Plans Changed!

After a fun-filled week of camping and enjoying the county fair back home, I had high hopes that we could get school started this week.  I just wanted to start a few subjects to ease into it this week and then get going full days next week, but I was wrong!

Like always, I have to be flexible because plans change!

I decided that we are not going to get school started this week for a variety of reasons. 

1. School is not ready to go yet!

 I don't have all the school books I need. I still need to figure out a math book for Megan.  This involves getting my money back from the one that was broken/ written in and order a math textbook for Megan for the 4th time!

I was also waiting for a notebook for Courtney to arrive via Amazon, which came yesterday.

I need to type questions up to go with Megan's readers.

I need to plan science.

I am still working out my school day.  I don't want to go past 3 pm (we start at 9 am and take 1 1/2 hours off for lunch), but I want to be able to fit all three kids in this year.  I am going to have to make Megan more independent in a few things (checking own Math and English) and Courtney a little bit too. I just need to sit and think about this a little bit.  I asked the girls if they had any opinions on how to run our school day and they didn't have any thoughts. I thought our schedule worked well last year, so we may just start 15 minutes earlier and see how things go.

2. After living out of the camper for a week, that needs to be cleaned out, everything put back in the house where it goes, clothes washed, and get it out of our driveway. :) 

3.  Since we left for camping right after our air conditioner was installed, we still have items to clean up from the air conditioning installation.  The representative from the company is coming over this morning to do a final walk through and he probably is going to want his money. We have already had to start saying 'No' to things we want to do/ kids want to do because of this nice, expensive new unit  :(

4.  There are many other little projects I want to get done around the house before school starts.

A. I have a pile of about 20 homeschooling books I want to sell on eBay. I took pictures of them all yesterday, so I need to get them on eBay today.
B. Clean out the fridge!
C. I ordered pictures for Christian's baby book about a week ago and I received them, now I need to put them in his baby book. 4 years late isn't so bad? Maybe I should finish Courtney's baby book while I am at it!!
D.  Take Courtney and Christian to get their pictures taken for their birthday!
E.  I would like some pictures hung up in my bedroom along with a bulletin board I bought for my office area. Since Matt doesn't want me putting holes in the wall, this will be on his time.
F.  Plan our next trip! We are heading to Illinois in about 3 weeks to visit some friends and then we are going to go on with them to Kentucky. There, we are going to visit the Creation Museum and Mammoth Cave.  We will need to find campground over Labor Day weekend, so I need to get that done before there aren't any left!
G.  I received my next core for Megan's curriculum a couple of weeks ago and that was all over the dining room table.  This one involves 55 books! I need to get some binders yet for those lesson plans, but yesterday, I got all the books put back into the box and taken up to my office. Now I can see the dining room table again!
H.  We also got Christian his new bedroom set about two weeks ago. It was right after putting this up and that Matt realized our air conditioner went out again. I have yet to put Christian's room back in order!
I.  And that poor playroom...disaster central! This will be a job for the kids!
J. I would like to take down the curtains in my kitchen and bathroom, wash them, iron them, and hang them back up. 
K. Plan Courtney's birthday party! This sweet child of mine turns 8 next week and I need to figure things out! We have her invites sent out, but now we need to plan the party!
L. Host small group here on Sunday night, which includes cleaning and preparing snacks.
M. OH, don't forget to continue to enjoy summer! Play outside, go for bike rides, go swimming, visit zoo, etc!!!

I wonder if I could continue my list until I hit "Z?" hmmmm

Do you think I can get all this done by Sunday night? I doubt it too, but if I can get a few more things done, my mind will feel better. I want some organization around this house before we start and I will have no time to get things done again! I want to be able to dive right into school on Monday morning. I figure that since our public school kids start on Monday, we can get going too (even though we will have school for 2 weeks and then we are off on a 2 1/2 week vacation!)