Week 11, October 12, 2012

In my life this week,
Hubs is working on a career change.  This should be a nerve-wracking experience for me, but I'm really just fine following him on this.  Not that its uncharted territory for me, but the ease of following him is sort of new.  It must be right.

Also, Spunk's birthday was last weekend.  We are celebrating with together parties this year, so I was afraid his day wouldn't feel like HIS DAY!!  But I think he felt the love :)

This should've been breakfast in bed, but he awoke before I was finished cooking.  So, breakfast on the couch will have to do.  Please note the orange juice that we only ever buy for special days.

I'm cooking,
I've carefully planned meals, based on our schedule and weather.  Also, I've been snacking on some Texas Caviar this week.  Its designed as a dip, yummy with tortillas or pita chips, but I can eat it alone with a fork!  I also threw it on my salad, and once, ate it with some cold grilled chicken breast for lunch.

Ingredients:  1 medium sweet onion - chopped, 2 avocados - diced, 1 can of black beans (rinsed and drained), fresh cilantro - chopped, Italian dressing (OR a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and dried oregano), 1 green pepper - chopped. 

Mix all ingredients and enjoy.  Yumm!  You could spice it up with other peppers if you wanted.

Places we're going, and people we're seeing,
We went to lunch one day with Gramom and Pop, so they could deliver the boys their birthday gifts.  Here's Thoughtful.  He's realizing that the Disney World gift card, must be spent AT DISNEY WORLD!!

 

This is UBER-exciting, ya'll!!

 

In our homeschool this week:

 

Dinosaurs:  We're reading through What Really Happened To The Dinosaurs, by Ken Hamm.  The boys are adding to their lapbook-like folders, a little at a time.  This week, our focus was on the fact that dinosaurs were animals, which God created at the same time that He created the other animals on Earth.  I especially loved watching them put together the time frame facts; that is the young age of the Earth, and the fact that dinosaur fossils were only discovered about 150 years ago.  It was like I could actually see the lightbulb come on over Thoughtful's head.  Spunk will get there.  His concept of time is still somewhat confused.  Here's a look at a part of the study from this week.

 

 

 

Earthquakes:  We do Science with a cooperative learning group.  This week's at home time was slightly boring, with lots of vocabulary.  We supplemented with library books, but still, boring.  If not for the IMAX movie that we visited last week, I don't think the boys would've retained much information.  But they did remember a lot about that!

 

 

So, I was really counting on co-op to help me out with this lesson, and the Mommas didn't disappoint!  Spunk's class  created an earthquake out of Jell-O and mini-marshmallows which made a tasty treat afterwards.  More on the seismometers that Thoughtful's class created, later.

 

Extra:  We read about Christopher Columbus, not nearly as much as I would've liked, but enough to get the boys started.  We were happy to read excerpts from his diary.  Apparently, even though Columbus didn't know exactly where he was going, he felt that God was directing his path.  Later, he wrote that he strongly felt that God's plan for him all along was to bring Chrisitianity to the undiscovered lands.

 

In Art class they finished up their Hanawi sculpting projects.  They're off to dry out and and get fired before coming home.  I can't wait to share these with you!

 

 

Thoughtful also learned about South Carolina, how to read through a literature passage to answer questions, Bats, multiplying by 9, and some All About Spelling Level 2.

 

 

Spunk also learned about grasshoppers, adding by 8, the suffix -ing, 4 new digraphs, some syllabication, and apparently a mapping coloring book from the Dollar Store is currently a favorite.

 

 

I'm praying about/for:  some family members.  I can't elaborate a whole lot without airing their dirty laundry, but I AM praying for them. 

 

Also, our lead pastor of 13 years is moving on to other endeavors.  Our church is going to be tested a bit through this transitional period.  I pray The Lord might continue to use our pastor in his new church, and I pray that He peacefully holds our home church together.  I pray the body of our church will see that God is with us, and that He will provide!

 

My favorite moment this week:  I bought the boys a Slip-N-Slide on clearance for $4.50.  We're in Florida, so we'll have plenty of time to use and abuse this baby before we get our few weeks of cold weather.  The new purchase  alone was great, but we placed it at the bottom of the slide and added some cooking oil.  THEY WERE FLYING!

 

 

How was your week?  You can share at the Homeschool Mother's Journal or Weekly Wrapup too!