End of the Year Thoughts & A Garden Walk

This week stretches ahead of us with literally NOTHING on our calendar: just a whole string of days at home with no school, no evening engagements, no commitments whatsoever.  [insert deep sigh of relief right here]

It's been a busy year.

The past few weeks people have been asking me and the kids, "Are you done with school yet?" (Yes, we were done early last week.)  I kept thinking about it in terms of the *kids* being done with studies and school, and it being their summer break and how happy I am for them....

It took all of last week before I realized how much easier MY life is without the addition of schooling.  All of a sudden I have no school-related questions coming at me from all five kids every day (Where is the pencil sharpener?  Mommy, will you help me with this math problem?  Where's the history book?  Mommy, can I narrate to you?  Mommy, can you look at this?  Mommy, I need some more of these pages printed.  Can you read this and see if I misspelled anything?)  All those types of questions?  Done.  No stack of things to correct in the evenings, no lesson plans to come up with (just yet), no looking at the week ahead to see what we need to accomplish, no writing everything up on the dry erase board each day, no hands-on sitting through a dictation lesson or a kindergarten lesson or a math lesson.  I am sort of stunned at how much is suddenly off my plate.  I seriously feel like a full-time job has just ended. 

For many mothers the end of the school year means they're suddenly ON: the kids are home, you have to keep them occupied for the hours a day they were previously in school.  For a homeschooling mother?  The end of the school year means rest.  Blissful, much needed REST. 

So happy summer break to ME!  And my kids!  :)  And you and yours if you're summering with us.

Care to take a walk with me through our garden this morning?

these are our May-Day flowers from Mark- he always gets all of his girls a flower, and I plant them all together.

You've seen this photo, but I wanted it here for comparison.  This is our garden, right after planting- May 19

and here it is nearly a month later- June 15

beans!- with my grandpa's old bean poles.  those poles make me so happy.

our happy rhubarb- already this year we've made rhubarb muffins and rhubarb coffee cake.  so delicious!

sun sugar tomatoes: these were my *favorite* addition to our garden last year, and I can hardly wait to taste them again!

romaine: probably what we harvest *the most* from our garden: for yummy summer salads

Ella's carrots

cucumbers- and in the back there, some more- amongst the weeds ;)

still some strawberries!

and all sorts of raspberries right now!

so... raspberries for breakfast this morning! :)

pretty hydrangeas- already blooming!

this is my favorite color of hydrangea

my cute Ella- up early and outside reading Rilla of Ingleside

cheery window box

front porch petunias

hanging basket

corn in the back garden.  knee-high by the fourth of July?  NO PROBLEM.

blueberries!- with more raspberries behind

one of our old girls, checking out what I was doing

red geranium on the patio table

the pot of clothespins I use pretty much daily

basket of eggs- waiting to be washed- on our very messy back porch

Eventually they all joined me outside:

Happy day to you from all of us!