Daybook: Tuesday

Color of the Day: Red or Pink 
Grain of the Day: Oats


Breakfast - oatmeal with banana slices and a little bit of brown sugar, Lucy wanted smilies to munch on (Earth's Best - think cheerios with smiles), everyone had milk and I had coffee, too
Morning Snack - Clif kids Z bars (chocolate brownie and chocolate chip are the favorites around here), milk, and I had some more coffee
Lunch - shredded some of the leftover beef from last night and had that with the very last of the taco chips, some cheddar cheese, and salsa.  Yup, nachos two days in a row!  We had apple juice or filtered water from the fridge to drink.  Lucy had a vanilla yogurt and some water and nibbled on a bit of my shredded beef - she is VERY interested in trying out whatever everyone else is eating this days, but won't always let you put it on her plate or in her bowl.  Funny kid.
Afternoon Snack and Tea Time - apple slices and popcorn
Dinner - egg and cheese sandwiches, fruit (apples, bananas, mandarin oranges) and filtered water or milk to drink

Hey, speaking of cooking, don't miss out on The Nourishing Crock Pot Carnival. I found a few recipes I'm going to give a try ... love having easy and healthy recipes to use.  (Otherwise it is pretty tempting to rely on a certain blue box of scary orange cheese)

I didn't take many pictures to share today, another gray and rainy day here in central Indiana, but I do have this to share with you:

growing amaryllis

Circle Time - (see Monday's circle) You might have noticed that our circle times are getting shorter and shorter.  The main reason being is that Max and Lucy aren't very interested in being part of the circle at this stage (age 3 and age 18 months) so it is mainly a time of singing and rhymes for Jillian and I and the two little ones move in and out (or sometimes don't participate at all, which is fine)  I've been using Circle lately as a time to transition Jillian from the morning's play and activities to settling in for school.  I've stopped trying to find ways to include Max and Lucy, though they are welcome if they want to come over to the circle.  It seems less frustrating this week as the planner and for Jillian, who felt frustrated whenever one of the "babies" would break our circle.  I imagine this is an aspect of our homeschool that will keep changing as our family changes and the kids get older. Do YOU have a circle time?  What does it look like at your house? 

Main Lesson: Language Arts - continuing to use The Seven Year Wonder Book

• reviewed last night's chapter (which we read before bed)
• Together, we picked out a phrase from the poem we really liked
• I wrote that phrase on the chalkboard
• copied phrase into main lesson book (handwriting practice)
• then used our block crayons and drew from the story
• tonight, at bedtime, I read to her the next two chapters (they are short chapters)
  

I apologize for forgetting in yesterday's post to link up the book we're using for our Main Lesson right now.  I have put up an Amazon widget in the sidebar, so hopefully that will let those of you who are curious take a look (and then you can put it on your library list or visit your local used bookstore).  I've got some other books I've been talking about lately linked up there, too.

Nature Study/Botany: Rosemary - eek!  Not enough rosemary on hand to make a wreath today, but I did smash up some garlic and rosemary and used it to make some more rosemary butter.  I'm using the zine Herbal Roots for my herb study.  This is my first month using it and I'm enjoying it a lot so far.  Yummmmm, rosemary ...

Oh, speaking of garlic, really cool post on uses for garlic at a new favorite blog - Keeper of the Home.  Worth a check out (and great way to put all that awesome garlic we're getting from Hoosier Organics to use!)

I had such a treat this evening!  I listened to the Teaching Waldorf Math seminar  with Barbara Dewey (whose Intro to Waldorf Homeschooling book was one of my first EVER homeschool purchases).  It was put on by The Waldorf Connection and it was such an informative and fun way to spend part of the evening. Even my old put-put dial-up computer was able to tune in and listen with no problems.  I took pages of notes and am thankful to Donna for offering this program.

I hope everyone had a great day today!
Best Wishes,
Kara

Daybook: Monday

Color of the Day: Purple 
Grain of the Day: Rice



Breakfast - cocoa, waffles with butter and banana slices
Morning Snack - around 9am I was feeling a little run-down (had been up for 4 hours by that point) so I had a handful of almonds and some water.  Then, around 10:30 we had a snack of Clif bars and apple juice
Lunch - I made a fresh batch of rice and we had that with leftover chips, salsa, black olives, cherry tomatoes, and cheese (my SIL was in town and made us nachos this weekend - awesome!)
Afternoon Snack and Tea Time - popcorn and apple slices with cocoa.  It was definitely a cocoa kind of day here in Indiana ... very rainy and grey and chilly.
Dinner - roast in the crock-pot with brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, tomato sauce, onions, and garlic.  Man, the house smelled awesome all day long!  We had mashed potatoes and rolls to go along with.

Circle Time -

• called everyone to the circle with The More We Get Together song
• sang Welcome to the Circle Song (Little Acorn Learning's Daily Guide)
• the Weather Song (EARTHschooling November) ... today was R-A-I-N-Y
• read the November poem by Margaret Morgan (A Journey Through Time pg. 180)
  
• copied November poem into her Nature Notebook
  
• closed with a prayer for a peaceful day
  

Main Lesson: Language Arts - Last night I read Jillian a chapter from The Seven Year Wonder Book by Isabel Wyatt.

• talked about last night's reading
• together, came up with a one sentence summary, which I wrote on our chalkboard
  
• copied summary into Language Arts main lesson book
• drew from the story

And, then, before bedtime tonight I read another chapter from the book.  I'm trying to work with the Waldorf idea of presenting her with material and then letting her sleep on it.  

Nature Study/Botany: Rosemary - I'm using the Herbal Roots zine this month to learn about rosemary.  Jillian is interested, too, so she has been learning along with me and helping me with the crafts and recipes.

Our amaryllis bulb has a little green knife-like shoot coming up ... we'll check in again with it tomorrow.

I hope all of your week's are off to wonderful starts!

Toward the Holidays ... Food Storage Week

This week on the Houseworks Holiday Plan is Food Storage Week. Last week was about caring for the cooking space and this week is about the actual food spaces - the pantry, fridge, freezer, and the grocery shopping.

I found some beautiful inspiration and pantry eye candy over at The Inspired Room:
http://theinspiredroom.net/2009/10/28/pantries/

Here's what I got accomplished:

Houseworks Checklist -

• Read Houseworks pages 96, 114 - 123
• cleaned out the freezer
• cleaned out the fridge
• organized the pantry and got the expired items cleaned out (honestly, this could have been done a little more thoroughly, but I at least made a dent in the mess .... good enough for this busy time of year!)
  

Holiday Prep -

• worked on my holiday knitting
• Chris got the totes of Christmas decorations down from the hyloft in the garage, so now I can work on sorting through them, checking lights, discarding and donating things we don't need/use/want any more
• started planning holiday menus and making lists of the grocery supplies we'll need to have on hand
• I've been keeping an eye on the sales flyers and sorting through my coupons so I can take advantage of those holiday grocery deals - especially on items we use on a normal basis so that I can stock up while the prices are low
• set up a "North Pole South" with my wrapping paper supplies
• got my Advent stuff out again ... now need to work on getting those calendars put together and set up in the coming weeks. 

6 weeks to Christmas!  Can you believe it?

Daybook: Martinmas

Color of the Day: Yellow
Grain of the Day: millet

"Martinmas is the feast day of St. Martin, the patron saint to beggars and outcasts.  The lighting of candles in lanterns and walking through the streets in late fall is a symbol of Martin's shining light in the darkness of the coming winter.  He lights the way to the winter solstice."

- Before the Journey by Melisa Nielsen

Quiet Time - up earlier than the rest of them, I settled into this day with a few mugs of cocoa while I had my morning Quiet Time*  ...
Breakfast - waffles w/ butter, milk and cocoa for those who wanted some
Morning Snack - ABC oatmeal cinnamon cookies (Earth's Best) with milk
Lunch - leftover soup, apple slices, grapes, and cinnamon toast with apple juice or milk or water
Afternoon Snack - apple slices, popcorn, and milk
Dinner - pork loin that cooked in the crock-pot all day with garlic, rosemary, thyme along with egg noddles with rosemary butter and blueberry muffins.  Ice water, milk, or apple juice to drink.  Chris worked late, but the kids and I ate dinner by candlelight together.

*Speaking of time for myself, I'm so excited about THIS I can hardly stand it!  I already have a journal and a pen and have listened to the two audio files.  This is coming along at such a perfect and right time in my life.  I've been a long-time fan of A Little Garden Flower's homeschooling products for my family and my children and now I get to have something from them just for me.  Yes!

Morning Circle - (see Tuesday's post) To our normal circle we added the simple Story of St. Martin from pg. 26 in A Little Garden Flower's Before the Journey book.

Botany w/ Herbal Roots - Rosemary: today we made rosemary butter to go along with our pork roast and egg noodles.  Yum!


Main Lesson: Today is Martinmas.

•  read The Story of St. Martin's Light from The Festival of the Stones (for FREE here - scroll down the page a little bit)
  
•  Together came up with a one sentence summary of today's reading
• copied summary into Saints notebook
• illustrated summary
• went through our closets and the toy box to see if we had any items we could donate to the needy and set aside a bag for Good Will 
• went through the pantry and set aside items to go the the Food Pantry collection box at the library tomorrow

I meant to share some photos of the day with all of you, but somehow I just never picked up the camera today. 

Wishing you all a lovely evening!

Daybook: Tuesday

Wow, it has been a while since I've done one of these posts ...

Color of the Day: RED 
Grain of the Day: Barley





Breakfast - grits with butter and a little bit of cheese, apple slices, milk and everyone took their vitamins.  Cocoa with a little bit of instant vanilla flavored coffee for me all morning long
Morning Snack - milk and oatmeal cinnamon ABC cookies (Earth's Best)
Lunch - pb'nj's with grapes and sliced apples, milk or applejuice to drink
Afternoon Snack and Tea Time - one of our favorite Autumn snacks: apple slices and popcorn with a big glass of cider (or milk, if you're Max)
Dinner - blueberry muffins and beef and veggie soup

Circle Time: this month I'm pulling together resources from EARTHschooling and Little Acorn Learning for our morning circle times.We're talking about Wind this week in our circle.

• called the children to the circle with the song The More We Get Together 
• Welcome to the Circle song (adapted from Little Acorn Learning's daily guide)
• Weather Song (EARTHschooling November enrichment)
• Count Your Blessings poem
• short morning talk about the Wind (Little Acorn Learning November)
• closed with a prayer for a peaceful day
  

Science and Nature Study: After our circle, we talked about today's weather and colored in the leaf on our Weather Tree.  We started an amaryllis bulb today, too.  I'm not sure we've got it going in time to bloom by Christmas, but hopefully by the New Year.  All three kids were really impressed with how big the bulb is.

November Botany and Herbs - Rosemary:  We've added something new to our this month: herb study with Herbal Roots (by Kristine Brown).  November is Rosemary.  Now, I will admit this is more for me than a project for my second grader, but Jillian is just as interested as I am and so she is learning along with me.

Main Lesson:  This week, we're celebrating the anniversary of Jillian's birth.  Her birthday was on Saturday, the 7th.  All week we're doing special things, including beginning main lessons around The Seven Year Wonder Book. This is part of our Language Arts lesson block and will give us a small break from Animal Stories as we continue with chapters from this book through November and into December. We also will celebrated Martinmas this week and talk about Saint Martin for our saint's study. (Some of you might remember that I elected to study the saints as their days came around the calendar instead of doing a block) I'll post more about what we've been doing at the end of the week in a re-cap of this week's lessons.

November Math Enrichment - FOUR:  We're using Sixth Sense Math from EARTHschooling for math enrichment.  This month is the number four.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!   We've got a lot going on "off line" in our real lives, so it very nice to have this little blog to turn to and our rhythm to embrace.  We are all okay, just weathering some "storms" on a few different fronts.  We need some "normal" around here ... in big ways. 

Best Wishes,
Kara

Toward the Holidays ... Cooking Space week

I'm using the Houseworks Holiday Plan to try to prepare for Christmas this year.  One of the things I find helpful about the plan is that it divides kitchen preparation into two parts:  the space you cook in and then the pantry, fridge, and freezer.  This past week was the Cooking Space week. 

We were battling the flu, so not a lot got done as my time was needed by my family, but I did accomplish my main goal:  to eek out every square inch of counter space I could since space is at a premium in my kitchen.  I have a lovely, large kitchen ... just not a lot of counters.

Here's what I got accomplished last week ...


Houseworks Checklist:

•  moved a bookshelf from another area of the house where it wasn't being used and put my cookbooks, cooking magazines, and recipe binder there.  This frees up a little more of that precious counter space.
• put appliances we rarely use in the pantry and the closet, freeing up a little more counter space (every inch helps!)
• did a thorough sweeping and mopping of the kitchen floor.  I'm not even going to tell you how long ago it was that was last done ... yuck.
  

Holiday Prep Checklist:

•  took down the Halloween decorations and left up the Autumn.  It is easy to add in some Thanksgiving bits and pieces as we get closer to the 26th (Thanksgiving day)
• celebrated Jillian's birthday on the 7th!
• had Jillian write her thank you notes
• checked in with and updated the holiday budget
• tracked down a few more addresses on our Christmas Card list
• started pulling out holiday recipes and began making meal plans for the days I'm in charge of the cooking and researching/thinking over dishes that travel well for the dates we're on the road

Speaking of which, any suggestions for side dishes or desserts that can travel well?  We're on the road for a couple 1 hour and a 3 hour trip this holiday season and I always struggle with what I can bring to contribute to a meal that can survive a car trip of that amount of time.  Thanks!

EIGHT

She is eight.

Eight years I have been a mother.

Her mother.

I look at her and words like

Joy

Beautiful

Love

Amazing

they do no justice.

What I feel about her is so much more.

Eight years

of magic, laughter, giggles,

and, yes, some tears and pain, too.

 

Eight years of learning

just how much

my heart

can hold.

And then some.

I was floating through life,

see-through

and so self-centered

and this child

made me solid

made me real.

This child changed me.

This child

made me a mother.

What a gift.

Motherhood.

It changes you, it challenges you, it blesses you.

Thank you, my daughter, my Jillian

for choosing me.

Eight.

wow.

Christmas Knitting Count Down

Seven weeks until Christmas .... the knitting countdown has begun!  I realize that this list is probably interesting to no one but myself (and maybe my daughter if she peeks) and that it is especially a dull post without pictures, but I feel the need to get it in print for posterity's sake so that I'm motivated to make that final sprint toward the Holiday Crafting Finish Line!

1. Bloomers (was "Birthday Bloomers" but the flu this past week forced me to get realistic with my timeline) ... these are 75% complete and really just waiting for me to decide how I want to do the cuffs.

2. Marlin Comfy Pants I've ripped these back from this summer's knitting and started again in the next size up.  I'm using Comfy yarn from Knit Picks and the Looking Glass Longies pattern.

3. Beret to match Bloomers this is for Jillian and is just a thought I've had after seeing how much she loves that her little sister has a hat that matches her pants from this Autumn.

4. Scrappy Hat or Fish Hat for Max ... haven't decided totally just yet.

5. Legwarmers for Jillian ... perhaps to use up that striped yarn I feel guilty for ripping back after my failed Socktober socks.

6. Legwarmers for Lucy ... to match the very cute wee little hat below ...

7. Vintage Baby hat ... using a sweet Knit Picks sock yarn called "Unicorn" for this that has lovely little pink and blue and purple flecks on cream.  So sweet.  Perfect, I think, for this cute little pixie baby hat.

8. Needle-felted Ball (okay, not knitting, but still a project that needs completing) This is for Lucy's Christmas stocking.

Next time you hear about these projects, hopefully A) the will be accompanied by photos and B) those photos will be of FINISHED objects!

Best Wishes!  Hope everyone is healthy at your house (notice, we're not even going to mention the last week at my house.  Yuck.)

What are YOU working on?

Toward the Holidays ... Public Spaces Week

This week on the Houseworks Holiday Plan was Public Spaces week.  I focused on our Living Room.  I was anticipating that we'd have company this weekend to celebrate Halloween, but unfortunately, illness had other plans.  It looks like we missed out on yet another holiday this year due to being sick.  We need a "do over" big time!  (and, by the way, aren't my nephews just adorable?)

 Here's what I got done this week:

• read this week's Houseworks assignment (pg. 157 - 171, and 180)
• checked our first aid kit and restocked band-aids, tweezers, antiseptic wipes, and purchased a new thermometer (since all of ours have wondered away somehow ...)
• purchased new batteries for the smoke alarms (to be installed on Time Change Sunday)
  
• decluttered the living room (now, to KEEP it that way through the holidays)
• purchased an electric fireplace for the living room 
• re-arranged living room furniture
• vacuumed thoroughly - along baseboards, moved furniture
• purchased Christmas stamps
• started setting aside boxes and packing materials we got in the mail this week to recycle for mailing holiday packages
• decluttered the living room and moved toys to the loft (they will still migrate down here, I know, so I need to establish a toy box or basket for quick downstairs pickups)

Three sick little kiddos meant no celebrating Halloween for us this year ... so perhaps we'll have a "do over" where they can trick'or'treat Mommy & Daddy later this week once they are feeling better?

I'm waaay behind on where I'd like to be for holiday cards ... but maybe this week I can catch up and hunt down some deals and get that elusive photo of all three kids taken?

Seven Scary Words

Three

sick

children

all

vomiting

at

once.

Boo!

(un)Happy Halloween

Main Lesson: Halloween, All Souls Day

This past week our main lesson time was spent on Halloween and All Souls Day preparation.  We used A Little Garden Flower's second grade book and Before the Journey book.

Monday:

•  talked about Halloween and All Souls day
• talked about loved ones who have passed on - how we can remember them
• looked at pictures of loved ones together
• picked a special picture of Grandpa John to put on the Nature Table this week
• did some decorating for Halloween together, including using scissors and some of last year's Halloween cards to make decorations (recycling, love it!)
  

Tuesday:

•  read The Gnomes All Hallow's Eve from A Little Garden Flower's Before the Journey book
• created a Halloween page in our Nature Notebooks
  

Wednesday:

•  gave Jillian the assignment of writing her own Halloween story (it took her a long time but she wrote out a very charming story all on her own)
  

The Ghost Who Was Not Scary

by Jillian

Once upon a time there was a ghost.  And he was not scary.  He was to nice to be scary.  The other ghosts said "ha ha hee your not scary." The ghost was sad.  So he went home to his momma and she said "you should not listen to them. You do not need to be scary to be a ghost."

The End.

(almost) Wordless Wednesday