Lord O' The Rings Fest 2

We finished!
Our annual Lord of the Rings Fest is officially over!

This year we had to spread it out over a Mon-Tues and Thursday due to a lack of attendance on Wed, nonetheless, WE. ARE. FINISHED!!!

Every year for the past, well 2 years, we've held a Lord of the Rings Fest, where we watch all 3 Lord of the Rings movies, extended versions, back to back to back.

This year at 9am every morning my house looked like this, notice my comfy chair and quilt.

As we all sat around and ate 14 bags of popcorn, 1 large bag of M-n-M's, 1 large bag of jelly beans, 2 boxes of Cheeze-Its, countless sandwiches and gallons of water while watching Frodo and Sam complete their quest to destroy evil and save Middle-Earth.

Now that I've watched enough TV to last me a whole year I can't help but think more deeply into these great books.

So.... being the homeschooling mother I am we are reading and studying these books for our literature study this year at TreeHouse SchoolHouse.

As I pack up the movies, rearrange my living room back to normal and vacuum up popcorn kernels the reality of summer ending sets in. On one hand I'm thrilled! I will get my house back and go back to feeding 3 kids instead of 6-8. On the other hand it means back to school, back to papers and teaching, no more lazy beach Tuesdays, pool swimming and the carefree attitude that accompanies summer days.

So for these last 2 weeks we'll have to cram as much fun into them as possible and that will include a trip here and here, our annual trip here and maybe even here.

It's time I remove my eyes even from this laptop screen as they are truly bugging out of my head at this point in time.

Peace out!

-Michelle
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A Day in the Life

*and yes it's my fav Beatles tune

Summer's going good, this week. While today I am writing about the good days, know there are bad ones too! We rely on God on those days *smile*

Anyway, this going good. Today we had to go do Early Bird's lawn account. He has 3 lawns that he mows, and being 13, mom is the driver and the fill in! So the the oldest boy i watch mowed for him. First I dropped him at the lawn, showed him what to do and then took the other 3 to the park. We played, mainly in the shade, after all it was 9:30am and 83 degrees!

40 minutes later we did a drive-by too check on him before "pokin' around" the Goodwill. Each kid had a quarter and Night Owl also had $2 and bought a box of legos; the red lego box, valued at $9.99 or more!! Boy do we know a Lego deal when we see one!

Went back to the lawn where I did my usual weedwacking and edging. We hauled it back to the house where we showered and had lunch before I headed to my 2nd day on my new job! I spent 2 hours there and then came home.

Now the children are gone and it's just my fam!

God has blessed me with such a peace I can't explain it. Don't get me wrong at times I look around that the storm around me and panic, my self is strong- God is stronger! and that Rocks my friends! That's real power and strength!

On a lighter note, some other fun summer facts are:

-i'm seriously thinking about getting 6 Rhode Island Reds, that chickens for all ya'll city slickers- eggs to eat and sell
-we catch an average of 2-5 grasshoppers a day
-we catch an average of at least 1 other bug a day
- we store these creatures in an old peanut butter jar, the first pb jar used up this summer!
-i had the chance to make a pit stop, long weekend that is, in my hometown in new england. it had been 2 years and it was strange being a stranger in my own hometown- a small town of around 6,500 people.
-we're going to be having our annual Lord of the Rings Fest- a week dedicated to watching all of the Lord of the Rings movies back to back ALL. WEEK. LONG. Fun, lots of fun- so to my runaway child, yes you know who you are- the only other one of my type i'll claim, anyway you are welcome to come- i hope you do. sniff, sniff
- we have not given our kittens away, yet? any takers?
-if last year was a summer of knowledge, this summer is the summer of videography. They play outside great still, trampoline the best thing for active children, but when they're in it's either PS2, computer, DS, movie editing, movie producing

Just another recap of my day,

-Michelle
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Summer 2007- Week One

Week 1 of summer is done!

Here's an overview: looks like I will have 3 extra boys and then every other Thursday a 4th, add in the neighbor boy- my 3 son, and that brings our boy count to 6.5 this summer!!

We had our beach day and then being the first week I let the boys have at it; I put no restrictions on screen time, had no scheduled quiet time or reading time, they bounced from activity to activity. They had a blast!

Let's see, we've already eaten:
2 containers of Pringles
10 hot dogs
2 boxes of mac-n-cheese
a case of Sam's brand sprite
a gallon of milk
sandwiches, sandwiches and sandwiches
2 batches of blueberry muffins
3 batches of homemade pretzels (made by my cousin and the 1 girl who made her way here this week)
a batch of brownies
a pizza (for a snack mind you)
pancakes and syrup, pancakes and syrup...
and that's just what's coming to mind

Videos have been made, and very creative ones this time around- I'll post when they're up. The shopping carts have been pulled out- don't ask. Heroscape was a centerpiece all week on my dinning table, cowboy and indians fought battles in my living room, the kittens were nicely held captive sleeping under a laundry basket and the trampoline may have already logged in more hours this week than the previous 3 months!

The woods have been explored, we've captured a legless lizard, IN. MY. HOUSE! The dog has busted through the screen and I even managed to have my devotions!

Week 1 is gone and as week 2 approaches I've nailed down our daily plan. My summer schedule is still in the works and I won't finalize that until this week, but here's our daily plan of attack:

8:00 Boys arrive
8:15/8:30: EAT
Free time, screen time allowed
NOON: EAT
Noon thirty: Quiet time, 30 minutes of reading, 30 minutes drawing or more reading
No screen time all afternoon
3:00: SNACK
4:00 Screen time
5:30 All boys gone!

I've pulled out the pay-doh for the little one and plan on making play-doh this week with him (I'll post recipe when we do)

FYI: Screen time is anything that involves a screen: Gameboy DS, computer, playstation, TV, movies... you get it.

-Michelle
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