... today. ~sigh~ I hate it when Monday's jobs don't get finished until Wednesday! Oh well. At least they're finally done. I am thankful for that, even though it's a few days later than I would have liked.
It seems like I've spent a whole lot of my life in school with the kids this week. Their new books have been keeping me hoppin', but I think everybody is happy with them and they seem to be doing well. One thing I like is that all of the different subjects have their own book instead of everything combined into one big book. I liked the convenience of the big book, but it meant they were in only one grade. I know that sounds strange, but really... it's kind of dumb to expect all kids to learn everything in the same order and at the same time! Since one of the glorious liberties of homeschooling is being able to be flexible with your kids' curriculum instead of following the public school cookie cutter system, I was able to look through the books ahead of time and select the proper "grade level" for each of them in each different subject. They span from 2nd grade Math to 4th grade Spelling, depending on their different abilities at this time. The beginning of the math book is way too easy for them, but I think it will catch up with them within a few weeks. Otherwise everything is great! Except that I feel like I spend 3 hours a day grading papers and helping them with their work! That's okay though. I enjoy the time with them (well... mostly!) and they do better work when I'm right there than when they're on their own.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday doing the job I've been dreading all week: cleaning out the kids' closet. It seems like I just did that recently, but it had to be done again. It wasn't totally out of control, but we were just out of room! After Christmas I just kept telling the kids to put their new toys back under the tree when they were done playing with them. When the tree came down, well... ! They didn't get a whole lot of junk this year (wa-hoo!), but the closet was already FULL. So I rearranged several things in there, filled up one bag of trash (amazing how it amasses in there!) and one bag of things to donate, and was able to clear off one small shelf so the new items now have a place of their own. ~whew~ That feels better!
While I was doing that, James was in the kitchen whipping up some linguini alfredo. Wow! I'm always way too scared to try things like that. But we had some whipping cream we needed to use up and he's the master of being able to use what needs used. He also coached Kate and Joe through making brownies. Tonight when I was back in charge of dinner everybody saw the same left-overs I've been disguising as something new and all week! Ha! I browned some burger and seasoned it, then added the rest of the pork from the roast to make the filling for chimichangas. Before it was all over we had thrown in the "stew" from Monday (pork, potatoes and a few carrots, mostly). Very strange. It wasn't great, but nobody seemed to notice. The deep fried tortillas were worth eating whatever was on the inside! Ha!
What else... Nothing monumental, I'm afraid. I finally got the rest of the house vacuumed (I started on Monday)... after I realized that the thing wasn't working right and changed my very first vacuum belt. No, really--first time. Makes me realize how good James is to take care of things around here! It made me feel quite accomplished to do it myself and the children were quite impressed. (It doesn't take much, thank goodness!) And I was able to get the wood floor shined up and looking purty. ~sigh~ Love that floor!
Tonight I watched 3 episodes of Curb Appeal on whatever that site is where you can watch shows for free. I really enjoyed them, except for the one that had the designer who... well, he made me a little uncomfortable if you know what I mean! BLEAGH. Anyway, the shows and a Vanilla Coke saw me through the two weeks worth of ironing, so I'm finally all caught up on that. :-)
And that's about it! The only truly amazing thing lately is this...
The girl never ceases to amaze me. Is there some Etch-a-Sketch contest where she could win us big money?! I should check. ;-) It seems like I've spent a whole lot of my life in school with the kids this week. Their new books have been keeping me hoppin', but I think everybody is happy with them and they seem to be doing well. One thing I like is that all of the different subjects have their own book instead of everything combined into one big book. I liked the convenience of the big book, but it meant they were in only one grade. I know that sounds strange, but really... it's kind of dumb to expect all kids to learn everything in the same order and at the same time! Since one of the glorious liberties of homeschooling is being able to be flexible with your kids' curriculum instead of following the public school cookie cutter system, I was able to look through the books ahead of time and select the proper "grade level" for each of them in each different subject. They span from 2nd grade Math to 4th grade Spelling, depending on their different abilities at this time. The beginning of the math book is way too easy for them, but I think it will catch up with them within a few weeks. Otherwise everything is great! Except that I feel like I spend 3 hours a day grading papers and helping them with their work! That's okay though. I enjoy the time with them (well... mostly!) and they do better work when I'm right there than when they're on their own.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday doing the job I've been dreading all week: cleaning out the kids' closet. It seems like I just did that recently, but it had to be done again. It wasn't totally out of control, but we were just out of room! After Christmas I just kept telling the kids to put their new toys back under the tree when they were done playing with them. When the tree came down, well... ! They didn't get a whole lot of junk this year (wa-hoo!), but the closet was already FULL. So I rearranged several things in there, filled up one bag of trash (amazing how it amasses in there!) and one bag of things to donate, and was able to clear off one small shelf so the new items now have a place of their own. ~whew~ That feels better!
While I was doing that, James was in the kitchen whipping up some linguini alfredo. Wow! I'm always way too scared to try things like that. But we had some whipping cream we needed to use up and he's the master of being able to use what needs used. He also coached Kate and Joe through making brownies. Tonight when I was back in charge of dinner everybody saw the same left-overs I've been disguising as something new and all week! Ha! I browned some burger and seasoned it, then added the rest of the pork from the roast to make the filling for chimichangas. Before it was all over we had thrown in the "stew" from Monday (pork, potatoes and a few carrots, mostly). Very strange. It wasn't great, but nobody seemed to notice. The deep fried tortillas were worth eating whatever was on the inside! Ha!
What else... Nothing monumental, I'm afraid. I finally got the rest of the house vacuumed (I started on Monday)... after I realized that the thing wasn't working right and changed my very first vacuum belt. No, really--first time. Makes me realize how good James is to take care of things around here! It made me feel quite accomplished to do it myself and the children were quite impressed. (It doesn't take much, thank goodness!) And I was able to get the wood floor shined up and looking purty. ~sigh~ Love that floor!
Tonight I watched 3 episodes of Curb Appeal on whatever that site is where you can watch shows for free. I really enjoyed them, except for the one that had the designer who... well, he made me a little uncomfortable if you know what I mean! BLEAGH. Anyway, the shows and a Vanilla Coke saw me through the two weeks worth of ironing, so I'm finally all caught up on that. :-)
And that's about it! The only truly amazing thing lately is this...
3 comments:
Katie really is amazing at the etch-a-sketch. Glad your were able to get so much accomplished, even if it wasn't on the day you had planned at least you can now check it off your list.
have katie keep up with that! there is one kid i read about (now a 20-year old) that started drawing on the etch-a-sketch when he was just five or six and now sells his finished "Art" for thousands of dollars each!
http://www.gvetchedintime.com/gvetchedintime/early.php
http://www.gvetchedintime.com/gvetchedintime/process.php
it takes talent to be able to draw like that-- and there are contests out there,
so.. keep it up, katie!
Well, that's cool. (what Megan put up there.) Neat-o, Katie.
I love it when I get Jackson's closet all cleaned up. I sent Anthony in there the other day to help him clean up his room, and his closet ... tsk tsk .... let's just say I'm going to have to redo it. Dads just don't have the knack, I guess. ;-)
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