It’s not much but it’ll do

Each day I sit at this computer, I really do intend to write the post in my head…on my blog. It doesn’t get there though! So many other things to do. Lately it’s working on the kids’ 2013/2014 school schedules. All books are in ‘hand’ and artist prints were picked up this evening. *Unfortunately, Walgreens cut a few of the images to fit the size and seem to have kept one print. It’s good enough*

What’s been happening with our family the last… how many weeks has it been anyway? School ended for the year; we had portfolio assessments; we went camping; and life has happened.

For the readers of The Weekly Barden: our apologies! The last two week’s issues are MIA because… well we were trying to get school out of the way and actually forgot about the WB.

Here’s our grocery shopping for the week ($63.79 at Aldi). Look at all those veggies! There’s a big bag of frozen strawberries behind the salad. We bought sausage for a breakfast twice this week; not normal for us. Ah, and one jug of dishwasher soap. I’d also gone to Walmart to buy printer ink, laundry soap, aluminum foil and plastic wrap; totaled $59.59! Oh, yes, and Giant Eagle to buy $10 worth of cat food. The rest of the month’s weeks won’t cost as much. I hope.

Here’s our menu for the week:

• Monday: B- From scratch Pancakes (Lee); L- PB & banana sandwiches; D- Tuna tortillas
• Tuesday: B- Eggs and sausage; L- Egg salad sandwiches; D- Cereal (yup)
• Wednesday: B- From scratch Muffins (Fox); L- Fresh veggies w/ cheese and crackers and dip; D- Salad
• Thursday: B- From scratch Pancakes and sausage (Both); L- Talapia with veggies (crockpot aluminum foil packs); D- Meatless spaghetti
• Friday: B- Cereal; L- Homemade Mac & Cheese; D- Homemade Pizza (for me I’m going to attempt this one)
• Saturday: B- Cereal; L- PB & honey sandwiches; D- BBQ’d mustard pork with veggies/salad
• Sunday: B- Eggs; L- Pasta salad; D- something BBQ’d

I’d love to share photos of our camping trip (…minus all the water…) but it’ll have to wait for dear hubby to share them with me It rained fairly consistently for our camping adventure. Lee and I did see a rat snake and a baby (?) raccoon while we were on our trip.

We got two new bird feeders with which the little finches are making pigs of themselves. There are two in the window and our cat desperately wants to get the birds that frequent them. But she has to sit on top of my printer to really see them well. She hits the on/off button constantly as well as sheds fur all over.

And although I’ve had a post in my head for weeks now, this is all I can come up with now. It’s so…inadequate…to fulfill what I’d planned. Oh well.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal–5/17/13

This post contains affiliate links. Please see Disclosure/Policies.

“Monday, Monday, Monday.” –in that special radio voice… “Manic Monday, wish it were Sunday.” –by the Bangles…

(5/13) It was just another Monday. Lee had babysitting but for two hours longer than usual so I didn’t bother to stay in town. It meant two trips in the car. I had contemplated, very seriously, mowing the lawns in between car trips but I decided against it because I always worry that I’m doing something wrong with the mower. It’s a riding mower that just has a few too many steps to get it going. I can do it; I just don’t like to. I also didn’t think there was enough time. Well, my surprise when we got home and hubby was mowing the front yard. He’d worked 11 hours and then set to work on the yard as soon as he got home.

Fox and I played the challenging board game National Parks Query Quest off and on. We bought the game 4 years ago at a used book sale in Torrington,Wyoming. But it is for teens and adults and the kids were definitely not quite old enough to enjoy the game. It isn’t easy but it’s definitely educational. I see it at the site for $35+ shipping; we bought it for $2

Oh, yes, and I made some coconut/almond milk. So yummy. I am okay with the almond milk, minus the fact that I cannot strain it quite enough and always have the tiniest grittiness when I drink it. But this time, I used less almonds and some shredded unsweetened coconut. At first I tried to do it like usual: soak it overnight, then use room temp filtered water, blend, strain. Uh, the fat from the coconut wasn’t cooperating. I warmed up what little bit I had strained and started again with warm water. Much better! The almonds by themselves usually have a nice cream top (not sure what it’s called) but with the coconut there is actually the fat that solidifies in the fridge. I like the almond cream but not so much the coconut oil. I attempted to separate the coconut oil from the rest after it was cold; somewhat successfully.

Also, I’ve had some good success with gluten free sourdough starter and bread. I just need to let it rise more before baking. I’m so impatient! And I think I need to cook it longer than the recipe states. It has been too moist when ‘done’. It isn’t as light as I expect it to be, according to the recipe. The last time I fed my starter, I used garbanzo bean flour. It loved it! It overflowed the jar even though it had a good 4 inches to the top.

Otherwise in the day- I was expecting a package from Amazon for this Kindle Fire Keyboard and this glass pitcher. Neither showed up It’s going through Prestige shipping (never heard of them!). It shows that they got the paperwork for the shipment but no actual shipment yesterday. Oh boy.

Sourdough rising…

Sourdough baked…it fell just a bit.

Tuesday- (5/14) started my day with more sourdough bread. I had to clean up the overflow from Monday’s feeding of the starter before bed. I didn’t/don’t want to waste it so I went ahead and made up a quick dough to be baked today. It rose nicely. The flour I used was 2 cups rye, 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose (which has rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, garbanzo and fava bean flour…anything else?), and 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill garbanzo bean flour. It should be ready to bake around 2:30 pm…If I can just wait that long. It’s already risen an inch in 2 hours. Edited: it turned out great! I baked it after only 3 hours. It reminds me of very moist homemade whole wheat bread- without the wheat!

Wednesday- (5/15) Last night I made enchiladas for dinner. DH has a long, hard week at work and I wanted to make him some good food to come home to. Chicken enchiladas are one of his favorite meals. They smelled so good that I decided I’d suffer if need be to have two of them. Delicious, simply delicious. But I did indeed pay for eating them. Woke with terrible headache and just feeling not well. After feeding the cat, I laid on the couch for another 4 hours; oblivious to all that was around me. Finally, around 10ish, I was human again. The weather must have sympathized with me because it rained and stormed in the morning but was nice and sunny later.

And it was ‘sunny’ later also because I got my Kindle Fire HD keyboard (oh yes, and the glass pitcher ) that I was hoping for yesterday. I figured out ‘who’ Prestige shipping is/was. They are the same people who deliver a lot of our packages one day later than it says it is expected at Amazon lol. There is a mechanical pencil on the left of the keyboard, to give a bit of perspective to size.

I had to drive Fox to Young Marines and Lee and I were to go to prayer meeting but she wasn’t feeling well. We (Lee and I) stopped by the Chick-Fil-A near the armory Fox goes to for Young Marines so that she could get an application. Her first real application!? It just seems so… unreal. I helped her understand what’s what on the application and guided her through filling it out. Now comes the difficult part: turning it in.

Thursday- (5/16) Just a simple, somewhat lazy day. Kids worked on their ‘must finish’ list, then walked to the library. I worked on compiling a list of books and resources that have been used this year. It’s for the portfolio assessment that we’ll have done May 30th. I also plan on taking a printed copy of The Weekly Barden. What else to take? I’ve no idea! I’m not nervous, per se, but I guess I am a bit more than I think. I keep wondering should I take much, or not. I want the kids (and myself, I guess) to talk more about what we’ve done/learned, rather than have a lot of papers. And honestly, a lot of the kids’ work is digital, on the computer.

…And apparently, that’s as far as I made it with my weekly journal entry lol. Posting late but posting anyway!

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal–4.26.13

Sunday- The electricity went out around 3am. I don’t know exactly when it went out because, well, the clock is electric. We have a alternate power supply in dh’s office to power his computer when this happens. It has an annoyingly loud beep when it comes on. That’s how I knew the electricity went out. Dh turned it off and we slept….and slept late. The kids and I went to church but missed Sunday school.

I made another loaf of sourdough bread and guess what- it is like real bread! It’s not a brick; it’s light and fluffy. Well, it is still the shape of a brick since it’s not as rounded on the top as I’d like. Of course, I can’t taste it because I’m still doing no wheat but both the kids said it isn’t as sour as the previous loaves. Fox said it’s the best loaf yet. I measured nothing but the oil. On Saturday night I poured some starter from the jar into a bowl, then poured some more in. I dumped in some flour, poured in what I thought to be about 1 tablespoon of honey, measured out 1 tablespoon oil, and about 1 teaspoon of salt (palmed it). I mixed it; too dry so added some water. Still too dry; added a bit more water. “Kneaded” it in the bowl with my fork. Let it sit for a few hours then scooped it out onto a very floured board. Kneaded it until I liked it’s texture, then folded it into a loaf shape. I put it in a pyrex loaf pan that I’d greased and let it be until Sunday morning. I actually forgot about it! Since the electricity went off and I didn’t have an alarm to wake me up, it was hours past when I ‘should’ have taken care of it. It was beautiful! Nice and fluffy and risen to the top of the loaf pan. I baked it at 400* for 10 minutes then at 375* for 40 minutes.

The photo above is when I remembered the dough! I had to slowly peel off the moist towel that was on it. Here is it in in the oven {great photo, I know} and after baking. And, yes, it’s all white flour. One step at a time.

I got my portion of Australia Everyday Explorers done, just in time! I seem to forget about it until Sunday night. Not a good thing to do because it isn’t always really easy to put together and it creates more work for others.

The kids and I also went to the evening service. Pastor talked over Haggai 2:1-9. LOL I hardly knew where that book was!

I made sure to get the kids’ schedules done for the week. I think I’ll share what’s to be done for their school (this is after all a home & school blog *wink*)

Lee (10th grade/Y9): Monday: Bible reading (written narration) and verses, Ohio Study (final paper due this week), The Christian Life, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Sign Language, Latin, A History of the American People (written narration), Pride & Prejudice ‘workbook’, Astronomy
Tuesday*: Bible reading and verses, Commonplace Book entries, Current Events & Weekly Barden, Sign Language, Latin, Home Ec, Math, Astronomy   *she gets her braces off this day so school will be delayed
Wednesday: Bible reading (written narration) and verses, Current Events & Weekly Barden, Commonplace Book entries, Math, Art of Argument, Ourselves, Common Sense, Sign Language, Latin, Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
Thursday: Bible reading (written narration) and verses, Current Events & Weekly Barden, Commonplace Book entries, Math, Washington the Indispensible Man, Sign Language, Latin, Are You Liberal Conservative or Confused?, The School for Scandal, Marcet essays, Poetry by Cowper, Wheatley and others, Love is a Fallacy
Friday: Bible reading (written narration) and verses, Current Events & Weekly Barden, Commonplace Book entries, Math, Walking the Bible, Paradigm Online Writing Assistant, Seterra, Sign Language, Latin, Art & Composer study, Art of Argument, Nature study

Fox (8th grade/Y7 Lite-ish): Monday: Bible reading (written narration) and verses, Ohio Study (final paper due this week), The Birth of Britain, German, Latin, Ivanhoe, Astronomy
Tuesday: Bible reading (written narration) and verses, Math, The Birth of Britain, German, Latin, Astronomy, Jensen’s Grammar, Age of Chivalry, Current Events & Weekly Barden
Wednesday: Bible reading (written narration) and verses, Math, The Birth of Britain, German, Latin, Writing, English Literature for Boys and Girls, Art of Argument, Current Events & Weekly Barden
Thursday: Bible reading (written narration) and verses, Math, The Birth of Britain, German, Latin, Keat’s Poetry, Jensen’s Grammar, Ivanhoe OR The Age of Chivalry (his choice), Astronomy
Friday: Bible reading (written narration) and verses, Math, Art & Composer study, Nature study, Art of Argument, Seterra, Astronomy ‘catch-up’

I’m so glad the school year is just about over. I’m going to be looking at some assessment tests for math for both kids near the very end of the year

Monday- Here’s the plan: exercise, school, head to Mentor, maybe play outside. That’s it. Nothing more. I do have a review to write for An Unholy Communion. That can be done in the 2 1/2 hours Lee is babysitting. I want to work on my book as well. Of course, there’s always cleaning that could/should be done. Bleh.

So far, I’ve done none of those! It’s 8:45 am.

Dinner is supposed to be fish. I think we are all a little tired of fish. It’s gone from once a week, maybe, to three times this week? I kept switching the fish with a different dinner of the week because it just didn’t sound good to anyone. I got a good deal on talapia though, that’s why we’ve had so much this week. Well, I’m sure it’s good for us. Edited: we had burritos instead And we did all but play outside.

Tuesday- Lee got her braces off!! That is really the most exciting part of the day. Here is a pic of her- BIG smile!

Otherwise, school was mostly finished {2 hours at the orthodontist kinda put a monkey wrench in the plans}, we visited the new library {where we saw some friends}, and Lee bought me a book {North With the Spring by Edwin Way Teale}, dinner was sloppy joes for the fam and canned salmon with mixed veggies for me.

I’m looking for those assessment tests for Fox’s math. Just keep searching, just keep searching…

Wednesday- I forgot to make sure we exercised yesterday because {partially} Lee’s orthodontist appointment was early in the day. But I’m never sure if I should ‘make’ Fox do his exercises because when he goes to Young Marines, he usually has exercise. Eh, it won’t kill him

Edited: no exercise. We decided to go to the library to try out their quiet rooms for school. They worked quite well! While we were there, the kids both used the computers for a bit, both for school and personal. We got home around lunch time. The kids had grilled cheese on sourdough –that loaf I made on Sunday  

The highlight of the day –at least for Lee –came when she called WCLV to request a piece be played. They don’t do requests –sad. But lucky for Lee, the host was feeling nice. Jacqueline Gerber, the First Program host, is our favorite person on WCLV. We listen to the station all day long but she’s the best Almost forgot –not only did the piece get played, but Ms. Gerber even mentioned “Colleen, a 10th grader who used to live in Wyoming”. Yep, that’s my Lee. She was jumping all around with a huge smile. Made her day.

I had heartburn terribly and felt sick so we missed prayer meeting. Dinner was mystery soup/stew. Basically, if it was in the freezer, and had previously been cooked, it went into the pot. I thought it was quite good. Lee did as well; she had seconds. I liked it but it made my heartburn worse and it has wheat in it.

Thursday- Lazy day. Well, it feels like that but it’s not really. Lee finished her school before lunch; she started around 8am. Fox hasn’t been quite so gung-ho.

Yesterday I started an experiment {I love to experiment in the kitchen apparently –sometime I might take a photo of the ‘experiments’ lining my sink lol} with sourdough starter and oats. I used 2 cups oats; 1 cup old fashioned, 1 cup quick. I think I used about 1 cup or so of starter. Then I added in about 1 TBS honey and oil and a bit of salt. Mixed it together and let it set like a regular loaf of sourdough. This morning I ‘kneaded’ it some then formed it into a loaf shape. It’s in the oven with the light on and a warm bowl of water under it. This evening I will bake it. It is rising –I think it’s neat! We’ll see how it tastes.

Edited: It was a fail. Not a total fail, though. I just crumbled the entire loaf and made it into crumbs. I think it will work okay for hamburgers, meatloaf and maybe, just maybe for bread pudding {for the kids- I don’t eat that}. I also briefly thought if I crumbled it small enough and baked it that way, I’d have my own homemade Grape Nuts.

Dinner isn’t planned tonight since I’ve not done my menu for the week. I’m winging it until perhaps Monday. That might be as long as I can go without doing the shopping. There’s always beans Edited: I found two boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese so that was for dinner.

Friday- Hmmm, what happened this day? I bought some soil for starting seeds. Also bought the seeds since I can’t locate my stash. LOL I will tuck these newly purchased packs away somewhere thinking I’ll use them next year…then I won’t be able to find them  

I used the bottoms of paper egg cartons for the seed ‘pots’. I put those in the bottom of grocery bags then rolled down the sides. Now when I water them, it won’t leak every where and I can plant the ‘pots’ directly into the garden. Genius, I know. LOL

I said in the Weekly Barden Wrap-Up that I was going to mow and that we were going to go venturing outside. Well… the ground’s still too wet to run the riding mower over and I was too tired to go ‘venturing’. The kids walked to the library only to find that the internet was down.

School was done well and fairly quickly. I think the Nature Journal entry didn’t get done by either of the kids though... hmmm. Lazy mom makes for lazy children. Sigh.

I’m reading…
…More like ‘trying to read’. I have a few books that are for review, thankfully {rather, unfortunately?} they do not have hard deadlines. Let’s see, I AM THAT I AM, Advice for Seekers, Tower of Babel, What A Son Needs from His Mother, Brimwood Press Worldview curriculum {really enjoying that one}, and also following along with AO’s book discussion of The Scarlet Pimpernel and 20 Principles Study. The book discussion just started and the 20 Principles officially starts the 29th. LOL –I’m already behind. Or it feels like it.

Praying for…
…Denise, my grandmother, Charlotte and her father, my children, my husband, for all {myself included} a clean heart and determination to follow God’s Word.

Quote to share-  It is never too late to be wise. Daniel Defoe

Link to share- The Weekly Barden, Vol. 2, Issue 4

I’m going to be linking up with these posts:

• Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
• Hammock Tracks
• Collage Friday
• The Homeschool Mother’s Journal

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal–4.19.13

{Disclaimer: This post has affiliate links. See full Disclosure/Policies.}

Sunday- Another loaf of sourdough bread set to rise. Check. Bible reading. Check. Breakfast made for everyone. Check. Church. Check. Rest and relaxing. Check. It was a pretty good day with not a lot going on. It’s also no screen time day. No computers, no video games, no tv. It actually all went rather smoothly; unlike other Sundays. I did a lot of Bible reading while the kids read ‘ahead’ for school. It’s not really reading ahead because we are behind anyway. Dinner was super easy- bean and cheese burritos. I actually attempted to make tortillas with sourdough dough. I got very tired of the work. It kept sticking to the countertop no matter what I did. Eventually, I just made a ball out of it and let it rise for a round loaf. The tortillas, though, were super yummy. I like them better than the usual tortillas I make with baking powder.

Monday- The day started with the kids and I doing some exercise. I’m going to try to get us into a daily routine. We all need to exercise more. After doing our exercises, we discovered how nice it was outside! That meant a walk to the library. That’s where I am right now. School for Monday is much lighter than usual weekdays.

We got home about lunch time and dh came home from work sick. Shortly after that, the electricity went out! Apparently all over town. I’d planned on going shopping and so I did. The kids stayed home and did their best without electricity. It was a little later in the day when we heard about the Boston bombing. Thoughts race in my head but not in complete sentences; it brings such emotion, but not so many words.

We {Lee and I} saw a Northern Flicker and had a fun time trying to identify it. We have iBird Pro 2 on the Kindle Fires so Lee spent quite a bit of time on there looking for this bird. I figured {correctly lol} that it was a woodpecker. Unfortunately we didn’t get a photo of it.

Dinner is meatloaf, supposed to have been made by Fox (aka: Cheffery ) but he was busy so I did it. It is a totally made up recipe so here’s to hoping it’s edible. But really, with meatloaf, if it’s bad, there’s always ketchup!

I’m reading An Unholy Communion by Donna Fletcher Crow. What’d I get myself into!? Also next week the AO group is starting The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. They recommended this version, but I’m using the public domain and the audio book narrated by Michael Page {highly recommend that!}. And just a few days after that, Brandy from Afterthoughts will be leading a discussion of the 20 Principles from Charlotte Mason. Super excited for those both.

Tuesday- Start the day…with coffee. Of course. Then I made bread pudding for the kids and eggs for myself. Checking my email it is so easy to just delete many of them. Without even reading the contents. I usually check, first, the sender, and second, the subject line. This morning I saw one from Doorposts- O Give Thanks…It reminds me of all that I have that I certainly have reason to be thankful.

It also reminded me of a dream I had. W.e.i.r.d dream. My dd, who in the dream was only 15, not almost 17 as she really is, was being pursued by two young men. They both wanted to court her! Ack! I woke up and realized how fast time is going! My little girl is…not so little. I’m not against marrying young…but well, goodness…My dd can’t be old enough to even be thinking about that! But, honestly, she most certainly is old enough. {To be thinking about it that is.} Oh, and if you read the post and wonder how I made the connection- Pam made mention that her married daughter called her.

Speaking of Lee- she’s had something wrong with her foot for the past week. Pain when she walks. Nothing visible and no activity that caused her to injure herself.

Dinner is fish. I’m looking through the cookbooks to find a nifty way to prepare it as opposed to the usual. Edited: I finally decided to make them individually in aluminum foil, each with it’s own combination of spices. Turned out very yummy. We had fresh broccoli in the aluminum but also some frozen cauliflower, broccoli, carrot mixed veggies.

Fox finished In the Days of William the Conqueror by Eva March Tappan today and  In Freedom’s Cause by G. A. Henty tonight. He finished The Once and Future King by T. H. White last night. I thought that one would be a summer read but since we only get one month for ‘summer break’ he didn’t want to have to do that.

I’m a smidgen over half way through An Unholy Communion by Donna Fletcher Crow and eh, I’m not overly impressed. It’s a LitFuse blog tour book. The tour is scheduled 4/22-5/12. My review will be up sometime between those dates.

Wednesday- No exercise this morning. Fox has Young Marines where he most likely will have quite a bit of exercise and the kids want to walk to the library. If the weather holds out, I plan on working in my garden bed some. I need to keep turning the soil but it’s been way too wet to do so this past weekend. Edited: I did indeed work in the garden, and got a little blister for my troubles So many red worms in my garden! And there was a giant black, fuzzy spider. I just covered him up and let him be; he’ll eat the bugs later.

School is lighter on Wednesdays; but not as light as Mondays. The kids took their walk to the library and I’ll pick them up in a bit. Edited: picked them up and school was finished.

I made –for a snack for myself –a mix of cottage cheese and frozen berries blended with a small bit of oat milk. Actually quite yummy. The cottage cheese is lowfat which leaves a funny feeling in my mouth that I don’t like but otherwise it’s good. Just thought I’d share

Dinner is chicken and green beans. Bread and butter for those who are still hungry.

Tonight I heard about the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas. Terrible.

Thursday- The kids and I went to Willoughby to visit some friends. Lee spent the entire 2 hours outside practicing sign language, while Fox stayed inside and matched ‘wits’ with a 7-year-old playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl. And I? I sat in the kitchen with my friend just enjoying adult company. Oh yes, and her ‘littles’ this time decided to visit.

It was a beautiful day! The temperature got to 80*F, at least. The kids pulled weeds in the front of the house and we turned the compost bin. I actually thought that I’d been super slack and let them get away with not doing much school but looking over their schedules, they did most of what was scheduled.

After dinner of spaghetti, dh and I went to a meeting to plan a ‘family’ camping trip for the homeschooling families of the church. The plan is to do the camping at the end of May. I got voluntold I’d be doing a Survival Station covering First Aid. Um...I was hoping I’d be in the crowd going around to each station, learning along with everyone else. But nope. That’s alright. I really need to work on sharing rather than taking anyway; sharing knowledge rather than just taking it. Lee was also voluntold that she’d be helping to plan some campfire singing; she gets to pick the songs we sing It’s going to be fun! {even if we are sleeping in tents…outside…where there are bugs…*small nervous laugh*}

Friday- It’s raining right now. Well, more like sputtering. It was fairly warm this morning but it is cooling off. The high has been reached; it’s all downhill from here. By this afternoon it will be in the mid-40s; down from 70*F at 6am!

There isn’t a plan to go anywhere today although I do need to get some eggs to be able cook all that is on the week’s menu. Miscounted when I went shopping on Monday, I guess. It’s just icky out though, so I think I’ll make do without. Do you think pancakes can be made without eggs? Or better yet –I can make scones! Eh, we’ll see

For school, I think I will have the kids work on the books/subjects that we are trying to get finished for the year, rather than what’s actually on the schedule. It’s just one of those days/weeks where I could easily say, “Forget it all!” Must stay focused and motivated. It’s one of the hard parts of homeschooling. For me anyway. Edited: Both did really well with decided the things to do for school and it was  a good school day; one step closer to the finish of the year!

Saturday- This post wasn’t going to include Saturday but for some reason, I forgot to publish my post after it was done yesterday! Thursday was so very warm and nice …and then there was Friday with it’s 40s temps. But that’s nothing compared to today! It is snowing. Sigh.

Fox has community service with the Young Marine’s in downtown Cleveland. After he gets home, around 1ish, we are going to the grand opening of the newest library. It closed one that was somewhat close that we loved to go to, but this one is going to be awesome, I think. Looking forward to that.

Homeschool tips…
…When going through my email on Tuesday I saw this: How to Critique Your Young Writer from FiveJs. I thought it was well done. You can see the other posts in the series. Young or not, I think it’s good information.

“Always remember first and foremost, your critiques are meant to help your writer.”

Another helpful homeschool tip is an online group called The Virtual Homeschool Group. They have some science go-at-your-own-pace classes as well as other classes. All the non go-at-your-own-pace classes are full right now but I’m going to be looking at the Fall classes. Just thinking ahead.

Other thoughts…
…I’m starting to wonder if I don’t have some sort of intolerance to some food. There was a week that I had next to no dairy and wheat and had no headaches, no bloated belly. Since I’ve started making the sourdough bread, I have a chronic headache and my sides are super itchy, along with burning sensation in my right thigh. Of course, I’m also using dairy again. I dislike the idea of having a food allergy, or at least an intolerance. I’ve known that milk doesn’t agree with me for awhile now but I’ve tried to ignore it. These headaches lately are making it hard to ignore that there’s something going on.

Since not using wheat {boy that’s difficult btw!}, I do not have itchy sides and only a headache barely that I associate with eye strain instead of ‘just because’. I’ve also lost 3lbs. Not much but I’ll take it!

Updated Saturday: I did not eat wheat Monday morning through Friday afternoon. I did have a slight headache on one of those nights before bed, like I mentioned above. I ended my experiment for homemade pizza {I even made sourdough pizza crust} Friday night. I had a very small, personal pizza with no cheese, just sauce and pepperoni. This may be purely coincidental but I woke up around midnight with heartburn, which I’ve not had in quite a while, that made me puke {the sauce and pepperoni?} and a whopper of a headache this morning and my gut feels like it has lead in it. Also, before bed, I swear my sides were trying to get my attention. I mostly ignored the urge to scratch. So, I’m going no wheat again. And since nothing else is different, I should be able to tell if it’s the culprit.

I rewarded my kids this week by…
…Letting them take time off school to do things they want –go to the library to use the computers. There’s a show that they are watching {manga/anime sort of thing that was recommended by HEO students on the AO forum- not that I recommend the show; it sounds…depressing really} and it just doesn’t like to play on my s.l.o.w. computer.

My favorite thing this week…
…Finding a watch that a fairly recently purchased watch battery actually fits in, and that I would actually wear. I’m happy now. I used to wear a watch all the time but for some reason stopped. I’ve been wanting to wear one again but couldn’t find any of my ‘old’ watches that the battery would fit into correctly. On Wednesday morning, I did.

Link to share…
…The Weekly Barden, our little family newsletter that we share with family and friends {and anyone else that wants to read it}. It’s a Google doc, but can be downloaded as a pdf.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzThmlDef-0tYjJfS29fSUJHdk0/edit?usp=sharing

I’m linking up with Hammock Tracks, Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, The Homeschool Mother’s Journal and Collage Friday (although I’ve only one photo…hoping Mary doesn’t kick me out *wink*).

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal- Week of 4.8.13

It’s really Spring!

In my life this week…
… Spring! I’m so glad that the weather is warming up, the grass is getting green and plants are budding. I just love Spring.

I’ve had sporadic headaches this week. The kind that catch me off guard. The kind that pop up for no apparent reason and then go away with no help from me.

Our family art poster- #2

Also I’ve been trying new foods. Today (Friday) I ate eggplant sandwiches I peeled an eggplant, then sliced it thinly. I added turkey deli meat slices, cheese and romaine lettuce. They were heated in a skillet until the cheese melted. The kids each had a small one but didn’t wish to have any more. I ate …a few. Quite yummy.

In our homeschool this week…
…Every day but Tuesday was ‘successful’. On Tuesday it was just so nice that we skipped school for the day and went to a Metropark for a few hours. I took quite a few photos. Some I’m sharing in this post. I don’t know if it was all this week but both of the kids finished some of the books on the ‘must finish by the end of the school year.’ Lee’s finished Pride & Prejudice, and Fox finished Taste of Chaucer. Both still have some extraneous work associated with each but I think it should be finished mid-week next week.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
…Take that day off when you get the chance. When the weather’s nice, go outside. Don’t wait for a day when it is scheduled. We usually schedule Nature Study for Fridays but it rarely gets done as I’d like –actually being outside. Usually the day isn’t nice.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
…This week we didn’t really go anywhere other than what I’ve mentioned. It’s been quite rainy and dreary. Next week, we hope to meet up with some friends. Lee will have someone to practice Sign Language with, while I get to ‘socialize’ with another homeschooling mom. You never hear “what about socialization” when it comes to the homeschooling moms. I’m not kidding when I say that being around your kiddos all day, every day with little interaction with other adults, does something to a homeschooling mom We need the adult interaction!

Our favorite thing this week was…
…Our time outside. There was only one day that was really nice enough to do anything; others were rainy and wet.

Things I’m working on…
…I asked my dh to give me an area that he’d like me to have ‘taken care of’ by the time he gets home. My house isn’t dirty but it’s not wonderfully clean either. It never takes long to clean it top to bottom. But I feel that I let things go sometimes that he just tolerates. He had a tough time finding something he wanted me to work on. I’m not sure if that’s cause there’s so much and he didn’t know where to start or that there’s really not much that needs attention. I hope it’s the second but…I doubt that.

I got out a cleaning list that my mother-in-law gave me years ago called “Total Mess to Total Rest Chart”. It breaks up the areas around the home, inside and out, into different tasks and then has a column to record how often it needs to be done. The last column, which I’m not sure I ever noticed, is for the estimated time it will take to do the job. I’m going to print off a copy for the three of us (the kids and I) and go through with the kids and fill it out. I used to clean on a regular basis. Now I just pick up some times lol.

I’m cooking…
…I’ve been trying some new things. Tuesday was just the usual tilapia with seasonings but I cooked up some asparagus for dh. Wednesday we had beef stew with the usual veggies: white potatoes and carrots. I also tossed in some whole radishes to see how they’d taste. Not bad. Next I think I will {shhhh} put them in potato salad. Thursday I made homemade chicken enchiladas. I made the sauce because I’d forgotten to buy it beforehand. Friday I made pepperoni pizzas. Saturday I’m going to make potato salad and possibly some crock-pot bbq chicken because it’s supposed to rain/snow and I was hoping for some bbq.

I’m grateful for…
…All the electronic devices we have. We have quite a few and I’m very grateful for them. They are definitely a convenience and by no means necessary for our life, but they help things go smooth.

I’m praying for…
…a young man named David who was in a bad car wreck and has head injuries. The daughter-in-law (Michelle) of one of the men at church; she has bone cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. The mother and father of another man at church; she is not doing well and he suffers from sciatic nerve pain. And many more.

I rewarded my kids this week by…
…Giving them a piece of candy  

Something I am ogling or have my eye on…
…A Kindle Fire keyboard. <that’s an amazon affiliate link. See disclosure/policies.

A photo to share…
…Do you see the little guy?

I’m linking up with Hammock Tracks, Collage Friday, Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, and The Homeschool Mother’s Journal.

Weekly Wrap-up with Some Photos & School Notes

I’m linking up with Hammock Tracks Homeschool Review, The Homeschool Mother’s Journal, Collage Friday @ Home Grown Learners, and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
***Disclaimer: This post does contain affiliate links. See Disclosure/Policies.***
Here is my attempt at the weekly wrap-up for us.

Sunday, we had church. There was a brunch in the morning and an ice cream social in the evening. Yeah, my stomach was not happy with me that night. There were also visitors to the church. We have a small size congregation but I think we increased that day by at least a 1/4. It was interesting for Sunday School, we discussed Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, but in terms of time. What day of the week did he die and what day did he rise? Easter is celebrated on a Sunday, what many Christians consider the Sabbath but… it’s not really. One lady, in a semi-whisper, said “who cares on what day he died and rose; we just know he did!” She may be right to a certain degree. But it makes me think how time and traditions are sometimes clouding God’s Word. Eh, moving on.

Monday, before lunch time, I hit the grocery stores. Spent way more than planned but had to get all that I did. Some months/weeks are just that way. It makes for a crunch the rest of the month but it’ll all work out. It’s also the day we usually go to Mentor; and we did. But it was a trip for naught. The family Lee babysits for were on their way to Florida. Miscommunication. We stopped by the Half Price Books store that’s just down the street from the family’s house. They have some neat stuff there! First edition books and rare books. I found a beautiful little journal that I was tempted to buy but decided against it. I buy entirely too much that I don’t need and don’t end up using. Waste of money and resources. For school I’d made the kids’ day very light so we had lots of time to do whatever we wanted. They played on their gizmos and gadgets, while I researched more ‘milks’ to make at home. I shared photos of some that I’ve made in my post on Wednesday. Oh yes, and I picked up the book The Anti-Inflammation Zone by Dr. Barry Sears, (from the library) on recommendation of my mother. I hope to write a review on my blog when I’m done.

Tuesday was an easy day, I think. In terms of school- all went as planned. Don’t really know all that happened. It was a good day? I’m guessing so since nothing comes to mind! This is possibly the day I tried to make yogurt and forgot an important ingredient. This might also be the day I started some sourdough starter. I think this is when I started really reading Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread. I picked it up for free awhile back on Amazon for the Kindle and didn’t even crack the book. I let my friend borrow it and that got me thinking about it again.

I’ve made starter before but usually just end up wasting it since it’s always been difficult for me to make sourdough bread. The book I mentioned by Vintage Remedies is very helpful in explaining how-to. I’m hoping I can get a good loaf or two from this and if it doesn’t work (this time) it’s less than 2 cups of flour so far.

Wednesday. Oh gee, another “I don’t know what happened” day lol. Oh, yes, I remember! I went to Whole Foods in Woodmere, and it took me 30 minutes. It’s 7.5 miles away. Yeeeeeahhhhh. Anyway, I got a free reusable bag since it was my first visit to the store (yay!) and I found out the store is awesome. (side note: just heard that they’ve given into the USDA’s GMO pooh) I went there looking for quinoa, which I found, but also picked up some canned wild caught pink salmon. Wasn’t a bad price. And for the yogurt mess up, I bought a small container of plain Greek yogurt. Later the kids and I went to evening church. They had Teen Discipleship and I attended prayer meeting. We had a good sized group. This is also a day that the kids’ school is a bit lighter because usually Fox has Young Marines and has to get ready for that by 4:30pm. The day was very nice, too, so I turned my garden. It has quite a bit to go for breaking down the grass and leaves we put on it back in October. It has a lot of good worms though. We also put some scraps into the tumbling composter that my dh gave me for my early b-day present. I forgot to take a photo of the composter itself, but you can see the inside somewhat in the last two pictures.

Thursday and Friday: Let’s just say the last two days have been just fine. I can’t remember the details. I know I cleaned my bathroom yesterday Oh yes, and The Weekly Barden went live this afternoon.

One puzzle finished…and flung around the room…? Ahem. He was showing that when it was all put together you could pick it up. Well, about then, it started to come apart and he had to be quick.

On to the next one! This is Lee’s puzzle. I’m not entirely sure when she got it but it’d never been opened. She started it Thursday night. The photos aren’t great because fortunately our living room gets wonderful sunlight during the day.

My latest milk: flax and oat. It’s not bad. More flavorful than rice milk but not as strong as almond. I made tuna turnovers for lunch today using the milk in the biscuit recipe. Lee said they were ‘creamier’ than usual. Interesting

I think that is about all I got for our week. We don’t have any plans for the weekend other than church on Sunday. I know I need to get the kids’ school schedules done like I did this past week. Made it much more pleasant than doing it day-by-day. Oh, another school note: I figured out the books that I’d like to have completed by the end of the school year. I shared these with the kids so that they’d have some motivation by knowing that when those are done, ‘school’ is done (as long as we’ve met our days required). I’ll go ahead and share those now:

Lee (some will be finished sooner than the others and then she can focus on the others more), Y9, 10th grade:

• The Christian Life by Sinclair (currently: chapter 11 of 18)
• Washington the Indispensible Man by Flexner (currently: chapter 22 of 52)- probably have to be read during the summer; fortunately, she likes the book
• Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln by himself (currently: 66%)
• Are You Liberal, Conservative, Confused? by Maybury (currently: chapter 22 of 26)
• War of the Worldviews by DeMar (currently: chapter 3 of 8)
• The School for Scandal play by Richard Sheridan (currently: 26%)
• The Vicar of Wakefield by Goldsmith (currently: 21%)
• Pride and Prejudice by Austen (currently: 43%)
• Love is a Fallacy by Max Shulman (not started but very short)
• First Form Latin (Memoria Press) (currently: last unit)
• Advanced Algebra (Life of Fred) (currently: Lesson 55 of 101)- may have to work on during the summer
• A History of the American People by Johnson (to page 269) (currently: page 192)
• Tale of a Tub by Swift (currently: 84%)
• Traditional English Sentence Style (Einarrson) (currently: page 78 of 86)
• Ohio Study final paper, presentation and ‘speech’

Fox (same as Lee; some will be finished soon, others will take longer) Y7Lite, 8th grade:

• Mere Christianity by Lewis (currently: 108 of 190)- may have to continue into the summer
• The Birth of Britain by Churchill (currently chapter 18 of 30)
• In Freedom’s Cause by Henty (currently: chapter 14 of 27)
• Ivanhoe by Scott (currently: chapter 22, 43%)
• (Personal Recollections of) Joan of Arc by Twain (finished)
• The Brendan Voyage by Severin (finished)
• English Literature for Boys and Girls by Marshall (to chapter 31) (currently: chapter 20)
• The Once and Future King by White (currently: page 293 of 639)- can be a summer read; he likes it.
• First Form Latin (Memoria Press) (currently last unit)
• The Little Duke by Yonge (currently: 86%)
• In the Days of William the Conqueror by Tappan (currently: 74%)
• Ohio Study final paper, presentation and ‘speech’

Both are to finish the astronomy schedule we have but there isn’t a particular book (well, there are three books; one we will finish completely; the other two only parts of). When I write it down like that, it seems a lot but when I think of what they've done thus far, I know it’s not really and they can do it.

One more photo: this squirrel has been laying on that branch since I started this post. It’s taken me quite awhile to put it together. I don’t know if he’s sunbathing or what. Sorry for the poor quality; we still have plastic over our windows. It’s not quite warm enough for me!

I got up for a moment for something and when I came back, my squirrel buddy was gone.