Wondering what Mommy Homework is??? Each week you will have an “assignment” here to share in our comments here on this site. You will love this-both sharing AND enjoying answers by others. Some of them, I compile into an ebook (contributors can resell as a product of their own–be sure to submit your email and full name when you register so I can credit you appropriately!).
The result is AWESOME!
We get to know each other…we are encouraged in our journey…and we glean super ideas from other great moms!
Ready for this week’s MH? This is going to be a good one!
Remember all of those times when you went “back to school” and your teachers would assign that “infamous” essay topic? Yep! THAT TOPIC: “What did you do on summer vacation.” No, that is not your assignment for Mommy Homework. However, let’s jump off of that idea for this week’s assignment.
This time of the year can be a very productive, prolific, successful time of the year. It can influence your entire year. What we do in this season completely determines what we will accomplish in the next season.
So, let me ask you a good, probing question:
What are YOU doing on Summer Vacation?
Are you doing those things that you have put off? Are you letting it slip by? Will you dare to go for those dreams and put them into your daily calendar? What are you doing today that will make the next season all Christ has planned for you?
Share your answers. Dig in. Let’s get real. Let’s make this Summer the very best ever!
Have fun! 
DIG IN!
Love ya!
Cindy
PS! Please remember to use your real name if you want credit for your Mommy Homework Credit. 
PPS! You CAN just share and not participate in Mommy Homework, BUT I would LOVE for you to get some goodies along the way!
PPSS! Want to check your credit? Here is the newest update: http://www.talk-a-latte.com/ebooks/MommyHomeworkCredits.pdf
PPPSS! If you are new, all you do to share your MH is first register (see the link on the bottom of the page–scroll all the way to the very bottom), then log in with your name and password that you select. Share away!
PPPSSS! Want to redeem your credit? Read our instructions here: http://www.cindysdesktop.com/?cat=81 (Remember–Mommy Homework Credit must be used at full retail. UHSE is $99.95 at full retail, but on sale at this link if you want to buy it now!)
Deadline–Friday at midnight CST.
“Summer vacation”, use to mean a break from school, studies, activities etc…, but since we started homeschooling and made the decision to homeschool in some form year round “summer vacation” just means that everyone around us is at home more than usual.
As for the family here is home the summer breaks down:
Mommy: Bible Study on Mondays (what a treat!!), planning for fall events, and putting together VBS for church.
Daddy: Busy Season getting ready for multiple car shows not only for his customers but himself..
Kids: lots of play dates with neighbor kids that can play now, review time in school, end of the year sorting (garage sale time…), VBS, and camping with grandparents at some time.
As a family we attend several festivals during the summer months including the annual Elephant Garlic Festival, a Civil War Re-Enactment, and Local Harvest Festival. We are also participating in a home schoolers Outdoor School in September that will be alot of fun..
One family goal for the summer is to purge out the house and simplify things. (we have 2 large community garage sales we participate in to get rid of stuff…)
I’m spending my summer getting caught up on listening to all of my Cindy talks that I’ve downloaded! I listened to Dare to Dream, and God reminded me of my dream to write about our journey with our son’s heart defects. It’s been on my heart to write it since the beginning, and he’s 11 now. I waited, because I did not want my son to be labeled “the boy with heart defects”. Now, his personality is well established and he’s firmly “Seth” :). SO, I’m listening to Cindy on Writer’s Radio Show, learning as much as I possibly can about marketing and writing.
All this while waiting for my son’s next open heart surgery scheduled for July 22. God is good, and we’re still looking and asking for another miracle!
This is a summer to remember!
Kim Ehlers
My hubby loves to go places in the summer, so I have been taking advantage of the time spent in the car (while he plays his music LOUDLY lol) to listen to some of the downloads I have been getting as freebies on behemoth.com and from the USHE last year (still saving up for this years :). The result has been incredibly enriching. I feel more able to defend my faith, more ready to handle each day’s aggravations and worries. I have spent more time in my Bible and in prayer! I really feel like I have been growing this summer in my walk with the Lord.
I have also been using this time to prepare school things for next fall (we school in the summer too, but much less intensely). I have really been lead to pare back down to basics. We have been using a set of the McGuffy readers my mother gave me as our reading this summer, as well as reading some classics together out loud.
Getting my homeschool in line with my worldview, and seeking a vision for my family, are my goals for the rest of my summer. I can’t wait to get to family camp (our churches) in August and see what else God has in store for me!
Thats a great question as I can’t believe that it is already July. The summer is flying by like crazy. We had a lot of things that we would have liked to have done as a family but with the way the economy has been it makes some of them impossible. That brings us to what we are doing. We have a homestead that has been our never ending and ongoing project for a while, so we’ve been busy doing what we can with that. We planted two huge gardens this year as I had plans of preserving lots of food. Well we have gotten quite a bit from them and thats a blessing, but with our drought worsening across southern Louisiana its been horrible for gardens and crops for that matter. On the brighter side though I have gotten to can and dehydrate a lot of veggies and we’ve eaten a lot too. This has saved us a lot of money at the dreaded grocery store. We have a pool that we keep up for the grandkids and kids so its like a mini vacation walking out the back door and out to the pool deck, which we enlarged as one project. I care for my two grandsons daily and that keeps me busy and running as they are five and seventeen months. Love it tremendously though. I have taken what down time I can scrape up to try and reevaluate my daughters curriculum this year. She is entering into the freshman year and has asked that I go back to developing my own curriculum. I have to say up until this point I wasn’t nervous but highschool makes me nervous. I will be reading Cindys info on this a time or two or six. I know we can do this with Gods guidance. I know this will consume some time. While my husband has spent a great deal of time in our workshop playing with welding equipment and building brushhogs, I have tried to steal some time to play in my shop and paint bird houses, I love to brighten up our yard and anyone elses with bird houses. I also have another project that I have taken on that has a life of its own and is never the same any given day. Thank goodness I live rather remotely is all I can say but I love wildlife with a passion, for that matter all animals and have always been the surrogate that gets called or where things will show up so I was called to be mama to two one day old raccoons whose mother was killed. Nicco and Emmy are a fun project though. This will last well beyond Summer and this is the third and fourth raccoons we’ve raised. This is a rewarding, as well as educating and fulfilling experience. They are now 10 wks old and busy toddlers. So this is our summer at home but busy every day, my family and projects are blessings and I am worn out at the end of the day thats for sure.
This summer vacation has proven to be a challenge. I am pregnant and expecting in 3 weeks. The temperatures are way into the 100s, which limits my outdoor activities. The garden that we planted has barely been surviving the heat. That was my plan for the summer, put away veggies grown in the yard. God had other plans. I have swelling in my feet and back pain that has really slowed me down and made me change my plans.
So, the change of plans have led to more time inside, sitting with my children, reading and doing crafts. They have enjoyed the extra attention and I feel like it was God’s plan for me to have this time with the children before their new sister arrives. We have been studying our Indian heritage and their customs. We have made corn husk dolls, painted pots, done lots of reading, made Indian clothes, etc. It has been very educational and totally against “my plan”. I am learning what Cindy has talked about multiple times “God has his plan for the education of our children”. I am learning to allow that to happen because it is more productive in the end than any plan that I could have had.
Enjoy summer and time with your sweet ones!
Katrina
We were supposed to visit family on the East Coast, but unfortunately, had to postpone the trip. Hopefully we’ll be able to go later in the Summer. Besides that, I’m preparing for the State Fair: I like to enter the baking contests. =)
This is also our first year with a little garden plot. We’re growing tomatoes, jalapenos, some melons, and I forget what else. They’re doing well so far!
What am I doing this summer? So far:
1) Cleaned out all files and shelves while listening to the UHSE and relistening to UWE.
2) Reading Children in the Hands of a Mighty Mom
3) Relistening to How To Pray by RA Torrey audiobook while puttering in the yard and garden.
4) Doing battle against grubs – not originally on the list – HA!
5) Playing lots of games with my girls.
6) Going on walks or hikes with my children several times a week. I’m getting in exercise and spending time with them at the same time.
7) Doing battle with my body and ignoring the experts! I think that much prayer and seeking has finally brought an answer. The hormone problems since I weaned my little Julie (2 1/2 years ago) are not because I’m perimenopausal or was elderly maternity. They are a symptom of low functioning adrenals and an uber-sluggish lymph system. So, doing lymph pumping exercises and changing my diet to include lots of coconut oil, cut out other oil, lots of building foods. I’m already feeling mentally clearer and having more energy. Now, to get the weight moving – but that will come. This is a huge summer project and I’m so glad I’m making myself go for it!
Still coming:
1) Praying for my family, one member at a time. Seeking our goals for the second half of this year and what I need to guide my children in developing as part of school and as part of preparing for God’s plans. (This one’s actually in progress.)
2) Trip to Alaska with my sweety (and not stressing over leaving the girls with my folks for a week – yikes!)
3) Road trip to Louisiana. Okay, it’s in September but we’re doing a delayed summer break this year so it’s still part of my summer.
OH, Boy! What have I been doing all summer so far? Trying to figure out the next year.
I am so torn on what to do or not do in school this year. I feel like I am being led to go a more relaxed route but that is so hard for me. I am trying to figure out what subjects or topics need to be done, which are higher up on the priority list and which ones need to move down.
It is hard to put it all together. You don’t want to do anything wrong, ya know?
It is frustrating…My husband is wanting us to arrange our routine around his which will make it a lot different. That is hard to submit to letting the kids stay up really late and sleep in late. It takes away the whole day. But I am trying to get more used to the idea. It is hard but I am trying. I am trying to get my house in order. I am trying basically to learn to relax but it is hard for me. I will continue to try to relax and start the new year right. Another thing I am going to do is really try to let the Lord lead me is school and chores, etc. So I think that will help.
I have learned that if I am constantly fighting against something, then it is probably not the Lords way. So I trying to learn to be more yeilding to the Lord and to my husband.
Rodna James.
Summer vacation, we have been in vacation mode here for awhile ;). Hubby has been laid off for awhile (wokring here and there but not steady things are tough in the area of the country) we have taken the kids to our local amusement park and our zoo. We have been doing lots of fishing because it is something we love to do as a family and lots of picnics, hiking and biking. We really are just spending lots of family time together.
I also have been getting all of our school stuff ready (we will be restarting around August 17) and LOTS of garden work. I have tons of canning to do as soon as the harvest is ready. We will also have lots of picking to do as soon fruit is ready around here for picking.
Next on the hit parade is planning my Christmas knitting and gift making!
Mary Damask