First day!

This is our back patio-all of these stones were grown up in weeds, some of them were spiny and hurtful. We have been pulling the weeds, and scraping heavy piles of dirt (from using it as a seed starting spot for my pots which eventually spilled), and relocating all of this. The area around the AC and under the purple flower bush will be mulched today to prevent the problem again. (growing up of weeds in unwanted area). The areas in between each stone has been/will be salted with rock salt as you dont grow things between patio stones on purpose. No other landscape beds will be salted, just layered with ground cloth and wood chips so a new owner can always plant in the beds.
This is just one of our many outdoor endeavors in preparation for selling. We worked 8 hrs a day the last 2 days, Tad and I on landscaping/mowing/brushog and Nathalie on house cleaning, errand running/water fetchign and cooking/cleaning up from both lunch and dinner.


Tad's first time weed eating, we have a very heavy weed eater. It was a bit more expensive,we wanted a 4 cycle engine (no mixing, just separate oil and fuel) and we wanted it to edge. Its edging capabilities are amazing and it is easier to use than other edgers I have tried. However, being larger and stronger makes it heavier and Tad cant use it for long before his arm is numb. This kid will work until he falls over, I have to require breaks! He has cleared nearly an acre of weeds/reeds by hand with a machete and a hedger. Sometimest he hedger isnt usable and he has to do it by hand. We are getting the whole 6 acres mowed, cleared, cleaned, brush hogged, landscaped, trimmed, edged etc. It will look wonderful for photos and be a good starting point for new buyers.

In other new today is our first day back to school! The kids are not quite excited, its nearly 10 and they are just getting ready for the day. We have always schooled year around, we didnt this yr and they are having to adjust now. Our school day will start in a few minutes adn looks like this:

History: story of the world on disk, work book questions read/answered out loud.

1 history topic chosen by turns that is researched and read about. Today's was done during breakfast-Nathalie's first question was "where did dog tags originate and why are they called that.

Science: Apologia Zoology of flying creatures 4-5th grade. I read the text they do some fun hands on work book stuff. Tad gets to choose the science video today. (we have DVDs and also use Netflix/National Geo and watch sci videos/series)

Handwriting: brushing up on cursive, will be for first month of school.

Spelling: Sequential, on board with me.

Math: Mammoth for Nathalie (she is in 4th this yr and is 3/4 way through with Singapore 4th grade starting to struggle so backed up to do a few mammoth's to get back on track) Tad is finishing up 4B in Singapore.

Reading: Mcguffey

French: Rosetta Stone, some days we also watch a DVD from other sources.

Bible: definately not last, but we do this at night. We have our bible reading in the evening because we always have. We are right now in Egypt, Moses is leading his people out of Egypt starting tonight.

So thats it! We are off to start, and then we have chores ahead of us. Tomorrow we have post first, to get ID cards (Tad is 10), and passports updated to go to Ak. So school is tomorrow afternoon.