Homeschool Begins

We started the school year this week. Whew!! The two oldest do most of their work independently, but I have two 1st graders and one in K-4. It is WAY more intensive and time consuming than the two in K-5 + a preschooler last year. But we are off to a great start. We are using ABeka for 1st grade language and math. The first few lessons are VERY easy, so it's giving the kids a nice way to gently slide into the school year. DS1 is a bit disappointed that school hasn't been taking long enough for him to get out of taking a nap yet, but DD3 is pleased to still have rest time. I'm glad to get the break for a few extra days too.
As for scrapping, I am starting a project I have procrastinated for years. And I really won't have any pictures to show when I'm done. Which might be part of the reason for the procrastination. I am working on putting together an album with the nearly 600 pictures of our sons over the two+ years they were waiting to come home. The first step was ordering all the pictures and getting them organized by date. Some pictures came from the O staff, some from volunteers, others from adoptive families. That took about two weeks to organize and order and for it all to arrive. Now I'm working on putting them into an album with 4x6 sleeves - I am not going to scrap all these. But I am going to scrap a little 4x6 title for the front and 4x6 dividers for each month. Once I finish this project, I need to figure out a way to memorialize the monthly update emails the O sent over the two years. THEN I will work a "real" scrapbook of my 9 weeks in Haiti living with the boys at the O guest house....I AM DETERMINED to finish all of these Haiti related projects before 2009 is over! Hopefully sooner so that I can do some more recent projects. It's just that these are so big and hard for me to organize and determine a format that I just keep putting them off. And now that school's starting my time is going to be even more limited. Wish me luck!! I really want to get this done so that my boys have a memory book of their time in Haiti.