Miscellaneous

I realize I haven't posted much in awhile but we've been busy with life so I'll post a school update for the last three weeks tomorrow.

As for what else is going on, Saturday night we went to the Tonic Sol-Fa concert. It was wonderful!! We'd not heard them before and they were really, really good. Aside from the music being phenomenal, they were hilarious. So it was part comedy show, part music. We laughed a lot!

On Sunday, part of the choir from Teen Challenge sang for church. Interspersed with their songs were some of their testimonies. It was great to hear. And we got to see our old neighbor. He's been at Teen Challenge for about 6 months now. We had no idea he was there although we knew he was having problems with alcohol and drugs (not sure what kind, though). We talked to him for awhile and he was excited about the changes Christ had made in his life. It was really neat to see. He is now looking for an opportunity to witness to his ex-wife. He still gets to see his 2 boys every other weekend and he sent us a Christmas card.

The rest of this week has been pretty uneventful. I worked Monday night, and Dan and I went on a date Tuesday night. We went shirt and tie shopping and got Dan several new shirts and ties since he pretty much wears a suit every day now. The check-out lady said she had never seen so many ties bought at once--there were only 7 or 8 but apparently she thought that was a lot.

It's a great day here!!

Dan and I decided at the last minute (as in late last night) that we wanted to go to the Tonic Sol-Fa concert tonight. So I called this morning to find a babysitter and believe it or not, I found one. I called her back later to see if we could pick her up earlier so we could get some more Christmas shopping done. She said yes!! So we are going shopping, out for supper and to a concert tonight!! Yeah!!!

Natalie and Herberger's

We were out shopping this morning and while driving, I hear from Natalie, "(something indecipherable) Herberger's."

I said, "Herberger's? Nope, we're not going to Herberger's today."

She says, "No mommy. Herberger's on my finger!!"

Completely confused, I turned around (I was stopped so don't worry, I didn't cause any accidents) and saw a booger on her finger.

"Oh. You have a booger on your finger. Say 'booger.'"

Natalie says, "Burger."

And on and on, until she finally got it right. Not Herberger's on her finger, a booger. :-)

Being crabby

Yesterday, for some reason, I just wasn't having a very good day. The kids were driving me a little crazy with their incessant questions and I think I was a little short on sleep. So I was in the kitchen making something and I think I must have heavy-sighed. Ellie asked me what was wrong. So I told her, "I'm just crabby."

This was her honest response: "Oh. I didn't think moms ever got crabby."

LOL!!!!!!!!

Apparently I've fooled her for quite awhile. :-)

Ellie's poem

Here is the poem that Ellie wrote at AWANA tonight. I thought she was paraphrasing a psalm but she says she just made it up.

O God I praise you
You made me
You rule me
You love me
You watch over me
You provide my needs for me
You protect me
O God you are great!!

Feet

Weekend

Dan and I went to Hawksview Cottages this weekend to get away since work for Dan is already getting crazy. We stayed in the RedTail Cabin--the same one we stayed in when we went last year. We had a WONDERFUL time. This year we took all the food we would need with us so we wouldn't have to leave until it was time to go home. Good thing we planned on it since we got several inches of snow and also some ice. And the driveway is not one you can navigate with snow and ice. The cabin has 2 fireplaces which kept the place nice and warm. It was great to just sit and watch it snow. It was so beautiful. We had a great time reconnecting, relaxing and talking. Here is a view out the window of the cabin this morning.

Here are a couple of pics of the kids playing with Grandpa while we were gone.

Weekly Update

Here is another weekly update. We had a great week for school this week and are enjoying our current unit on the history of Christmas.

Math: Ellie got 2 lessons done and then we paused to review her multiplication and division facts. We'll probably do this again for the first couple of days next week and review her long division. She really needs to get her facts down. She is doing well with the multiplication but is having a little bit harder time with the division. Kara got 3 lessons done this week. Next week I hope to get much more done.
Spelling: Ellie reviewed the words she missed last week and took the post test. She still missed several (it is a list of homonyms such as bizarre/bazaar and oversees/overseas) so we will review it again next week.
Latin: Ellie did lesson 10 this week. We are using the Latina Christiana curriculum for this. On Mondays she watches the video lesson, on Tuesdays she does an online review, on Wednesdays she does her workbook and on Thursdays she does Ludere which is a book that has puzzles that helps her put her Latin into practice and takes a quiz. She practices her new vocab words each day and learns several derivatives of her Latin vocab.
English: Ellie finished the chapter on imperfect verbs and will take the test on Monday. Kara did several lessons in OPGTR.
Reading: Ellie continues to read the Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. She'll finish that up next week and write a book report.
Science: This is on hold until after Christmas.
History: We have decided to put The Story of the World on hold until after Christmas. Instead we are studying the history of Christmas and Christmas traditions of other countries. This week we studied Christmas in the Philippines (we'll also study Mexico, Switzerland and Russia). They learned that the most common Christmas decoration in the Philippines is the parol. The girls each made one (Ellie's is the red one and Kara's is the yellow one). They also learned that instead of evergreen trees, Filipinos often use palm trees for their Christmas trees. The children also go around the neighborhood singing Christmas songs and collecting coins.
Aside from the Philippines, we are also learning about how Christmas came about. We learned about the Roman holiday of Saturnalia where the slaves and masters traded places. During this time of celebration in December, people exchanged gifts, usually candles or dolls. In 274 December 25 was celebrated as natalis Solis Invictus (the birthday of the unconquered sun). According to the Roman calender, December 25 was the winter solstice so the festivities on this day celebrated that the days would be getting longer.
Early Christians did not celebrate Christ's birthday or any birthdays as they thought it worldly and pagan. Instead, early Christians celebrated the days on which martyrs died. Christians did not begin to celebrate Christmas until after 313 when the edict of Milan was issued which granted toleration of Christianity. Christians in those early years chose December 25 to celebrate Christ's birth because they were hoping it would provide a way to evangelize to the followers of Mithra (a sun god).
We also learned about the origin of wassail and the yule log. Wassail was often served only in wealthy people's houses in England. It was made of ale, crab apples, beaten eggs, sugar and spices. Sounds gross. The yule log was present in several European countries and was basically a large tree that was burned on Christmas. There were several superstitions surrounding the burning of the log that were thought to bring good luck during the next year. The girls have asked to make a yule log cake this week so we may do that.
The kids also learned that Christmas trees used to be decorated with gingerbread men and edible treats. Taking down the Christmas tree used to be a day that was anticipated since that was when they could eat the treats. We are going to wrap up some small candies and put them on the tree (we didn't get to it this week) and we made some gingerbread ornaments. We still have to decorate them and hang them up.
Art: We learned the true story of Good King Wenceslas and sang the carol. We also read about Rembrandt and memorized his painting The Feast of Belshazzar. In the Oxford First Book of Art, they saw pictures of imaginary creatures and drew an imaginary creature of their own. They each drew fairies. Ellie's is the first one.

AARP

Apparently someone has the demographic information in my household wrong. A couple of days ago I got a letter in the mail saying that I would get a free gift if I joined or renewed my AARP membership. I thought it was quite hilarious as we are quite aways away from that. :-)

My apologies

If you've ever tried to make the health nut muffins that I posted awhile back, I apologize. I forgot to add the sugar!!! I discovered it this morning as I was making them. I thought it odd that there was no sugar so I found the original recipe that I modified. Sure enough, it had sugar in it. Thankfully the muffins had only been in the oven for about 2 minutes so I got them out, removed the batter from the muffin tin and added the sugar. Then I had to put it back in and back in the oven. So my muffins are finally about ready.

Miscellaneous

This may be a bit disjointed so I apologize in advance.

Natalie is being quite sweet this morning. She slept in till 9am and is now eating breakfast. She was just hugging me with one arm while she was eating and didn't want to let go. Then she would periodically turn her head to give me a milk-filled kiss and say "I wub you." I love it when she says that. It just melts my heart. Here is a pic of her eating breakfast at our new table. Ellie says of the chairs, "Why did they have to make them for people with big butts?" The chairs are definitely wider than our last set.

In other happenings, I finally got my massage that Dan got me in July. All winter long last year I told him he owed me a massage since I was the one doing all the shoveling, especially with that heavy, wet snow. So he got me one in July and I've just now been able to schedule it when he was home. It was WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was really good. She told me that I put a lot of stress between my ribs. And she was right. When I feel stressed, I feel it in my ribs (weird, I know). Also, she could tell other things about me based on the energy she felt. And she was right. That was a bit strange. But I would definitely go back to her. She had just the right amount of pressure when she massaged.

On Black Friday, my wonderful husband went out and bought me an electric roaster! He asked me if I wanted one and I said sure, I would use it. He first went to Fleet Farm as they had one for $25. While he was in line there, a lady told him that they had a better one at Shopko for cheaper. So he put that one back and went to Shopko. He got it for $20 and it has a divided insert you can use for serving. The roaster will come in handy especially in the summer when I don't want to turn the oven on and when I'm doing my huge cooking sessions.

When mom was here a couple of weeks ago, she brought me an early Christmas present--a new vacuum for my kitchen. Mine died a couple of months ago and I was really wanting a new one. I hated lugging the large vacuum out just to vacuum the kitchen so invariably it would just sit in the living room since I never wanted to put it away (I'd only have to get it out a few hours later anyway). The vacuum has been working wonderfully and I can store it in my pantry.

Here are a couple of pics of Kara working on her math flashcards. She sits in this same spot everyday to work on them--right by the front door.

It's here!!!!

They just delivered and set-up our new kitchen table. It is gorgeous!!! We'd not actually seen the table before. When we went to HOM Furniture, they didn't have the round one on display--only the rectangle one. So we knew sort of what it looked like, but not exactly. I got Darin up from his nap (he'd only been in bed 15 minutes) so he could watch them put it together. I asked the delivery guy about the weird delivery time estimate and he said it is all done by computer. The computer estimates how long it will take the drive from the warehouse to the first house, how long it will take to set-up, etc. We were the 6th stop out of 9. He said they usually deliver to about 12 houses in Rochester each Tuesday (their Rochester delivery day). We will be having our own HOM Furniture come March.

An interesting tidbit about the table--the top of the table is actually made from 1 piece of wood. Then they cut the leaves out of it. There are 6 leaves. I think we'll attempt to store them underneath the spare bedroom bed downstairs. I opted to leave the aprons (the part that hangs down on the edge of the leaf) off so that they would store a bit more compactly. They have to be stored flat so they don't bend.

Hmmm. I 've been thinking for the past week of all the things I should post about and now that I'm sitting here writing it, I can think of nary a one.

We finally got our telescope last week. It arrived on Friday although I have yet to set it up. I worked all weekend (stayed late 2 mornings) and it has been cloudy--not a star or moon to be seen. On Saturday, a second telescope arrived. So I called them yesterday and shipped one back. Not sure why we got 2--we only paid for 1. We had originally ordered a telescope in early September. However, the one we ordered was on backorder but they said we should have it within 2 months. Well, 2 months came and went. So last week I called them to see if they had a better idea of when the telescope would be coming. It would be nice, after all, to have it before we completed our astronomy. The customer service lady told me that yes, our telescope was still on backorder. However, there was another telescope with the same specifics and better optics for less. And it would be here in 3 days. I chose that one.

Our new kitchen table is coming today. Yesterday I got an automated call telling me they would be here between 12:33 and 3:33. Huh? Why not 12:30 and 3:30? I had to listen to the message twice to make sure I heard it correctly--I was, after all, going on very little sleep.

Ellie and Kara are in Des Moines with my parents. Mom was here last week Wednesday through Saturday. It was nice to have her here as she hasn't been up here for awhile. Ellie and Kara went home with her on Saturday and I am meeting mom tomorrow in Mason City to pick them up. They've been having a good time. Kara tells me that she got to help grandpa build a new bench for their park. And she drilled right through her pants. Not sure how she did that but she said that grandma fixed them for her. Before they left for Des Moines, Ellie drew pictures for Dan and me. She hid them in spots around the house and wrote a note letting us know which spots were for which days. It was very thoughtful of her. Ellie really likes to give gifts--I'm pretty sure one of her main love languages is gifts. It doesn't have to be anything large. And she likes to give "surprises" to her siblings--something she learned from her grandmother.

On another front, I made some very yummy bran raisin muffins for lunch today. You can find the recipe here.

Weekly Update

I worked this past weekend so haven't gotten around to an update yet. Here is the update for last week. There will be no update for school this week as we are off and the girls are in Des Moines.

History: We finished up a King Tut activity book that I found online and read about Moses and the Exodus from Egypt. We'll take a break from Story of the World until January as we will be studying Christmas and Christmas traditions for the month of December.
Science: We started the chapter on the moon. We got our telescope last week so this will be of great use during this chapter.
English: Ellie got 3 lessons done. Kara got several lessons done in OPGTR and read a couple of books.
Spelling: Ellie took her pretest but we haven't gotten around to her post test yet. We'll have to do that this week.
Reading: Ellie is currently reading The Adventures of Dr. Doolittle.
Math: Ellie did 3 lessons and 1 test. She needs to work more on her multiplication and division facts. Kara did several lessons also.
Art and Music: Didn't get it done on Friday as planned. The girls were doing their chores and packing so they could go to grandma and grandpa's on Saturday morning.
Latin: Ellie finished lesson 9 in LC1.
Bible: Ellie did several of her lessons in her Genesis book. We discussed commandment number 9--thou shalt not bear false witness.

MOPS this morning

I was the guest speaker this morning at MOPS. For MOPS this year, they are having speakers based on the different rooms in the house. This month they are focusing on the kitchen so they asked me to speak on Once a Month Cooking. I wasn't sure how it was going to go since I haven't done much public speaking before but it went quite well. I was allotted 20 minutes--and I went over. I could have easily talked longer. There were quite a few questions at the end so at least people were paying attention and seemed interested in what I was saying. I did a PowerPoint presentation and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to use it. They've never had a speaker use power point before so they weren't sure how to get it to work. Thankfully one of the husbands who does sound, etc on Sunday mornings was able to get it working.

Also at MOPS this morning we did a freezer meal exchange. So I now have an extra 8 meals in my freezer. I shouldn't have to cook now for quite awhile.

In other news, Ellie and I took a trip to the mall to buy her her first bra! My firstborn is growing up. It is really exciting to see her growing up and she is such a lovely young woman. I am so thankful that we are homeschooling this year so that I can spend more time with her and see how she changes. She didn't want to come home last night after shopping and kept asking if there were more errands we could run together. She loves spending time with me and I with her.

In even more news, our new kitchen table is being delivered next week Tuesday!!!!! I am quite excited, although I've got to figure out where to put the extra kitchen chairs. We certainly can't keep all 10 in the kitchen. We freecycled our old table this weekend so we are currently using the one that was in the laundry room.

My sunrise this morning

Other updates

Laurie, Sean and kids were here this past weekend. It was great to have them around. They arrived her Friday night, spent part of the day on Saturday at John and Erika's, then left here Sunday after dinner. I made Chicken with Lemon Cream Sauce for dinner on Sunday and it was delicious. I've made it a couple of times before and it is really, really good. This time around I made it with half and half instead of heavy whipping cream. It was still delicious and I didn't even notice the substitution.

On Sunday night, I gave Darin and Natalie haircuts. Darin was in desperate need of one and I had procrastinated long enough. Natalie's was starting to get a bit more snarly so I thought I better cut it; although I hated the thought of cutting off those gorgeous curls. She is quite cute with her new haircut and she still has some curls, though not quite as many.

While Laurie and Sean were here this weekend, we took some family pics. After church Sunday I drove around trying to find some burning bushes with leaves still on them (at Laurie's suggestion) and found some beautiful ones in Pill Hill near St. Mary's. Here is our family pic.

Weekly Update

Here is our weekly update from last week. We didn't get nearly as much done last week as I had hoped, partially due to me working 2 nights last week.

Spelling: Ellie did a review lesson with 50 words--she got 1 wrong on the pretest and got them all right on the post test.

Math: Ellie got 2 lessons and 1 test done. Kara got 2 lessons done.

English/Reading: Kara's reading has really taken off and she is now reading Frog and Toad books, among others. She got several lessons done in OPGTR. Ellie got 2 lessons done and finished the ending she wrote for Clubhouse Magazine. We mailed that off on Saturday. She also finished reading A String in the Harp and wrote a one-page summary. She was glad to be done with the book as she didn't really care for it. It was a fantasy book and she says she doesn't really like that genre.

Bible: Ellie continues to work through her book on Genesis. We are continuing our study of the 10 commandments. This week we studied commandment #8--Thou shalt not steal.

History: We first studied Queen/King Hatshepsut. She was the only successful woman to rule Egypt as a pharaoh. She dressed like a man since the Egyptians weren't too keen on a woman ruler. Later we studied King Tut and learned what they found in his tomb.

Science: Didn't get any done.

Other: The girls started a theater class a couple of weeks ago. It is a 6-week class run by a home school dad who also does lots of theater stuff. I'm not sure what sort of training he has had but I've seen him working with other home school theater groups and he's good at what he does. He also relates to the kids well and can draw out the shy ones. I had originally planned on only sending Kara as she is a bit more dramatic than Ellie, but when I mentioned it, Ellie was immediately interested. So I signed them both up. They are both enjoying it although Ellie is getting more out of it than Kara. Kara's a bit young, I think, for acting classes. She sees it more as just playing, whereas Ellie sees the technique behind the acting.

Art/Music: Didn't get that done either. Here are the photos of the Mary Cassatt they colored the week before.

Pics from our Owatonna Trip

Here are some pics from our annual trip to the Holiday Inn in Owatonna. We take the whole family there every year to celebrate Ellie and Kara's birthdays. We all had a good time and it didn't take Natalie too long to enjoy the water.

I spoke too soon

2 accidents today, and a poopy pants. Ugh!

Natalie is finally potty training

So I've decided to take the plunge in potty training. We started Sunday evening and it's been going pretty well. Natalie was dry after her nap so I put her on the potty. Surprisingly, she did not throw a fit.

Now for a little history. For awhile a now I know Natalie has been able to control her bladder, etc. Anytime she wets her diaper or poops, she immediately comes and tells me. However, when I mention going on the potty, she adamantly refuses. She says, "I go in my diaper." When I tell her that Shannon goes on the potty, she replies, "Ezra doesn't go on the potty."

So I figured that when I decided to potty train her, I needed to be able to give it my full attention since there would likely be resistance.

But since she didn't resist sitting on the potty on Sunday, I've decided to seize the opportunity. This isn't the best week for it since I work 2 nights this week, but oh well.

Monday afternoon I took her to Target and let her pick out her own potty (the kind that sits on the toilet--I prefer those since they take up less room) and some panties. She picked out Sesame street ones. Monday night I had to work and Dan said she threw a fit when he put a diaper back on her for bedtime.

I imagine she will have to poop today since she didn't yesterday so we'll see how that goes. Yesterday she had only 1 accident and stayed dry during naptime and when we went and ran errands yesterday afternoon. She was wet this morning and yesterday morning. Well, actually, yesterday her diaper was dry in the morning, but she was wet. Since she was throwing a fit Monday night when Dan was putting her diaper on, he didn't get it on all that securely. So, somehow, she managed to soak herself from head to toe, but keep her diaper dry. :-)

Lots and lots of bread

I had planned on making 6 loaves of bread this morning. However, instead of adding 6 cups of water, I added 12 cups of water!! Of course, I didn't figure this out until I kept having to add flour (more than was necessary for 6 cups of water) and it was still quite sticky. Then it dawned on me that I had used a 4 cup measuring cup instead of a 2 cup measuring cup. I was tempted to just throw the whole bunch out, but Ellie convinced me otherwise. So I added more yeast, oil, salt, etc. I'm now making 11 loaves of bread!! I didn't even know I had 11 loaf pans.

Cooking and more. . .

The last 2 weeks have been a bit crazy around here. We took last week off from school so that I could do a once-a-month-cooking session, although, I really should call it a once-every-four-months-cooking session. I typically take about a week 3 times a year to stock my freezer with meals for supper, lunch, breakfast and some snacks. I usually run out of snacks and breakfasts sooner than 4 months and will sometimes do a mini-session to build my stock up again. So I pretty much cooked all last week. Unfortunately, I still have a few things to do. I would be completely done, I am sure, if I didn't have something going on in the middle of every day last week. There wasn't one day where I didn't have to stop cooking and go somewhere. So that cut into my cooking time quite a bit. However, I did manage to get 72 meals in the freezer. I also made some calzones for lunches and to send with Dan when he won't be home for supper. And I made things for snack time such as Chex mix, teddy graham mix and a few quick breads. For those mornings when I am working, I made some pancakes for the kids to just pop into the microwave. Darin doesn't mind cereal (correction: He LOVES cereal) but Ellie and Kara would much rather have something else. I still need to make some waffles and some fruit slush. However, this week has been just as busy.

I worked this past weekend and it was very busy so I worked an extra 4 hours Sunday morning. So by the time Monday morning came, I was pretty worn out. I was pretty much useless at home on Monday. Thankfully, Ellie likes to pretend she's the mommy. And she's very good at it. As a result, not much cooking or school got done. On Tuesday we got a little school done but spent the rest of the day shopping. Ugh! I really hate shopping, but it is much worse shopping with 4 kids, especially the youngest! Ellie had a concert on Tuesday evening and the dress code states that she needs a black/very dark skirt with a white shirt. Well, she had neither. Do you know how impossible it is to find those items? Especially with her long legs! Places just don't carry those types of clothes anymore and if they do have something that color, they are way too short! We finally found a navy skirt on clearance at Gap for $7 and a shirt at Children's Place. It wasn't really what Ellie wanted but after shopping for 4 hours, I was more than ready to go home.

As a stellar example of my wonderful nutritional choices, we had ice cream from ColdStone for lunch that day. It was 2-for Tuesday which means that if you buy 1 kid ice cream, you get another kid-size free. So lunch cost me roughly $3.60. At least they were happy for a few minutes after that.

Then to really top things off, when we got home, Ellie couldn't find the Children's Place bag with her shirt in it. She looked everywhere in the van but couldn't find it anywhere. We finally determined that she left it at Payless. So I made her call the store to see if it was still there. It was, but that meant that we needed to go back to the mall before her concert. This was also the night she was cooking supper so we were really short on time.

Speaking of her supper, she did a great job. I helped her with some of it since we were short on time. But I didn't get a picture of her and it wasn't as relaxed as I had envisioned it. And there were problems with the recipe so it didn't turn out exactly the way the recipe showed (okay, so not really like the recipe at all). But the jello salad she made was a huge hit. Despite the problems, Ellie is really excited about cooking again.

So that brings us to today. It is Halloween and I didn't figure out the kids' costumes till this morning which meant a trip to Wal-Mart (a store I absolutely detest), then to Ellie's piano lesson. I had a mandatory work training this afternoon so we were pretty much gone all day. Thankfully they got some schoolwork done at Emily's while I was at work.

Tomorrow we are going to the waterpark at the Holiday Inn in Owatonna to celebrate the girls' birthdays. We all need a break and are really looking forward to it.

Lydia

This past Sunday we were able to go up to John and Erika's to see their new baby Lydia. All of the kids thought she was quite precious and Natalie repeatedly wanted to hold her. When we found out that they had a girl, there was lots of celebrating at our house. She is the first girl cousin that our kids have. Here are some pics of the kids holding her.

Leaf Pictures

Here are a couple of pics I took of our tree this week. It is such a pretty tree.

Weekly Update-a week late

It has been a busy couple of weeks so I haven't been on here much to post so I'll do the best I can with what I remember (I'm not currently at home).

Math: Ellie took another test and got through a few more lessons. Kara got at least 15 lessons done.

English: Ellie did 4 more lessons and has been working on her story ending for Clubhouse Magazine. We'll get that finished up this next week I hope. Kara has been doing 2-3 lessons in OPGTR. I was doing only 1 lesson per day but it was going to take me too long to get through the book and she isn't having any problems with the material. She was reading out loud today and Dan commented, "When did Kara learn how to read?" She did great.

History: We read chapters 11 and 12 from SOTW and the girls made paper necklaces from wallpaper. We also read assorted books that corresponded.

Spelling: Ellie finished another spelling lesson. This week's lesson was a little easier and she only missed a couple on the pretest and did great on the final test. Kara is off from spelling for a few weeks until she learns how to read the words on her list.

Latin: We continued the lesson from the week before since there was some confusion about 2nd declensions. We've got that figured out now so we'll move on next week. She is doing a great job remembering all the words she has learned so far.

Science: We continued studying the earth and learned about how the tilt of the earth affects the amount of sunlight a country gets and the temperature of the seasons.

Art: We continued studying Mary Cassatt. They memorized her painting "Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly." We also reviewed the other paintings they have memorized by Renoir and Bruegel. They each colored their own Cassatt paintings again. I forgot to scan them in so I don't have images of them yet (I'll do this later). Kara was in a bit of a hurry this time so she didn't pay as much attention to the detail. Ellie was frustrated with her painting since she couldn't quite get the colors to match the original. She noticed that the original of the one she was coloring was overall a grey color except for the rosy cheeks of the kids playing on the beach (Cassatt's Children on the Beach).

Music: We reviewed the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy that we had learned previously and learned the first verse of a hymn which of course, right now, I can't recall (I have Chris Tomlin's How Can I Keep From Singing in my head and can't seem to remember what hymn we started).

Periodically I'll get some beans out for the 2 younger ones to play with while we are doing school. Natalie recently has been keeping herself occupied for long periods of time with these. She absolutely loves them and frequently asks if she can play with them. And she isn't interested in sharing. Here are a couple of pics of her playing with the beans, a few of her farm animals and other miscellaneous toys.

It's official--I shop at Children's Place too much!!

Dan and I went on a date last night. We first went to Macaroni Grill (which was really, really good--though not as good as Grisantis) and then headed over to the mall (right next door). I needed to stop at Children's Place because I had a $30 coupon to use which expired at the end of the month. The coupon is part of the rewards program at Children's Place, so obviously, I've been shopping there a lot. But it is about the only place I can find clothes to fit Ellie that aren't inappropriate and are affordable. Plus, we never buy anything there unless it is at least 1/2 off. And I usually have a 15% off coupon and I also get an extra 10% off. So it's not like I am completely breaking the budget by shopping there.

Anyway, back to my story. We had been in Children's Place for a little bit when the manager came out of the back. She immediately recognized us, asked how we were, and asked where the kids were!! It was nice to be recognized, but, ummm, maybe I should cut down on my shopping there. :-)

On a positive note, the manager there is great. The last time we went there she asked me if I had my receipt from the last time I had bought stuff there. She took the receipt and adjusted it for things that were now on sale more, taking $60 off the previous bill. This time, I asked her if there was any way to extend the $30 coupon I had. I only got it a couple of days ago and it already expires Oct 31. She said no problem. They'd honor it whenever I brought it in. Yeah! They aren't currently having a good sale so I didn't want to buy something just to spend my $30. I did find Ellie a pair of jeans for next year for $3.18. So I just paid for those.

I entered a pie contest--and lost!!

Dan's work had a pie contest yesterday, and I decided to enter. There was a $5 entry fee per pie with no limit, so I made 3 pies--a caramel apple crunch, a lemon meringue and a french silk. But, alas, I didn't win. Dan was a bit ticked I didn't win (not at me) and he didn't understand why the pie that won, won. It was a strawberry pie. However, it isn't strawberry season and he said it was just strawberries with that bright red glaze. Who knows. It was still fun to make them and they had a pie social afterward. The highest I placed was 4th with my lemon meringue. Here is a pic of the pies:

Weekly update

Math: Kara got through about 10 lessons in her math this week. I have ordered the next level of math for her which she will probably start in about 6 weeks. Ellie did 4 lessons this week learning about number placement and division with a remainder.

English: Ellie finished chapter 3 on nouns and Kara continues with OPGTR. Ellie also started working on the story ending she is writing for a Focus on the Family writing contest. We still have quite a bit of work to do on that yet.

Reading: Ellie continues to read A String in the Harp and we are reading The Horse and His Boy for read-aloud. Ellie of course reads several other books per week on her own that aren't assigned.

History: We learned about ancient Africa and heard the ancient African tale of Anansi the spider. We also finished our chicken mummy project. Here are a few pics from that:

Science: We are continuing to learn about the earth and why we have seasons.

Spelling: Kara finished 2 lessons in her Spelling Workout and Ellie finished 1 lesson this week. She learned how to spell ukulele. :-)

Art: This week we started learning about Mary Cassatt. We'll be learning about her for the next 3 weeks also. We reviewed the previous artists' works we had memorized, memorized Mary Cassatt's "The Bath," and they each colored their own Mary Cassatt work.

It's a small, small world

Last night was the annual fundraiser banquet for New Life Family Services here in town. Dan and I had decided awhile back that we wanted to go but had quite a bit of difficulty finding a sitter. Just so happens that it was one of the high school's homecoming last night. But at last, the daughter of Dan's boss was able to babysit.

So we went down to the event center where the banquet was held. While we were perusing the items at the silent auction, I saw somebody that I swore I grew up with. I managed to get a glimpse of her name tag as I walked by and then knew that I had. She was busy talking with some other people so later, when she was free, I decided to go up to her and talk.

Now get this. She and her husband have been living here for about a year. I happen to work with her husband (he is a doc who works on our unit sometimes) and she mentioned that she just started homeschooling this year!! She has 3 kids and her oldest son happens to be in choir with Kara. She is an ultrasound tech and volunteers at New Life doing ultrasounds of pregnant mothers. Then she told me that her sister now lives in Winterset (mere miles from mom and dad) and her parents now live in Ankeny (also not that far from mom and dad). The other thing she said was that they had visited our church a few weeks (?) ago and she saw me there, went home, called her parents and told them that she thought she saw me.

We should be seeing each other more frequently now since our kids are in choir together so hopefully we'll be able to get together some time.

1 on 1 with Ellie

This morning Ellie and I started what I hope will be a tradition. We both got up this morning at 6 so that we could have some time together, just the 2 of us. Ellie has been asking for this for awhile in some form or another. She initially was asking if she could go out for breakfast with just me since she does this with Dan. However, that was logistically difficult since we don't really have that many free Saturday mornings and if we threw it into the rotation of Dan taking Ellie, Kara and Darin out for breakfast, then they would have less time with Dan. So we decided that instead of doing breakfast, Ellie and I would just have some alone time at home. She already usually gets up at 6 to start her schoolwork so we just decided that one morning a week, instead of doing schoolwork, she would come upstairs and we would discuss whatever was on her mind.

She has been having lots of questions lately about growing up, body changes, etc. so we are going through the book "What's the big deal? Why God cares about s*x." It is the 3rd book in a series called "God's Design for S*x" put out by Navpress. Jay and Emily gave us the set awhile back when we watched their kids while they went to a Family Life Marriage Conference.

It was a sweet time this morning and I'm glad we have finally started doing it. I hope that we will be able to continue it and that she will be a willing participant throughout her teenage years. I am also hoping it will help to avoid the tumultuous teen years I experienced. Plus, she's such a sweet girl and she really likes to spend time with her mommy. :-)

Natalie and string cheese

The kids are eating lunch right now and one of their items is string cheese. I just found Natalie over by the garbage can putting all the little strings of her cheese in the garbage. "It's falling apart!" she says. Yes, I said. It's string cheese!! :-)

Week in Review

I can't really call this our weekly report for school since we didn't get much school done this week. We did what we had planned on Monday and part of Tuesday, but Wednesday morning we left for Rock Valley, IA for Dan's grandma's funeral. We came home Thursday afternoon in time for small group. It seems like such a long time ago that it was Monday. Since I don't have the schedule in front of me, I can't even remember what we did for school.

We had a good trip to NW IA. Dan's sister Sara had flown into Minneapolis so Dan picked her up and she rode along with us. Evan and Mandy also came out from Chicago. While we were in Rock Valley, I went to a great consignment shop there. I didn't know it existed but Mom told me about it so I went shortly after we arrived. They will have been open 2 years already this coming January, but we aren't in NW IA very often. I found some great deals while I was there. I was in desperate need of some new winter clothes since I am 2 sizes smaller than last winter. So I found a pair of brown corduroy pants, a denim skirt, a pair of Nike running pants, a sweater and a long-sleeve T. I also picked up a set of 7 fiction books for Ellie and Kara that were published by Focus on the Family. And I only paid $47 for the whole lot!! I was quite happy. Later I went back with Kara and got her a pair of jeans.

After the burial on Thursday morning, we all went to Pumpkinland over by Orange City. The couple that owns it is Gar's cousin. They have a corn maze and a petting zoo. The kids had a blast and Grandpa bought them each a prize. I'll post pictures later. While we were there I saw an old friend from high school/college (Carrie (Ver Heuven) Borchers for those of you who are wondering). We were in the barn where they have the gifts, etc that they sell and I looked over at her and she waved. I said, "Carrie?" She said, "Yep." Couldn't believe it. I never expected to see someone I knew while we were there. She also has 4 kids--ages 1, 4, 6, and 9. She stays and home and runs an in-home daycare part time. They just got back 6 weeks ago from China (they adopted their youngest from there).

After that, we headed to Sioux Center to eat lunch at Pizza Ranch and then headed home. Dan brought Sara back to the airport and we went to small group.

Yesterday we did our monthly grocery shopping and running errands. I menu planned last week so I had everything ready to go. We stopped at the Indian market cuz I am finally going to make some of the things that I learned in the Indian cooking class Emily and I took together in January. We also made runs to Target, Aldi and HyVee. Ugh. I wish groceries would get cheaper, not more expensive!! I do, however, like having my menu planned for the whole month and only having to do grocery shopping once a month (except for milk).

Today we are on our way to the cities for the marathon. This is the one I was planning on running in; however, my body had other ideas. I've been plagued with knee problems (interestingly only on one side) and I can't run more than 5 miles so a marathon was pretty much out of the question since there are a whole lot more than 5 miles. :-) Before we check into our motel today, we are making a quick run to the Albertville outlet mall and Cabela's in Rogers. The Albertville mall has a Children's Place outlet (our favorite kid clothing store) and Cabela's has zip-up fleece sweatshirts on sale for $9.99. And the kids love to go to Cabela's anyway. They have lots of cool animals on display and a shooting range (not a real one) that Darin loves.

Well, that's about it for this week. Have a great week!

Weekly report

Here is what we got done this week:

Math:

We finally found a place in Ellie's mathbook for her to begin working. She's been working on adding with decimals and changing decimals to fractions and vice versa. We are still working through Kara's math trying to find something challenging. We are already 1/2 way through her math book so it looks like I'll need to order a new math book for her sooner than I had anticipated.

English:

We didn't get as much accomplished this week as I had planned. Ellie only did 3 lessons, instead of 4. And Kara didn't get her English done on Thursday--it was such a beautiful day that we went to the park instead. We've got to take advantage of the nice weather before the weather turns sub-arctic. :-)

Latin:

Ellie finally finished her Latin for this week today. For some reason, there wasn't as much time on Thursday to get everthing done. Ellie likes Latin but says that she wishes she could ask her teacher some questions (she uses the accompanying DVDs to LC1). I am going to need to learn Latin along with her I think so I can help her with questions. We also have a Latin teacher that goes to our church so I may need to hit him up with a few questions.

Science:

We did an experiment to learn about radar and began reading about the earth--God's most special planet. One thing the girls thought was funny was that if the earth had more mass, and therefore had more gravity, daddy's stinky toots would never dissipate!!! They got the giggles over that one. :-)

Handwriting:

Kara has finished her handwriting book so now I need to make some copywork pages for her. I doubt that will get done this week as we will have Dan's grandma's funeral this week.

Spelling:

Kara did a few lessons in her book this week and passed with flying colors (except for the word "fill"--she kept forgetting the double l). We are still working on the same spelling list for Ellie. I finally found a spelling list that is challenging for her so this week she has been working on words with "ie" and "ei" spellings.

Bible:

Ellie is still working on Genesis and we have been doing the 10 commandments study that our church is doing. It is from John Piper's organization Children Desiring God. It has been a great study and the kids are really liking it.

Read Aloud:

We finished The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. We had planned on starting the next book in the series but didn't get to it on Wed or Thurs. We'll start on Monday. We are usually a few chapters ahead anyway since the kids love the stories and are always begging for more chapters.

Reading:

Kara is continuing to read readers from the library. Ellie is working A String in the Harp, a Newberry award winner from 1977. She says she likes it so far but hasn't figured out why they named the book the way they did.

History:

We finished another chapter in SOTW and the girls did a writing assignment. They were given the same first 2 sentences and had to write a story about why the cities of Mohenjo-Daro were abandoned in ancienty Egypt. Here are their stories:

Kara's:

It was a dark and windy night as the town of Mohenjo-Daro slept. Little did anyone know that this was their last night. An army was coming!

The army surprised them, split up and went into people's houses. They took everything they liked. The people of the army smelled something just as they were about to leave. It was their favorite meal! They said, "Where is that coming from?" They looked under the bed and found it. They slammed the door shut.

Year after year the army came back and they could smell that smell. And then one year they came back and didn't smell that smell because nobody was living there.

Ellie's:

It was a dark and windy night as the town of Mohenjo-Daro slept. Little did anyone know that this was their last night. After eating a big feast, they all went to bed. But it was their last time getting into bed becasue that night they all died. They feast that they had eaten was poisened.

You'll notice that Ellie's story is much shorter. Ellie usually isn't too keen on writing projects unless it is one that she comes up with on her own. She got her Clubhouse magazine in the mail the other day and there is a story in there that needs an ending. There is also a monetary prize for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and the endings will be published. She is excited about writing an ending to it and we are going to be working on that for the next few weeks.

No art or music this week. Ellie and Kara went on a field trip Friday to the County Historical Society. The girls had a blast and learned about sorghum, weaving, removing the bark from wood and other things. The whole History Day was outside and the weather was absolutely perfect for it. Emily stopped at McDonald's on the way home and got them all ice cream cones. :-)

Also, Ellie has been wanting to start making supper periodically. So she will begin making supper once a month. Her cooking day will be at the end of October and today she picked out her menu since I will be doing my monthly grocery shopping trip next week. She is making Dilled Ham Balls over pasta, Summer Strawberry Jello Salad and a Butterfinger cheesecake.

Health Nut Muffins

I was looking for a recipe for muffins for lunch today, found one, then modified it. Darin asked if I could please make them again once they were all gone.

3 bananas, mashed
2 eggs
2 T canola oil
2 cups sour milk
1 T vanilla (about, I never measure vanilla, just put in a few squirts)
3/4 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup blueberries
2 apples, peeled, cored, finely chopped
2 t cinnamon
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

Mix wet ingredients in large bowl. In separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Add to wet ingredients and mix until just moistened. Fill greased muffin tin mostly full. Bake at 350 for 15-22 minutes, depending on the size of the muffin. I made 12 jumbo muffins with this recipe and bakes them for 21-22 minutes.

Quote from Ellie

We were at the Dr's office yesterday to pick up Ellie's immunization schedule which I needed to submit with our intent to homeschool form. There was a woman who had her 2 young children (probably around 3yo) with her and the children were continually misbehaving--kept running for the door, etc.

After we walked out, Ellie said, "You're a better mother than she is, mom. You discipline us and you'd never let us act like that."

Now, I'm not saying I am a better mom--you never know the underlying circumstances. But at least she appreciates being disciplined--at least until I am disciplining her. :-)

Week in review

Here is what we got accomplished last week for school:

(There are several classical homeschoolers that are posting their weekly progress reports online and I thought it was a good idea--hopefully I will keep it up)

Math

Kara--we're still working on finding a spot in her math book where she is learing something, so we are still doing 5-10 math lessons a day

Ellie--she took 2 math tests daily and we have now found a starting point for her. She skipped around 30 lessons total.

English

Kara--Ordinary Parents--4 lessons, soft/hard g and c sounds

Ellie--R&S ch 2 test, 3 lessons

Spelling

Kara-she worked ahead so instead of the 2 lessons per week she normally does, she did 4

Ellie--I found a 6th grade spelling list online since she had been bored with what I had for her earlier. This was week 2 of that list.

Latin

Ellie--lesson 6, first declension

Reading

Ellie--she finished up A Wrinkle in Time along with several other books she was reading on her own

Kara--no assigned books for Kara at this point. She gets readers from the library and reads those along with any packages, magazines, etc we have lying around

Read-Aloud

We are currently reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and the kids are loving it!

History

SOTW ch 8--they learned about the Assyrians and the story of gilgamesh. They also made crowns from the era and wore ancient egyptian clothing. Here they are in all their glory.