Vocation of Motherhood

Pretty soon we need to take our yearly inventory of school clothes for the boys' uniform purchases. In a way I dread going through the hall closet and finding out what we need. On the other hand I look forward to going down to St. Paul to Donald's, making the purchases and getting everything in order at home.

I absolutely love that the boys have required uniforms at school. It has decreased the back-to-school-stress about 99%. There's not a lot of variety when you purchase uniforms; yellow oxford shirts (usually two per child) and black dress pants (at least one pair, two pairs of pants if I find another on sale, and thrift stores always seem to have boys' black dress pants!). That's pretty much it. We may need some new belts and I'll probably get some new ties. I'm also debating about getting a teeny tiny yellow oxford for a little Mr. Somebody, just so he can take school pictures along with his big brothers. Shoes will probably be okay this year, as we invested in some new ones late last year. 

As far as school supplies go, I've spent under $20.00 on some good sales and feel like we are pretty much done! We have composition notebooks and so many other things leftover from last year that I'm not feeling that stressed about it. We will have the boys use their same backpacks from last year (I can't imagine the mentality behind getting a new backpack every year!). We have scored on some great backpacks from the Land's End outlet store. When you buy a monogrammed backpack or lunch box they offer an additional discount. It is extremely easy to take out the monogram.

When we received the school supply list, I told my oldest that we'll need to get school supplies together from last year to take an inventory- and I meant in the near future. He groaned about going back to school and went on his merry little way. About ten minutes later I looked over and saw that he had ALL of the school supplies set out on the dining room table! He had even started checking off the items we had. So all in all, I think they are looking forward to getting back into a routine as much as I am!

My proud little heathens looking quite the part. Beginning of school, 2009.

I'm slowly crawling out of my shell and trying to get back into blogging. I'm sure all two of the readers would like it! I'm not sure why I haven't made it more of a priority, but it's been on the backburner of my mind.

Summer is finally here and we are slowly getting into the swing (or the laziness) of summer. I just finished hanging clothes on the line (that's another post in itself), Tim just brought up a crappie he just caught, I have three of our littlest sleeping (how did that happen?). And Mr. Dreamy just left on a guys-only retreat up to Lake Vermillion to celebrate his Dad's 60th birthday. All the uncles will be there and he is so excited to be able to fish to his heart's content for four days!

Here are the biggest plans we have this summer:

Survive baseball for the oldest two (only three nights a week, better than last summer)

Pick strawberries (around Father's Day)

Have a fun rope-swinging party

Pick blueberries (around 4th of July)

Live at the pool most days

Really try this summer to do some freezer cooking, or at least more marinade/grill meals before we leave for the pool in the early afternoon...

Weed, weed, weed

Finish landscaping on the front part of our house

Mr. Dreamy gets to paint our garage

Get our front step completed (need to call about concrete)

Re-stain our deck

Plant grass seed

Go to Gooseberry Falls/Duluth for an overnight

Order Latin curriclum for two older boys

Prepare a summer read-aloud book list and a ideas about how to celebrate once we're done!

Collin last summer at the Dunsmore Family Farm.

• Kept six kids (not all mine) and an adorable baby occupied inside the house (mostly) during the rainy day
• Went on a walk when it wasn't raining...
• Rescued a baby turtle while on my walk
• On the way home, felt sad about the baby turtle's sibling that apparently didn't make it across the road
• Mopped the floor
• Scrubbed down the bathroom
• Put two loads of laundry away
• Made two meals of chicken and dumplings
• Made buttermilk biscuits
• Cleaned the Curious George tea set
• Got milk and other necessary groceries with two of the six kids in tow
• Started "Into Great Silence" and eventually had to escape it (although it's great, really!)
• Read about two pages of "O Pioneers!" before baby woke up
• Got the tote bags ordered for school (thanks to Dawn's inspiration)

Here is an update of our summer plans:

Spend almost every afternoon at the pool
Baseball practice twice a week
Landscaping
Put in the garden
Make reservation for one night in Duluth for this festival (we are so excited!)

Hope your summer is full of fun and excitement!

• Afternoons at the pool and on the river with the rope swing
• Spanish Camp
• Agate Day
• Blue Knights Feast
• Summer Reading Program @ the library
• Baseball
• Book club retreat
• Plenty of fishing
• Get-together with Tracy and her brood
• Old Tyme Country School
• Visit to Split Rock Lighthouse
• Native American Study (Iroquois Indians)
  
  • Create a longhouse 
  • Make a lapbook or other notebook
  • Craft Day with other families: make possible bags and water drums
  • Fieldtrip to NW Fur Post OR Mille Lacs Indian Museum
  • Celebrate with festival/children's presentations (building a teepee and canoeing!)

And around the house:

• Landscaping
• Finish painting the house
• Start staining the deck (I power-washed the porch tonight to get ready for book club next week!)
• Put up clothesline

Here is a sign of future things to come....