Trying to come up with a physical activity that we could do together as a family, I came up with cycling. A friend gave me a bike (a GT All Terra Mountain Bike). DH just brought home his new bike this afternoon. DD13's bike is in the shop getting fixed up. DS11 got a new bike today. DS11's old bike is in the shop getting fixed up for DS6. DD3 has a new bike, but we're planning on getting a trailer for her to ride in when we all go together. Here are the questions: 1) Is there a good way to condition for bike riding, or is it just go and you'll eventually be able to ride for longer distances? 2) How do you sit on the bike without your bottom hurting? The bike that was given to me has a wider than normal seat and gel cover, and it still hurts like heck to sit on. 3) Same with hands. Mine don't like supporting my weight leaning over to grab the handle bars. Does that come with time as well? I haven't ridden a bike in about 25 years, and it shows. Thanks for being so nice as to not laugh at me. :blushing:

I washed half the dishes. Then DH came home with his new bike, so we went out on our first ride together. It was a whopping 2.16 miles, and I'm toast.

I LOVE donuts. It's hard to stop after just one or two or three or four... I LOVE Extreme Chocolate Moose Tracks ice cream made into milkshakes with a bit of peanut butter. Yum! However, I am plagued with occasional lactose intolerance. It's only occasionally so I haven't given it up yet. I'm currently in an intolerant phase so I bought some Digestive Advantage. It saved me from the horrid painful cramps when we had the above described milk shakes last night. :drool5: Since ice cream is sometimes painful, I chose donuts.

Goats could be useful. Fortunately, these are pretty easy to pull, and I got the most densely covered area done today. The Catchweed Bedstraw left a nice rash on my arm. I'm glad I washed it right away and applied Benedryl. After a shower, the rash is hardly noticeable. But I remember next year to be sure to wear long sleeves pulling the stuff. The other stuff I'm pulling is hawkweed or oxytongue or something like it.

I pulled another wheelbarrow full of weeds in the backyard. It's in a pile in the backyard because my yard bin is full.

1:45pm here... I finished blowing the back deck. The more I use the blower, the fewer fir needles and seed cones in my house. I considered blowing the roof, but chickened out. I'm too afraid of heights and am afraid I won't be able to get down. (There's a spot where my roof and my back deck are only about four feet apart, but I really am afraid of heights.) I filled our large, deep wheelbarrow full of weeds twice. We have weeds in our backyard that easily grow over 4 feet tall and another that is like a vine. I only pulled about a third of the weeds. Next up is a shower...because my feet are black despite wearing socks and shoes. I need some kind of work boots.

12:30pm here... Cleaned out the car Vacuumed the car Cleaned the inside glass of the car Wiped down the plastic of the car The inside of the car is clean! :hurray: Blew all of the fir needles and seed cones off the driveway and the neighbor's driveway. Started to blow the back deck clean but got distracted by the yellow spotted millipede I found. It is now in an old goldfish bowl we have. After putting it in there (no I didn't touch it or let the kids touch it), I found it what it was. I loved bit of information: "Like most animals that bite, sting, taste bad or smell bad, yellow-spotted millipedes have a warning coloration. The bright yellow spots on a black background serve to warn potential predators..." except homeschooling moms with four children.

The first half of your story would have had me livid. I would have definitely lodged a formal complaint and possibly gone to the media about it. (I think more of these horrid stories need to be told.) The second half of your story had me laughing. They definitely deserved that!

DD13 is feeling much better with two doses of amoxicillin in her. I think I'll try to be up and tackling today. Make and eat breakfast Wash dishes from yesterday Vacuum the car before it starts raining Pull some of the tall weeds in the backyard (before rain) Lunch Assign state history Find DS11's math book Pick up and vacuum living room Pick up and vacuum school room (assigned to DS11) Pick up and vacuum master bedroom Have the big kids pick up and vacuum their rooms Vacuum hard floors and mop Dinner Clean my "home office" space Work on last two boxes in school room Work on summer schedule Work on boxes in master bedroom Work on Motivated Moms list I really need to get to where I'm vacuuming the whole house every day. The spot on treatment for fleas did nothing, and my dog has flea allergy dermatitis. It's miserable for both the dog and us. He bites, scratches, and licks 24/7.

I am extremely unmotivated and haven't left the couch for anything other than bathing the dog. The poor thing has flea allergy dermatitis, and nothing we've tried gets rid of the fleas. I figured a bath with hydrocortisone shampoo would get rid of the ones one him at the moment and give him some relief from the itching. The only problem with that is that he hates water, baths, or getting wet in any way.

Sort of. With 30 days notice, we wrote a letter to the bank telling them we wanted to hand over the deed in lieu of foreclosure, meet with a rental company and signed a lease, and moved 30 minutes away. It was the best thing we've ever done. (We had healthy and safety issues with where we were living.)

Another possibility would be to pack prepared ingredients ahead of time to be assembled at the campground.

Showered, dressed. Cooked and ate breakfast. DD13 and I had smoothies. Everyone else got eggs with spinach and sausage. Called dentist and doctor. DD13 has strep throat and ear infections. We just got home from the doctor's office and pharmacy. She's taken her antibiotics, and I sent her to bed. She says she didn't sleep well last night, but doesn't want to take a nap. I told her to take a nap anyway. I called the dentist. No, their appointment wasn't for 8am. It doesn't matter now. They don't even want me to bring the healthy kids on Wednesday. Have to call and reschedule four appointments. Still don't know what I'm going to do next. I guess I'll take the day as it comes and see what needs to be done and what I feel like doing.

Woke up with DH telling me DD13 needs to see the doctor today. She woke up with a sore throat bad enough that she was in tears. She has no other symptoms, no fever. The doctor's office phones open at 8:30am. I'm going to try to be one of the many who call as soon as they open. They are a 40 minute drive away. Ugh, but we love and trust our pediatrician. Second item on the list to tackle is called the dentist and ask if I really scheduled my children's dental appointment for Wednesday 8am. I never schedule appointments that early. What was I thinking! If I really did, then I need to figure out who to get DD's wires out of her braces before the appointment and put back in after the appointment. I'll figure out what else to do after those are tackled.

I have a gifted underachiever. Fortunately, she is also obedient and does what she is told to do. I've had several people suggest I take her to a used curriculum store or sale or the homeschool convention and let her pick her own curriculum.

I tackled Saturday but finally getting legally qualified to homeschool in my state. This required sitting through a $90, 3-hour class that explained to me the homeschool law which I've already read, already know, and can read again on my own anytime I wish. But hey, I have a certificate now. I also bought three new games at the convention, and we played each of them so I could show the family how to play them.

Welcome Doodlemom! Melinda, it sounds like you have a lot on your plate. I haven't been hear all day because I tackled the homeschool convention. I went there hoping to listen to a few seminars and buy a few workbooks for the littles. The vendor I needed wasn't there, so I ended up sitting through a few seminars, buying an Apologetics curriculum that I've never heard of, and buying a game I've never heard of. I go back tomorrow for the home qualifying course because after 8 years of teaching my kids at home, I'm not yet legally qualified to do so. My husband has to sign our Declaration of Intent. After tomorrow, I'll be able to sign the intent. LOL

I'd only consider it if it was a full first aid and CPR course. My DD is doing their online class for $20, then I'm going to find her a CPR class to take separately.

We've finished dinner. Rebooted laundry Washed the dishes. Swept the kitchen, dining room, hall, and entry.

Worked on the school room a little bit more. It's almost all put back. Walked to the park with the kids. I jogged a 1/3 mile loop while there. On the way home, we took a detour on the way back to look at the new frisbee golf course. The round trip walk for me (pushing DD3 in the stroller) ended up being 2.13 miles. It poured on us part of the way home so our grilled steak dinner is now going to be a broiled steak dinner.

I know that feeling. It looks like you got quite a bit of your list done though.

Finished math with DS11. Did quick trip to grocery store. Made two batches of playdough (pink and blue). Washed a load of dishes, put away those dishes, washed the rest of the dishes. Assigned cleaning bathroom mirror, sink, and counter top to DD13 before she leaves for a friend's house.

I made my bed. I printed the convention's speaker schedule and printed my curriculum lists for each child so I know what to buy. I also hunted down and printed a couple of emails that have information I'll need tomorrow and Saturday. I printed a recipe for kool-aid playdough so we can finally make it after nap time today. I gave the kids their state history assignments, which they completed. DD13 also did her math work. I pulled the cloud dough out for the littles to play with. When they were done, I had them change clothing. It appeared that they wore it instead of played with it. Because of the mess, I also swept the kitchen, dining room, hall, and entry way. I finished yesterday's math because DS11 had to finish without me. I needed to catch up before we could do today's math. I worked on the school room reorganization. The little's school stuff was on a small multi-media shelf in the dining room. It got put into it's new place with the rest of the school stuff. Then I put the paperbacks that were temporarily stored on a window sill into the multi-media shelf. I mostly cleared the dining room table, leaving only stuff that needs to be there for now. I started a load of laundry. I put dirty dishes into the sink to soak. I assigned making lunch to DD13 and ate lunch. It's nap time now. Nap time means math time.

LOL...especially when the doughnut place gave you 18 for the price of 12. Some days, just getting dressed feels like a big accomplishment.

It's 10:12am and the only thing I've done is eat a doughnut and check Facebook, email, and WTM. Today's priorities are: Get ready to attend the homeschool convention tomorrow. I want to print or write out the schedule of seminars I want to attend and print a list of items I might want to buy, with expected prices so I don't overspend. Make kool-aid playdough for the littles. I've been promising to do this for three days. Today, I intend to follow through. Finish cleaning up the mess I made in reorganizing the school room yesterday. Do math with DS11 and assign map work for state history. General cleaning and cooking.