Sorry for the lack of blog posts. We are headed in to the end of the year crunch. Throw in a few extra activities, changes and angst from all angles and you get a bit of chaos. I am hoping things find a flow soon. Real soon.
Anyways. Now for some fun stuff. A few weeks back I answered a question on a facebook post from PBS Learning Media and won a prize. Love it.
The book and dvd of Great Expectations. Love surprises.
This week was the local Scholastic Warehouse sale. Look at all those cool books. Love the River Monsters ones. The rock book has fantastic pictures and info.
These are the other books I got. We love the Basher Science books. The rest I am hoping will eventually interest Jack. To be truthful, he was only excited about he Ninjago one. The rest will be a bit of a challenge for his reading level, but we will either use them for read alouds or he will move in to them. There wasn't a whole lot of selection for his actual reading level this time.
We are loving the spelling and language lesson books that I bought at Queen Homeschool. The lessons are short, don't require any prep, don't require a ton of writing on his part and the best part is that he is learning a lot from them. These are the type of books that I have been wanting for years. I wish I had found them when I was homeschooling my older kids, life may have been a little easier. :) I highly recommend them!
Forgive the slow week on the blog. I have come to the conclusion that I deal with events in my life by taking on projects and apparently having the bff's move away means painting the interior of the house we are renting. Ahh.. yes. We have wanted to do it from the day we moved in, it needed it badly. Today I did a bathroom, the easiest room, and it looks great. Can I just say I hate flat paint. I have been living with it for 4 years and it's time for it to go. Flat paint+kids= walls that never come clean. Now to figure out the logistics of doing all the big rooms.
Maybe I'll just stick with the bathrooms. :) Now on with my post.
My nightstand reading stack. Can you tel what is on my mind? Rhythm, parenting, seasons, learning. It must be fall. :) Some I have read before and just want a refresher. Like Simplicity Parenting. I've read it before, and I'll read it again. I find myself constantly turning to it to remind myself of one thing or another. The "oh yeah, that is why I always thought this was a good idea" kind of reminder. I love that book.
Today we spent doing Christmas stuff. reading books, making projects, and little gifts. Zac and Jack planted the greenhouse today!
It was very hot in there. We have a few things that we still need to get: potatoes, kale. We can't wait to start harvesting. While they were planting I was running around getting last minute craft supplies and picking kids up. I am hoping to have most of my projects done by Thursday-- it could happen. :)
Today we had our homeschool group history fair. Jack's project was the Great Wall of China. We read a few books, our main source being You Wouldn't Want to Work on the Great Wall of China!: Defenses You'dRather Not Build.
For his project we built a section of the wall.
We used a pack of styrofoam project blocks we found at the craft store. I can see doing a few more projects with these in the future.
Jack did all the work with the exception of the tower on the end--I pulled out the hot glue gun for that one.
The only figures we could find were pirates and pilgrims, but he wanted to use them anyways.
So far I am knee deep in Simplicity Parenting and enjoying it. I was already on a decluttering binge and this is helping to bring it to a more thoughtful conclusion. Jack and I went through his clothes and pared them down considerably. I've gone through his toys and now we are left with the building toys (Legos, k'nex, wood blocks & lincoln logs), Imaginex (he has the castle and Batcave, but he plays with these most often), some cars (I need to go through these again), and then he has some figures and animals.
Now to go through the rest of the house.
I also finally got a rhythm figured out. I'll maybe post that later. It's been hard to implement it fully this week, I haven't been feeling well ( the ear again) and Zac has been helping to keep things running smoothly. Thank goodness he was around. He let me sleep in every day, took the kids to school and even fixed them breakfast, he has been running Jack to classes and cleaning the house in the evenings.
You'll notice the book by Ken Robinson up there. I have been saying for years that I would really like to read one of his books. Years. It finally struck me as dumb that I hadn't done so yet. I was maybe a little worried that he wouldn't write like he spoke. The book is every bit as good as his talks and so far it has a few of the same stories, which I enjoy hearing or reading anytime. I love the story about Gillian Lynne.
Making a Family Home. Not sure what I was expecting but this wasn't it. It has good photographs and good thoughts on aspects of the home, but I was expecting more. Something a little deeper. It is really bugging me that the photos do not have captions. I like to know what I am looking at and hopefully to relate it to what is being said. Then there are some things that she mentions in her writing that I would like to have photographs of, or more explanation and get neither.
Radical Homemakers. I haven't delved into this one yet.
Jack is really in to Indiana Jones lately. He had a book from the library, but didn't want to return it. MY answer was to head to the thrift store and see if they had anything. We found an Indiana Jones novel. He saw it and wanted it. It's an adult novel, no pictures but he insisted on getting it so he could "look at the words". He fell asleep last night hugging it. When I returned from morning drop off he was sitting on the couch reading it. He spent a good part of the afternoon laying on a blanket outside with it.
For Jack's school today we started reading some of our Dr. Seuss books. They have a great reading passport on this site. There are also some fun games there, which he spent time on today. I have some fun things planned for tomorrow for Dr Seuss day. :) If only I could pull off the green eggs and ham and actually have him eat it.
We also did a quick library run on the way to pick up Talisa. Real quick and I forgot some of the books I was going to pick up. Oh well.
I went to Costco this afternoon and found this. Oh my. I can tell it will be another favorite. I love my Everyday Food magazines and books.
Remember my bookish plans I posted yesterday? What am I going to do now? So many choices...
Look what the UPS guy, or the present man according to Jack, brought us today:
Oh my!
And he also brought:
The books for the upcoming House Party I'm having. Oh my! Hardcover books! But wait there's more:
Can you read that? Advance readers edition! I feel so special. ;) I think I've only read one other book by this author a very long time ago so I am excited to get reacquainted with her work. I love any excuse to get together with my wonderful friends and we all love books so this is perfect.
Now onto cooking news. Tonight I prepared this meal:
Oh my! I know you're thinking meatloaf and the 80's right? The stuff you could make a brick wall with. You have got to try this. It is so very yummy. My dh said that from now on I am cooking this. It was delicious. You know it is a success when everyone is quiet at the dinner table--well except for the yummy sounds, and everyone clears their plates.
The first day back to school, was...well typical. Alex was slow to get moving, she had two very late nights or shall we say early mornings during the past week which have finally caught up with her. I am trying to decide whether or not to drop her vocabulary. Just wondering if it's too much of a good thing. ;) I introduced the new system to Jack. He seemed ambivalent about it. We were able to complete a couple of boxes. The good news is what we did do went over well. He did some clay sculpting and made up a long story to go with what he was sculpting, we read quite a few books, we labeled items around the house, and did some handwriting.
I do try and spend some time at the table doing my "work" while Alex is schooling. These are the books I am hoping to work through over the next couple of weeks. I've wanted the two Waldorf books for quite some time and I am excited to read those. I am also working on compiling a recipe/menu book this week.
Today we held a literature fair for the homeschool group. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures during it. We had some great projects. Now that we've had a few of these it's fun to see how the kids have grown into participating. Jack didn't even calm down enough to listen during the first two fairs we had, this time he not only listened but actually did tell about his book.
For his book we did, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. First we painted some paper plate apples, used a twig for the stem and a leaf off of one of our trees. Next we baked some apple crisp--okay I cheated it wasn't apple pie, but it was made and in the freezer. Then we took stickers and placed them on our globe to show all the places the girl visited in the book. We also made a key for the globe with stickers to list what ingredients she picked up there.
He drew an apple pie down at the bottom of the page.
For my book I chose The Wednesday Sisters. I chose it because it reminded me so much of our homeschool group. We have a special group who lift up and support each other endlessly. It's so awesome. I really wish every other woman could find such a group of friends. I had a hard time coming up with a project to go with this book, not due to lack of ideas but lack of time. I like to procrastinate! So I printed up these poems to hand out, because that is how my group makes me feel--optimistic and like I can do anything!
*As a side note today was a better day with Jack. I'm finding ways to involve him more in what I am doing and incorporate success into his days. We made it until late this afternoon with no incidents. Yay! This evening we had a few deep breath moments, but I would have to say the overall day was better. I am wondering though if it has anything at all to do with his upcoming birthday and if it will calm down a little after that. One can always hope!
I went to another book warehouse sale yesterday just in time for Alex's birthday goodness. I didn't get a picture of the books I gave her, those have already been sequestered away. But here was my take:
These were my picks. I was glad to find two things from my too read list, especially glad to get them 50% off.
These three were Jack's picks. Note to self: next time leave the 4 yo home, crazy.
These are ones I chose for reading with Jack. I love the poster book at the top and the bird poem book. I'll share close ups later.
These are ones I chose for the older kids. I'm trying to get them to try out different genres. They tend to stick to fantasy or science fiction and I would like them to try something new.
I've been craving a good read lately. It started about two weeks ago. I just needed a good book, not a heavy book, not a teaching book, just a good book. One that would take me away from the every day doldrums.
So last week when Zac and I hit Barnes and Noble, I picked up Everyone is Beautiful, by Katherine Center. Friday when we were having our chill out day I picked it up and started reading. By Friday night I was done with the whole book. It was the good read I was looking for. Loved it. It made me laugh. I've been there done that and the author portrayed it across so well. I told Zac he had to read it. He read half the book the first night.
So today the itch got to me again and I visited the bookstore again. This time I picked up, The School of Essential Ingredients, by Erica Bauermeister. Just started it, love it so far. Again she is spot on with her characterization, wonderfully descriptiv and entertaining.
I'm not saying that my friends are enablers, but how could any book lover resist this?
This is what I came home with:
As soon as the kids noticed these stacks they were looking through the books staking claims and taking numbers for next in line. The bonus: it's been pretty quiet here tonight. ;o)
One of the only goals I have this year is to do some serious reading. I miss reading in a big way. I miss being so engrossed in a book that sleep did not matter. So I made a list of some of the books that I would like to read this year. Some are for fun. A lot have to do with eduction and parenting. Then there are a few to help me along with the lifelong goal of being organized. I'm sure the list will grow, most likely every time I visit a book store or Amazon. I don't know if I'll get around to them all this year, but at this point anything would be an improvement. So without further ado, here is the list:
