Weekly Wrap Up

Summer vacation is finally here!   Now that everyone is out of school I feel like we can officially start our summer. Yay! 

The day after Hannah, Rachel & Joe’s last day of school they set off to Florida with my dad and Mary.  Mary’s brother lives in Pensacola so they stayed with him.  They saw the ocean for the first time, went on a dolphin cruise and swam a lot in the pool. (the ocean had red flags so they could only wade)  They were gone a whole week and I was very ready for them to be home.  They were very happy today to not be going anywhere in the car after the 14 hour drive to and from Florida!

Ben finished up his last week of school.  He was already showing signs of anxiety knowing his schedule was about to change.  He wanted to know “when can we start homeschool?”.  We celebrated his last day with a picnic lunch at a new park, ice cream and then a trip to the library to pick out some new books to start the summer.

On Thursday we started demolition of the kitchen.  New appliances are coming this week so we needed to tear out some cabinets and Matt is going to work on some electrical so we can plug them in when they arrive.  I feel like a 6 year old on Christmas Eve!  I can’t wait to get my new stove!!!  We’ve got the countertop and flooring ordered so now we just have to do the yucky stuff like drywall and tearing up ceramic tile. YUCK!  It’ll be worth it though!  I can’t wait.  I’m hoping to be mostly done by Jacob’s birthday party.

Ben had his first “friends” birthday party on Saturday.  He requested an Angry Birds cake so of course I went right to Pinterest to get some ideas.  He loved it and was a very happy boy for the day.  It was very different having a party for kids with Autism, they all had fun but didn’t interact too much together.  Which of course is natural for them, I just had to work at it not bothering me.  I enjoyed meeting the moms of his friends and you can almost feel this instant connection with them knowing what it’s like having a special needs child. Ben had a great time and that was the most important thing.  We had a great day celebrating him.

We couldn’t find the 8 candle so I asked him if we could just do 4+4.  Of course since he is obsessed with math facts he was very excited to use the addition problem.

On Sunday we had a very special breakfast with my dad.  I made waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.  They were heavenly!  We had a relaxing morning and then headed to my mom and Art’s to spend the afternoon with my grandparents.  We ate and then sat in the shade watching the chickens and goats for entertainment.  Aaaaahhhhhhh,  Welcome Summer!!

Summer Bucket List

Every summer I start out with such ambition and good intentions and I end the summer discouraged because the time went so fast and I didn’t do half of the things I wanted with the kids. SO, this year I am being more thoughtful, intentional and proactive with our summer goals.  Thanks to a little help from Pinterest I have a ton of ideas and even help to see those ideas through to completion!!  Behold our Summer Bucket List!

Did you notice which ones are already checked off??? 

This poster could also be titled Mom’s Accountability Chart.

I am hoping that at the end of the summer the kids will be able to look at all the things we checked off and have happy memories of the time we spent together.  

This is me. I easily go back and forth between being super organized and on top of things until I get bored and need some excitement but then it seems like things fall apart and I have to cling to my schedule again.

Every summer I struggle with how scheduled we should be.  Of course our vacations are scheduled but I’m talking about scheduling our every day.  I want the kids to be able to relax and enjoy their summer break but it seems like if I don’t have some structure to the day the kids spend way to much time staring at screens and are “bored” by 10 a.m.  Now that we are a homeschool family I’ve decided to work on some subjects during the summer, hoping to allow us to be flexible around the holidays and be able to take time off whenever we’d like.  (see above pic)  Ben has already been asking about school at home this summer and I know he will benefit from having a set routine.  He gets anxious when he doesn’t know what to do or what’s coming up next.  So even though I know there will be some “but it’s our summer vacation” (insert whiney voice) I’m going to force myself to be the bad guy that will be seen as the good guy in the end.  Hopefully. 

Of course I’ll be sharing what we’ve been checking off our bucket list (hopefully) each week in my weekly wrap up.

Spring Wrap-Up

Thursday is our official start to summer vacation!  Jacob was done with school on May 31st, HCA was done June 7 and Ben’s last day is today!  It was kind of annoying having them all finish at different times. 

Seeing that I’m a little really behind on my weekly updates I’ll do a recap of our spring.  The last 8 weeks have flown by but have been so much fun. I am just loving the ages that the kids are at right now. 

• We had a nice relaxing spring break with a visit from cousins then we went to Rockville for Easter.  We took the boys to an Egg Hunt and learned that when someone says you are only allowed to get 10 eggs that a boy with Autism will interpret that as he HAS to get 10 eggs and will have a complete meltdown when he only finds 7.  Thankfully the egg hunt at home went much smoother. 

• Hannah played Middle School Soccer which she loved.  She played really well and liked getting to know the girls on the team.  After spending hours on the team bus she also learned how to french braid and then came home and taught me!
• May was packed full of concerts and field trips.  I got to go to Lansing with Joe to see the capital.  Hannah, Rachel and Joe all had choir concerts and Rachel had a band concert. 
• My mom and I started a HUGE garden.  I should have enough tomatoes to make enough pasta sauce to last the whole year.  I planted some pumpkins and celery just for fun.
• To end the school year we had a pool party for the kids and some friends.  It was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and the kids all got along really well.

I’m hoping now that school is over I’ll be able to keep up with my weekly wrap ups a little better.    We’ve got some fun plans for the summer.

Melanie