Weekly Review

I wish I had some great photos to post, but silly me - we did these awesome science experiments and I didn't take any pictures! I was so occupied with cleaning up the massive foam overflowing over the table, onto the floor, that I wasn't thinking of grabbing the camera. Oh well. Details below:

Science: we finished Unit 3 about Atoms within molecules changing. And then we tested that idea with a series of experiments. We had four cups: lemon juice, vinegar, milk, and baking soda water. We took turns mixing to see what would happen. Lemon juice and vinegar both caused the milk to curdle. Lemon juice and vinegar caused the baking soda water to bubble and fizz (all over the place! LOL) Lemon juice caused a sustained bubbling (the bubbling stayed around), whereas the vinegar bubbled, fizzed, and then went flat. We began reading Unit 4 about Acids and Bases.

History: we continued reading in Castle Diary. We learned about the "guarderooms", i.e., bathrooms in castle times. We also learned about entertaining feasts and table manners back then.

2nd/3rd Grade:
In Math, the 8yo took a test on adding/subtracting in the thousands. She began the unit on Division. She'll finish up Chapter 18 early next week, and then begin her VERY LAST CHAPTER in 2nd grade math. In Reading, she read a story over 4 days called Alex the Drummer Boy, about a kid living in America during the Revolutionary War. In English, she finished up the chapter on Adjectives, did some practice with commas in a series of adjectives, and took a test: 100%. She began the next chapter - a writing chapter - which started off with Similies (she calls them "smilies"). In Spelling, she finished the unit begun last week on words ending in x, ss, zz, ch, sh with plurals (adding -es). She wrote a very sweet Journal Entry about "The Best Day", in which she chose her sister coming home from the hospital (she was 2 at the time, so I doubt she remembers, but the thought was sweet). In Handwriting, she had to copy a poem in cursive. She also reads 1 page per day in Familiar Quotations, and picks one to copy. She's now reading a lot at bedtime on her own. She read Bunnicula, which is a 4th grade level book, and seemed to really like it. And now she is back to reading Cam Jansen books.

1st Grade:
In Math, the 6yo is getting some review on addition strategies. She's still in the "counting things" phase, so we may spend a little more time on this after she finishes her 1st gr book. In Reading...Wow, Reading...I have to turn this into a major brag post (sorry...) Although she is still learning the mechanics of reading, and her reading isn't real smooth yet, she absolutely loves reading, and has been doing 2 lessons per day! So she did 10 reading lessons instead of 5 this week. I finally understand what other moms have been trying to tell me about personality differences in kids. It isn't anything *I've* done right or wrong, she just happens to like this sort of thing. In Spelling, her words had ir, or, and ay endings. In Handwriting, she's ahead but we just keep plugging away at 1 page per day. In English/Phonics, she's practiced the oo sound (foot/moon).

Today, we're having a sleepover. We have 7yo/8.5yo friends that are sisters, and sometimes we do a kid swap. The 6yo is at their house, and their 8.5yo is at our house tonight. One of these times, I'd like to have all 4 of them over there so I can have a night alone! LOL.

Wednesdays

Wednesdays are quirky days at our house. I have devotedly gotten up around 7:30am each morning this week (yay me!), and it has made a huge difference in how our day goes. However, Wednesdays are the trickster days!

Garbage needs to be out by 9am. Have you seen my driveway? It is long and snakey, and is quite a trip in the snow.

We ran out of wood in our garage, so I had to go wheelbarrow some wood up to our house this morning.

AWANA happens Wednesday nights, so anything we didn't finish during our week needs to get caught up Wednesday morning. This a.m. we spent time printing off the 8yo's artwork about being scared and how to handle it. It was mostly finished, but had a little writing to add to it.

Therefore, even with the 7:30am wake up time, school did not start today until 11am - and I was pushing to get us there. Also, with all of the division of my attentions (garbage & whatever else), the kids are more tempted to dash off and play. Speaking of which, the kids kept running off after each subject and playing. I had to drag them back to the table after each subject and remind them that there was more to do!

Today will be our library day this week, so we're cutting short on some subjects (history & science). Even so, we did AWANA and piano practice from 10-11am, and then did our bookwork from 11-1pm. Not too bad for a Wednesday!

Poetry

My kids wrote poems in school today - the assignment was to write about Snow.

The 8yo's poem:

Snow

I see the white

Below the light.

I think the ice

Is quite nice.

The cold

makes me feel like mold.

When I go to sled

I just want to be in bed.

When I feel a flake

I want to be in a warm lake.

In the deep,

I like to sleep.

Oh how I like the snow.

The 6yo's poem (spelling edited)

My Story

I like snow

It is like a show

when I go

I go low

and shake in the snow.

I love God

He made winter.

I wish there were land

and sand

Go outside, it is fun!

I love the snow! don't YOU!

Like usual.

The end.

The Upcoming Week

I'm stealing this idea from Lisa, who writes a Weekly Preview on her blog. I think I just need to gain some perspective on my week. I've learned first and foremost that if *I'm* not "with it" for the week, then my family isn't either. It just leads to lots of frustrations. So here goes...

I'm going to *try* to get up at 7:30am and exercise each day next week. I'm also going to *try* to wake up my family by 8:30am and get them started on breakfast. And then I'm going to *try* to get us going on school around 9:30 or 10am. I find that our day runs so much smoother if I do this, but boy...I have far more days of getting up at 9am, getting started after 11am, and feeling like our day is totally shot.

I've also been *trying* to work on my novel from NanoWriMo. I've learned that writing with morning sickness does not produce good writing. Now that I'm past the morning sickness part of pregnancy, my writing is so much better! I'm also *trying* to read Jane Eyre for book club, but am only on Chapter 16. It could easily become one of my favorite books of all time - if I weren't so dog-tired and falling asleep by 9pm every night! I have so much I want to do, but between school, pregnancy, and the bare-minimum of housework, I am sooo tired.

Monday - school. Run errands. Library (ies)?
Tues - school. Wed - school, AWANA. Thurs - school
Fri - school. Possibility of a sleepover.
Sat - Book Club. Probably won't have Jane Eyre read by then.

Somewhere in there, I need to clean the house a few times (because it always falls apart the next day), make a pathetic attempt at catching up on laundry but fail miserably, read Jane Eyre, write my novel, and practice my piano lessons.

Weekly Review

Tuesday had a baby doctor appointment and Friday was all day homeschool co-op classes.

History: continued to read several pages in Castle Diary. Kids were amused when I read about "the butts" (archery). Science: Finished our experiment for Unit 2, about Atoms following rules, and read through half of Unit 3. We learned that atoms are not created or destroyed, but they do change - atoms can change places when two molecules meet.

2nd/3rd grade:
The 8yo is 1 month away from finishing 2nd grade Math. She learned to add and subtract with numbers in the thousands, some regrouping involved. In Reading, she learned about handicaps such as deafness and blindness. It also had an emphasis on syllable division and finding main ideas. In English, she is almost finished with the unit on Adjectives. In Spelling, she finished the List 6 Review, and began List 7 which practices adding -es to the ends of words ending in ch, sh, ss, zz, and x. In Handwriting, she finished writing the 3 paragraph poem in cursive. For our co-op yearbook questionaire, she decided that handwriting was her favorite subject (What!???! When did this happen? LOL). She also read 5 pages from the Familiar Quotations book and copied 1 quotation each day. Our favorite quote is from the Old Testament, "Thou art the man", which is the olden days way of saying, "you're the man!" LOL.

1st grade:
In Math, the 6yo finished the chapter on non-American measurements (celcius, centimeters, liters - well, actually, Americans tend to measure things in 2-liters...) She also learned how to calculate Perimeter. Next week, she'll take a test. In Reading, she read a story called Tin Lizzie (about an early automobile that isn't quite as efficient as a horse), and also a story about 2 kid beavers that visit a dentist. In English/Phonics, she is reviewing R-controlled vowels. The Cowboy themed unit ended, and we began the unit on weather/seasons. She learned that months of the year begin with a capital letter. She somehow learned her 12 months, because she knew them instantly, even though last time we studied these at the beginning of the year, the lesson totally tanked and I didn't think she knew them. That always amazes me when things like that happen! In Spelling, she finished the list with ar, or, and long i-silent e words. In Handwriting, she completed several pages in a row, and we are ahead by a week, yay! Overall, she complained less by the end of this week about having to write words.

At Co-op, the 6yo watched a snake eat a little fish and found that fascinating! She made lots of great crafts that she was proud to show off at home. The 8yo's Creatures class learned about red eared slider turtles (the student giving the report borrowed our pet turtle, since his had died). We now know that our turtle is a girl - which the 6yo is sooo happy about.

Monthly Check Up - 20 weeks

I had my 20 week pregnancy check up today. The baby's heart rate was 151. The kids came with me and were able to help the doctor squeeze the jelly on my stomach and move the doppler around. I'm feeling a lot of baby kicks at times, although most of it can't be felt outside of my stomach by others yet. The nose bleeds I have had are due to pregnancy - it is an odd thing, because I have never experienced a nose bleed before. Many years of karate practice and hard punches to the nose, and yet I've never had a nose bleed...until now. Also, the feeling that I was going to pass out in church is a pretty normal phenomenon for pregnancy, as well. Oh, the joy! The doctor was able to give me some helpful tips - like stay sitting down for church, or move around a lot if I stand for awhile, and eat a protein filled breakfast, rather than a high carb one. I will have my next appointment in 4 weeks, when I will be about 24-25 weeks. After that point, I'll start having my check ups every 2 weeks, because I will be nearing the point when the pre-eclampsia hit last time.

After the appointment, the kids and I went to the bank, and the kids learned how to fill out deposit slips, count their money, and turn it in to the teller. The teller was very nice about all the backwards numbers on the deposit slips, and patient with all the loose change that added up to a mere $1.00, LOL.

Weekly Review

Wow, what a difference *my* attitude makes in the way our school day goes! I think I'll have another post just on this subject. So the biggest lesson learned this week was that if Mom doesn't feel like doing school, the kids won't either. (Uh, not that they ever feel like doing school, but it's much worse if Mom isn't on board! LOL).

On Monday, I had my 19-week ultrasound and the kids did some school at Grandpa's house. On Wed, we had our Valentine's Party at a bowling alley, and did not do school.

We did 1 day of Science & History this week: we did 1/2 of a science experiment in Chemistry. We used big & small marshmallows with toothpicks and tried following rules to see what different shapes we could make. The purpose of this experiment is that Atoms Follow Rules. In History, we read 2 pages of the Castle Diary.

2nd/3rd grade:
In Math, the 8yo is learning Thousands, and ended this week by adding thousands (2,342 + 1,231). In Reading, she read a story about a little girl named Zoe, who was a slave in early America. Her father was going to be sold, which would split up the family. The family escaped (Underground Railroad), and found freedom in the end. In English, she's learning about Adjectives. In Handwriting, she has a rather long 3-paragraph passage to write in cursive. It's supposed to take 3 days, but instead I've assigned 2 sentences per day, which will make it last longer (it is a rather cruel assignment for beginning cursive, LOL). In Spelling, she has review words - due to our shortened week, we're spreading this list out into next week, as well. Daddy has assigned a daily reading from our big book of Familiar Quotations, and the 8yo has to pick 1 quote to copy each day.

1st grade:
In Math, the 6yo is learning non-standard U.S. measurement (yes, we just finished this topic with the 8yo). This week involved measuring with centimeters, and liters. In Reading, she read a story about Mama' (Spanish accent, because we're getting our multicultural, language appreciation in there at the same time, LOL) having a baby. Her children Carlos, Marta, & Susita prepare for the new baby (whose name is Pedros). It seemed oddly appropriate this week:) In English/Phonics, she learned about er, ir, ur sounds in words. In Spelling, she practiced ar and or words, with some long i-silent e words. We'll carry this week's spelling into next week, due to the shortened week. In Handwriting, she had worked several pages ahead last week, so we took most of the week off of handwriting until today.

In a rut

Yesterday, at the Homeschool Valentine's Bowling Party, I was telling a friend how wonderful our school year has been going this year. What planet was I on? LOL. Obviously, I was pretty happy about taking the day off, and remembering all the good things. And, really, it has been a good year: the kids are learning bunches, we've fallen into a groove with our school books, and the 6yo is reading like gang-busters. I can't ask for more than that! But this week as been a real doozy as far as attitudes go (mine included).

We're all tired of getting to work. I've been putting school off until later hours in the day, because I just don't feel like it. The kids have been taking my attitude and compounding it, by constantly running off and playing, or complaining, or asking for one more thing first.

Every day, lately, the 6yo is either 1.) tired and can't keep her eyes open (mysteriously), 2.) hungry, or 3.) sick (mysteriously). Today she asked for a bowl for throwing up in, and had it perched by her math, and made occasional fake heaving sounds into it. Her nausea went away (mysteriously) when I gave her candies to eat during lessons, LOL.

The 8yo is complaining about math. It's teaching the concept of thousands, and so far, it's been exceptionally easy. The 6yo actually WANTS to do her sister's math because it looks cool with those giant yellow cubes. The 8yo complains that she can't, can't, can't do it. When I point and ask questions, she understands everything beautifully, and can do it quite quickly. But she just insists...

And then there's spelling. Too much writing. She was just getting so much better about writing. Her writing workload increased, and she's handled it beautifully. Until now. Now, it's too much writing.

And then there's handwriting, and reading, and grammar. All of it gets debated: can we get rid of a subject? Can we lessen the amount? Can we negotiate somehow?

Attention spans are...GONE. I have to sit there, and point, and pep talk, and get us through it until it's done. I realize I'm not saying anything mind blowing or exceptional or out-of-the-ordinary. In fact, we've had a terrific year up until now, so I feel unworthy of complaining. I'm not sure whether to "weather" this by taking a school break, doing something different, or clamping down on all of us (me included).

Baby Names

Wordless Wednesday, see below.

Baby Names - we need your help! My husband says if we can find a good middle name, the first name will follow. Our middle names follow this trend: we use a word/name with a double meaning. Hence, "Raine" means "rain" and it means "counselor" (and probably a few other meanings in there, too). "Skye" means "sky" but can also mean "scholar". Raine and Skye are taken, by the way. So here's where you come in -

In the comments, list as many word names as you can. These can be words like Jewel, Sapphire, Ruby. Mist, Storm, Tempest, Snow. Juniper, Ash, Aspen. Or they can be virtues like Hope, Grace, Providence, Honor (but not chastity, LOL). If you're middle name wins, then you get bragging rights to say that you named our baby.

And one more thing: I found yet another great baby name blog. This one has Name of the Day. It's called Appellation Mountain. Also some other great baby name blogs linked in the side bar.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - with a small commentary -
Look, no snow, and the breeze is fresh and almost warm! Ahhhhhh! It's very foggy this morning. Every time I took a picture, the water droplets were frozen in air in the image, resulting in these big looking spots (my camera lens is actually dry!)

Diapers

Lately, I have been thinking of cloth diapers...

First, my reasons -
1. cloth diapered baby bums are absolutely adorable.
2. cloth is cheap
3. stain 'em up & you can still resell them on eBay

Notice that "green" or "save the planet" or "land fills" does not make the list? Sorry, it just isn't my cause.

I cloth diapered my first born and learned a lot through trial and error. I discovered that best of all, I like the simplicity of a prefold folded in thirds and stuck inside a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap. It worked fantastically with her dimpled chubby legs. I did not cloth diaper my second, and I have no regrets there - because she was born a 2.5lb preemie, and today she's a beautiful, bright 6yo girl. Obviously, I spent my time and resources doing what was best for her, and cloth diapers didn't fit in. But I've always sort of hoped to get the chance to cloth diaper again. Weird, I know. If I had cloth diapered my 2nd, I doubt Bummis Supers would've worked for her tiny little body. She probably would've needed something with leg gussets. Those horrid Dappi wraps that I loathed probably would've been just what she needed. So I know I can't do too much planning until I see whether this one's a skinny or a pudgy:) Even so, here's what I'm thinking:

Chinese or Indian Cotton Prefolds - about 36 of these guys

About 6 of these Bummis Super Whisper Wraps in white (see top photo). Also a few cute ones in print, though I'm not sure I like the flower one below...Not too many choices for girls in the Bummis, so I may be stuck with the flowers, or the celery dots (not pictured). Part of me hoped for the chance to use Froggy Pond or Jungle (which is just too boyish to use on a girl).

If I have a wee one with skinny legs, then we'll have to go with leg gussets. Bummis has their Super Brite line that has gussets, and also there is Thirsties covers, shown below in lovely pink.

There. And now for about 18 more weeks of twiddling my thumbs...

It's a............

I had my 18-20 week ultrasound today, and we were told it's a....

GIRL!!!!

Above is a profile of her face (and my very full bladder on the right. Ugh.) Below is another profile of her face, with her fist by her face.

Her adorable little feet...see the toes?

And a rather spooky looking glance at her face looking straight at us.

Our house is overrun with girls. Girl Power!

Everything looks healthy, and the ultrasound tech felt we were right on with our due date of July 5th. She weighs about 10 ounces. During one look at her profile, the baby yawned and stretched. The tech had trouble getting a good look at her heart and tried several tricks to get the baby to shift. The tech gave me a sucker and had me walk the halls for a few minutes to get the baby to turn. Apparently, sugar helps. She finally did get a good look at the heart, and everything looks normal.

Now I can start making plans...

Education

On Friday, my 6yo brought home a fire bellied newt. I borrowed this photo from here: http://www.birdsinalaska.org/class/living_science_center/fbnewt.htm He's cute, tiny, & loves to explore the Meijer Ice Cream bucket that he calls home. I cut a hole out of the lid and put a wire mesh on the top so air gets in, and we can watch him. He also has stones to climb up, and loves to stick himself all over the container. Eventually he may end up in the aquarium, but it needs a lid.

The 8yo did her report on Guinea Pigs for her Creatures, Creatures class. She brought in her guinea pig (Penny), and did a live demonstration of lettuce-eating (ooo!, ahhhh!) which the kids enjoyed. Then she passed out outgrown (but clean!) socks for the kids to make sock guinea pigs. We got the idea at Crafts: Guinea Pig Fun, where there are all sorts of neat things people create for their guinea pigs.

Saturday we went to a birthday party for a 7yo boy. It was interesting because there were 3 moms and 5 kids total, all who had made different educational choices. It was fun to compare the methods, and the moms were wonderfully honest about their schools of choice. These were the same moms I met last year, and had discovered that everyone, EVERYONE doubts and second guesses their educational choices (and quite often those private or public schooled moms are wondering if they should try homeschooling). This year, I learned that the public schooled kids, even those top-of-the-class, are struggling with these writing assignments given in 1st grade, and that it's not just me, LOL. Just because these essays, narratives, and creative writing are getting assigned, doesn't mean the kids are actually doing well with it. So what is it about our educational system, anyway, that is pushing the kids well ahead of their time? Can't they learn this same thing later on, when they are more likely to have success at it?

Weekly Review

Tomorrow is homeschool co-op all day, so I'm adding my Weekly Review 1 day early.

History: read 2 chapters in SOTW 2; the Diaspora (scattering of the Jews), & Ghengis Khan, Mongol Conquest. We also started a book called Castle Diary, a journal from a page in a castle. Science: read through Chapter 2 in Chemistry, learning about how Atoms hook up with other Atoms to make Molecules, and that Atoms need to follow the rules. We also read about Hydrogen from The Periodic Table, Elements with Style. (The girls love the study of atoms, and like pointing out what they think are girl atoms and boy atoms. They like the girly looking atoms, of course).

Math: the 6yo took a test about large numbers 100-1000. I helped her through the test, because this was such a difficult chapter. She understands most of it, but really gets tripped up with transitions like 499-500, 239-240, 189-190, etc. Other than those great difficulties, she can take a number and go up 1, go down 1, go up 10, and go down 10. She can also add large numbers (no renaming). The 8yo finished her unit on non-American forms of measurement (celcius, grams, kilograms, & meters), and took the test today, scoring 100%.

Language Arts:
The 6yo worked several pages ahead in Handwriting, so we can skip those lessons next week, yay! She learned about synonyms in English, and R controlled vowels in Phonics (ar, or only). Spelling was a real trickster, I had to talk her through her words. But I'm very relaxed about spelling for a 1st gr 6yo. Yes, I tell her how to spell the words if she needs it, and I don't keep score, LOL. So far, my experience has been that spelling is developmental (& also some are gifted with this). I've seen my older daughter blossom in spelling quite naturally, after we took several months off of the subject. My thought is that right now I am exposing my 6yo to spelling concepts and spelling patterns. I'm happy to MOVE ON from this list, LOL.

The 8yo read a play in Reading, and then we all play-acted it. She also read a story about Mozart as a child. Today she had a "skill station" day, which focused on silent letters in words & hard/soft sound c/g. In Handwriting, she makes progress in cursive, but doesn't like it at all. Next year, I am thinking that we'll stop handwriting and start typing. In English, she had to write a story. It was supposed to have a Character, Problem, and Solution. Well...this was a bit of a stretch, so I ended up just letting her type her story on the computer all week. So far, it doesn't have a problem in it, and she can't think of a problem. And honestly, as a writer myself, I understand this perfectly. So I don't think I'll press the issue. At this age, I don't see much value in "creative writing" anyway, and think it would be better to write about things we are reading. I've seen my 8yo get better at writing in general, so no complaints. In Spelling, she gets most words right on the pretest, and has it all straightened out by Wednesday anyway. We do practice tests on Wed, and sometimes I let her escape from the final test if she got them all right on Wed. As mentioned earlier, I've seen my 8yo develop her own natural sense of spelling. Yay!

Tagged!

I was tagged by Melanie.

6 things you might not know about me...

1. I'm a great breakfast maker! My children often get something like pancakes, waffles, french toast, sausage, eggs, or egg tortillas for breakfast. Some days we have the stereotypical cereal or toast, but I usually do a pretty big breakfast.

2. I'm terrible at making lunch and dinner. I often don't think about dinner until my husband is on the way home, and then I can't decide what to make. Sometimes my husband makes dinner when he gets home, LOL.

3. I don't manage my time well, and I'm not very good at housekeeping. I make lists to help me keep on top of things.

4. In 1st grade, I decided I wanted to be a published author & novelist - and that desire has followed me throughout my life.

5. I'm indecisive and live in fear of making the wrong decision. This affects everything! My poor husband...

6. I run a small web design business that got started in 1998, and survived through the whole internet business crash that happened a short time later.

Here are the rules:
Rule #1 ~ Link to the person that tagged you: Melanie at Springs of Joy Homeschool
Rule #2 ~ Post the rules on your Blog.
Rule #3 ~ Write 6 random things about yourself
Rule #4 ~ Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
Rule #5 ~ Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their Blog.
Rule #6 ~ Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Homeschool Support Meeting

Last night, our local homeschool group held it's monthly homeschool support meeting for parents. Lisa wrote a wonderful review of the meeting here. Her review is complete and chock full of good info, so I'll just use this post as a shortened addendum:)

I loved what our 1 homeschool Dad said about schedules - about 60% of it gets accomplished. So keep that in mind when developing your own schedule, and don't beat yourself up for a schedule not going along to perfection. Our lists look great on paper, but our days don't usually look as well pulled together:)

We discussed Managers of Their Homes, which - depending on the family - can be a great blessing (especially those that have large families). Lisa talks about this more on her blog. The web site for this book, and others by this homeschooling family is here (Titus2.com).

Lisa shared her schedule and what works for her. I've roughly adopted her method (and hope to get it better organized as I fill out more of these). You can find her scheduling method here.

I shared Loop Scheduling, complete with a description and sample schedules. I have the handouts in PDF format for you to read.

What is Loop Scheduling?...and

Three examples of Loop Scheduling

If there is anything you swear by in Scheduling/Routines, leave a comment, and maybe I'll pull them all together for another post!

Goodbye, Phonetic Spelling!

My 6yo has officially entered the realm of real spelling, and has left her invented, phonetic spelling behind. I loved the independence that phonetic spelling brought. I also prided myself on being the only soul that could actually read the phonetic writing (even the 6yo herself would go cross eyed trying to figure out what she wrote). Ah, well...

Imagine, now, 2 kids constantly calling out words for me to spell. And quite often, the kids have meltdowns because I'm not spelling *their* word at exactly the moment they want it spelled. Often, the kids want a word spelled for them at the same time. Yes, I will miss those phonetic days!

Here is the 6yo's journal entry for today. Her assignment was to pretend she was a horse and write about her life. She asked me how to spell almost every single word on the page. This was the perfect assignment for her (the girl that has been obsessed with horses since the age of 2). She drew a unicorn/pegasus (I think she calls it a "unipega"), and this is her life (in case you can't read the writing):

I love my owner.

I give her rides (ribes)

She loves me too (to)

I will never forget her

I eat grass

Mmm yummy! (yumy)

Ground Hog Day

Happy Ground Hog Day. Yup, 6 more weeks of winter. As if we didn't already know that.

I've been fighting the urge to...((yawn))...sleep. Instead, I pick up a project that desperately begs to be done, and do it. It has been a good thing - I'm getting things done and feeling less sleepy while doing it. Yesterday, I got our quarterly bookkeeping done for our home business. Unfortunately, the more I do, the more I end up needing to do. For example, when you actually look at the bank statements and realize they are charging a service fee, and you don't know why. So then you have another unexpected phone call to make. Things like that. Chores seem to beget chores. Oh well.

We had a fulfilling day of school. I let the kids watch a Pinky & the Brain episode on Youtube. They always ask me, "what are we doing today?" and my standard answer for the past several years has been, "same thing we do every day, Pinky. Try to take over the world." At least now they understand why they get that response from me:) The 6yo thought The Brain was kind of scary (but she thinks everything is scary). This inspired lots of conversation about whether the Brain or Pinky were good guys or bad guys. It also inspired conversations about Pavlov. Yeah, let's call it educational...

We did our full day of school, and even accomplished a lesson of history and a lesson of science. We always feel like throwing in the towel after the Basics get done, so history and science is a bit of a push. After that, I got some laundry done, laundry put away, and the guinea pig cage cleaned out. Tonight I have our homeschool monthly support meeting, so I prepared some things to share. Now I'm taking a short break before we clean up, so that Daddy can have a clean house with the kids tonight.

Lately, I'm feeling a bunch of baby kicks to my bladder. Oof! Not comfortable! One more week to go before the ultrasound!!

Snow Day!

The weather was a whopping 38 degrees according to Wunderground Weather. But to us it felt like 50 degrees. The sunshine was bright and cheery, while a wonderful "drip drip" sound could be heard all around. And while its still too early to be considered Spring, it was a nice reprieve from the endless, despairing, frigid days we've had this Winter. We made good use of it by heading outdoors. My husband did some plowing with the tractor, and then we both worked on stacking up our wood piles in the garage. The kids built a snowman, but needed some help from the Dad to get the snowman stacked. Then they went hunting for sticks and things for the snowman. You can see our standard poodle in the lower right corner of the photo: she was sticking her whole face down into the snow.