Unexpected Summer

I had huge aspirations to continue to homeschool throughout the summer, with a lighter load of course, but to continue nonetheless.  One thing led to another, and somehow, three months later we haven't had school once.  While I was briefly tempted to be hard on myself about this, I got over it pretty quickly as I realized how the Lord has used our break to give me a fresh excitement for our new school year.

As far as the girls are concerned, we spent the summer playing, swimming almost every day, reading tons of books, getting together with friends, baking (and making lots of messes in the process)...   But behind the scenes I have been planning our curriculum and searching out the best deals on all the books we'll use this year - which are many.  I have frequented Half Price Books, The Book Cover, amazon, and ebay more than ever this summer - and have full bookshelves to prove it!  While I am certainly a big fan of the public library, there is just something about owning a plethora of books, not just any books, but wonderful, well-written books that you have searched for, to have available at anytime for your children.  (And for yourself as well - I've picked up a couple of classics this summer that I somehow missed in school and have loved them!)

Every time I walk into our school room and see the overflowing of books, I get giddy with the anticipation of beginning school again.  But for just one more "unofficial" week of summer, I plan to live it up!