So, I've Neglected the Blog all Summer.....s

 So I have seriously neglected this blog.

I'm so sorry.  It's been too much fun hanging outside, taking the kids to the lake, swimming with friends in their lake community and just plain having fun.  Never mind the fact that I do ALL my blogging straight from the iPad....  I said never mind that!  It's so hard to sit and fool around on this when I could be lounging in the hammoc for an hour reading a book while the monsters run and play.

There's lots of stuff to catch up on now.  The last week in July, I plan to wrap up the summer in a picture post.  That is, if I can find time between VBS, baking cakes for VBS and whatever other craziness will ensue!

For now I'll stick to some of the less exciting stuff.  

We decided what kind of schedule to keep for the school year.  It's pretty darn flexible, if I do say so myself.  It's called Sabbath Schooling.  No, we’re not adopting the Jewish faith, though how honored we would be if we were God's chosen lineage!  Sabbath Schooling is based simply on God's commandment to keep the Sabbath holy.  Of course, school on Sundays never crossed our minds!  This is simply a model schedule where you do 'scheduled learning' for 6 weeks and take the 7th off.  I adapted it to give us a week off at thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.  Because I'm awesome.  Here's why:

1. It's flexible.  We can use our week off to catch up at a leisurely pace.  We can kick our feet up and do nothing.  We can leave town.  If life happens I have several weeks to trade off if needed.  I suffer migrains and occasional depression, with this schedule, I'm ALLOWED to stop and take a day off, knowing I can alter the school year easily.  
2. It gives us a break from scheduled learning to do whatever we want. Say that Batman gets fascinated with something outside of our lesson plans.  Like trains or robots.  We can do some laid back learning based on robots.  We will be doing all kinds of informal learning on breaks and over summer.
3. Because I want to!  I need a break from monotony sometimes.
4. Lastly, I'm HORRIBLE at keeping house.  During school time I imagine it will only get worse.  This will give me a week every so often to catch up.  Theoretically.  Don't tell Prince Charming.  I'd rather he be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.  Heehee.

Here's a planner I built using various printables online.  

Yes, we're starting August 5th. Almost two weeks earlier than our local school.  But we're getting done May 5th. I always thought it was cruel to lock kids up in classrooms in May.  It's too pretty!  Plus they're still recovering from winter cabin fever.  I mean, come on!!  I found this printable here.

Here is an awesome page from another free printable I found. It's a homeschool planner.  I use WET erase markers and page protectors.  The salesman actually asked my husband who still used wet erase markers. But dry erase are always getting wiped off.  I tried, hard!!  This includes a cover page,  an academic plan, a daily plan page, a quarterly plan,  and kid pages.  The kid pages are to aid in goal setting, and planning.  You can find it here.

YOU'VE GONE WHAT?!?!

Yeah, I've gone POO FREE. Poo stands for shampoo not poop, lol!  I still clean my hair regularly, just not as often. Shampoo, even the high dollar, safe, natural and organic stuff, is bad for your hair.  It strips it off desperately needed oils.  Then coats it in waxes and silicones. Yes, they give your hair a false sense of health, making it all silky soft to the touch.  Really though, it's simply covered in junk.  People with unhealthy hair (aka dyed, processed, permed, relaxed etc) may notice that their hair feels awful if they go poo free. There's no build up on it to hide the damage they've done.

So I haven't used 'poo in about a month or two.  My hair is still in the transition stage so it feels a bit oily.  But it is feeling much better. It has natural texture to it.  When you're 'poo free, you should only need to wash your hair 2-3 times a week (water rinsing daily, between washings is good though!).   The day I wash it it looks like I've put a little good quality pomade or hair wax in it.  The next day it feels about the same, but has fuller body.  The third day it has a luxurious beachy feel to it.  I usually wash it with baking soda that day or the next morning.  

Before going 'poo free:

This style took an hour to fix and three different styling products to achieve.

One week 'poo free:

It's pulled back in a messy bun.  Great style for the transition period!  This took a little hair spray and maybe 5 minutes.  

1-2 months poo free:

This my hair today.  Its the best its been since starting.  It took two minutes, and a dab of coconut oil to tame flyaways.  I washed it with baking soda and rinsed with apple cider vinegar.  Both were diluted in water.   Here is the best resource I've seen yet.

Another biggie for me. I'm going healthy.  Again.  But it's different this time.  I set a real concrete goal.  My Prince Charming is whisking me away to Kansas City for our anniversary, over Labor Day weekend.  I have that long to loose 18 pounds.  I started July 2nd at 161.  Shut up!  I KNOW that's only five pounds away from when I was pregnant with the batman and an additional THIRTY STINKING POUNDS over weight.  I KNOW!!!!  But guess what!  Last night I weighed in at 156.  I have lost 5 lbs in less than a month!!  Take that ye non believers!  

I took this the day before I weighed in.  I was headed out to a movie with my bestie ;). Oh, and a poo free note:  five minutes effort for this messy bun and no product.