It's a snow day in the neighborhood

It's a snow day here in Minnesnowta (as my mother calls it). We were forecasted to get upwards of 8 inches of snow but I don't think we'll actually get that much. We had only gotten 1-2 inches by this morning, and although it is still snowing, it isn't snowing heavily enough that we will get a ton of snow. Of course, I'll still have to shovel but I'll do that later today before we have to go to choir. Dan suggested that I send the kids out to shovel but the wind chill today is supposed to be 10-20 below. On Saturday the actual temp isn't supposed to be above zero. Brrrr!!!!

In other news, I have instituted a one glass a day rule at home. The kids now can pick out one glass in the morning that they are to use all day long. They are responsible for rinsing it out after every use. It has really cut down on the amount of dishes I am doing every day. And, believe it or not, I have kept caught up on the dishes all week. I even washed out the bowl I used for making bread the same day I used it!! Yes. This truly is a miracle. I started taking Fish Oil and Vit C every day and I think they have helped boost my energy level. I've also gotten on the treadmill 3 times this week. I've started scheduling a specific time for me to get on the treadmill so that it actually gets done. When I just told myself that I would do it at some point during the day, it just didn't get done. I've been scheduling it for 4pm which has been working great because it is after naptime, we are done with school by then and I still have time for a shower before supper. I'm trying to keep my evenings free so I can do some things that I want to do instead of always doing things I need to do.

Darin's bootcamp is going well. He has gained and lost privileges several times. But I have noticed an improvement in his behavior when he doesn't get what he wants. He is throwing fewer fits and isn't writhing and pouting as much when I tell him no. He really needs to learn how to control his emotions when he doesn't get what he wants. I do need to find a physical outlet for him though so I'm open to ideas if anyone has any. He seems to have all this energy and it all comes out at once, but I can't take him to the park since it is winter so I may have him run the stairs a few times a day.

Weekly Update

It was our first week back at school after the 2 weeks we took off for Christmas and it went pretty well (except for Thursday's dryer incident--see below post). So here is our summary for the week.

History: We learned about the Phoenicians who were the first people to dye fabric purple. Apparently the shellfish that they got the dye from really stunk so you could insult someone by saying that he stunk like a man from Tyre. We also learned about King Asherbanipal who brought the Assyrians back to power after being in captivity under the Babylonians. He was a mean king whom all the towns were afraid of and he liked to hunt lions for fun.

Science: Didn't get it done this week. On Tuesday I was a zombie from working Monday night and Thursday school got sidelined due to needing to fix the dryer.

Math: Both girls got several lessons done.

English: I started Kara on First Language Lessons this week. It is very easy to use and we both like it. Kara learned the definition to nouns and common nouns. She also memorized a poem. Ellie got some of her lessons done but we'll have to play catch-up next week.

Handwriting: I've started Kara on Daily Handwriting Practice. She seems to have forgotten how to properly write some of her letters so we are working on that. Darin started working in Getting Ready for the Code. He finished the letter f and started on the letter b. He loves doing his schoolwork and keeps asking me to do more.

Latin: Ellie finished lesson 12 this week.

Music: We learned the 2nd verse of A Mighty Fortress is Our God. We also reviewed Holy, Holy, Holy which Natalie also knows how to sing. We also read about Mozart. He died at age 35 after working himself to death. They also suspect he had some kidney problems. The girls also listened to a CD of Mozart's music. While they did that, they drew pictures of images that the music conjured in their minds.

Art: We finished our book about Rembrandt and memorized The Self-Portrait. We also reviewed all the other paintings we have learned this year so far.

Bible: Ellie continued her work in Genesis. We have been reading several Psalms and a Proverb for our devotional time. We have also started to have time for prayer requests and everybody praying, not just one person.

Reading: Ellie is reading Caesar's Gallic Wars and we have been reading various stories throughout the week.

Dryer

My dryer has been acting up for quite awhile. It had begun to squeak while in operation about 6 months ago and I knew I was going to have to fix it at some point, but it wasn't that urgent and I always have a million other things to do so I let it be. That is until this past Thursday. The squeak turned into this really, really loud squealing/grinding noise and I was convinced that if I continued to use it as is I was going to blow up the house. Plus, the noise could be heard throughout the house and it was not at all conducive to peaceful living. And considering that I had just put a load of wet clothes in the dryer and I had another wet load waiting, I needed to fix the dryer immediately. So school got put on hold for most of the day (except for Ellie's independent work) so that I could work on the dryer. Nothing like the urgent to waylay the important. Although you could argue that having a functional dryer is important. :-)

I had previously done some Internet research to try to figure out what might possibly be causing the noise and I was pretty sure it was the rear drum rollers. So I began to take the dryer apart. Wow was the dryer ever dusty inside. Of course, since it hadn't been vacuumed ever and the dryer is somewhere around 17-20 years old, there should be a lot of dust. I managed to get the drum of the dryer out and got a good look at the drum rollers. They were worn and I suspected they were the culprit since that was about where I could hear the noise coming from. I also noticed the belt was cracking in several spots so I figured I might as well replace that at the same time.

I went to the appliance repair shop and picked up the parts I needed. I didn't have much trouble removing the first drum roller; however, the second drum roller gave me more trouble. The problem was that the wrench, although only around 7 inches, was too long to reach the nut that held the drum roller in place. I could get the wrench around the nut, but then I couldn't move it. And considering how long it had been in place there was no hope of me removing it with just my fingers. I finally undid the screws to the side of the dryer and had Ellie pull it away from the drum roller so that I could maneuver the wrench. I couldn't take the whole side off because the side is one continuous piece that is connected to the back and the other side. And I would have had to dismantle more of the dryer than I cared to since several things were anchored to the back of the dryer and to the bottom.

Now it was time to put the new belt on and put the dryer back together. I put the belt on where I thought it went and screwed the dryer back together. Then I started the dryer. The smell of burning rubber permeated the room and I perceived that I didn't have the belt in the right place. I know. I have a keen sense of the obvious. So I took a few screws out and looked at the drum to figure out where the belt really should go--not in the groove as I though but around the wider part of the drum where there was a black line the size of the belt. :-)

I put the screws back in and started it up. No burnt rubber smell and no squeaking!! Now it was time to test it with a load of clothes. No problems there either. It is still working and now whenever I take Natalie with me to put a load of clothes in the dryer, she says, "Mommy, you fix the dryer? It doesn't squeak anymore?"

Win a Hamilton Beach Stand Mixer

A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!

Why purple is royal

While we were studying the Phoenicians today we learned how purple became associated with royalty. The Phoenicians were the first group of people to take the murex shellfish and boil it. They boiled it for 10 days in order to remove the ink from the shellfish and then dipped cloth into the solution. It turned the cloth purple and was so expensive that only kings could afford to buy it.

iGoogle and other stuff

I have discovered iGoogle which I didn't even know existed. I love it!! The best part about it is Google reader. Basically what it does is lets me know when the blogs that I usually read have a new post. Instead of having to check the individual blogs every day, the posts will automatically show up on my homepage. It's great. Of course, I don't read that many blogs every day but it is great nonetheless.

Other things that are on my iGoogle homepage are a Bible verse for the day, the top news stories from CNN, a National Geographic photo of the day, stories from "How Stuff Works," and the weather. On another tab I have several cooking sites that have daily recipes.

In other news, busy season has officially started (not that Dan hasn't been working a ton for the last few months already). Full day Saturdays started today. Dan's comment this morning as he was leaving for work at 7am was "I can't wait till busy season is over." Yeah. Me too. However he has 3+ months left.

Ellie was bored last night so I had her pick out something to make for breakfast this morning. She made Cappuccino Muffins. They were really good and the kids devoured them for breakfast. Of course their favorite part of the muffin was the top half with the streusel. (These are not WW friendly. Each muffin (if you make 12 muffins) is 8 points.)

Darin is currently in boot camp. He has been destructive and disobedient lately so I've decided he needs some serious training. He is not allowed to leave my side and currently has no privileges. He can only earn privileges if he listens with a good attitude and doesn't throw any fits. Darin and Natalie got play tents for Christmas and we had them up all of one day and he broke a tent pole on Natalie's tent. And it wasn't an accident. He just sat there kicking the pole (unbeknownst to me) until it broke. So his tent was taken down, put away and his tent pole swapped for Natalie's broken one. Natalie's tent pole can be fixed at some point I think but right now he isn't allowed to play with his tent anyway so I'll figure it out later. This was the episode that prompted some serious action. Hopefully it works. I never expected to have to do this with him since it seemed he was my compliant child. But I think all of his strong-willed tendencies just came out at once and at full force.

Sledding pics

Here are some pics I took this past weekend when the kids (and some of the adults) went sledding on the hill behind Mom and Dad's house.