Back to school shopping

This seems a bit like a misnomer for me, since we homeschool year-round at our house. However, being the frugal mom that I am, I do try to take advantage of the great sales on clothes and school supplies this time of year. 

I am really trying not to overdo it this year, since we don't need (or have room for) a lot of stuff. I did run out of spiral notebooks this past year, and we always seem to need a few more index cards and erasers. I might have bought a pack of colored pens (to grade with) that I really didn't need, but otherwise, I think I've exercised great restraint. I need to check out how we stand on shoes to get us through the winter, and make sure we have enough jeans for my oldest daughter.  

I also need to buy a few more items for our homeschool. I am looking to use a different grammar and writing program this year. I think I will try BJU's homeschool English program. I should have bought it at our homeschool convention, but I hope that they'll run it on sale again soon, or else I may purchase it on eBay. I am also considering ordering the US History curriculum from My Father's World. There are a lot of books and readers to go with it. I think I may wait a few months until we finish this book of Mystery of History. I had hoped to use them concurrently, but we'll see if I can handle that much. 

I haven't actually made it into many stores this year yet, but I still hope to make it to Amarillo before the sales run out. I do a lot of my shopping online, but it's not worth it to buy a lot of small items over the internet if the need is not urgent. 

My photo stream...

I am scared to even post some of these, so please don't judge.  I was looking through my phone the other day and realized what a random assortment of pics I have on there. Some are interesting cases, some are my kids, some are random things I just wanted to save (to buy later, etc.). 

Cookies I baked for the Fourth of July block party.

Josey "helping" work cattle. In her pajamas. 

Some books I found at the homeschool convention. I ended up ordering them from home so I didn't have to carry them around all day or pay tax. I am frugal about some really stupid things. 

Storm clouds. I had a cow sedated and tied down, shaved, scrubbed, and prepped for a Caesarian section. We heard the hail hit. The sirens were sounded for some rotation and lowering. After going outside to check it out, make sure we were safe, and snap a couple of pictures, we went in and removed a dead calf. It made for an interesting evening. 

These are the really fun ones to explain. This is horse poop, but not just any horse poop. If you look you may notice you can see a lot of sand mixed in. I am still treating a patient that is suffering sand colic. In certain locations (sandy soil, may also be in hay) horses eat some sand, and I'm sure you can imagine what that feels like in your gastrointestinal tract. Colic is a generic term for any abdominal pain, and this is just one potential cause of colic. I think he'll be fine given a little more time. This was a photo I snapped to send to the owner so they could see sand was indeed an issue.