5/24/2009

Weekly Wrap Up




From the Heart: I love this time of year! Makes my heart sing. Cool mornings, birds singing, flowers blooming, kids almost done with school, lots of activity out of the house. This is the time of year I wait for all winter long! It refreshes the soul.


Spiritual Growth: Finding lots of quiet moments but still behind in reading the bible. I need to just get up earlier. This is a habit I tend to fall out of in the winter. Now that it is light early it will be easier to get out of bed early! Working in the garden provides so much time alone with the Lord. I love it!


On the Homefront: For now the electrical is done. We will finish the upstairs when our oldest moves out in July. Cleaned out and organized the food pantry. Was able to keep up with the bathrooms this week.  ( trying zone cleaning) This coming weeks project in the house will be my bedroom, the kitchen sideboard, and the school shelve.


In the School Room: Gals are nearly done!!!!  Next week is our last week at the art museum for drawing. We plan to attend as many special exhibs as they have over the summer. I am planning next year and now have a sketch of sorts on paper. I know we need to do American History 1865 to present. Looking for a creative hands on way to do this without a text book.  Will share more as this becomes more concrete. For Science I the oldest is doing Biology. The youngest will be doing some of the biology, an indepth study of birds and ??? ( not yet determined).


In the Literary Scene: Just the biology text at the moment.


On the Mission Field: We had a great time out on the street this week. The food pantry was blessed with about 1100lbs of free food again this week . We were very busy picking it up and putting it away.


On the creative side: Gardening! Nothing but gardening! Working on cleaning last years gourds and getting them ready for crafting. I promise more step by step photos. This is our first one. We did it at the kitchen sink...not adviseable! I have since moved outside. It is a messy job with lots of elbow grease involved.



Tightwad Living: Planting the garden from seed. I would love to do what most of my neighbors do and buy plants already in bloom and have an instant beautiful garden. But that is just not affordable! The kids have been giving me seeds at every possible holiday all year long. I also gather seeds from friends and neighbors. I have a huge stock. I bought a sweet basil plant yesterday ( just one little plant). It was a buck fifty! I could have gotton a pack of seeds for that!


Free Frestivals. We go whenever we can to free fruit frestivals, art shows ( we have alot of shows in the park, on the beach etc) You need to plan ahead, pack a lunch, ( don't give in to the wonderful vender foods!). Enjoy the culture! This week we went to the Strawberry Festival. Great parade, craft vendors of all kinds, livestock, and of course strawberries!  I really enjoyed all the craft booths.


In the Garden; Our small new flower garden has become much bigger! Still digging and preparing the soil. Pulled tree sprouts from exhisting gardens, transplanted some and tossed some. I am planning a rose garden for the sunny side of the house. This will probably not happen for a year but just planning it and preparing is fun! I love roses. My favorites are yellow, white and pink old fashioned ones. The ones that smell like purfume.


Here is the new garden plot. It is 32 feet long by 10ish feet wide. This plot will be giant sunflowers, and other sunflowers of various sizes ( along the fence), wildflowers, poppies, zinnias, sweet william, and cleome. The kids like to get seeds for me. I get them in cards for all the holidays. Eventually this will be a shade garden as we have planted trees on the other side of the fence this year. This garden will also have a Maple sappling in it.  Many years ago our home had 11 trees on the lot. Big ones! Someone cut them down. Trees help to shade the house keeping it much cooler in the summer.



Lifestyle Change Progress Lots of movement this week. Some walking, lots of digging in the garden, mowing the lawn, and packing out cans of food is more than enough for me this week! I am down 1 lb. More important I am firming up. Its such a slow process. I am praying I can stay the journey! I am so disappointed with the extra skin that happens from being fat. I guess that is my reminder of just how heavy I was. Not going back there!


Here I am 12 months ago at 163lbs. Size Large /16/baggy! I knew I had to do something when the size I was in was getting snug ( pants) and I was no longer able to find anything in my closet to fit for church. I just could not go up another size.



Here I am this month at 121 lbs ( my average weight in a week) Size Small/6/8 no more baggy stuff! I actually enjoy snug fitting clothes once again.



In the Kitchen Keeping it as simple as possible in this busy season. This past week we used up alot of what we had on hand. So the menu may seem somewhat boring...but switching up the side dishes or preparing the meal a different way helps.I am also letting the gals cook as much as they want so I need to keep it easy for them. They love cooking italian dishes at the moment. I have lots of leftover yoghurt so may do yoghurt cheese this week. It is a nice soft cheese that can be flavored. Here is a very simple info sheet on how to make yoghurt cheese. http://www.dannon.com/pdf/yogurtCheese.pdf


Here is a photo of last weeks project: Homemade granola. Its out of focus. This is what it looks like before it goes in the oven.


That is our wrap-up for the week! Hope you all have a blessed week.

6 comments:

  1. We'll be doing the same time period next year. We will be using Sonlight though (Core 4). I'm really looking forward to getting back into Sonlight. I have been looking at www.homeschoolinthewoods.com for hands-on go alongs. There is good stuff for art appreciation, music appreciation and civil war. The other stuff doesn't really hit our time period.


    I love the categories you are using for your wrapup. I am enjoying reading your posts!


    Carol

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  2. Thanks for commenting on my blog. Congrats on the weight loss, that is a huge struggle in my life as I like to eat and don't have will power to give up any certain type of food. The Shack is really strange right not, God is a black woman, the Spirit is an asian woman. Not too sure about this! I'll post more when I read more. Lord bless!

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  3. Your daughters would probably get a good foundation in that time period with Sonlight's Core 4, but it would be beneath them. If easy is what you are looking for, then it would work. However, My Father's World or Winter Promise might be more of a better fit. Both of them offer a history package for the older kids that includes hands on stuff, like notebooking and recipes and so forth. I've been looking at Winter Promise's "American Story 2" You really should check it out. As for My Father's World, it is what we used last year, and it was just a tad too much for my 3rd grader...it should be just right for your older girls. They have lists of books to use with it instead of just getting them with the package with Sonlight. In the older grades Sonlight offers "World History Part 2" (Core 7) which starts more like the beginning of American History, but you could get the instructor's guide and just start half-way through to make it fit the time era you want. By doing this, you would a) make it less intense and more enjoyable for your kids, b) cover the time period with not just American History, but the entire world. There is also Core 100 which is for your children's ages. It is "American History In-depth". You could repeat the first half of history, or you could, again, just take the second half and make it less demanding. With the readers and integrated language arts, it is pretty full, but Sonlight doesn't do a lot of extra activities. You can find people's suggestions for activities on the forums, but if you want to get on the forums you have to either buy a core, spend at least $100 with Sonlight, or pay for access (like $20/year).


    I hope that helps a little. If you need help finding My Father's World or Winter Promise websites, let me know.


    Carol

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  4. I just finished my long week end with my hubby. His days off are Sunday , Monday. But this week he took off Tuesday too. I have loved getting to see what you are doing ! Is your new garden on the outside of your fence ? I sure wished I could picture your yard better.


    You are doing amazing job on your getting fit and healthy. I have to admit there is a part of me who wants to give up. I really don't know why my body wont shed any pounds but I need to keep getting healthier.


    Sending you HUGE ((HUGS)) my SSiC

    In Him<><

    -Mary

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  5. Wow! Congrats on the weight loss. I didn't realize you had lost so much. Way to go!

    It looks like you are busy, busy, busy around your house.

    I love those free outdoor festivals too. Of course, my kids always want the vendor food.

    Pam

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  6. I missed my weekly wrap-up this week, but I knew that there was someone out there who asked me about Teaching Textbooks, and I had to review my own entries to know who I am so late in getting back to--Sorry! I've been busier than a three-legged dog in a kicking contest around here!


    I love the concept of TT for a mom who simply doesn't have time or wisdom to sit down with her children and answer every single math question. My daughter is a weird one when it comes to math. She wants a perfectly neat paper, and so hates to do scratch work or write things down in a way that will help her remember it later. We have gone 15 rounds over some of her eccentricities, but TT has helped us tremendously. When she comes back around to something she's forgotten and wants me to go back over it, I can say without losing my temper, "Let's run the CD, shall we?" (LOL) TT contains every single problem worked out for the student, plus another CD if they are more auditory in their learning patterns and need to hear the lesson as well as read it and then see a few sample problems.


    Seriously, though, she is getting much better about writing things down, in part because another "teacher" is also writing down the problem line by line, and her confidence in math has soared exponentially--no pun intended--because she is able to take control of her own learning. She is now completing pre-Algebra.


    I just recently, as in last week, purchased Math 7 in the TT series for our son. My review is good, but not as glowing, for this level. We quickly found out that the CDs tell you what you need to do to answer the problem, but they don't perform the line-by-line solution format that the higher math programs do.


    Well, you asked me what time was it, and I think I just about told you how to make the watch! Enjoy the day! By the way, I guess it's about that time for all of us. I have been on my Wii Fit since it arrived at Christmas time, but I'm only there 3x/ week. I can't claim anywhere near the number of pounds you've pulled off, but I am losing inches, and yes, it does feel good to slip into clothes that were too snug.


    God bless!

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Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. Psalms 143:8