What we've been up to around here...

Homeschooling most definitely has its ups and downs, but we've found our groove, and I'm pleased to say, unlike every other year, we will be doing the exact same thing next year!

Everyone will be homeschooled.

The other day, in fact, a friend and neighbor called me up and asked if I would be sending anyone to school next year in the hopes that we could carpool. I was momentarily stunned. Of course I wouldn't be sending anyone to school next year! Why would she even assume that?

Probably because I've had different kids in and out of school ever since she's known me.

I'll have to document very soon, for myself at least, how things are going and what we are doing, but suffice it to say, things are going well, and we are all very happy (the kids have the choice to go back to school, and, right now, none of them want to).

We are still not eating processed foods, and it is one of the best decisions we've ever made. EVERYONE feels better, even if not everyone loves all of their vegetables...

We are winding up most of our musical activities for the year, and we are going to do much less next year. Really, really, really.

Our garden is looking fabulous! We have twelve raised beds in the backyard filled with lettuces, cabbage, cucumbers, squash, strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, peas, beans, etc... We are happy right now, but I do recognize that this is short-lived. It will soon be hot, and it will soon rain less, and I will have to water and I will not like that. Not one bit. But right now, it is a beautiful thing. We had our first salads this week with our homegrown lettuce, and they were delicious. All the kids were excited about it, including Flannery (my vegetable despiser), even though the greens were much stronger in flavor (more bitter, but somehow tastier) than Costco lettuce. We've been spreading  twenty-four cubic yards of dirt over our garden in the front as well, and the kids have really been troopers, getting out there, getting dirty, building compost sculptures... spending all day long with shovels and buckets and their imaginations.

And we are reading. The older girls and I are in love with Miss Buncle:

Mary and Lucy read this and really found it interesting. Mary despises technology more than ever...

Mary is in love with this book:

Lucy loved this book:

Calvin loved this book:

Shaemus LOVES this series:

Flannery and Shaemus have been loving this book (you really should check this out!):

And we've been listening to these books on tape (almost to the point where I am going to go crazy...)

I've been doing school visits like crazy and LOVING it. Meeting kids who are excited about reading and writing (or who want to be encouraged and excited about reading and writing) is one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done!

I guess this is a post full of love, it's been such a beautiful spring! 

I hope May is full of lots of reading for all of you!!!