If I Ran My House Like I Run My Home Business, What Would It Look Like?

1. I would be mission driven.
2. I would not give up.
3. I would have a sense of urgency.
4. I would be able to discern between income-producing activities and time wasters.
5. I would take responsibility for communicating clearly.
6. I would be courteous.
7. I would establish efficient systems.
8. I would show up consistently.
9. I would celebrate success.
10. I would have clearly defined goals that are broken down into specific, daily, measurable tasks.
11. I would have a budget.
12. I would have a servant's heart.
13. I would try to continually improve.
14. I would seek out the best people for my team.
15. I would innovate.
16. I would lead by example.

Latin for Lunch

The "play" at left is Perseus and Medusa...the classic tale brought to life in the adorable Minimus: Starting Out in Latin curriculum from Amazon. Just to keep my boys' brains engaged and fully functional this summer, we are learning Latin...one chapter a week each of the 12 weeks of Summer.

My main goal is to improve their English vocabulary, have fun and keep them busy! Nearly 2/3 of the English language has heavy Latin influence...so learning the Latin roots can really empower your verbal skills. Little did I know that in going through the curriculum, we'd learn other language skills as well such us gender AND that the curriculum is actually based on a REAL FAMILY that lived just south of Hadrian's wall in Great Britain in the year 100 A.D.. To see an actual Roman birthday invitation, real artifacts like dishes, and to learn cool cultural things like how the Romans ate lying down propped up on their left elbow make it fascinating and fun!

Our strategy has been to listen to the audio during lunch each day and do the related activities right after we eat. It's been so successful that even my 4 year old has been asking for Latin for dinner as well!

2nd Grade End of Year Party!

Okay, the picture simply does not do this Swiming Pool Cake justice! My 4-year-old and 8-year-old boys and I had so much fun making it together. The pool really is blue jello and the "steps" in the pool (faintly visible on the left side of the pool in the photo) totally happened by accident. The little swimmers are gummy bears and they are using fruit roll-ups as towels and gummy rings as intertubes. We followed the instructions at http://baking.about.com/od/familybaking/a/swimmingpoolcak.htm?p=1. Clearly, I must have cut the pool a bit too deep because the first batch of jello leaked right through...ACK!...except for a very thin jello border on the bottom of the pool. No worries. We just chilled it in the fridge and then tried again. And the second time worked perfectly! The first leak created a cool blue border around the whole cake that worked out just fine. PLUS, it was delicious!

The cake helped set the tone for a fun 2nd grade end of school year party last week! We created sand art bottles (67 cents/bottle from Hobby Lobby plus the different colors of sand) and decorated summer journals in hopes that they will actually continue to write during the summertime! We also played summer-themed hangman with words like waterskiiing, vacation, ice cream cone, sandals, and more! The kids had a blast and I had fun trying out something new!