Working Hard, or Hardly Working..... ????

I'm so glad that today was in the 70's and finally really starting to feel like spring. After planting our little green house starter the other night, we had germination taking place just four days later and now we have a handful of plants coming up.

This was our activity for FHE last week. The kids loved it!!! And they've had fun checking on them and watching the one's that have grown pop up. I've enjoyed it to.

And as you can tell as we've had a few warm Saturday's we've used them to work in our back yard expanding our garden area. We have a little more grass to clear out in order to have our garden area ready to go. I can taste all the fresh food now....

This is how my garden grew.

Well this is what our backyard used to look like!!! We decided this year that we would trun it into a garden or at least some of it. And even the tree on the far right of the picture isn't there anymore. Just another shot from the back side of the yard looking toward the house.
This is what it started looking like when we first planted our garden, back in May. Now this is what it looks like as of a few weeks ago. Those are mostly tomato plants with one zucchini at the far right of the picture in the front. We also have a few watermelons going, and some cucumbers. ((although they didn't do well at all, but the tomatoes DID!!))

Just to give an idea of how tall the plants were getting. I was on my knees to take the picture. We've enjoyed the tomatoes we've been getting off from our plants this year, and hopefully next year we'll be better at placing the plants -- and we'll have to figure out how to get rid of SNAILS AND GRASSHOPPERS!!!

Car Washing Fun

As part of their summer break, we have to make sure that at least 1 hour of chores are getting done each day. Yes, I had a lot of whining and complaining in the beginning. But as I have stuck with this the whining and complaining have almost disappeared. So one day last week washing the car was one of the chores that had to be done. So not only were they working but they could also play in water too!! So of course, I had to take pictures that I actually have proof that my kids do know how to work sometimes. So after doing this for a whole week and almost a half, I'm realizing that my children are contributing to the clean up and our home is starting to look better, and I'm not the one that has to do it ALL!! They really can do things. Even my 3 year old!! Ethan just kind of walks around and watches us, but in time he too will be able to do something. I did discover however that the kids are more motivated to do the chores if I'm working at the same time too!! But if I don't work, guess what -- neither do they!! So they set the timer for 1 hour and some are busy with doing the laundry, and someone else is wiping down walls, and yet if I'm doing the dishes they are drying them and putting them away because we don't have a dishwasher. So the minimum is 1 hour and if they are in the middle of a chore they have to finish the job. Here are the rules for the chores :

1. If I hear any complaining or whinning I give them 10 additional minutes.
2. If I hear any fighting or arguing I give them 10 additional minutes.
3. They have to do something in the house the helps make it look better.

(We'll get to their bedroom, SOON, I PROMISE!!!)

Saturday is a special day .....

It's dark now, but it's been quite the day!! We've been busy working on our yard today. We put a border around our garden area, so we can keep the dog out of it. We also planted what he had so far into it. So altogether we planted 18 tomato plants of various kinds and 4 cucumber plants, 2 cauliflower, cantaloupe, and watermelon plants too!! We're making some reall nice plans for our yard and are considering putting in an Apple tree !!! Maybe even this year. We'll see. We want to put in more "flower beds" along our fences and actually use our patio this year and acquire some patio furniture so we can kick it outside this summer. Isn't it great to have dreams and goals, because it gives you something to look forward to, or work towards. I'm EXCITED!!! We've been in our house for 7 years now and we haven't done any changes to our yard since the first growing season we were here back in 2001!! We need CHANGE!!! I'll post pictures later of the progress we've made in the yard. And my own latest undertaking that I'm just adoring right now. Everyone is quiet right now, and I still have to finish unloading the van from the few things I just bought on a late night run to walmart. I'm tired and exhausted and wearing the same "yard clothes that I work in" and need a shower big time. Thomas was so worn out today that he started getting whiny around 7pm while it was still very much daylight outside and Chris and I were still working, he wanted me to hold him. Which only really meant one thing, that he was TIRED!! He was also filthy and still is right now, he climbed onto our porch wicker love seat spot and laid down on the cushions, I walked to the back yard and was there for 1 or 2 minutes, came back up to the front and he was already asleep. I hope that he doesn't have an accident tonight!! What a great productive day. Now if I can only feel like I've accomplished that much in a day on the inside of my home. And feel just as satisfied that will be a miracle!! And must mean that I don't have kids living here anymore. LOL!!

Still Under Construction

Okay so here we have the site of where the new school is being built. I took these pictures Sept. 7, 2007 -- we thought this was a big improvement considering that just that two weeks ago there were big mounds of dirt all in front of the school. What you see below is the front of the school and where a parking lot will be poured. When I took these pictures last week, I thought for sure that we would still be going in the old building because the new one wouldn't be ready.
As a parent you almost have to wonder why we even have to go through things like this. Delays left and right of the new school being able to be occupied. I just recieved an email from the school saying that the "Big Move" will now take place on Sept. 22, 2007 instead of the foretold Sept. 15th, 2007. So for the last two weeks almost my girls have been going to school only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So by the time our school will end its third week of being in session our kids will only have 8 days of school in. So that puts them going to school a few more extra days into June at the end of the year.
We're excited for the opportunity to have a new building but I really wish that they would have planned for the best -- meaning the school will be 100% complete and finished by the first day of school Sept. 4th, and that all things will have been moved over, but prepared for the worst, meaning that we should just start school on Aug 20th and occupied the old location and then when the new site was ready for occupancy we could move over at that time. As it is nearly two weeks of school have been wasted where the students could have gone but were told to wait. If the decision to start on Aug 20th was made I think that the students wouldn't have to go to school into June, when they are used to getting out in May.

I'm not opposed to charter schools at all, in fact, we love the curriculum, the staff, and everything about the school. We just have the unfortunate experience of the "Big Move" and it seems to really be putting a damper on things. They say the construction crews have extra men and are working extra hours to get this project finished. I hope that we don't need to extend yet another week beyond the 22nd of September.

I think after seeing all of these delays and the decisions that have been made not benefiting the majority of the population, that I will start attending the "meetings" that discuss such issues. Before I started my kids in this charter school last school year, I was way involved in the previous school, but for some reason last year I didn't get involved really. Why? Oh yeah, I was pregnant at the begining of the school year and tend to get quite ill, plus I was babysitting to earn a little extra money. I didn't have the time available.

So this year as long as I note when the meetings are and go -- I'll be more involved and have a better idea of what's going on.

I'm just curious for those of you who have school aged children -- How involved in school are you? And what makes it so that you can't "help out and be involved" ?