Quote #23.

June already. Wow.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. –Epictetus

This quote resonates with me this week. I’ve been planning out the coming year’s homeschooling curriculum lately. I’m trying to attack it from the standpoint not of “what comes next?” but of “what do I need to cover to provide my boys with the tools to become the men I know they can be?” I’m looking for areas to encourage and ways to do that. I’m finding that it’s definitely easier and more comfortable to just move to the next step. I appreciate, then, this reminder to stop and remember to first determine and focus on what the ultimate goal is.

Yes, sometimes the most powerful tool in achieving something is simply setting and/or recognizing the goal. 

Random things on Thursday.

1. Got these awesome Ormolu goodies in my mail yesterday:

Soooo looking forward to diving in and starting some Creative Team projects! Obviously, if you've never bought stuff from Ormolu before, you don't know what you're missing...go check it out!

2. If you run, have you heard about the One Good Earbud? I love mine...such a dandy product. (I love, too, when I have a "problem" and go searching for an answer and discover that the solution actually exists!)

3. I love the saying on this shirt. I'm amazed to say that I'll be finishing the Couch to 5K running program this week and this top has actually come to be a truth. :)

4. Did you know that yesterday was National Running Day? Cool.

5. Have you seen the show Psych? I recently became addicted via Netflix. It's like a kooky Encyclopedia Brown for adults. Seriously fun. Season 5 came out on dvd earlier this week. I'll have disc 1 (via Netflix) in my hot little hands later today. ;)

6. I'm thinking I need this camera strap. 

I guess that was it. :) Don't worry. I haven't forgotten about the curriculum reviews. I just got side-tracked with preliminary planning for next year and adjusting to the summer's schedule. ;) More soon. Honest! 

Our weekend (part 2).

Just a few things. :) 

First. Duplos (yet again) to the rescue! Our toothpick bridges are pretty much done now. We hit a minor glitch when we were trying to figure out how to attach the two sides of each bridge. Brilliantly, I then had an "ah-ha!" moment. Just as Duplo blocks came in handy when we were trying to explain fractions and simplest form, Duplo blocks were the solution to holding our bridge sides up while adding the roadbeds and tops. Like so:

(Pinned the sides to foam board and placed them in our little Duplo holder. Yes, we ended up making more than one holder so more than one boy could work at a time. I guess it's a good thing that we haven't gotten rid of the four big ol' tubs of Duplo blocks that we still have.)

We'll let the bridges "cure" for a bit and test them later this week. I'll take better pics of the finished projects then.

Second. Beyond mowing and toothpick bridges, we managed to sort through all the boys' clothes...switching out cold weather attire for summer duds. (Yes, it's Colorado and I'm sure some of the cold weather clothes will still be needed, lol. No worries. I keep out some pants and sweaters even through the summer.) I'm embarrassed by how many tee shirts and shorts they have (that's what happens when you have three boys and just continue to hand things down, lol), but am proud to say that I weeded out 4 bags of clothes to take to Goodwill or otherwise distribute. Yay!

Third. Noah took this picture:

Just because. ;)

Fourth. It's technically not part of the weekend any more, but Noah started swim team this morning. Sounds like it went pretty well.

Guess we're headed into summer now...  :)

Quote #22.

Hope your Monday is going well...

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us. –Helen Keller

Today, on Memorial Day, let's take a moment to remember those who have touched our lives…

(If you have a few minutes, visit my layouts over on the Good Grief Blog and join me in remembering my dad today...)

Our weekend.

What are you all doing for the Memorial Day weekend? Anything exciting? We don't have any grand plans here. Yesterday, Noah mowed the yard for the first time...

Nathan was pretty excited. ;) The younger two boys were, um, not. They don't think it's fair that Noah will get paid for mowing the yard. (They're desperately trying to think up ways to make more money, lol.) For the record, we decided awhile ago that indoor chores like kitchen duties and bathrooms and vacuuming are all included in general household upkeep...which is the responsibility of everyone in the house. So, those are covered and not compensated (unless someone's going to start paying *me* lol). Outdoor things like shoveling snow and mowing the yard...things that we might actually consider hiring a neighborhood kid to do for us...are opportunities to earn some extra money. Unfortunately for the younger two, our mower is simply too much for them to handle. It's not self-propelled and this is the first time Noah's been able to successfully push it (yeah, we tried last summer). As I explained to them, though, sometimes them's the breaks. Sorry. ;) 

Beyond the excitement of mowing the yard (lol), our week's science lesson carried over to the weekend (so as to have Nathan available to help). In reviewing the physics that we covered earlier this year, we're now building model toothpick bridges. It's a bit more involved than I anticipated, but Noah's loving it:

Noah, as you can see, went all out. He made a sketch. He then re-drew it to scale. He's got the foam board and wax paper and sketch (which is sandwiched in between and hard to see here) and is using T-pins to secure the toothpicks before gluing the joints. For simplicity's sake, we limited the boys to under 12 inches long, though Noah's talking about building another just for fun. 

In any case, we finished the two sides for all three bridges (Asher and Micah also had sketches (not drawn to scale, though) and also helped with the same process...but Nathan and I had to step in a bit to help with actually getting them finished). We'll let those dry/cure and see about adding roadbeds and such tomorrow. Noah's talking about testing their load capacity later next week. Don't worry. We'll take pictures of the finished projects before we destroy them. ;) 

And that's pretty much it for our Memorial Day weekend plans. :) Hope yours is going well!