Last Day of August!

Wow! Here it is: the last day of August. The summer flew by. We accomplished alot for our souls and minds. We read many books, the queen and starbright completed their summer reading projects for school, I, mom, accepted a part time special ed job with the district, my hubby and the queen learned so much and grew spiritually on the missions trip, we enjoyed days at the lake, vacation at the beach house, visits and playdates with friends and time as a family relaxing, reading God's Word and just getting re-charged for the new school year. It truly does not seem possible that this is the weekend we close the camper, have our backyard bbq bash and begin to make the daily schedules. And speaking of schedules, I finally have a start to our daily one. It doesn't look too bad this year (so far). What helps is that the queen is no longer riding at the stables. She decided to stop taking riding lessons last winter due to homework papers and extra assignments in her honors classes. She also was not liking the part of being trained for shows. She still loves horses and will still ride for fun but.....no more costly tuition payments will be meted out each month and no more standing around a cold barn for me for 2 hours a week....yeah! I will miss it though, especially watching her do the jumps. But...she is on to other interests.
Here is a rough draft of our daily general schedule which will be in full swing starting Sept 10:

• 5:45: Dave in shower, the queen up, dressed, in bathroom, make bed, mom making coffee, eating breakfast, devotions
  
• 6:40- queen out the door with bookbag, cellphone, purse and violin on orchestra days, mom in shower, dave leaves for his commute
• 6:45- starbright up and dressed, breakfast, mom dressing, making beds, putting together dinner in the crockpot if needed, etc.
  
• 7:30- last min. stuff, kitchen straightened, starbright doing teeth, checking backpack, putting on shoes, mom prays for everyone's day
  
• 7:35- starbright and mom out to bus stop
• 7:45- bus better be on time!, mom leaves for work!
• noon- mom home, errands, quiet time, exercise, volunteer at starbright's school if needed, plan dinner/prepare dinner, housework, etc.
• 2:40- the queen is home unless taking the 4 pm bus home due to after school clubs; if home: snack, read for pleasure, mom checks planner, begin hw/study/practice violin
  
• 3:00- Starbright home, snack/read for pleasure, talk with mom, check planner
• 3:30- begin homework unless dance class day. In our school district, hw is not given for k-5 on fridays. hw load picks up once 5th grade begins. Starbright usually has daily math, reading, spelling and once a week social studies or science. 3rd grade will have more science research/projects and monthly book reports. Until Dec. she will have lots of playtime/free time.
  
• 5:00- Mom begins cooking dinner, girls do chores if homework done, or free time/play time
  
• 6:00- Dad home/dinner time
• 7:00- finish chores, or queen finishes hw, computer time if chores/hw done; church meetings/events/youth group small group; starbright practices piano if not a monday/free time
  

note: church events/classes/groups are done by 9 pm

• 7:30- Starbright in shower, reading, relaxing, mom & dad converse about day, etc.
• 8:00- Starbright reads, girls devotion time with mom
• 8:30- Starbright in bed, queen in shower
• 9:30- Queen in bed (well, that's the goal anyways!)
• 10:30-11 lights out for mom and dad!

whew....our daily schedule is full but flexible. We have decided as a family that we will not be doing as many church events this year. Our church has something for everyone, and is literally open every nite of the week. There are many classes and Bible studies to choose from, children's events and clubs, the teens have weekly life::groups (like adult small groups) for intense Bible teaching and once a month youth center activities plus once a month service project/community service activities. The adults have weekly classes and training workshops in various ministries or topical studies. Dave leads a junior high small group so he will be out every thursday evening from 6:45-9:15. the queen will have her life::group (senior high) on wed. evenings.
Days that we know have activities:

Mondays: Queen has Life Club (youth for Christ) at school from 2:30-3:30, late bus home
Starbright and mom to HizKidz Praise (drama/dance ministry for grades 3-8) at church from 6-7:30 (dinner will be earlier on mondays)
Wednesdays: Queen has life::group, 7-9 pm place to be determined
Thursdays: Dave has junior high life::group boys from 7-9 pm, place to be determined
Fridays: first one of month is Coffeehouse at church
2nd one of month is Family Movie Night at church
the queen will be allowed to go to certain high school dances during the school year
Starbright will sometimes have playdates, sleepovers, etc.
mom and dad will have occasional date nites or couples date nite at church
Once I hear from the dance studio I will know Starbright's schedule a little better and then we can plan her piano lessons around that. That is one good thing about homeschooling her in piano...I can choose an afternoon that has no other activities.
The queen will need to find out from the high school when Theater Club meets as well.
SO...my goal this weekend is to finish up major housework, plan out lunches on days that Starbright doesn't want to buy from the school menu, and just pray that next week runs smoothly! If we give the day over to the Lord, we will have much peace!