Never put off until tomorrow...

Remember how I was in a blogging mood last Monday but felt that I had blogged too long and decided to save Monday's activities for Tuesday? And here it is, almost Monday again, and I never got back to it. Shame on me. Now, I am sure, last Monday will not receive the proper accolades that it deserved.

Monday was, in fact, a fabulous schooling day. The weather was gorgeous so we worked outside. We did phonics and grammar and math - though by this time I don't remember the details. I do remember that the kids were taking turns doing their work and riding their scooters around the backyard. Cassia did her phonics and math too. The really impressive thing about Monday was history. I asked Cameron if he wanted to read another library book on Ancient Greece or move on in SOTW which would come back to Greece in a chapter or two. He chose to move on so we read about Cyrus the Great. Oh boy did he love that story!! The chapter ended with a big cliff-hanger: would Cyrus the Great succeed in conquering Greece as well? Cameron just had to know. So we read another chapter. Unfortunately though, they didn't answer our burning question and just compared the differing lifestyles in Athens and Sparta. But that was still interesting and while I was pushing Cameron to prefer the intellectual lifestyle of Athens, he said that if he were living in Ancient Greece he would definitely want to learn how to fight too. He said that his Greek City would teach both academics and military training. That boy is boy through and through! There was still enough interest that we could have read the next chapter, but that was on the Greek Gods and the war with Persia was again put off until the next chapter. It was getting close to time for gymnastics anyway so we called it a day.

Cassia was distracted during gymnastics. She seemed to only do her best when she knew someone was watching. In fact, before she did a skill she would look around to see if a coach was watching her first. If they were, she did a fabulous job. If they weren't, she would either half-ass it or skip it entirely. *roll eyes* She must've forgotten that I was watching. I reminded her that during the Big Gymnastics Show (which is what they were practicing for), everyone would be watching her all the time so she had better do her best through the whole thing. Since the kids had been sick last week, I decided to have her do her make-up in the Creative Dance class instead of coming back another day for gym. The difference was amazing. Seriously, she had ten times the focus in dance class. When she did the trial class a couple weeks ago, they had started learning the first part of a dance to one of the songs in The Lion King. Well, she hasn't practiced it or even thought of it, I'm sure, since then but she remembered everything she had learned and picked up on the rest as fast as the kids who had been there every week. I think she's a dancer at heart.

Cameron, on the other hand, was a gymnastic fool! I missed most of his class because I was watching Creative Dance but in the last 10 minutes or so I saw him doing diving rolls over three other kids!! DUDE! I was impressed. And then when we were going out to the car one of the other moms stopped me and told me how amazing he had done throughout the entire class. *beam* :) The Big Gym Show has been his motivation all year. I guess he's just thrilled to be in it again.

Tuesday we had the last "boring" 4-H meeting of the year. The meeting was even longer than usual for us because first we had a committee meeting to plan the Family Night potluck dinner. Cameron volunteered to be on the Decorations and Games committees. I love that he always wants to be so involved - even though he rarely remembers what he volunteered for or what he is supposed to be doing there, lol. After the main meeting, they held the officer elections for next year which actually turned out to be pretty exciting. Most of the incumbents, some of whom had held their positions for like 3 years, were overthrown (is that the right word?). Cameron was elected for both Sergeant at Arms and Early Bird Prize Committee Chair. He had written himself in at the last second to be a Greeter as well, but was disappointed to find that he didn't get that. I told him that it was hardly a surprise since no one knew he wanted to do it, lol. He hadn't even given a speech for it since he decided to run as he was filling out his ballot. As usual, that took up our whole day and we didn't do anything else of note (that I can remember now, lol).

Wednesday.... ummmmm.... Wednesday? Not a clue what we did, lol. I know we did schoolwork but I can't remember how it went. I think we just did the basics and skipped history and/or science. We may have gone to the store as well? Oh I remember what happened of note on Wednesday! We were at our local farm picking up a couple things and there was a news crew there! They insisted on videotaping us doing our shopping, lol, but I forgot to ask when or where it would air. Oh well. Fame is fleeting anyway.

Thursday was the final Cooking project for 4-H. We made Cool Cucumber Soup and Sunrise Lemonade (think tequila sunrise without the tequila). Only a couple families showed up but it was a great last lesson. I've really enjoyed leading these kids in something that I love. I hope I've given them a little bit of adventure in the foods that they'll eat and a lot of confidence in their culinary skills. The best part, for me, though is that I've really connected with a couple of the new families with younger kids. I tend to not want to go out of my comfort zone and so I don't go out of my way to meet new people. I'm happy just talking to people I already know. The classes I've taught, however, have given me lots of casual time to interact and make new friends. The kids have too. Yay friends! Again, 4-H took up the whole day and we didn't do anything afterward except pick up the mountain of toys that had somehow taken over the house throughout the week.

Friday we left the house in anticipation of the second to last science class. Unfortunately, when we got there we found that the instructor (aka The Science Guy) had gotten held up at a school assembly and wouldn't be able to make it. :( I think the parents were more disappointed than the kids though, lol. Don't get me wrong, they love the class but they were perfectly happy to just hang out with their friends and play. And actually that was a kind of good thing because we are eternally rushing out of there to get to Favorite Park Day and the kids are always a bit sad that they can't stay and play with their new friends. So this week they got the chance to really do both. We left there after a little over an hour and headed off to the park. It was HOT! We had some sure-to-be-record highs the last couple of days. On Thursday it was 104 in the shade and 95 in the house. Gah. So the park was fun, as always, but there were no giant hiking adventures - just a giant water fight, lol. And then we had to rush off from there (though it didn't feel like a rush since we were actually pretty grateful to get in the air conditioned car) to go to a baseball game. Busy day!

Saturday was yet another baseball game followed by an entire day of the kids playing in a blow up wading pool. Grandma C had sent it for Greyson's birthday and it had just arrived Friday afternoon. Ah, sweet relief. :) Cassia seriously did not get out of the water all day.

Today is Sunday and we have another busy day. I have to go to a business meeting for our homeschool group at one and the kids have to be at a swim party at two in a different town. Luckily, DH has agreed to take C&C to the party and Grey and I will meet them there (and relieve him of birthday party duty) as soon as the meeting is over.

And that was the week. Phew! Next week - better blogging. :P