JULY is Already Upon Us

In our household, the month of July is comparable to the month of December in both festivity and overwhelming craziness. December brings D's birthday and all the endless Christmas preparations and celebrations. July brings a trail of birthday celebrations to plan for (B's, DH's, my mom/dad/brother's), DH's annual family reunion for the 4th of July weekend, and our yearly trip down to Martha's Vineyard with my FIL. Not to mention trying to cram every possible moment outdoors while the weather is nice. But this year is different. This summer brings the added challenge of preparing for our homeschool year, which is scheduled to begin early August. At times I feel as prepared as I'll ever be, while on days like today I feel like I'm in over my head. I still have to:

* Organize, decorate and clean the living room, which we'll be using as our "schoolroom".
* Put together a handful of "activity bags" and finish making file folder games/ felt board pieces which will mainly be used for B's preschooling and to keep him busy while I'm working with D.
* Put the finishing toches on my Teacher's Notebook in order to have it workable and functioning in time for school. I'm ALMOST there :)
* Place my final order from Rainbow Resources and shop the back-to-school bargains when they start to stock up on supplies.
* Work on my menu plans to try to figure out a way to reduce our astronomical weekly grocery bill.
* Wrap B's gifts, figure out what type of cake to make him for his "robot" birthday party, make lists of what to bring to MV, call friends to see if they'll come over while we're gone to feed our cats.
*Get off the computer and stop making lists when I could be downstairs accomplishing something!!

I have to remind myself that this is *only* Kindergarten and that everything that is really important has already been planned and is set to go. The rest is just finding the time to create all the supplemental activities I have in mind, decorate my bulletin board and walls with all the fun educational stuff I've collected over the months, and to relax so I can enjoy the summer while it's here.