Friday, March 22, 2013

Peek at our Week {Spring Fever}


We’re ready for Spring Break.

Which promptly started about 2 hours ago.  Not that we have anything super exciting planned.  Just need a bit of a break.

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We had a lovely start to our week.  All but one of us wore green for St. Patrick’s Day, and it was Mr. Green himself.  I think he saw it as a way to spend his day dodging pinching fingers.  He made a fair game of it, like we guessed he would.

The rest of the week was pretty smooth, but we all started getting antsy towards the end of the week in our anticipation of Spring Break.

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Isaac had another whopper of a week.
 
He’s been incredibly emotional, tired, and resistant to completing school work.  Not to mention his defiance to my authority.  He had to spend an afternoon alone in his room one day after mouthing off to me repeatedly during school.  I guess if you don’t know how to talk sweet to your mother, you may need some time alone to try and figure out how.

That’s the theory, anyway….

On Thursday he took a three hour nap, if that gives you a clue how tired he’s been.  Maybe he’s getting ready for another growth spurt.

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The boys and I are halfway through Proverbs now.  I love this verse from Proverbs 16:1.

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Nate had a great week this week.

He got to start his new math book, and he is so excited about it!  He also read through a huge stack of books from the library.

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We’ve had to go back to writing out the spelling tests.  The words must be getting trickier, because both boys are fumbling over the letters during oral spelling drills.

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The weather has been fair to nice most days, and the kids are enjoying the longer and warmer days of sunshine we’re seeing.

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All of the older kids are finishing up our mini handwriting course.  I can’t say as it has helped any of them too much….

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The highlight of Elaina’s week was being the Student-of-the-Week at HSA.

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She got to make a fun poster will all of her favorite things on it.  She worked really hard and seemed really happy with it, until we were on our way to school the next morning and she started crying and telling me that the poster wasn’t like anyone else’s and she would probably get in trouble for not doing it right.

After clarification from her teacher later that morning, she felt much better and happily presented it to her class.  Silly girl….

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Elaina’s reading lessons are going better overall.  I’m relaxing more about where I think she should be at, and trying to remember to let her go at her own pace.  I do think I will be purchasing a new program for her though.

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We did a quick refresher of The Life of Christ in preparation for Holy Week next week.  It was fun to bring out all of these file-folder games from a few years ago.

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Misty of Chincoteague is our latest read aloud.  I chose it with hopes of engaging our horse-loving girls a bit more in our reading time.  So far they are loving it!

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We had our weekly breakfast feast for dinner.  I shredded potatoes for hash browns, and this time remembered to soak the spuds before cooking them.  They turned out perfectly crisp. 


Olivia asked to spread her own butter through the week, whether it was on pancakes, muffins, or toast.  She’s still learning moderation though and we had to gently remind her to not use so much.

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This was my biggest adventure, by far in the kitchen this week: Homemade Naan.  It was quite the undertaking and the hot griddle filled up the house with thick smoke that hung around for hours later.  I can see why it’s traditionally cooked outside….

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It was delicious, and worth all of the work.  We made Grilled Chicken Gyros with the Naan, and they were equally amazing.  I was worried my picky kids wouldn’t even try them, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised when they all had second helpings and then asked me to put this one in our cookbook please.

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Still eating lots of veggies though by far favoring tomatoes.  I ate an embarrassing amount of them this week.  Just looking at this picture is making my mouth water and my cheeks pucker from the tartness of the capers. yum!

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Overall we ate pretty casual food: Steak Sandwiches and Home Fries, Breakfast Burritos, and Spaghetti.

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I did really well this week and only made one dessert, a double thick brownie.  They were really good.  Of course, everyone asked where’s dessert? every night, so I fooled them with some Strawberry Mango Smoothie Pop-cycles.


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Saul and I watched a few great movies: The Way Back, Into the Wild,  and All About Steve.  I was hoping to buy The Hobbit after payday, but it looks like I’ll have to settle for renting this time and buying it later.

My Ruth Bible study is nearly over and I’m so sad about it.  It was an incredibly challenging one for me, a journey of revelation, refinement, and refreshment.  And of course, lovely fellowship with amazing women!

I’m not sure what we are going to do this weekend.  There was talk that maybe my brother and sister in law may come to visit, but we haven’t heard any final plans.  It’s also supposed to snow on Saturday, so we’ll see if we venture out to do much to kick off our Spring break.

How about you?  What are your Spring break plans?

Our Weekly Wrap-Up

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