Changing it up a bit

It has been so warm out the past week - the leaves are out in full force - everything has turned green and it is so beautiful - the mountains - everything - just incredible - it makes me dread winter - I am fine with the first snowfalls and Thanksgiving and Christmas but right after New Years- I am done with the snow and cold - so this year I am going to plan ahead so as not to be blindsided by it - as in some winter activities -but as of this moment - that is a ways away - Jess is coming out to pick up Barry at three today so Adrienne and I were going to take the kids over to Little Millers to get ice cream and take a drive around - I am planning on having the ladies over on either Friday at 5pm or Saturday at 5pm to sit outside on the back porch and soak in the sun and that incredible view - have some snacks - and visit after not seeing each other for so long - Rainey is going to her music teacher's house in Eagle River until the studio reopens - for one hour of singing and a half hour of piano on Thursdays at 3:30pm. School is out on the 21st- for the summer - they have not been going to the school itself but just that it is over for the summer - I have already done Rainey's ILP for next year and worked out what classes she wants to take pretty full days on Monday and Wednesday- right now I am plucking away at my 1,080 hours - that is 180 days of school for 6 hours a day- we got a bit behind over the winter with the holidays and what not - the cold, the dark, I just was not pushing it that hard- but then we got back in our groove and bam- we are accomplishing 3.5 hours 7 days a week until the 1st day of school and we will have it done - I have also taken out counting Art, PE and Music right now and focusing on the core subjects - right now we are involved in The Great Courses Plus - a course on Western Civ- 24 hours - each lecture is 30 minutes- really good - We also love Ted Ed- and Ted talks - and Khan Academy- we are almost done with our Switched on Schoolhouse math which is good because the new one got her yesterday -so I can load it anytime now-Rainey did her testing for the end of the year - 97% on her reading :) it is a bit different because it keeps giving her questions to see what she knows and she was all the way up into the 12th grade questions- then 86% on Language Usage - I think she was in 8th and 9th on those questions and then 70 % on math which is not bad but average- 50 is average and what they expect so 70 was good but we are focusing on getting that number up over the summer for testing the end of August - the testing site has  "Learning Paths" for areas that were a bit lower - so she does those a bit each day - we had a nice Mother's Day - I rode with Adrienne to Eagle River to get Barry at 11:00 am so she had him longer that day because normal pick up and drop off is at 5 pm on Sunday- Jordan and John were over for  a few hours in the afternoon - they all had an epic water balloon fight - Rainey got me an Alaska Chicks Sweatshirt- roses - and a coupon book for foot rubs and that sort of thing- Adrienne got me some cool Pioneer Women kitchen items and bath salts - it was a nice day - OK well that is all I have for right now-