Weekly Update

We had a short week this week since we didn't come back from my parents' house until Tuesday afternoon and I didn't take any schoolwork along since last week was our week off. However, our week at home was a more productive week than we've had in a few now that we are all healthy again.

English: Kara did several lessons in FLL. She is working on memorizing a Mother Goose poem about the days of the week. Ellie did a lesson on R&S and wrote a letter to her great-grandmother. She also did 2 pages in her editing book.
Math: Kara finished Saxon 1 this week so we'll probably just review her addition and subtraction math facts next week before we move into Saxon 2. Ellie did 2 lessons.
Reading: Kara is working on reading The Hundred Dresses. She also did several lessons in OPGTR. Ellie finished The Wizard of Oz. We are waiting for the movie to arrive; then she will write a book report on the differences between the movie and the book. She started reading Pinocchio.
Latin: With only 2 days of full school this week, we opted not to cram a Latin lesson in.
History: We read ch 21 in SOTW about Cyrus.
Handwriting: Kara did 2 pages in her handwriting book.
Spelling: Kara finished SWO A and will start book B next week. Ellie took the pretest for her list this week and only missed a couple. It was a list on apostrophes.
Music: We finished reading about the storyline of The Magic Flute and listened to the first 2 Cds. We also finished learning the verses to A Mighty Fortress.
Art: We memorized 2 paintings by Van Gogh and the girls each colored their own Van Gogh. Kara's is the first, Ellie's is the second.

My walk this morning

Here are a few pics I took while I was out on my walk this morning. It is a beautiful day here--around 30 I would guess and the sun is shining, no wind. It was very peaceful to be out there all by myself (along with a few birds). However, at one point, I did find myself in thigh-deep snow. :-) That was quite the surprise.

Pad Thai-Style Fried Rice

I made this for supper last night and it was really, really good. I'll definitely be making it again. I got the recipe from Eat, Drink and Be Healthy.

Peanut Sauce:
2 T fish sauce or tamari soy sauce
2 T chicken stock or broth
1 T ketchup
1 T natural-style peanut butter
1 T fresh lime juice

Fried Rice:
3 T roasted peanut oil or canola oil, divided
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c shredded carrots
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 t minced peeled fresh gingerroot
1 c thinly sliced green onion
1/2 c diced red pepper
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
4 c cooked brown rice, chilled (cooked a little drier)
1/2 lb precooked peeled medium shrimp
10 fresh Thai or regular basil leaves, chopped
1/4 c fresh cilantro, minced
1/2 c fresh bean sprouts
chopped peanuts

1. To prepare peanut sauce, mix together ingredients and set aside.

2. To prepare the fried rice, place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 t oil and eggs, stirring to scramble loosely; cook until done. Remove the eggs to a plate.

3. Add 2 t oil to the skillet with the carrots; cook for 2-3 minutes or until the carrots begin to soften. Remove from the pan.

4. Add the remaining 2 T oil to the skillet with the garlic, gingerroot, green onion, red pepper and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften. Reduce the heat to low and add the cooked rice. Cook for 1-2 minutes; stir in the eggs, carrot, shrimp, basil, cilantro and peanut sauce; cook until heated through.

5. Taste for seasoning and salt if necessary (I didn't add any). Garnish with the bean sprouts and the peanuts.

6. Enjoy!!!!!

A couple pics

I took a couple pics this morning that I thought I'd share. One is of the sun as it was rising this morning (not the best picture) and one of a couple of deer. We are all having a good time here relaxing at Mom and Dad's house and we were able to watch the lunar eclipse the other night too. There is no light pollution out here so our views of the sky are fantastic!

Week in review

We didn't get much done for school this week since we were all sick. We didn't do any history, science, art or music so we'll have to do them this week to catch up (this coming week is our scheduled week off). Also Kara was pretty sick this week so she didn't get any schoolwork done. Here is what Ellie got done.

Math: 1 test and 3 lessons. She missed 1 question on her test. I cut down the number of problems she has to do so her lessons have been going better.

Latin: She reviewed the last 5 lessons.

Reading: Ellie continued to read in the Wizard of Oz. She'll finish that this coming week.

Spelling: Ellie took the test over the word list we started last week. She missed 4 (out of 25). The word list was on whether or not words had 1 consonant or 2 (such as committee).

Bible: She continues to work through her Genesis book. We didn't do any family devotions this week.

English: The mommy was too sick this week to help with this so we'll do it this coming week.

The dangers of good-tasting children's medicine

A conversation I just had with Darin:

Darin: Mommy, can we take my tempature?

I felt his forehead and he didn't feel warm so I said, "Darin, I don't think you have a fever."

Darin: Oh great (complete with pouty lip).

Me: Darin, you should be glad you aren't sick.

Darin: But I want medicine.

Ughhh! We are ALL sick. :-(

We've all managed to get the crud that has been going around. Kara woke up again with a 103 fever and a very sore throat so I decided to take her in just to make sure she didn't have strep. Turns out she just has the same thing the rest of us have. Unfortunately the recovery time is 2-4 weeks. We're hoping for a much quicker recovery. We've all been feverish, achy and coughing since Sunday--all to varying degrees. Ellie is the least sick of all of us and has still managed to do a fair amount of schoolwork--much to her chagrin.

While I was at the doctor's office this morning I picked up a prescription for cough syrup with codeine for me. I've spent the last few nights doing more coughing than good sleeping so this should help. And hey, who needs to do sit ups when you can hack up a lung instead. :-)

Hmmmm. I had more things to say in this post that I was thinking about while trying to take a nap, but all those thoughts have left me. So I guess that's it for now.