I have way too much to do and so little time to get it done...

It's hard sometimes being a working mom who is still responsible for the majority of the lesson planning, record keeping, curriculum choosing and buying, etc. I have so much to do and so little time to get it done, or so it seems this time of year. Somehow it always seems to come together (though minus some sleep to get it done). We are gearing up to start our new school year in a few short weeks, while everyone else around us is ending. Oh well, the break we had since Easter was nice while it lasted. I have to plan our Five in a Row units and anything we want to use with the lessons as go-alongs (not at all necessary, but nice). I have to figure out what all we want to do, make sure we have the books/workbooks/supplies we need, figure out some idea of scheduling to see if we'll be able to do everything we hope to do, etc. We bought the girls timers in anticipation of using our time more wisely this year. We'll have to see if having their own timers actually makes any sense or not. Also, the backpacks we got just last year are already wearing out, and as homeschoolers, we don't even use them that often. So, we decided to invest in some really cute critter backpacks from L.L.Bean for the kids. I am sure we'll love them, and that they'll last for a lot longer.
I also have to put all our new books into Homeschool Tracker as resources for next year, and put in lesson plans. Eek, how am I ever going to get it all done? If you don't hear from me for a while, that could be why. Oh, and also we are gearing up to attend the bi-annual Five in a Row conference in Kansas City. We went in 2006 and were quite blessed to have been there, and are highly looking forward to being there again! :)
Today we refinanced our house. The notary came to our house to witness us signing all those papers. We'll have a higher payment, but we got a whole percentage lower on our rate, and switched to a 15 year loan, so we'll be paid off sooner as well. While we were busy with papers, the kids were busy too. With mud!!! Eek! We did get some cute muddy pictures which I will have to post later. Check back later for more. Thankfully it was warm enough to rinse them all down with the sprayer on the house, then we played a fun game of waterpark (something we made up just today, where I stood by their swingset and sprayed them with water while they swung, LOL! We have pics of that too.)
We are going to try something with Michael that we are calling preschool fun jar. Basically we made a list of all our preschool games, manipulatives, preschool bags, etc., basically anything educational on a preschool level. I plan to type up the list and put it into a jar. We are going to try to fill up Michael's emotional bucket by the parent/teacher (whomever is in charge of school that day) starting out our day (after Bible and a morning walk) with 15 minutes with Michael. We'll pull something from the fun jar, spread out our preschool blanket, and work on that together for 15 minutes. Later in the day, while the parent/teacher is doing math teaching time with one girl, the other girl will help Michael do 1 page of a preschool workbook and then pull another paper from the fun jar to play with. Now that I'm thinking about it, we better save time by having everyone pull their paper from the jar at the beginning of the day and finding what we need before we begin our school work for the day. Since Katie has successfully completed all six of the Rod & Staff preschool workbooks, we will have her helping Michael with that series. Elizabeth will be helping Michael with the Explode the Code primers, and parent/teacher will be helping him with Get Set for School (at least I think that's what it is called, it's the Handwriting Without Tears crayon-only preschool workbook).
I've worked out the daily schedule including who's doing what, with whom and when. This is highly adjustable as we figure out what works, of course. Everything will pretty much be 15 minutes or less, except Five in a Row. In the afternoon, we'll try to spend 30 minutes a day on an elective (extra fun) of some sort, but might do two 30-minute sessions on Monday & Tuesday, since we rarely go anywhere on those days.
I wonder if I can attach a file to this post? I'll have to look into that. Anyway, that is it for now. If you happened to read this, thanks for listening to me ramble. :) Well, here are the images but you can't read them.