Year 3, January 23-25th, 2018: Moody Week

Hey, y'all, I kind of went into quite a downward spiral in my mood this week after a really high high on Monday.  I have lots of thoughts floating around in my head but I'm not going to share them here.  But when I get in these moods, I don't take many pictures, and I don't notice what's going on around me as much.  I buckled down and set our heads to the tasks of school and home making.  I've taken the Christmas ornaments off the Christmas tree, but left the tree because I enjoy having the lights through the winter months.  I decorated it with Valentine's stuff for now.  I put away all the rest of the Christmas stuff, except for my sideboard display of snowmen and penguins because winter isn't over yet, technically.  It's been warmer, up to 50 degrees F, but we could have a number of colder snaps over the next couple of months.  As far as school goes, I took some pictures and I'll update you on what we are studying.  Part of my moodiness as influenced my desire or lack of desire to care about food, so I have been just getting by with convenience foods and eating up leftovers.  I did learn how to poach an egg though!  I overcooked one today and it was almost like a soft boiled egg.  Oops!  Good to know!  My stomach hasn't been at it's best either, although I'm still on the Whole30 "rabbit food" "diet."  I've got two more weeks of that.

Otherwise, we've been home most of the week because the gymnastics coach was sick and we didn't have any other playdates or field trips!  Yeah!  I wish I could say I have more paperwork done for taxes, but I don't.  Jared's income will be simple and Gary will help me with that, but I'm pretty sure I have to start reporting Lilla Rose income, which is a great thing on one hand, but not so fun on the other hand because monies have come in and out from all directions and I haven't kept strict records.  It's all there, but I need to sort it out to come up with my gross and net incomes.  I need a clear head and a few uninterrupted hours to get it done. But uniinterrupted hours don't exist with a 3 year old tazmanian devil in the house.  OH MY WORD the 3 year old!  Today, he decided to not only get into everything, but do it on purpose to annoy everyone AND then screamed and threw things when we took things away.  Then he wouldn't take a nap.  In the words of Justin, "The worst part of the day was this afternoon because it was so unproductive."  We couldn't even finish school because I refused to let Abishai sit in front of the TV all day.  He already has 2 hrs a day (don't judge, it's way after I spend time with him and such, and I need to start the other kids' school time).  I took him outside for 30 minutes, although it was 45 degrees.  He had a blast.  I am hurting.  I literally was on my feet all day and I made over 2,500 steps and I didn't leave the house!  I had to go hide in the bathroom while Benaiah (who I asked to come rescue me before the end of Jared's work day, otherwise he goes straight to church with Jared after school) just so I could breathe.  It was a very rough day, can you tell?  Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Ta da! We made a "garage" for all of his cars out of dominos!

It kept him busy while the other kids worked independently.  But the moment someone wasn't playing with him, he got into trouble.

This is such a long, but awesome read!  The kids are doing a read aloud challenge where they each have to read 10 minutes a day.  I read sometimes, too, to give them a break.  But reading aloud helps them with their oratory skills and let's me know if they are struggling over vocabulary words.  Because Keturah takes longer to decode words, her read aloud pace is perfect for the listener.  Justin, however, mumbles and speed reads ALOUD, so it's really hard to understand him.  This book is the 2nd book in a series following these imaginary, eternal living animals as they journey through all the major stories in the Bible.  This particular one starts with the prophets and goes through Jesus' birth and the visit of the Magi.  It adds a tons of details, that may or may not have happened, while leaving the story intact.  These kinds of novels help me form a better picture of the scene than just reading the Scriptures.  It reminds me that I really need to start reading some commentaries to help get the context and help me really think about what these people where really feeling.

In History, we are sticking with Greece at the moment, as Rome grows stronger.  And we are still working through the prophets as Israel rebuilds after the Babylonian captivity and Persians.

In science we are reviewing the human body and moving on to first rocks and minerals, and then other physical sciences.  I'm just using various resources I have on hand and my own knowledge.

In writing, the kids had to pick a fairy tale or well known short story, write key word outlines for it, and put it into three paragraphs, including certain "dress ups" and not using banned words like "said, go/went, good/bad."  They are doing really well on our new program!  Keturah picked Little Red Riding Hood and Justin picked Romeo and Juliet.  I'm not sure why Justin choose it, but he did change the ending just for fun where they run off, get married in secret, and have a lot of children, living happily ever after.  Next up is learning how to make a key word outline from some non-fiction articles and writing 1-3 paragraphs from that outline.  Writing the essay is easy once the keyword outline is done.  I am so happy with this investment and I can't wait to continue to use this all the way through.  It breaks it down for me, and encourages you to make the curriculum work for you.  The main author has a great podcast as well and is just a pleasant person to listen to when he's either on the child's DVD lesson or the teacher's DVD guide.  It's called the Institute of Excellence in Writing by Andrew Pudwea.

The Valentine's Day tree!

My beautiful new diffuser I am using every day!

We had a set of thunderstorms go through this week.  Yes, thunderstorms in January.  It created major ice on the roads for Tuesday morning and the public school parents were all up in arms because they didn't call for a 2 hr delay until after some of the kids were on the bus or parents had left for work.  Even Benaiah's school didn't delay until 30 minutes before he was to leave.

Michael W. just announced the spring leg of his Million Lights/Surrounded tour!  May 4th in Anderson, IN and it's only a 1 hr drive!  The two albums come out in February, so that's pretty exciting.  Oh, and this a screengrab for CCM's Instagram feed.  I'm really enjoying Instagram and reconnecting with CCM artists, Whole30 sponsors, homeschooling people, etc.

I was craving ranch dressing, so I looked up how to make a homemade version (that included regular dairy products) and made it with just my special mayo.  I should have mixed it up before I put it on the salad, but oh well, it worked.  Oh, and I don't really like salads in the winter because I'd rather eat something warm, but I manage.

Ta da!  Thanks to Instagram stories, I watched someone make poached eggs, and gave it a try!  I did it on the first go!  Bring to a boil water and a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar, swirl the water, plop in the egg as the water is swirling (break the egg into a bowl first).  Then wait about 3-4 minutes until the white part cooks and the egg rises to the surface, then scoop it out with a slotted spoon.  Easy!  A little time consuming doing one at a time.  I might get brave and do two or something, but I think they just might stick together then.  Hm,....

Keturah is learning about angels in Bible class with Grandpa, Nora, and Everly.  She had to use a concordance to look up Bible verses about angels and write down a sentence about the passage.

I screenshotted this one and saving it for later.  I can't have peanuts on Whole30.  Basically you make your own jam but cooking up a berry of some sort, without sugar.  I think you melt almond butter or peanut butter with coconut oil.  And then you layer it.  Something like that.

The office closet is getting a little makeover because the church's kitchen is getting a makeover.  Waste not!

Abishai loves watching videos on Daddy's computer at work.  They were watching a video of real life mudding.  Basically, the trucks are jacked up and they go through the mud on purpose.  It wasn't a Monster Jam rally, it was out in the open and wild, and crazy "are they going to make it through?" moments.

The office got a Keurig and some nice K-cups!

Gary has started his busy spring traveling season, and he usually travels with a couple of boxes of books, even if he's traveling by air.  So they have to be checked to see how much they weigh and how much it's going to cost.  Abishai weighed 27 lbs on this scale!  Yeah!!

This is what these are for, right?

Parking garage on Daddy's desk.

LOOK! LOOK! LOOK! It's finally open!  We have a Timmy's within 30 minutes of us!!!!!!  We are so super excited!!! I"m not joking, the kids, even Benaiah, can't wait to take a field trip there!  And this announcement is what triggered the "I miss Canada so badly" response.

So, apparently, James Hinchcliffe, an Indy car driver, is a Canadian!  So he worked the drive through on their opening day.  So cool!!  They are going to open 2 or 3 more stores in or near Indy, but not on our side of town.  Boo! We'll take the kids there soon, but maybe we'll go after my Whole30 is done?  Lol.  I don't care.  I just love that it's here and open and people are loving it!

Justin is studying Revelation with Grandpa this semester, per his request.  They are using the same DVD lessons that Grandpa recorded for a class at church like 8 years ago and that Benaiah used when he was 12.  Can't get any better than this for a Bible class!

Justin's handwriting is better than Benaiah's, but he tends to write too fast and scribbly.  He can write better than this.

The moon had risen by 4pm this afternoon while we were outside.  I just couldn't handle the noise coming from Abishai anymore and he was literally climbing everything!

Now THAT'S a picture!  Superman!

Socks was so happy to have some playmates outside again!  Although, the playmates have about 900 poops to clean up first, lol.  Thankfully, it's all in one area on the opposite side of the yard from the playground.  Smart doggy!

Abishai loved playing with Socks, too!

I got Keturah to come outside, too.  But Justin has now entered the phase where all the wants is his screen and the outside has no appeal to him, which is said.  I even tried to start a makeshift fort near the tree, but no one was interested.

This is where we were 5 years ago, thank you Facebook for telling me today.  Our first J.T. Norris lectures at MCC.  Mark Miller spoke at this one.  Gary and Leah had been invited to come, and Gary spoke at this same event a few years prior and that's how we got connected to MCC.  So much potential, so much growth, some for the school and some for us.  But also, still, heartbreak and sadness that we couldn't stay with them longer.  I will forever miss my Canadians.