loopy as I expected him to be and he has a pretty high tolerance for pain. He only laid around the first day. By the afternoon of the second day, he was asking if it was okay for him to drive. Brian isn’t the only one happy to have a new car. Josh is extremely happy to finally be able to call the older Mustang his.

It’s funny because Josh and his two best friends now all have their dream cars. Well, their dream cars for now, anyway. Lamborghinis and McLarens don’t count. So, now when they all go driving together, they don’t go in one car. They each drive their own in a little caravan.

I updated my July calendar earlier this week. I use pink ink for family things. There’s pink on every week – and it’s all Megan. That girl has a busy July planned. She’s going on a rafting trip and a mission trip, and she’s taking a driver’s education course. She’s not too excited about that one. We also threw in a few doctor’s appointments just for fun.

After filling out my calendar, I realized that it’s going to be at least mid-August before we start school this year. I’m not thinking about it yet, though. After July 4th, I’ll work on our calendar and start thinking about specifics for subjects.

Have you started planning yet?

I think Wednesday was my favorite day this week because it was the only one I didn’t have to leave the house. At all. I got so much done.

I posted a question on the WUHS Facebook group Wednesday morning, asking for family favorite meal ideas. I think I may have found a new favorite – buffalo chicken. I served it on Hawaiian sweet bread rolls. My pickiest eater went back for seconds – and told her boyfriend about the fantastic meal I fixed.

The best part may have been how simple it was. I used my Instant Pot. Super simple. All I did was put 3 or 4 boneless chicken breasts in the pot. I whisked together a cup of Frank’s Buffalo Wing sauce and a packet of ranch dressing and poured the over the chicken. I cooked it 20 minutes on manual with a 10 minute natural release. Easy peasy.

I did decide to add half a block of cream cheese, cubed, after it was done since the sauce looked a little runnier than I’d like. Yum! I’ll definitely be making it again.

Sorry for no pictures this week. I’ve barely had time to look up, much less take pictures.

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Happy Friday, y’all! Did you have an amazing week? Mine was busy and included a surprise.

Brian was off on Monday and Tuesday. We took Josh and Megan to Chick-fil-A for lunch on Monday – their last good meal before a week of camp food. They had to be at the church around 12:30 to leave for camp around 1:00.

Usually, we wait until the buses pull out to leave, but the last couple of years the kids have been okay with us going ahead and leaving. This year, I said I had to leave before they called for the senior boys to board the bus. They always call them by the grade they’re going into. That means Josh is a senior boy.

I’ve already graduated one kid, so I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time with Josh being a senior. It may be because he and Megan are so close in age and I know how close I’m getting to the end of our homeschooling years.

Whatever it is, I’m having a really hard time.

We had a couple of errands to run after we dropped them off. Then, Brian asked if I wanted to go to the Ford place to see these two Mustangs he has been drooling over.

He’s been wanting a new one for a couple of years and has been holding out for the right car, the right deal, and the right time. I guess two out of three isn’t bad. We’d planned to wait until next spring, but he found a deal he couldn’t pass up.

He is now the super-proud owner of a 2015 Ford Mustang. This is the second time we’ve been fortunate enough to happen upon a fantastic deal where someone with exceptional taste in cars felt the need to replace their two-year-old model with a brand-new one. We’re happy to take a new-to-us car and let someone else eat the depreciation.

I’m hoping the kids don’t see this before they get home because they don’t know yet. I think we’re going to pick them up from camp in it today.

Josh will be psyched because now he’ll be able to drive the older Mustang more frequently. His plan is to start making payments on it and buy it from Brian.

The only thing about getting the car, though, was that it wound up taking up the better part of the week. We drove the two Brian was considering on Monday and talked to the sales guy at length about them.

He went back up there Tuesday while I stayed home and got some work done – and responded to approximately 3 million texts from him about the two cars. He finally decided on the red one, which was the better deal and had fewer miles and more options. However, they didn’t get everything finalized in time to get the loan before our credit union closed.

That meant another day off and another day of errands – well, errands and enjoying driving around in the new car.

Belle does love her person.

Wednesday was supposed to be my full day at home alone to get stuff done. It didn’t happen.

Thursday I had a hair appointment, lunch with a friend, and errands to run. I did manage to get some school stuff done, so there was that.

I’d say that I’d catch up next week, but Monday starts with a vet appointment and a doctor’s appointment, and Tuesday is wisdom teeth extraction day for Josh.

I’ve just about resigned myself to the idea that my life is just perpetually busy. Anyone else feel that way?

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Happy Friday, y’all! Did you have an amazing week? Mine has been fantastic – busy, but fantastic.

We started off Monday with an afternoon doctor’s appointment and some errands. I had a massive to-do list, but maybe because I knew how packed the afternoon was going to be, I was extremely productive and managed to knock out a huge chunk of it before we left. I managed to mark off the rest of it when we got back home. Yay, me!

It poured down rain off and on all day Monday. I snapped this picture of Brianna’s dog, Belle, who was staring out the front door with as forlorn an expression as I’ve ever seen on a dog’s face. It wasn’t just her face, but her entire body. She’s usually exploding with energy, so she just looked totally dejected sitting there as she was.

All I could think of was that old Carpenter’s song, Rainy Days and Mondays where it says, “Hangin’ around. Nothin’ to do but frown. Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.”

Tuesday, I had another early afternoon appointment, but somehow managed to mark off everything on my to-do list for the second day in a row.

One of those things was to try an idea that’s crossed my mind a few times for a doorstop for our deck. We were using a brick when we wanted to prop open the door for the dogs to come and go. (Penny and Peanut haven’t learned to open the door like Belle has, so sometimes they get stuck on the deck.)

They were managing to slide the brick out of the way, so I bought a rubber doorstop. Belle chewed it up the very first time we used it.

So, I used an inexpensive metal bookend that we had sitting around. I bent the part that slides under the books back the opposite way. That became the part that holds the door. The part that usually holds the books became the part that slides between the slats of wood on the deck.

It’s worked perfectly! The dogs haven’t managed to move it, and if they do ever figure it out, they won’t be able to chew it up.

We went out to dinner at Chili’s on Tuesday night for my birthday. My birthday was Wednesday, but Brianna wasn’t sure what her schedule was going to look like for work, and we were all home on Tuesday. That’s okay. I was all up for a birthday eve celebration.

Afterward, we went to a couple of stores to look around, then, to Dairy Queen for birthday Blizzards.

On my actual birthday, Josh and Megan were invited to a friend’s house to swim. I told them to go and my birthday present from them could be an afternoon at home alone. Win-win! They know I love them, but they also know how much their introverted mama likes to be alone from time to time.

I took myself out for a mani-pedi. Since last year, I get pedicures at least once a month during sandal weather, but I rarely get a manicure. I don’t wear nail polish because it’s so hard to keep looking nice, and it confuses the people at the nail place when you tell them you want the manicure but no polish.

I finally decided I’d just get the polish and take it off in a day or two because I really do love all the other parts of the manicure.

Y’all, I liked having my nails painted more than I thought I would!

I chipped one within the first six hours, of course, but other than that one, my nails looked nice longer than I expected.

I may have to start getting regular manicures, too.

Afterward, I did a little shopping for some things I needed for a nifty review I’ll be publishing in the next week or two. (You can take a sneak peek here.) Then, I came home, fixed myself lunch (after deciding that what I had at home sounded just as good as anything I’d order out), and took a nap.

It was heavenly.

After Brian got home, we went to dinner at Chick-fil-A, and I got my very own gallon of sweet tea to enjoy the rest of the week.

The mani-pedi and family dinner were my birthday gifts, but Brian did get me a little something – a PopSocket for my phone. (I linked to the exact one I got in case anyone wants to be all matchy-matchy with me. lol) My cousin has one, and I thought they were so silly and useless – until my hand started cramping at night when I’d lie in bed playing games on my phone.

Yeah, I know – first world problems.

I decided to try a PopSocket, and I love it! It makes it so much more comfortable to hold the phone in general (not just when playing games) and it helps you get a better grip and angle for selfies.

The lady next to me at the nail place had one, and I told her I thought they were so silly – until I got one. She immediately started telling me all the things she loves about hers. It’s the little things, y’all.

Yesterday was a relaxing, at-home day – my favorite kind.

Today is Brian’s company picnic at a local amusement park. I wish I could say I was looking forward to it, but ugh. It’s always so hot, and I’m not a huge fan of the rides. I’m hoping to do what I did last year – find a nice spot in the shade and play games on my phone while chatting with my husband all day. I should get adventurous and take my bathing suit for the water park. They have a lazy river I could float in all day.

I’m hoping to do what I did last year – find a nice spot in the shade where I can relax, play games on my phone, and chat with my husband all day. I should get adventurous and take my bathing suit for the water park. They have a lazy river I could float in all day.

The kids always love it, though. They each invite a friend and hit the park like crazy like I used to do when I was their age. We usually get pizza and doughnut holes (unless company picnic day falls on National Doughnut Day in which case every single doughnut hole is sold out even if it happens to also be your birthday – but I’m not bitter about that one year or anything) on the way home, and everyone spends the night. It’s a fun day except for the being so hot part.

I hope you’re all enjoying your summer!

If you’re looking for an amazing group of homeschool moms to hang out with, check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers Community on Facebook. It’s pure awesomeness!

And, if you’re looking for something fun for your tweens, check out this free Bible study on David & His 400 Men.

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