Sunday Afternoons

This has been one of those Sunday afternoons that are memorable.  The day had no one highlight, but taken as a whole was a great day.  Here's what we did:

• we went to church this morning
  
• came home and had lunch
• discussed the afternoon and our agenda
• napping was the main topic and the adults here took one while the kids played Wii (hubby only napped about 45 minutes, so it's not like the kids got hours upon hours of video time)
• we vegged, watched football, and I started lesson plans for the week
• dinner, prepared by hubby (thank you!!) was comfort food - chicken pot pie
• and now more vegging with football and surfing the internet.

May not be ideal for everyone, but on a rainy Sunday afternoon, it worked for us.

True Musing

Today is the first full day of Fall.  Have to admit, I started out very tired and in a bit of a funk.  It dawned on me, while making the second pot of coffee, that I really should be counting my blessings when I feel out of sorts.  In just making the coffee alone, I came up with a bunch: my husband has a very good job that allows me to have good coffee at home, his pay allows us to pay for the water and electricity to make my coffee,  and he's the one that gave me the canister to store my ground coffee.  It went on from there and I could easily come up with a lot.  It does (and did) help to break the funk, to realize how fortunate and blessed I am.

As I go through the day and usual type things I'll be remembering to be thankful.  It is turning into a beautiful day and just not weather wise.  We'll be taking advantage of that, too.

Three More Weeks

Kevin had his follow up, Orthopedic appointment today.  2 - 3 more weeks in the cast (although the two week appointment ended up being at three, go figure).

One would think

that we had done almost nothing this week, because I haven't blogged or taken photo's.  On the contrary.  It's been a very exhausting week for me.  Here's a run down of what has been gotten to this week:

• school every day (on average, 3 hours of sit down focus type class work)
• nine loads of laundry
• 1 soccer practice
• 2 t-ball practices
• library run
• grocery shop
• household chore list of some 40 items
• scout meetings

It was surprising to me, how some of the things I've gotten to this week took so long.

I am hoping to take a few photo's this weekend of things I've sewn or made and post later.  Halloween costumes came early this fall and of Ian's t-ball banner.  Stay tuned

Our school week

There weren't to many photo opportunities this week for school.  The ones I did take just didn't turn out as well as I liked.  Anyway, we read "The Story About Ping" by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wise.  It is a classic book about a duck named Ping who lives on a beautiful wise-eyed boat on the Yangtze River.

Here are the lesson's learned from the week:

• The Yantze River is yellow and in China
• China is on the continent of Asia
• 1933 was 75 years ago (the book was copyrighted then)
• The book was written before Dad, Mom, and Grandparents were born
• It's good to have colored pencils sharpened before needing them
• Lines can be used to show motion or puddles when drawing
• There were 68 ducks in Ping's family, we only have 31 people (not ducks) in ours
• Some things float, some things sink
• With two of the same item, that look very similar, one may float and the other may sink.
• Not all things that float will be at the top of the water
• Ducks in the same family, may have different colored feathers which led into how we have different skin colors
• Learned that Chinese use chop sticks to eat, so we tried too.
• Reviewed how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and how this is done by the rotation of the earth

There were also some Aha moments in our Math-U-See and success with Language Arts this week as well.  There were twinkles in their eyes because they were understanding their lessons.  It was a great week of learning.  What more could any teacher (or parent) ask for.

Vacation Highlights

Hi Readers!!  If you are here to look for the 5 minute mug of chocolate cake, it's the next post down.  These pictures are highlights from our vacation in the Poconos, PA.  We saved well over a hundred photos and deleted probably the same amount.  The joys of having a digital camera.

We were on a Mountain (long walk to the unit, and about 6 steps up) which made unloading the van difficult with Kevin still on crutches.  Things got into the unit and vacation began.  The above picture was out the door of the place we stayed at.

We were able to use the outdoor pool for one day before it closed for the season.  The indoor pool had an umbrella like thing that water came out of .  The boys enjoyed it.

Here we are after dinner at the Dansbury Depot, a working train station which began in 1856.  The boys have such a fascination with trains, that it made going out to dinner a great trip.  Here is a link to the history of the station.  Also take a look at the picture, because my hubby figure out how to walk with out the crutches - woohoo!!

Our first stop for our fun day was the Crayola Factory.  There was a lot to do and see there.  You could make hats, windsocks, puppets, play with side walk chalk, see how crayons are made, dance and see your shadow change colors, play with modeling clay, make rub drawings, and so much more.  We even got a discount because we homeschool.  

Last but not least stop, on our fun day, The Martin Guitar Factory.  My hubby enjoys playing guitars, basses, mandolins, banjo and for his birthday wanted to take a tour of how C.F. Martin & Company make their guitars.  It really was interesting all that goes into making one, the tools they have had made to maximize the amount of wood used, and so much more.  If you a carpenter it would we worth a tour just to see the process.  The highlight for Kevin was being able to play guitars that are WAY out of his price range.

5 Minutes

Do you have 5 minutes to create a mug of chocolate cake? Following is a recipe forwarded to me by my Mom. We've tried it and it's pretty good.

4 tablespoons flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)

a splash of vanilla extract

1 large coffee mug

mix dry ingredients together

add egg and mix

add other ingredients and mix

pour into mug

microwave for 3 minutes (@ 1000 watt)

cool a bit

put on plate or bowl and eat

I don't know how high ours goes, but cooked it for 3 minutes and it was good!! Also, it will rise some but it doesn't overflow.

Back from Vacation

We've been home from vacation for about a hour now.  Food stuff has been put away, bags are in the appropriate room, mails been gone through.  Just need to figure out what to do for dinner!  Yikes, thats a hard one when there isn't much food in the house to pull together a good meal.  May just have to make a run out to Giant to pick up a meal.

Tonight, not that it matters to anyone (in the big scheme of life), I hope to finish up lesson plans for next week, unpack, and go to bed early because it's my own bed.  Will also, hopefully, blog highlights from our vacation in the coming days.