S & T Thursday, 7/31

+Homeschool Update: I bought a planner on TPT and I'm kicking myself because apparently it's an Adobe file. I never would've assumed in the world of Google that a file could not be uploaded and copied into Google Drive like everything else I've downloaded in the last 5 years. Anyway, I messaged the seller and she told me I could upload it into Google but (I'm pretty proficient in Google Drive and) that didn't work. So I gave up and I'm watching my $6 circle the drain on that impulse buy.  There was a lot of fluff with it and it was pretty for sure but I was also looking for efficient and useful...So I made my own. If I was making my own spreadsheet lesson planners in 2010 in Excel, I can do it now, right? 

The key to being efficient, I've learned in the last couple of years, is just keeping everything organized* and in one place, so the tabs at the bottom for the weeks is useful.

My plan is to start August 11th because that's the week school starts here but I can absolutely see why homeschool parents are like "eh, we'll do whatever". With the weather being what it's been the last week or so, my motivation is less than zero. 

*the state of my Google Drives (plural), hard drive, and desktop would probably argue with me using the word "organize".

+I've been following some instagram accounts about how most of the grocery store is just non-food products masquerading as food. Very little of the grocery store is "real" food at this point. Anyway, we are definitely more of an ingredient household, save for some chicken nuggets and Annie's mac and cheese....but I asked Sutton to pick out applesauce the other day (usually I buy unsweetened pouches) and she picked this out of all the colorful boxes and pouches and I was so thrilled that she wanted the one with actual apples on it...that I didn't notice it was "sweetened" until we got home. 

+My strategy for going to the pool at this point is to go at 6:00pm, after dinner. It's a mile away and closes at 8:00pm. There's no sunburn, don't have to take snacks, not very crowded. I do think it's insane that I pay for all of us to swim for like 90ish minutes but we wouldn't be there much longer than that anyway because Sutton is a toddler. 

I did not buy a membership this summer because, while it's not impossible to take two non-swimmers to the pool by myself, it's not carefree. Wells can't swim but is self-sufficient enough. He jumps and slides and goes under the water and plays with whoever he can find. 

Sutton is much braver than Wells ever was at 3, but obviously can't swim (last year she wouldn't even ENTER the pool so this is a win). I'm convinced exposure, not just lessons, is the key. They both love it but it's a lot of work to watch them. She's also not allowed to have a vest that isn't a special type and I wasn't paying $50 for it for a few weeks so she's learning to be independent without it. Wells became too reliant on the vest in the last couple of years so we're trying a different approach. 

Either way, the pool closes when school starts, which is a shame because it'll be like the surface of the sun here til mid-September (they'll be open weekends only til Labor Day). 

So, next summer will be the year for a membership starting at Memorial Day. 

ZERO-ENTRY is the key. I'm convinced that makes the difference here. 

^^That's just a snapshot into my overwhelmed brain this summer. 

+I have a summer bucket list that I did write and I didn't share because I never share goals in advance...some deep-seeded fear of failure, I'm sure...but here's one: plant flowers. I'm terrible at gardening but I like planting flowers every summer and it was very easy to make that happen here. I never planted any in Missouri this year since we started this lease in Kansas in mid-June (even though we still have the house in Missouri). 

That giant crack in the driveway is Not Our Problem and I love that. (home ownership has really gotten to us over the last few years)

Lastly: