Origami Week 1

As I started working on my plans for Origami, I was a little stumped on week one.  I wanted it to be easy enough to have kids not get lost but still have the project be fun.  Well, I really under planned and we ended up with quite a bit of time.  That's ok, it's our third hour and kids are tired and hungry! My helpers (I have two of them but only have 6 kids - 2 who were gone week 1!) didn't necessarily help either - they got caught up  making projects from the book.  On one hand it was fine but they also made some things that I had planned for a future week - like paper airplanes - and then had kids making them as extra stuff.  Uuugg!  I felt a little disorganized this week too so I need to do better on that for future weeks!

Anyway, on this first week, I handed out their supplies and then we made the very first two shapes - a cat and and dog.  They got to add faces to their animals with googly eyes.  Then, we used water colors to paint a background scene to add their animals too. 

As I'm typing this, I realized that I left the finish products at Friday School so I can't take photos of them!  

Once we finished the projects and cleaned up, I read this book about The Paper Crane.  It was an easy read with interesting pictures.  

The rest of the hour, the students could practice making other items from their book.  

Sunday Worship - Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Beginning. and the End)

This is another song that I heard on the radio not long ago and just fell in love with  !

Our Week in Photos #3

We worked this week on finishing up our semester, had two "ice days" and started Friday School just to name a few things in our week.  Now, here's our week in photos

 We started out our week with haircuts.  I love that our stylist now washes the boys hair too.  She said that they are "Now big enough for the bowl".  They absolutely love this !! 

 The boys and I went for a walk on Monday night . . this is what we all felt like after our 20 minutes of "brisk walking" HA!  

 On Tuesday I had a board meeting - this was the "board kids" practicing our new song. 

 Tuesday and Wednesday were "ice days"  Our friends were with us both days as school was canceled.  There was lots of train circles, video games, and, well, ice! 

 Thursday brought the Homeschool Library activity.  They learned about Antartica - Snow shoe races, a snow storm experiment, and making snowballs with q-tips and styrofoam balls. 

 They still love to ride "Sandy" at Meijer . . .I'm not sure how much longer this will be fun! 

Finally, we ended our week with Friday School :-) 

Weekly Menu

Do you know what I've noticed?  Grocery prices went up as of January 1st.  Our milk went from $1.89 to $2.49 a gallon; Toilet paper packages went from $5.99 to $7.99 and Koolaid packs went from $0.20 to $0.25 a pack.  That's just to name a few.  Now I might actually really need to become an Aldi shopper just to make up the difference!!  Uuugg.  It's just crazy how expensive things are getting at the store.

On to other things.  A few weeks ago the boys asked when they could go stay with my mom for a few days. After looking at the calendar, I figured out that this coming week would be perfect since they had a few days off from school.  That means I limit my cooking :-)  

Friday - The plan is to take the boys to my moms so dinner will be on the road or with her which ever works out better. 

Saturday - Darryl and I are eating out :-) 

Sunday - either eating out or eating in but I'm not cooking :-) 

Monday - We'll grab something easy - like Taco Bell - just so I don't have to cook HA! 

Tuesday - Teriyaki Chicken Legs, Amish Noodles, and Green Beans

Wednesday - Super simple - Mac and Cheese for Nate and Pizza for Josh :-) 

Thursday - Spaghetti Pie, Garlic Bread and Green Beans

What I'm Reading

Since we are midway through the month I thought I'd share what I'm reading.  I talked earlier this week about my book club book and my book study book but this will include other books I've finished this month as well as what I'm reading right now.

 My mom and I had the opportunity to hear Beverly Lewis speak at a book signing last fall.  I picked up this book at that time and just haven't had a chance to read it yet.  I'm looking forward to reading it! 

 This is one of the books that I started in a book study years and years ago but never finished it.  I just never seemed to have the time to really read it and apply it.  Since I focus so much on not letting anyone steal my joy, I wanted to get back to this book so I could understand the importance of being positive with my kids too. 

 I love Liz Curtis Higgs.  I also love the story of Ruth.  Put those two together and I'm hoping this is a homerun! 

 This is my next book club book.  I've started reading it already and it has my full attention.  

As an Amazon Prime Member, I usually get one free "new release" book each month.  In January they gave out two!  I picked the two above.  Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are not - but they are free so that's ok!  These are downloaded on my kindle ready to read!

Since we are already half way through the month, I'm not sure how much I'll get read but these are my January goal :-)  We are considering switching from Cable TV to Hulu and I've already learned with the trial of Hulu that it's not as easy to watch TV without cable . . so maybe I'll read more ;-) 

Holiday Planning Binder

Several years ago I decided that I needed to start writing things done related to holidays because I never remember everything I want to remember!

Well, last year I was determined to do it and never did so . . . at Thanksgiving I did it.  I just started writing down notes.  Everything from our menu, to what worked or didn't worked and even a reminder that we always go see a movie the day after Thanksgiving.

Christmas included lots of info from reminders of things for the kids Christmas program to when to the boys annual PJ's.  I think it is so much easier to write things down while it is happening as reminders for next year.  Here's a small sample from my Holiday Planner for Christmas.  As you can see, it's just a simple list of ideas - nothing fancy.  I really call it my "brain"

Christmas

Christmas Program at Church

·         Saturday practice begin the first Saturday in November.

·         Program is normally the first Sunday after Thanksgiving

·         If the boys need “Toga’s” (sheets) they can’t use what they used in the past (twin sheets); either purchase fabric or get Double Bed Sheets

·         Need to take a snack for after the Program

Christmas Cards

·         Take some very specific photos for our cards – go somewhere if I don’t have professional photos done by Barb.  (Meaning, go to somewhere pretty and take great photos of the boys and one of all of us together

·         Pick out and order our photo cards in November (or have them ready and order them on sale – also remember that I can design a college card like I did in 2018 for a lot less money

·         Write our letter

·         Address and mail them all by the first week of December

o   Find out all address updates EARLY!

I also made simple notes for New Years Eve/New Years Day.  Nothing fancy but just reminders of what we did and ate and a few ideas for future years.  (Granted by the time New Years comes around, I'm usually tired of planning HA!)

Next on my list is planning for Valentine's Day.  I try to keep it simple but some of the items on the list will include:
1) Letting the boys pick out what Valentine's they want to make and get the supplies EARLY.
2) Making our Valentine's box for our Co-op party
3) Planning our meal (We usually have Spaghetti!)
4) What small gifts to pick up for the boys - the key is small.  :-)

You get the idea, I'm sure. 

Book Study - It's not Supposed to be This Way

Over the years, I've joined quite a few different book studies and, if I'm honest, most of them (maybe all of them) I've never finished.  I get a chapter or two behind and never catch back up.  This time around a friend of mine decided to do a book study on this book and I decided to join her facebook group and see if I can actually finish strong!

This book caught my attention because I think, for the most part, many of us find ourselves in a place where we realize that the plans we had for our life are not turning out the way we, well, planned.  In reality, that's to be expected because none of us know what curve balls will be thrown into our plans through the years but, how do we respond to those changes is what really defines us.  I'll be honest, I'm not a huge Lysa Terkeurst fan but decided to put that aside and instead look for what I can learn from what she has walked through the past few years.

We've just finished Chapter One and I can honestly say that I already like it.  Does everything apply to me and my life?  No, but I think in a book study, you can glean what does impact you and use that to learn and grow from.  Plus I enjoy reading what others in our group are learning as well.