Mini Vacation

My husband took the week off of work. It's always nice when hubby is home from work. It allows us to hang out and spend time as a family. --much needed rest and fun, especially for hubby.

We were blessed with a very generous gift card to Kalahari in Wisconsin Dells. So we boarded the dogs and spent a night at Kalahari.

Our stay including some free passes to other area attractions so we took advantage of some of those too, but spent most of our time at Kalahari.

It was the break and fun this family needed so much.

House Shopping 101

So with nothing better to do this Sunday afternoon we took the kids and went to a few open houses. The kids enjoyed it, they actually asked to go, after we went to one down the street last week.  -- the one last week was towards the end of the typical open house times and I was noisy.

All of the ones we went to were just a few miles from our home. So it let us see what the going market is like, little bit bigger homes, and a rough idea of if we were in the market for a new home what he want or do not want.

A few things we learned:

• We want mature trees; Several of the properties we did not like do to the lack of trees, shade, etc.  I guess 10 years on a somewhat wooded lot will do that to you. We have several mature trees on our lot and our property line. So the lack of trees and shade on some of these houses was like Oh My Gosh!
• Bigger bedrooms; While all the homes we looked at had a good size family room, living room, dining and a plus for us seeing our current home is only 900 square feet, I would like bigger bedrooms.  Several of the homes while boasting to have nearly 3,000 sq feet had bedrooms that were really no bigger then our current bedrooms. One of the houses was 2000 sq feet and couple of the bedrooms even seemed smaller then what we have now.
• Having a basement would be nice!
• And the kids no matter the price or what the rest of the house is like is going to want the one with the pool! -- never mind the pool took nearly the whole yard. They want the pool.

It was fun to take them looking around. It was also fun after that was done to talk to them about prices, finances, cost, monthly payments and how to determine if something is actually affordable for you.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something.

Visiting Wetlands

Local to us is a wetland. We have seen the signs for the last several years, but never drove out there. It's not a far drive about 8 minutes or less from my home.

Tonight, we went for ice cream in town and I told hubby we should go out there and take a look.

Awesome! We did not stay long because of the bugs. need bug spray. had none. big mistake.

In our very short stay besides being eaten alive by the bugs we saw pelican and a beaver. First time I have ever saw a beaver in real life. I wanted to stay longer to see if he would come back out, but the bugs were just to much. 

Going to go back soon and maybe a few times and do a nature study. So wish we have been out there sooner. Do you have a local but hidden gem?

Working on those Merit Badges

As I said earlier this week my son got sick right before he was suppose to leave for summer camp. It's really sad to see him miss out on something he was looking forward to doing.

So we have spend a good portion of our week working on some of the merit badges.  One of the merit badges we are working on is Family Life.   Family Life requires that we work on a family project.

We chose a garden, raised bed, to be our family project. So we got the supplies we needed at home depot along with a couple of plants and got to work building the garden. We bought 4x4 raised bed kit and a 16 in x 16 in kit. The kits can be combined and that's what we did. Later if we want to add more we can too.   I also got the book Square Foot Gardening. I'm going to read it over the next several weeks, months, so that by early spring I will be more familiar with gardening using raised beds and will be able to have a good amount of produce of the family.

Gardening is something I have been wanting to do for a long while now, but never did so Superstar needing a family project for the merit badge was a good 'excuse' to get the garden I have been wanting in! Yay, for scouting!

The following links, when you click on the date stamp, will take you the Facebook posts on my Facebook page: Catholic Christian Homeschooling that has pictures of our gardening project.

The family project for family life badge is done.
Posted by Catholic Christian Homeschooling on Monday, July 13, 2015

He still has a slight fever, but feels up to working. We are working on the family project for family life merit badge. Finish picture later today.
Posted by Catholic Christian Homeschooling on Monday, July 13, 2015

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something.

Summer Camp Disappointment

This would have been Superstar's 4th summer at Summer Camp.  Yesterday evening, we brought his things to the troop meeting point and packed the troop trailer with his gear. He chatted some with this fellow scouts and we left. The plan was to get up this morning take him to the troop meeting spot again. Say our good-byes and see him off for a week long Summer Camp.

Last night, while at our neighbor's house, he projectile vomited all over me and my neighbor's hallway. He did get to her bathroom but that became equally messy. We sent him home where he took a shower and rested. I stayed, even though my back side was a mess, and helped my neighbor clean up her hallway, floors and walls, and bathroom (same deal) -- it was everywhere.

I got home; asked him how he felt. Good he said! I took his temp over 100. Now what? Do I call and tell them? Do I wait and see how he is in the morning? Camp is 5 hours away, if I send him and he gets sick in the car, then what?  He has a fever so....

Long story short I texted the scoutmaster and decided to keep him home. Some of the other adults are going up Wednesday so if he feels better then he might go up.  He woke up this morning fever free. So I told him if he stays fever free all of today I will take him up tomorrow (Monday) he would miss the first day of activities but will be there for the rest. Well he did not stay fever free. So I'm not taking him up tomorrow.

I can't replace Summer Camp experience and I'm out the money we paid (several hundreds of dollars), but I can work with him on several of his merit badges this week. So that's what we are doing! He feels a little better knowing we are going to get merit badges done, but he's bummed out about missing Summer Camp and I'm bummed for him.  It was with a very heavy mother's heart that I made the call to keep him home.  It was NOT an easy thing to do.


Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something.

Summer Days

Hopefully your summer is going well.  Here it's been a cooler then normal and wetter then usual summer.  It's already after the 4th of July and we haven't done things like the pool, local lake/beach or even just some backyard water play. We even bought our dogs, Puggy and Onyx, a pool and have had it out only a handful of times because it just hasn't really been hot enough for it.

Saturday at the local fireworks displayed I wore a sweatshirt and pants and today we went out to the park, with friends, hoping to stay long enough to wade in the river some -- but it was cut short because of the rain. So we never made it to the river. Did get to chat with friends for about an hour before the weather got nasty.

Superstar is getting ready to leave for Summer Camp this weekend. He will be gone for a week. This is his 4th summer in a row doing Summer Camp.

Now with it already after the 4th of July I should start making plans for the fall.....

Things To Do:

• Give Superstar a standardized test
• Register Superstar for high school (we have decided not to homeschool him)
• Decided what I need/want to use for Web-princess for school
• Start making a plan

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something.

Keeping Papers, Records, and other things.

How to keep homeschool papers? I want to keep my kids' papers. How do you store them?

My advice. scan them! If it's paper scan it. save it on the computer, use file folders, and make sure you have a back up.  What if it's something that can not be scanned like a marshmallow sculpture? Take a picture, save it to the computer, and have a back up. Simple!  Best part: It takes up no more space than what your computer does. And if you back it up or save it to a cloud service you can access it anywhere.

You can also share with family.  Sharing on a blog is one good way to share things with family and have a back up.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something.

Summer Fun On A Budget

One thing you learn quickly when you have a limited income and a tight budget is take advantage of community events, especially free events.

I'm blessed to live in an area that has weekly free live band concerts, free movies in the park, free weekly kids shows. Library that puts on a good summer reading programs, although my kids are to old for the summer reading program, but do enjoy helping out and running the games, crafts, etc.

The best part is these events are easy on the checkbook, building memories with the kids, and looking back they are going to say hey we did things.

We also take advantage of free community days at the local museums, botanical gardens, and other venues that normally cost money.

I learn about these things via Facebook, local newspapers, and flyers around town. How has your summer been? Do you have community events you can be taking advantage of?

And don't forget the standard stand by. A good day at the play ground. My kids being teens don't care to really play at the play ground, but do enjoy Geochaching and hiking in general.