I spent a lot of time this week contemplating the upcoming school year. It might have been the cooler temps or my own need for more discipline in my life.

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MONDAY
It was 80° this morning, so I decided to put the dog out back with his puppy bumper on and take a quick walk by myself. It was just too humid to stay out for very long.
When I got back, I made myself some breakfast and ate it on the deck while I watched a video on the Sabbath (I ended up sending it to a friend because it was so good!).
The kids had leftover-from-Special-Night sour cream doughnuts. I invited them to come out to the deck to do some of their independent school work before Morning Time, but we ended up chatting instead and noting the spider web on the umbrella, the indigo bunting snacking at the bird feeder, the oriole in the neighbor’s yard, and the hummingbirds chasing each other around our deck.
When we came in, I set up Teaching Textbooks for my 11 year old on my laptop so we have another device he can use. It’s tricky trying to figure out how to get all of the children through their online school work without a computer for each of them! We have an iPad, a desktop, and now my laptop in play, but with 4 kids needing access to online classes, it’s still not quite enough.
For Morning Time, we finished our study of Homeric Greece by reading in Story of the World and The Story of the Greeks. Then, we talked about Odysseus and Lycurgus.
For lunch, I laid out different Greek foods I found at Aldi – olives, baclava, spanakopita, bread and olive oil. The children really enjoyed it!

I spent a goodly part of the afternoon pouring over curriculum, trying to figure out what I want to do in the coming months. I have a few concerns I am trying to assuage, one of which is Science. I want my children to enjoy Science more than they do, so I am looking for ways to make it more relatable and quite possibly add it to Morning Time.
Later, I talked with a friend from church for quite a while. It was a much needed conversation and helped me know how to pray for her.
For dinner, we had Chicken Tikka Masala and rice. It was a big hit! In fact, I was quite surprised by how much the children enjoyed this meal! It’s a good thing too because we made a HUGE batch!
That evening, I went back to mulling over curriculum ideas and problem areas in our homeschool. One thing I decided to try is having Morning Time in my bedroom to see if the kids who feel restless toward the end of it would feel less restless being in a more comfortable environment. We’ll try it out tomorrow and see how it goes. I also decided to do some lessons from A Simple Summer from Brighter Day Press before moving into Autumn School in September.
TUESDAY
Nearly 80° again this morning and stormy. I barely got the dog walked before it started pouring. As the front moved through, the temperatures dropped and the rest of the day was almost chilly!
I went to Weight Watchers. It was a good meeting. I’ve made a lot of great connections with people there!
When I got back home, I brewed myself a cup of coffee and gathered the 5 younger kids to my room for Morning Time. The older boys sat on my bed and the chair I have in the corner. The little girls sat on the floor. BUT…it quickly devolved into the girls dragging all of my exercise equipment out from behind my chair and playing with it. They simply would not sit still, and everyone became incredibly disruptive. I also felt like I didn’t have everything I needed since much of it was still in the dining room. UGH.
We did manage to get some things accomplished, and there were parts of it I did like…
We read in Joshua from The Child’s Story Bible and also from Story of the World. We marked on our maps where Jericho and the Jordan River were/are. We also watched a video on the Bronze Age (since that is the time frame of when Joshua was leading the Israelites).
Then, we did part of a lesson from Explore Hebrew.

THIS was the one thing that worked REALLY well being in my bedroom. Ty & I have a television in our room that we could screencast from my laptop to it so that all of the children could see it really well. It was nice to be able to do that.
And the kids REALLY enjoyed the Hebrew lesson! The lesson was well done and my kids wanted to learn more, including what their names would be in Hebrew.
We finished Morning Time with me reading in The Golden Goblet…the book that never ends. One of these days we WILL finish it…I hope.
After I ate lunch, I drove the 23 year old to the city to be fingerprinted for her new job. When I got home, the other kids went out to play with the neighbor kids. We are so blessed to have such good neighbors!
While they played, I started planning out a couple of things for our homeschool that I decided upon yesterday. The first is Agricultural Science from Gentle + Classical.
I have used a lot of their material over the years, and the children really like it. So, I am anxious to see if doing this science curriculum all together during Morning Time might help to pique their interest in Science. I have some other ideas of where to go from here for my older boys (Guest Hollow, in case any of you are wondering), but for now, I am going to take a step back from our usual methods and see what happens.
I also did some planning and ordering books from our library for A Simple Summer. The beginning unit of Agri-Science and the first unit in this curriculum will mesh together nicely so we will do them congruently.
My original plan was to finish up Unit 2 of Year 1 of Tapestry of Grace and then take a big break from it while we did some of these “fun” lessons, moving straight into Autumn Homeschooling and Christmas Homeschooling through the end of the year; however, I decided I wanted to try a different method this time to keep the ball rolling with our usual lessons while still enjoying some seasonal fun!
Check out my Holiday Homeschool Planners!
We are going to do Tapestry of Grace on Monday and Wednesday and the seasonal lessons on Tuesday and Thursday. I think this will be a nice compromise and keep things interesting and fun.
That night, my 23 year old took me out for Korean food. We both LOVE hot pot bibimbap because it makes the rice nice and crunchy.

Before bed, I read to the kids from The Golden Goblet. I will finish this book…someday.
WEDNESDAY
It was so nice outside this morning! After my walk and breakfast on the deck, I called Ty’s stepmom to wish her a happy birthday. Ty’s dad passed away last year, so she has been walking through a lot of firsts – this being her first birthday without him. Their anniversary was earlier in the month, so it’s been a hard month for her.
We also went back to the dining room table for Morning Time! I read in Joshua and we marked the tribal land allotments on our maps. We also did another lesson in Hebrew. Then, we moved to the living room to read in The Golden Goblet.
I dismissed everyone but the older 2 boys and we went over a lesson in Tapestry of Grace on who the Israelite’s neighbors were and what they believed and how God used them to either judge or be judged by Israel.
After a quick lunch, I took the 3 boys to a library event at a local arcade. It was free play on most of the machines, and the boys had so much fun!



When we got back home the 9 year old and the 13 year old helped me put together dinner – John Wayne Casserole. This is a favorite of my oldest daughter, and I try to make it at least once when she is home from school.
That night, I went to women’s group without the older girls. Turns out, it was only me and the leader there. We chatted, and then I came home to read, crochet, and watch JD Vance’s vice presidential speech.
THURSDAY
I was able to open up the house last night and run the attic fan because it got down to 63°! Amazing weather for July!
The boys got up and mowed and also moved the hose holder out back for me. I took a walk and had a nice chat with my 19 year old on the deck while we ate breakfast.
I decided to do Morning Time outside, which was especially lovely considering we are doing a gardening unit study from A Simple Summer. We read Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt.
It was a great book with tons of good information in the back that led to a lot of discussions and research. So often, we dismiss “picture books” as something that won’t be informational enough for our older kids, but that isn’t necessarily true, especially when we can use them as a jumping off point to dig for more information.
We also read What Grew in Larry’s Garden – also a lovely book that reminded me of a landlord we had years ago who became more like a grandpa to my kids.
Then, we planted flower seeds in pots on the deck. I hope at least some of them actually grow. We haven’t always had the greatest luck with our deck garden, but this year, the herbs are growing quite nicely, so there’s hope!
It was beginning to get warm outside, so we came inside to read our read-aloud book. We have about 50 pages left to go! After that, I helped the little girls with math, and worked with my 7 year old on not complaining during her lessons. It’s definitely going to be a work in progress. I have some kids who never complain and some who never stop complaining.
For lunch, I made myself a broccoli salad and took care of some paperwork for my husband and the blog. Then, I headed to my monthly massage! I had a nice chat with my friend who does the massage, but I did start to feel anxious while I was there and it only got worse once back home.
Several years back, I was having multiple daily panic attacks, and the only thing that helped me was neural retraining classes. So, I went straight back to doing the “rounds” I learned and kept myself from going too far down that rabbit hole.
Truthfully, I believe it extends from some gut issues and some of the stressors in my life. I actually ended up feeling sick to my stomach for hours. Despite all that, I still ran to the store for produce and milk for the 19 year old to make ice cream in the Cuisinart Ice Cream maker. I didn’t have any, but the kids assured me it was delicious!
FRIDAY
I felt better this morning, plus it was 60° out when I walked the dog! When I got back, I loaded the dishwasher for my 19 year old because she didn’t get to it last night. Then I ate breakfast on the deck with the 5 youngest kids.
Around 10 am, we started resetting the house for Home Blessing. It actually wasn’t too bad this week. Some weeks the reset takes longer than the cleaning!
I put out grape jelly for the orioles and refilled the hummingbird and regular bird feeders. Then I watered all the plants and started in on a menu plan and grocery list. I’ve been shopping lately on Fridays, which seems to be working out well.
I had an Asian Bowl for lunch and then took care of some household business – paying bills and such. Then, the 19 year old and I headed out to shop Aldi and Walmart. The Aldi bill was only $180! It hasn’t been that low in ages!
When we dropped off the Aldi groceries, I decided to pick up the little girls and take them with me to do some Back to School shopping. We do this every year once Walmart has all of their back to school stuff out and before too many parents have sifted through it all. Even though we homeschool year round, the kids really enjoy restocking supplies and seeing all the fun new things.
Here are a couple of resources that will help you make Back to School fun for your homeschooled kids! The first is a post full of ideas and the second is a podcast:
Daddy was super generous this year with how much he let each of the kids spend. Here are the girls’ Back to School Hauls:


Next week, I’ll take the boys!
When I got home, I watched one of Mystie Winckler’s Planning videos:
One thing she said really stood out to me:
“To be effective, we have to be disciplined.”
My life has really lacked discipline lately. I am barely getting by it seems. I know I can easily use the excuse that I have a lot on my plate and a lot of stressors, etc, but really it comes down to not planning and not being disciplined enough to work the plan. As Mystie says the plan may not always happen as planned, but no plan will always lead nothing getting done.
That evening, a bunch of neighbor kids came over and we built a campfire and fed them all hot dogs. My son is heading off to boot camp Sunday night, so we also watched my little grandbaby while he took his wife out for dinner.
It was a pleasant end to a pleasant week!

Marilyn says
Thank You for the update. I look forward to it. The girls have gotten lots of back to school goodies. I loved to go back to school shopping. Getting new outfits was a joy along with school supplies. When I was in school we never were given a list of what we would needed to buy over the summer. Have a good week. God Bless.
Marilyn
Marion says
Amy your posts are so interesting. Love them. Your family seems to always be so happy and contented. Seeing Aspen and Mercy with their new school supplies,makes me want to go and get new school supplies for my make believe first day of school.
Marion
Diana says
LOL, I sense your deep love for “The Golden Goblet”!!!! 🙂 Have you read “Mara, Daughter of the Nile” by the same author? (I think I saw you mention it as one of your children’s readers a few weeks back?) I just read it, and enjoyed it very much.
Usually I love shopping the back-to-school sales at Walmart too, but this year I procrastinated so long that I missed the sales. Next year!!
Love these posts!