Disjointed notes from the last week of school

The last week of school is winding down. The kids finished most of this year's work a few weeks ago, anyway, so we've started on some of next year's work, or are doing supplemental things.

This morning we took some time out to clean their room. AJ is currently putting the Sesame Street library books in numerical order--that's good math practice.

Yesterday we glued various-colored lentils onto sketches of lizards, to represent scales. AJ is reading a book on the life of George Washington for history, and M&M is reading about various animals for science, along with finishing their textbooks for the year.

I'm still not feeling so great, due to allergies it seems.

The garden is coming along nicely. I ended up heaping the dirt along the sides of the paths, so that even where there are no wooden sides, all the beds are sort of "raised beds." That makes them quite a bit deeper, even on top of the hard earth and junk where the rototiller couldn't work up the dirt. We have about half of it planted, and plan to plant more this afternoon.

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While I work on the garden, hopefully the kids will play on the swingset. On Labor Day our friends the Malamute Rescuer Family came over. We had a wonderful relaxing time, and Malamute Rescuer Guy helped DH finish putting the swingset together.

RM family's three kids are close to our kids' ages. They played and played, running around outside most of the time.



Here's a picture of most of the kids during a rare quiet moment. The six of them get along so well. The four older kids even took turns well with the two swings.

My girls are enjoying the swingset a lot. But I had never realized that swinging had such a large learning curve. I had envisioned days of bliss in which the kids happily entertained themselves with the new swings. Independent play; that's the idea.

It hasn't exactly happened that way yet. Reality involves a lot more whining, fighting over who is going to ride which swing, begging to be pushed on the swings, getting frustrated trying to get ON the swings, and complaining that pumping with their legs is too much work and why can't I just stand there and push them on the swings all day?

Meanwhile, Baby E is whining to swing, too, but gets terrified as soon as she's actually on the swing (even in my lap) and wants down, only to start fussing again because she wants to swing like the big girls.

Part of the problem is that one of the two swings doesn't really go low enough for the girls. Hopefully once we get a swing with a longer chain and the kids get more used to it, they'll enjoy it more. There is a third spot with attachments but no swing. We're hoping to find a second-hand swinging seesaw or glider to hang there; something two kids can ride together. I think AJ and M&M would enjoy that a lot.

They do definitely enjoy the playhouse a lot. That and the yard itself have already made for hours of fun. I'm sure that once they get used to the swings (and get it into their heads that I can't spend all day pushing them, although I'm willing to oblige occasionally) the love-hate relationship they currently have with the swings will even out.

Our last day of school will be Thursday. I'm looking forward to the summer vacation. We have a couple of trips to the coast planned. That will be fabulous. Mostly, I'm planning to concentrate on gardening and getting the house decluttered and organized this summer. Right now I'm so tempted just to throw things into trash bags without more than a glance.

Is it worth all the time and energy to sort through it and decide what to keep and what to get rid of? Anything in the office, garage or the living/dining rooms must not be that important, because we've managed to get by without it for months anyway.

Mainly, I just haven't had a lot of leftover time and energy for sitting at the computer lately. Blogging may continue to be light, at least until I finish putting the garden in and make some headway on the house.

Baby E just brought me a doll and requested that I put help her put the doll in Baby E's crib, because the baby needed to sleep. "Baby Sleep! Crib, please? Baby crib. Sleep!"