Book winner!

Thanks to everyone who left a comment this past week. The winner of A Sister's Secret is Rebecca of Making Memories 1999. Congratulations!

I will have another book to give away next week... so stop by again!

Lesson Plans

My goal for today is to finish getting a school schedule mapped out for the next few weeks. We actually started school "part time" (2-3 days a week) about the middle of July, but we need to get back into the regular school routine starting next week. That's when the public schools around here start, too, so the kids are geared up for it.

Starting high school means more record-keeping for this relaxed-homeschooling mom. I want to keep track of what we study as we go along so I can present my daughter with an official-looking transcript, along with her diploma, 4 years from now. (Yikes! Only 4 years? I'm running out of time!) I am using the free Homeschool Tracker software to make lesson plans and keep a record of what we study and read. It is somewhat time consuming to get it all set up, but I think I'm going to like it once we get going.

I wasn't sure if we would participate in very many outside activities this year, but two opportunities have come along that we are going to try, at least. First is a 4-day-a-week after-school babysitting job for my daughter. She is excited about her first regular "job" but we have cautioned her that she will need to keep up with her other responsibilities if she is going to have time to "work". We hope this will be just the goal incentive she needs to motivate her to stay on task.

The other weekly activity that we have agreed to is a "home-ec class co-op" with two other families. The moms will take turns teaching the young ladies various home skills -- cooking, sewing, hospitality, etc. A lot of that the girls pick up just in our day-to-day lives, especially the cooking and hospitality... but I don't seem to ever find the time to sit down and teach sewing and things like that, so I think a scheduled time will be helpful.

And now... I think I've procrastinated long enough!! Time to shut down the web browser and open up the Homeschool Tracker and finish getting stuff set up for Tuesday.

North Idaho Fair

I guess it's time for my usual week-end report. We have had so much fun this summer... with a variety of family outings almost every weekend. Keeps us hopping, but we are creating great memories with our kids... so that makes it worth it!

This past weekend we went to the North Idaho Fair. We are not involved in 4-H but we have lots of friends who are, so it's fun to see their exhibits. Other years we have entered various things in the open class exhibits, but we didn't this year, due mainly to the busy-ness mentioned above... I mean, after all, there is only so much one family has time to do!

We got to the fairgrounds soon after they opened on Saturday morning, not realizing that the buildings didn't open until an hour later. Oh, well... that was a perfect opportunity for my husband to leisurely check out all the outdoor vendors such as the tractor dealer (NO, we are not farmers, nor do we own property, so have no earthly use for a tractor!!), the ATV dealer (hey! only $49 a month!), the snow-mobile dealer, the Dodge dealer (we could win a brand-new mega-cab pick-up!), and the vintage farm implement exhibits. Dontcha know the girls and I were just so thrilled?

Finally the buildings open so we enjoyed looking at other exhibits: the commercial buildings, the home arts building, and all the animal barns. By the time we did all that and ate lunch it was time to go stake out our seats in the grand stand for the rodeo. I actually enjoy watching the rodeo. It never much appealed to me, but my family talked me into watching it at the fair a couple years ago, and much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed it!

We headed home after that, but our teen daughter went back yesterday afternoon to help with a puppet ministry. Typically we don't participate in "secular" activities on Sundays, but since this was a ministry effort we felt it would be okay. She reported that they did several skits over a 3-hour period and the response was very good, so I think the whole team was encouraged with that. They've been working hard with the puppets for the last couple months.

I didn't take my camera, so no pictures this time.

Blogging...

I really enjoy having a blog. I like to post fun things that I think would be of general interest to those who know me... and to those who don't know me, but have similar interests. I do find things to post about on a regular basis, but I'm not sure how interesting they are. Ultimately, my goal would be to take the time to write more of my own thoughts... but I don't seem to do that very often.

So I've been thinking about what I enjoy in other people's blogs. Some people just journal about their daily lives. If I know them personally, I find that interesting. I even read a few blogs like that of people I don't know just because they can tell a good story and make me laugh! On my blog, I do tell a little bit about my family's activities, but not a lot of the day-to-day stuff... mostly for privacy reasons. I consider posting to the internet akin to publishing in every newspaper in the world. No, everybody in the world is not going to read it... but they could! That's kinda scary. So I don't use my blog as a "Dear Diary".

Some blogs I read are inspirational and encouraging. I'd like to write more of those kinds of articles... and maybe I will... eventually.

Other blogs I read are interest-focused... these include blogs about home-decorating, books, home-schooling, home-making. I think this is more what my blog tends to be, with a little of "all-of-the-above" mixed in! (If you get the impression that I'm a home-body, you would be right! Or is there such a thing as a home-body who loves to travel? I love to go on trips, but when we're "home" I like to stay home... I don't enjoy a lot of outside-the-house activities and running around.)

What kinds of blogs do you read? Why do you read mine? My nephew, Jon, encouraged his blog readers to come out of "lurkdom" just once, to let him know they were there... so I'm going to do the same. And there's an added perk for you! Everyone who comments within the next week will be entered in a drawing for a free copy of an Amish novel, A Sister's Secret (see post below).

Chores