Saturday, October 5, 2013

Homeschool Mothers Journal - Week 18




In my life this week....

I had one of those homeschool mom moments....you know the one....yeah....I realized I was worksheeting it again.  That is what I call it.  It's when I find myself using too many lapbooks, unit study questions and worksheets that the kids are balking so much about school that I find myself losing hair I am so stressed.  Yeah it was one of those weeks.  I really should've been kicking my own butt for getting back into that habit.  So big changes next week as we have some child-interest led topics to read and learn about.

It was another busy week of running...running...running.  I got more behind, and a little ahead.  Or so I thought.  Our house right now is a huge mess because we are working on shifting rooms and offices around in hopes of having a little more room in some areas of the house.  We'll wait and see what happens.

My health has been on the fence lately.  I had a bad reaction a little over a week ago to something and have not felt great since.  I keep trying to exercise and watch what I eat as close as I can.  I don't eat out.  Not sure why it's gone downhill all of a sudden.  I have really been feeling like I did almost 3 years ago when I started to feel unexpectedly bad.  The doctors found nothing...who knows.  I just keep trying to stay healthy.

My guest post for the Schoolhouse Review Crew posted this week.  I always feel weird writing guest posts.  I re-read that post a hundred times before I sent it to Marcy.  But no matter how many times I kept correcting it, and I thought it was good when I sent it, now that I read it again....found more corrections I would've made and things I should've added.  Go figure.  It's also weird to see my picture on another blog...lol.

I have totally fallen in love with Costco this week.  We went for the first time last week, and WOW!!  There is the initial fee, but we have already seen a savings in the items we buy.  We ended up buying the Executive level so we get the 2% back with each purchase, and I see us getting a check to cover our membership next year.  I can't beat the deals, and was able to reasonably restock our ever dwindling cabinet.  Although I think my love of Costco is going to cause me an extra trip to the recycle center to get rid of boxes, etc.  But still worth it!

In our homeschool this week......

Well like I mentioned earlier, I hit the worksheet brick wall this week.  Seriously....what was I thinking....some kids enjoy worksheet work and filling out lapbooks.  Our kids DO NOT enjoy this.  So we are going to take it easy on worksheets.  We are not taking a break, but we are going to be doing a lot of interest led learning.  Got to work easier than harder!!

Joey is doing great on his Minecraft Ancient class.  He is totally enjoying it.

Lydia is making progress in reading.  She is really balking about doing her computer program work right now.  So I am letting her step back a bit from that, but we are going to be doing reading and practicing our sound combinations.

Caty is balking about everything.  She has been my little ball of emotion.  She is like a ticking time bomb, you never know when she is going to go into sensory overload.  Oh yeah...she is definitely an Aspie.

Brayden just struggled this week. Not sure why.....it was definitely one of those weeks.  Although he did almost get down double digit multiplication.  He has been having issues with wanting to multiply the ones column and then add the 10s column.  I think he has finally gotten the pattern down.

Projects I am working on.....

Still working on our new business.  I am almost done with my end of the project and Joe is trying to catch up with his end of the project.  We would like to get it up and running soon.

We are moving offices around.  Joe and I cannot share the same office, not enough room in it.  So we are shifting things around again.  We are also pricing video monitors and other monitors for the house.  Even tag team, we are exhausted.  We have zero privacy, and it is driving us both a bit crazy.

I am also working on planning the DIY Club that we are working on starting in our county.  Very excited about this upcoming project!!!

Things I am cooking.....

I made some molasses cookies and ginger cookies today.  We are working on our recipes for our upcoming tea party with our American Girl Club.

I made meatloaf, chili, a huge pot roast that we turned into shredded beef and made beef hash with also.  Most of these items fed us for multiple days, various meals.  The leftovers seemed to last longer in some cases than I planned, so I actually have a couple meals ahead for next week.  I am going to make a menu adjustment tonight.  That is good news though.  When money is very tight (like it is this next month), it helps when I miscalculate serving amounts and we have "extra".

Brayden is on a candied carrot kick.  I used fresh or canned carrots to make it for him.  Also, we discovered that Earth Balance now makes a Coconut butter spread.  So Joey can have butter again.  Anyway, I heat up cooked drained carrots (whether boiled and just heated up canned) and add some raw honey, cinnamon and a teaspoon of the Coconut butter spread.  He LOVES this.  I actually bought a 6 pound bag of organic carrots at Costco last week, so we'll be eating a lot of carrots in various forms.

I also made a Spanish rice this week that everyone, but Joey seemed to enjoy.  It was Basamati Rice, diced tomatoes, diced carrots, garam masala, paprika, green pepper, sea salt.  I cooked some ground beef on the side, because I know that Joey would not eat the rice.  He added his ground beef to whole grain taco shells with his DIYA cheese.  The rest of us enjoyed our rice and the leftovers the next day too.

Things I am reading.....

Just history books on Native Americans right now...yeah I am living a boring life...lol.

My kiddos favorite thing this week.....

Probably having two days off built into their schedule.  I planned around two of our super busy days to help them, and me survive the week.

Places we went.....

The girls had their first Science "camp" at the local science museum.  It was fun.  A little over Caty's head, and the  noise level bothered her.  I think next time I will let her bring her headphones and see if that helps.  She started shutting down before class was over.

Next week is busy with art class, LEGO science, piano of course, and sports.  We skipped soccer this week because life got so busy.  Mommy went into shutdown mode.

Some pics to share....

I don't have a lot this week.  Bad mommy, but I don't think a field trip to Costco counts for too many exciting trips.  No it wasn't a real field trip...I wish.


 They built marshmallow towers.
 And had to design a catapult.  Here's Catys design...
 And Lydia's
 The girls finished catapult with the help of their science teacher.  They had to work with two other girls at our table.  I tried hard to stay back.  But Lydia and one of the other little girls both seemed to have a type A personality and neither wanted to give on planning.  It was quite humorous to watch.
Lydia started working on her castle for her online Magic Tree House Castle class.  She has a couple weeks to finish it.

Hope everyone had a wonderful week!!  Linking up with other homeschool moms at So You Call yourself a Homeschooler.


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