Congratulations to anyone who found out today they were among the top 50,000. Wishing they didn't make us wait until September to find out if we're commended or semi-finalists!

School Complete online certification for coaching (done) Swim Laundry & Packing/Cleaning Work on turnover project for concessions tonight Assist DD on 5 emails to follow up with coaches.

For get it done - US History Detective workbooks with some videos (history channel type, and some actual movies) have been what we've done with PokeMan. We did BOTH books (one, 1st semester and one 2nd semester). He's been pretty happy with it overall. I'm happy it's getting done.

We signed my oldest son up for this course: https://www.wtmacademy.com/courses/classes/preparation-for-rhetoric-writing/ He enjoyed it, and was well prepared for high school writing (and college writing) afterwards. I don't have a lot of other experience with online English courses...

Thinks I'm keeping: Math Chalkdust Foerster's Jacob's AoPS Life of Fred Equate Game Hands On Equations Integers Game English Mosdos Press (grades 5-8) Textword Press (grades 9-12) 100 EZ Lessons Writing with Skill 1-3 MCT Literature Series Story Cubes Story Starters Killgallon Books Science Magic School Bus Picture Readers Science "Encyclopedias" (mostly just a bit more in depth picture books) I'm not keeping any middle/high school or college level textbooks, unless someone can give me a good reason why -- I feel like the more in depth areas of science are changing a lot, while the general knowledge lower elementary is staying mostly the same) History History of US Story of the World K12 Middle/High School Series Spielvolgel Western Civ (and study guides) US History by Paul Johnson (and study guides) Match Games I have other books related to these subject areas (not curriculum), that I intend to keep. A LOT of classic literature (most of which I'm hoping to replace with nicer, hard-bound editions).

Thus far, I can't really recommend 39dollarglasses. I placed my order a week ago, realized as soon as I hit submit that my reading script was wrong, emailed/contacted immediately, received an email back a day or two later asking if my distance prescription was correct (I had sent in my actual prescription), I replied, and again asked about my READING prescription (again telling them what was input incorrectly and telling them the correct distance, a few days later they contact me and say they see my reading prescription should be +1.5 (NO -- that's my husband's prescription), so I email back again, call (sit on hold for nearly 10 minutes, before leaving a message), then get on live chat (sat waiting there for over 20 minutes), went through the whole issue and 20 minutes later got an order confirmation with the WRONG prescription again (although it was corrected in their system). I got back on live chat -- and have been assured that the script will be processed correctly. The customer service end has been really slow, it's been over 2 weeks and my glasses haven't been processed or shipped. Our Zenni order, on the other hand, shipped within 3 days of placing the order. My glasses are a bit more complicated -- so maybe that has something to do with the long time frame in processing -- but if you order from them, email reply times (and telephone) seem to be pretty horrible response times.

School Swim Clean/Pack & Laundry in between messing around on my new computer...

Practice Test; Review what is missed; Practice Test; Review what is missed... repeat! My dd took the ACT in 8th grade, but we've focused exclusively on SAT for NMSQT in high school She took the SAT in December (one and done), and she wants to take the ACT this Sept to see if she can get a perfect score. We won't start prepping for it until June, though. I have some ACT prep books. All practice tests will be in "testing conditions" meaning, printed exams, with timers set for each section and breaks as outlined. I will probably have my 9th grader do the same things, and have him take that test as well... (we need one for dual enrollment sophomore year). After that, he'll start studying for the PSAT/SAT instead (pretty sure -- his scores have tracked like his sister's, so he should at least try).

School Swim Continue with laundry (only mountain is of CLEAN clothes at the moment, but blech). Packing (we start on TOY Area today... 2 hours each day sorting/cleaning/packing/selling until gone) -- we need to be ready to do the clothing this weekend!!

Your FB on your phone just might be a stored version... mine won't refresh with anything new. Instagram & Twitter are also down.

Home church Some cooking for the week Clean out pantry (bad) food items, so they can go out with the organic trash tomorrow. List more items for sale Deliver Treadmill to SS (the one I sold yesterday) Tape up boxes from yesterday (with additional tape purchased today) Kids work on sorting toy area for 2 hours. Pack up remainder of the books. Wash shelves (oldest son & husband take them apart and flat-pack them for delivery as they are sold) Get ready for tomorrow.

I think that's why I'm afraid to be too ruthless. There are books I lost during a move years ago (over 20) that I still miss, they are out of print, and I cannot replace them. But, I still remember many of the titles. As I've gone through every one of our books during the packing, I've got books from when I was a child, and books we read to my kids (again and again), most of them are classics (older and newer). I don't want to part with books that I have a feeling I'd like to have again, because they do go out of print and are hard to find. Blondie is currently reading a book that was my mother's when she was a tween-ager, that I enjoyed... there are also books like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm that was my Grandma's favorite book as a girl, that I read and loved, and that I've shared with all 3 of my girls...I also kept some books that will need to be tossed (they are beyond repair), because I want to make sure I remember to go re-purchase them for my library. I hope to have a small selection of Board Books, a large selection of picture books and a strong selection of classic literature (classic to me, anyhow). I am not sure at this point if I will keep all of my historical fiction, or if much of it will be replaced by electronic versions allowing me to donate the rest. I suppose it comes down to how my girls react to the various series. If it becomes a part of them... I'll hold onto the books to pass on to the girls for their families.

Well, it appears that my oldest may be having children before my youngest is gone.... so how many books I actually keep/get rid of changes. I am getting rid of quite a bit (for me anyhow) in this move (at least one large Billy Shelf full). But, Italy isn't exactly a great place to get rid of American books 😉 We're going to try to sell some, but the rest may go home with me and get sold/given away at the convention used book sale in 2020 (I may get rid of more at that time). There are books I purchased to go with curriculum. Some are series favorites I intend to keep... Billy & Blaze, Nate the Great, Amelia Bedlelia, My Dr. Seuss and Disney picture books, my MATH curriculum (I'm keeping all of my Fred, AoPS, Foerster, Jacobs and Larson Texts (and the videos - which are currently on thumb drives). I'm keeping my WTM Writing with Ease, Teach Your Kids to Read books, my K12 readers (we really enjoyed these), my Mosdos and my Textword Press (mostly because they are freaking expensive, and I'd rather loan them to people who need them and keep them just in case). My art series (Look at Me), my kid's science readers (not text books), lots of picture books, etc. I have a great wide middle I will probably eliminate of old used books we picked up to fit a need. What I'd like to do is replace some of my thrifty paperbacks with more library quality books...

Laundry (I am essentially caught up -- just the stuff hanging outside (raining hard today, so it's not going to be dry). Pack up the remaining empty boxes (once those are done... I can't do any more until we buy more!) Trip to the dump (getting rid of some major trash) Kids continue cleaning up the toy area (sorting all of the bins of things we've collected that weren't put away the first time) Bathroom Cleaning Send off NCAA paperwork (done) Get some of the furniture sent to it's new homes! ETA: Ran out of packing tape... surprised my hubby by selling our European Treadmill for $250 in less than 10 minutes (he wanted to sell it for $50). My goal is to sell off about $3,000 worth of stuff (I am giving some away free, and haven't yet touched the school and miscellaneous books, and we haven't gotten to the toys or camping gear, either. Still so much to go!!) By next week, most of my downstairs furniture that is being sold will be gone. I still have a long way to go, though.

12 more boxes packed. At this rate, I'll be mostly done with my books tomorrow.

I think I'm opting out of Friday...well, I'd like to any how. Laundry Clean & Pack (we have people coming to buy furniture, so I kind of have to keep packing). Help DD with some college follow-up emails (proof read, help prioritize -- she has to write them, poor girl). Follow up with kids on school and chores. I already made lunch, and planned the weekend meals, and sent the shopping list to my husband...pray with me that he doesn't bring home DOUBLE the items we need. Spending time on my knees right now. We have two weeks to either get our rental approved or go through the pre-approval process on a mortgage and buy based upon what we can see online (a realtor would walk through the 4 properties for us on FB live feed, but still... I won't have seen it/walked through it/opened everything, etc.)

I've never had a problem doing this.

We've lived in areas with and without, but never one that cost more than about $20 a month (really got nothing for that) . Most of our issues were busy-body issues (we can see your trash can from the street, you have dead patches of lawn, you have towels hanging on your deck). It was irritating, because in all honesty, the neighborhood wasn't going to see values drop because of a trash can (it was on the back side of the house, btw), or pool towels hanging out back for a couple of hours, and grass can die (and shouldn't be fixed at the height of the summertime). The biggest issue we've ever had was with a neighbor who put up a big fire-engine red shed that was an eyesore (covenants did clearly stipulate that outbuildings have to blend/match the scheme of the house). As we are looking at housing now, we are looking in older areas without HOAs. I don't want them. I certainly wouldn't want one that was over $150 for gate maintenance. Now, if that included trash service, recycling service and other things, I might factor that in -- but in general, $150 for nothing? Nope.

I have purchased 3 sets of glasses for my kids through Zenni (glasses and prescription sunglasses), and one pair for my dh. I did buy the less expensive ones, but they work fine. Zenni didn't have any frames that would fit my prescription (or just didn't do my prescription). I just placed an order with 39dollarglasses for both a regular pair and a prescription sunglasses. They were buy one pair, get the 2nd at 50%. I suppose I'll see! (My regular pair was about $300, the sunglasses came through around $50.

A 13 yo who didn't need prodding.... I can dream! Even my fairly driven PonyGirl kind of went blah around 13-14. She started snapping out of it around 15, and was back to pushing hard at 16. Blondie turns 13 this summer -- and is definitely in this phase. And I think Boo is an early bloomer... as she seems to be approaching the blah/don't wanna/disappearing phase early (she and Blondie are near inseparable, and she has a bit of PokeMan's melancholy....she's already a bit of a bugaboo. Thankfully, PokeMan has started taking her under his wing and they are building a pretty sweet brother-sister bond.

Take DS to dentist (they are talking root canal -- he woke up on Saturday with throbbing, sharp pain that grew worse over the weekend -- went to the emergency sick call yesterday, no sign of infection, tests inconclusive, asked to come back today -- running tests again). Laundry (ugh) Get ready for the landlord's workers to show up and take stock of what needs to be done (they realtors want to show the place, but there is a serious lack of maintenance that's been done -- major landscaping (dead tree removal, bushes, fencing that's rotting, the outdoor kitchen roof rotting, the tile falling off the walls), so they are coming to make their list... because mine isn't good enough 😉 ). Continue packing and cleaning Swimming Movie Night (going to see Shazaam! -- going to miss the $4 movie tickets). Virtual House Hunting work (we have a list of 7 houses, going to make an actual list of the homes pros/cons to compare).

The young man sounds like he's been coddled (maybe I'm reading too much into the "mother allowed him to bail out of scouts" portion). But, there are elements of personality, and what motivates the child. Finding the motivation is the hard part -- but in dealing with my own malcontents, it takes listening and using their own words to guide/push them. The young man needs to be shown (led) to the correct conclusions by starting with (1) he is miserable because no one wants to be around him (2) Why does he think no one wants to be around him (most likely will say "I don't know"), and be guided through how he would feel IF situations (how would you feel if you went to a camping trip and you had to ... set up the tent yourself, do all of the cooking, do all of the clean up, etc. while Joey got to lay in his hammock?" Have you ever done anything like this? (kid will probably say "no" -- because kids like this, ime, tend to be REALLY not self-aware), so you would need to have specific examples at the ready. Role play situations where the young man can make a different choice. Set conditions -- not allowed to quit until X is accomplished, or X amount of time, etc. Set conditions for other rewards -- must volunteer at the food pantry X hours with a good recommendation from the supervisor (sometimes it means the parent has to go and volunteer, too -- not just drop off). before child can go to the amusement park or get a new game. My soon-to-be 13yo Blondie is a totally different kind of lazy than her soon-to-be 16yo brother, PokeMan. and Pokeman is wholly different from LEGOManiac, and PonyGirl. I nudged (pushed) a lot, and continue to do so -- but my pushing is borne from the following: Child without a plan has to follow my plan until they can articulate their own. Talk to the child regularly about what they like/don't like to help them learn to articulate their own plan. Research opportunities gleaned from discussions in #2 to help provide ideas/opportunities to help them discover their own plan (goal is to move child to learn how to research/discover their own opportunities, but at 13, this can be hard -- because they don't know what to look for). Create coursework/school opportunities to help them explore the things they feel they might be interested in. Reward their taking on challenges, finding things they are interested in with additional opportunities -- often which hinge on fulfilling responsibilities. Go over responsibilities to make sure child understands every part that is required. It is not enough to say "the kitchen is clean" -- because that leaves too much room for interpretation of the word "clean." Detailed checklists -- including specifics about supplies & tools to be used -- are very helpful. Continue building upon previous conversations, checking in with responsibilities/opportunities how things are going, what they like/don't like -- adjust as necessary and continue moving forward. There are no easy answers here. And remember, 13-15 year olds are dealing with a lot emotionally they often can't articulate. Frustration at not being allowed to do adult things they feel they are old enough to do... increased responsibilities they don't want because they still want to be a kid... often new romantic feelings/bodily reactions sometimes they might not even realize are normal... not having the vocabulary to deal with any of this... feelings of shame, confusion (they don't want to admit), insecurities, lack of control -- all of which can come out as anger. When we've reached points with each child entering this phase, I've pulled each one aside into a private space and laid down rules for engagement. At times, it has also included a journal to write down all of that (knowing I would not read it). My soon-to-be 16yo is finally on the other side of that mess (still needs a proverbial 2x4 to the head now and then, but so much better). But in the middle of it -- there were angry, tear-filled moments of poor-me-isms, and this notion that he should be able to do whatever he wanted without any consequences (said much less politely...) I have many rambling thoughts about this -- because I've been through it differently with 3 kids, and have #4 to deal with next.

Honestly, it's not just sports -- I run into so many families whose parents have no clue about the college search in general. They rely on school Guidance Counselors and their kids to "do" this. When the parents here want to know things about SAT/ACT/PSAT, college apps, researching college, AP classes, whether to take AP Chem or Honors Physics, AP Stats or AP Calc,, etc., recruiting for swim, etc -- I'm the go-to. The GC at the school basically say, "let me know if you need a rec for the college of your choice" and that's where it dies. Numbers of non-athlete kids go to colleges with bad fits, don't have major areas of interest, or are just not prepared for college life in general. The sports angle makes it much more complicated -- but the lack of education about college attendance in general is woefully poor (even among homeschool families -- as this could be expanded to the myth that going to CC for 2 years is always cheaper, or that CLEP will guarantee you graduate college early, or all colleges are equal, or fill in with whatever other myth we face on a regular basis). Most of my kids (it seems) will probably attend lower-tier schools in the honors colleges -- not because they can't get into more highly respected institutions, but because they prefer school X over school Z and/or the cost to attend at school X is wildly lower than the cost to attend school Z, even with the most generous scholarship offered by the school. Just like everything -- we have to share our experience and our knowledge with those around us. It's frustrating to repeat yourself again and again -- mostly because I had to figure out a lot for myself (and when I couldn't find answers... ask). I suppose that's why I insist my kids look for answers to what they don't know or don't understand instead of just telling them (age-appropriately, of course). So many people don't realize what they don't know, and/or don't know how to find the answers themselves to so many BASIC things.

Sounds like our visit to UA in 2017. It just went on and on... our whole family went, and the then 8yo was beyond worn out at the end of the tour. Oldest DS loved the school (much more than UT-Austin). DD hated it.

Laundry (going after it hard today -- all this packing has me finding lost socks and miscellaneous things that have been "stuffed", washing spare sheets in preparation for moving/storage), blankets, etc.). I'm limited by how much I can hang, as drying 1 set of sheets is a 6 hour job. Excited about having a real washer and dryer again in 8 weeks. More books. I have a very large growing pile of school and other books that I'm going to start listing for sale (see what I can get sold/given away and gone in the next 6 weeks). Furniture "to sell" list (excel spreadsheet with items being sold/given away, who is buying and cost (this is worth about $1k to us... so I want to do it right!! We need that money to help get our dog home)/ School (ongoing) Kitchen clean up Yard clean up Bathroom clean up My landlord's workers are coming tomorrow and over the course over the next several weeks to get the yard and house things fixed so the house can be shown. Kicking the packing/cleanout into high gear!