Welcome TOS Crew...and everyone else!

The TOS Crew mates have been organizing a "blog walk" every week, and this week, my blog is part of it...and me with nothing exciting...just some mundane ramblings. Welcome to my life!

Here are more ramblings for your possible enjoyment ;-)

My kids went to Music Camp last week. It's put on by the local Baptist church, and it's amazing. They go from 9-3 Monday through Friday, and at the end of the week, on Sunday night, there is a musical that they do. A local lady from that church, who runs a Christian book store in town, writes the whole production. This year, Mimi and TJ participated (Sari was too young, but she gets her turn next year), and Scott was a helper. It's a bit nerve racking to have your child volunteering at a program all day long-especially when they have deep sensory issues-and more especially when the church is not your own, but we go to Precept there, and he participated for years at Music Camp, so he did great, and Miss Paula said he was welcome to help again next year. WHEWWWWW!

Here are some pictures:
TJ is the blondie who desperately needs his mamma to cut his surfer dude hair again. He was miles away from me (it never fails, where ever I sit, they are on the opposite side). It's good to have a professional camera or I'd never have pictures!

Mimi was right behind the microphone stand, but a got a few pictures of her.

Mimi's one coveted chance on the microphone. She's desperate to be a great singer. Sadly, like her mamma, God has not gifted her with a great singing voice. An acceptable singing voice, yes, but not a great one. She got to sing on the last song, which was Amazing Grace. Better her than me-that song ALWAYS makes me cry.

Speaking of my professional camera-I have dust on my sensor. Big dust. OIY! Now I either a) have to chance dealing with it myself and potentially messing up the sensor and having to replace the camera, b) send it out for $50 and 2 weeks to be cleaned, or c) let a local camera shop guy do it, although he admits it makes him jumpy. Or I guess there is a d) Live with it and fix all the dust spots in editing, which goes hand in hand with e) be sure always to take pictures of busy backgrounds so you won't notice. Decisions, decisions.

One decision just got easier though. It looks like I FINALLY have a new leader for "our little homeschool group". What started as 5 families in Marie's living room has become 275 families and way too much of a time commitment on my part as my oldest learner moves into his teenage years, and my youngest learner officially starts kindergarten. I've been running it all as a one woman show (with two close friends as advisers on the tough issues), and I'm thrilled beyond words to pass it along.

I spent this morning and early afternoon planning a bit for this upcoming school year, and making the kids' summer Reading Bingo cards. I can't take any credit for this idea, it's all Aunt Fanny's, but the gist is that you make a bingo card, and in each block you fill in a reading assignment. When they get a "bingo" you offer a reward of your choice, and a bigger prize for the whole card being full. It was VERY time consuming to set up- figuring out what I wanted them to read and how much was reasonable for each child- but it has already paid off. My youngest has done 5 squares, Mimi says she did 7 (I'm a bit skeptical-she's NOT a reader by nature), and the boys each started too. Of course, the fact that I copied Aunt Fanny's incentive of eating our way through the novelty ice cream section at the grocery store as their rewards might have something to do with their keenness to get reading.

The kids are doing another VBS this week. All four of them are there-Scott as a helper again, and again at a church that is not ours. VBS's are God's gift to homechooling moms. It is the one time all year when I get to experience what "building school" moms get to experience all school year long- a quiet house and a chance to actually get things done without interruption. That's why I figured school planning was a good idea.

Mimi had a tooth pulled yesterday. THAT was drama. Tears, hysterics, and a ton of threatening on my part, but it's finally out. Her gum and root have been infected for a month now, so it HAD to happen. She skipped VBS today to recover (I'm not totally heartless), and is currently napping, but I think she'll feel better tomorrow.

I feel like I should have more pictures or at least something nice as a "thanks for stopping by", so here's a picture for your enjoyment. It' s my new credit card. I couldn't find my existing card on an account we weren't using, but want to switch to because it has a low interest rate. I went to the web site to try to request a new card, and they have this program where you can upload your own pictures and have them printed on your credit card. You can do a new one every month- but I think that's a bit excessive. I'm happy to have this one for a while :-).

I'll share the rest of this week's blog walk list with you when I can get it to work. I copied it here, but none of the links work, and I can't get them all right now, so I'll fix that later! Thanks for stopping by!