Dec
3
Fyi…
December 3, 2010 | HomeMaker | 2 Comments
Please join me at The Simple Life (click on link) to read my latest post.
Thank you!
Jenn
Nov
30
Week 15: A Week of Rest & Some Pictures
November 30, 2010 | Homeschool, Journal 2010 | 4 Comments
We ended up taking week 15 off from formal lessons. And that was just what this busy homeschool family needed. This means we will take a shorter Christmas break, but I think that will be OK. We are flexible and it all works out in the end, does it not?
So let me show and tell some of the things we did do with our family time, which there was lots of, because our principal had Wednesday through Sunday off. Yes, five glorious days with Daddy! We were totally ruined by Sunday morning when we had to get up EARLY for 8 o’clock church!
First though, I need to back up a little. The Monday through Wednesday before Thanksgiving was a pretty relaxing few days, other than getting the house in order for Thanksgiving which was to be at our home this year. The kids and I put away a lot of books and other stuff, so the rest of the clean up was not so bad. (Hooray!)
Thanksgiving found us blessed to host our families. It was a smaller group because of illness and the loss of family this year. This was the first year I did not celebrate Thanksgiving with my grandparents. And it was the first one we hosted. Thankfully, my mom stepped up and brought a wonderful turkey and many other delicious dishes. I was not left to sink or swim! My mother-in-law also pitched in, by bringing us lots of pies. I did not take many Thanksgiving pictures. Must have been because I was a little busy. *wink*
Thankgiving evening found us dragging in the Christmas decorations, a day early. We usually decorate the next day, but it just seemed like the best way to use our time. So we decked the halls with all our favorite decorations. We found ourselves deep in memories. That’s what I love most about decorations, the memories!
Here is the tree.
We finished the decorations on Friday while we celebrated Buy Nothing Day. This did not turn out to be totally true. We did make reservations for our Memorial Day camping trip. We also made our first batch of Christmas cookies on Friday. They did not last long. So we had to make another batch on Sunday.
Saturday we took a long drive, 2.5 hours to be exact. We drove up to our favorite state park, Indiana Dunes State Park. We had a legitimate errand. We were to pick up a desk for our oldest son’s room that was at Grandma’s house. We spent a little time at one of our favorite stores, Bass Pro. I took these photos there.
Here’s a picture from the park.
And the best part of the trip for the boys, was getting their BB guns! Here are some photos of them target shooting with Daddy after church on Sunday.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our week,
Jenn
Nov
19
Week 14: Humming Right Along
November 19, 2010 | Homeschool, Journal 2010 | 8 Comments
(Thanks, Shani!)
Ah, the week before, the week of a holiday is now over. Dig down deep ladies. The time is here to resist the urge to be slackers! (OK, I am giving myself a pep-talk.) I am still undecided about how much time to take off next week. I need to make time to go visit my grandma, shop for Thanksgiving, and clean the house before the big day. If I am kind to myself, we will take the whole week off. This is something I need to talk to the principal about. I am leaning towards taking the week off. I’ll let you know next week. Now onto the wrap-up of week 14, complete with some pictures!
?Lesson Notes:
When I look at the lesson plan book, I see lots of action, despite the usual challenges, which warms my heart. All except for spelling. I am now wondering if we need spelling. Oh, I don’t mean that my kids can spell. ( Ha, ha!) No, I am wondering if the structured approach is working. We went through list after list reaching the big unit test all to discover that with so many errors we have to go back and retest. I must be doing something wrong. So, we took the week off. That is a good solution, don’t you think? Time usually reveals to me the way to go. I hear a little quiet voice saying we need to read and write more and learn to spell naturally. Unschool spelling, if you will? Hmm. Something to think about and discuss with the boss.
We are reading some great books. I feel as if I am now in love with the people of China. I even crave rice. Here is a list of the books we are reading at the moment:
The House of Sixty Fathers
A sweet young Chinese boy is swept downriver into Japanese territory and must make his was back to his parents and little sister. All I can say is, very touching!
Mission to Cathay
Set in the 1500′s, two priests break through local resistance in order to share the Gospel with the Chinese. Grace says this need to be made into a movie. I agree.
Eric Liddell biography
We just got them through a German U Boat attack and they are on their way to China where more danger waits. We are on pins and needles!
Ancient China Treasure Chest
I don’t know if you’ve seen these treasure chest books. We had another one about Native Americans. It’s a hands-on book with lots of information about life in ancient China.
100 Gateway Cities
We continue to pray for the cities of China.
Grain of Rice
A fun little story that shows you the power of what happens when a grain of rice is doubled every day for a month. Amazing!
All the Small Poems
Poetry is our one weakness. This book offers short little poems, mostly about ordinary things or animals. Amusing.
This week’s writing assignment was to write an expository essay. Ryan chose to write his on levers. Grace wrote hers on the myth of evolution. (Go Grace!) I’d say both efforts were well done.
Grace advanced in rank at Judo this week. (She did not want her picture on the blog. ) So here are the boys…
Our Health:
This is the challenging part. Once again, I had to fight a sinus infection this week. With the help of some home remedies, I am feeling so much better today. I used my Netti Pot, took apple cider vinegar, and some special vitamins from Shaklee. I was about to try sesame seed oil in the nose, but decided to use it on the stir-fry instead. :-)
Around the House:
Baking fools would best describe us this week. The cooler temperatures inspired us to bake bread until we ran out of flour. We also made pumpkin creations like Pumpkin Custard and Pumpkin Pie Cake with some surplus pumpkin. I also made a peach cobbler to share with another family. The house has smelled amazing this week and my youngest just asked me why I was doing all this. I guess I really do need to bake more year round so that they are not astonished all at once.
Oh and I rediscovered two old book friends of mine, an old cookbook (Saving Dinner) and a book on nutrition (Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family) this week. I forgot all about the wise advice the nutrition book has. Plus, I found some yummy recipes in the cook book to give me some much needed cooking inspiration. Tonight we are having Parmesan Crusted Chicken Legs! I plan to have Grace read these for her home economics class in high school.
Beyond our Border / Hospitality:
Monday we took a meal to a friend. Wednesday we babysat our favorite three year old. We had friends in on Thursday. I had to cancel plans to be with friends today so that I could rest up. The sinus congestion wears me out. Anyway, we showed love to others this week as much as possible given the limitations we faced.
This Weekend:
We plan to stay close to home this weekend. I have plans to make Chicken Rice Chowder and fresh baked bread. That with some home maintenance chores to do and some errands to run and church, should round out the time.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend! I’ve decided for now to keep this blog active as a record of our homeschool doings. If you have time, come visit me here, as well.
Jenn
Nov
14
Week 13: A Full Load
November 14, 2010 | Homeschool, Journal 2010 | 5 Comments
I am so ashamed! I got a new camera and I did not take a single picture last week! How did I do that? Ugh!
Week 13 was a great week. We did what we set out to do. Distractions were at a minimum. Don’t you just love weeks that go like that? I do!
Lesson Notes:
Progress in math was made! My younger two have been working hard on their multiplication facts since the start of the school year. They had forgotten several groups over our short summer break. (Ugh!) I knew this was a big problem. It slowed us down in learning division. It frustrated me to no end. I reveal this because I am sure I am not the only one with a similar problem. :-) I write this to encourage others not to give up!
I am hoping to be able to take an extra day off the week of Thanksgiving, so we must keep plugging away!
Our Health:
My youngest son continued to have cold symptoms. He was able to keep going, but I know it was a harder week for him. The rest of us seemed to be healthy. Hooray! I need to figure out how to keep us healthy this winter. Any ideas? We take vitamins, wash hands frequently, avoid crowds when we are able.
Around the House:
Here is where things were let to slide a bit. *sigh* All except for laundry. This week I willed myself to fold or hang up every piece of laundry as it came out of the dryer. I hate this way to do things, but it is really best for the clothes, especially since I don’t iron a thing! (My sweet husband irons his own shirts.) I usually let a load sit until I have time to sit down and process the clothes, usually in front of the TV. Oh such a lazy way to do things, I know!!! *blush* But it gets done and I usually feel justified since I am working while I watch an educational program. Anyway, this week I worked hard to get things processed more quickly. I am happy about the results, but am realistic that it will take me a little time to make this a habit.
Beyond our Border:
We focused our service efforts towards the body this week, a friend needed a place for her 5 year-old to hang, another needed a meal after surgery. Grace started her ministry this week working with the three year olds at church, on her own. We are very happy she has this opportunity to serve at the age of 11. She started today and really enjoyed the little ones. She is growing up!
I know this is a short summary of our week. Really, we spent so much time at home just working on regular things, that would bore most people to tears. :-)
I hope to drag out the camera more this week. I promise!
~Jenn
Nov
11
Making “Friends”
November 11, 2010 | Cries of the heart | 17 Comments
Can you believe that I celebrated becoming a blogger four years ago this past October? It still amazes me! I can remember the thrill of getting my first comment. I was elated. A real live person somewhere in the world had read my little post and actually left me a comment! From then on I decided that I was going to dedicate a big portion on my blogging time to leaving comments. I don’t know the exact number, over 5000, but at last check, I was one of the top commenters at Homeschool Blogger. I was and am convinced that leaving comments is the way to make friends around here.
So here is an interesting situation I’ve come across lately, mostly since the BIG CHANGE around here. I have people wanting to be my “friend” and I’ve never heard from them otherwise. They have not left me a comment and I have no idea why they would even want to be my friend. At one point I ignored the requests. Then I felt ashamed and just added them. I don’t really feel the same connection that I felt to most of my friends here in the OLD days. There was a time I had a long list of friends and I could read down the list and knew a lot about that person. I thought I’d enjoy the “internal” parts of the NEW HSB more than I am. I don’t seem to use them at all now. I like Twitter or Facebook more. I have given up trying to update a status here when no one else seems to use this function in an interactive way as we did a few months ago. That’s OK. Like I said, I have other avenues.
Now this post is going into territory that has been deep in my heart for awhile. I have been thinking of moving my blog. I am wondering if I can. So many others have left. I honestly do not find many new bloggers here that I find offer me the friendships I once had, except for a special few. And I dearly appreciate them! But, as I look at my reader, the number of “must read” blogs from HSB is getting fewer and fewer. I have totally no desire to even learn how to change my template, although kind offers have been extended from a sweet friend here.
At this point, I really don’t know what I am going to do. I think I have given this NEW HSB a good chance to win me. I don’t want to offend anyone. I especially do not want to offend the dear people who make this avenue possible for free. There was a time I was so lonely and HSB made all the difference to my life as a homeschool mother. I am thankful. Anyway, I am not thinking of quitting the blog world, just moving perhaps. I am going to keep this in prayer, as a wise blogging friend suggested. Just wanted to let you all know what is going on in this old brain of mine!
~Jenn
Jenn 4 Him