May 2013

May started with Caleb’s trip to California.  He flew solo to spend time with his best friend Sam and to take the CA STAR test.  Caleb didn’t have an ounce of fear about the trip and was nothing but excited.  He was gone for 9 days.  Ben did a lot better this year with Caleb leaving.  He was still pretty sad, but he handled his emotions really well.  I let Ben have the week off school.  We vegged out watching a lot of movies and I taught him to knit.  He’d been asking for awhile.  It was a very sweet time knitting with my Ben. 

Caleb had a great trip and got to reconnect with a handful of good friends.  Juan and Tracy did a lot with the kids.  They got to go to Disneyland, the beach, Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, and they got to explore a battleship.  Thanks Juan and Tracy for pouring love into my boy!

In an effort to form better deep cleaning habits for myself and the kids, we started following the Fly Lady's zone plan for 15 min per day. 

 

I also implemented a new laundry system inspired by the idea of doing 1 load of laundry a day.  Jon put in the shelf that made it all possible!  The kids and husband are adapting quickly to learning to sort their clothes into the appropriate baskets.  The space used to be home to 2 tall hampers.  I'm so excited to not have to do the weekly big laundry sort and 2-3 days it took to process the laundry.  I love that I can see at a glance what basket is filling up and is ready for a wash.

Lighting struck our house one night!!!  It was an intense experience!  It was super dramatic, super loud, super bright with lots of sparks and bursting sounds.  We're so thankful that nothing caught on fire!  I'm also extremely thankful I woke up a few minutes before and felt prompted to get out of bed to unplug our computer. Thank the Lord for that!  Sadly, the lighting fried our television, internet antennae, router, some inputs on the back of our reciever, some of Caleb’s video game systems, my lamp, some cables, and my expensive Tivoli speaker that I use to listen to music.  Our house is grounded and everything was plugged into surge protectors, but apparently the electrical surge came through the internet line and the cable attached to the television antennae when both antennas were hit by lightning.  From now on we’ll have to unplug those 2 cables anytime there is lightning overhead.  As an extra precaution, we’ll also unplug the important electronics.  At least we had Grandma Jean's old TV in storage. One electronic problem solved.  Jon jimmy rigged a few other things to get the antenna connected again and to get Caleb’s Wii working again.  We bought a new digital converter box and a new router.  I contacted the Tivoli company and I can send the speaker in for repair for $75, so I’m going to save up for that.  We’re back in business for most of our electronic needs.
 

I weeded and mulched my garden beds on the weekends this month while Jon was working on other projects.  Hopefully my work will prevent future weeds and help with water retention.  It was so much more work than if I would have done it before planting.  Putting weed fabric down around growing plants was very tricky!  I'll be more organized, prepared, and timely next year.

We finished our homeschool year the last day of May!!!!!  I'm so proud of myself and the boys.  Ben is now done with 1st grade and Caleb is now done with 6th grade!!!  It’s sooo crazy that I'll have a junior higher next year!   I’m looking forward to taking a summer break!  This mama needs it!  I'm so thankful for CHEP, our homeschooling partner in California.

Click HERE for May 2013 Photos

 



Blessings on you and yours!

Love,

The Hartshorns