Friday, May 31, 2013

Peek at our Week {May 31, 2013}



I hardly took any photos this week.

Except for First Day.  I took a lot then. Smile

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It was partly because my camera was giving me fits, and partly because I was so busy getting caught up after last weeks illness.  We had a lot of school to do, and I had a ton of chores to get caught up on.

On Sunday, while we were cleaning out the kids’ closets, we found a birds nest in Isaac’s closet.  Five teeny blue Robin eggs.

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We also started some new chore charts this week.  They are basically beefed up versions of what they have already been doing.  No need for summer boredom, right?

After reading through all of the lists, Isaac smartly asked, “If we are doing all of these chores, what exactly will YOU be doing mom???”

Ahem. Excuse me ?

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Isaac had a hard week, and spent a lot of time goofing off instead of getting his school work done.  Our summer schedule is pretty relaxed, but school takes first priority.  It has to be done before playtime can start.  As it is, the boys are only doing math, Bible, and science a couple days a week. 


Total bummer when you choose to slack off during school time and then miss out on the fun stuff that happens later in the day…

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He did help me plant my flowers in the front gardens and air up his sisters bike.

I guess we’ll keep him!  Smile

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Nate’s been trying to acclimate to our new summer routine, but he did “earn” some extra chores this week due to a poor attitude.

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He’s mostly been reading a lot and keeping himself busy with some of our school toys and games.

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Elaina was in a crafty kind of mood this week.  She painted nearly every day and cut and pasted her pony’s.

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Ahh..that toothless smile still kills me….

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Elaina has officially finished up with her Kindergarten materials, so we supplemented her week with “first grade” games.  That was so exciting for her!  I did get her new math book this week that she is so excited to start next month.

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All the kids are doing great with the Bible study.  We are going through Baby Moses this week.


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It was so nice to have Olivia back to herself. 


She did a lot of school and played outside a ton.  I printed off this My Little Pony pack for her and Elaina and they had a blast working through it over the week.


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She is in a real puzzle phase right now too.  She went through stacks and stacks of them.


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We worked in the yard quite a bit.  Trying to green up the grass with strict watering restrictions is going to be super challenging.  While Saul was setting the sprinklers, he found this huge Black Widow spider.


Ewe….this really creeps me out.

After we showed the kids, and reminded them NOT to play with shiny black spiders that have a red hourglass on their belly, Saul smooshed it dead.

My HERO!

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There isn’t much to speak of our eats this week.  I did a little bit of baking, but the heat is starting to dampen my desire to turn on the oven.  We have had record heat this week.  No Bakes are perfect for that!  And a yummy batch of scones to fatten up the girls and Nate, who lost too much weight last week.

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We had a lot of fend-for-yourself  kind of meals.  And a lot of would you like to supersize it kind of meals. Isaac’s meals are the funniest.  This plate has meatballs, nuggets, and a PB&J sandwich.  After he polished that off, he was searching the cupboards for more.  Oye…that kid can eat!


I can honestly say, in my 9 years of mothering, I have rarely had weeks like this, without lots of home cooking.  Better figure out a menu and get myself to the grocery store soon…


How was your week?


Our Weekly Wrap-Up

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Peek at our Week {May 25}


This picture makes me so sad.

And then I kind of laugh.

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Sunday afternoon, I found both of the girls standing in the family room, holding these signs.  After asking Elaina what in the world they were doing, she described the homeless man standing on the corner with his dog, asking for money.  (very sad Sad smile)

Thinking this could turn into a rather profitable situation, she planted herself next to her adorable baby sister, held up some pretty signs with crosses, and started professing, “God Bless You!” whenever anyone walked by them. 

I’m sure she was convinced we would hand them money the same way we handed money to the man on the corner.

I didn’t even know what to do with this, so I did what I normally do whenever I don’t know what to do.

I took a picture.  And laughed.  Hey, I never said I was perfect…

What would you do?

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Our week started off pretty decent.

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We started working through our Caniform Ursidea animal study (Bears) and the Literature Unit Blueberries For Sal by Robert McClosky. (Here)

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The kids even learned what to do if they encounter a bear.  I love the cartoons they drew in their notebooks.

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Later, they each got a turn practicing their new knowledge. 

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Then Olivia got sick.

Followed by Elaina, and Nathaniel, and then Saul.  I was lucky enough to take care of all the sickies and then get it last Sad smile.

It was a rough week with lots of this….

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and this…..

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and this…

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Lots of laundry.  And lots of cleaning.

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By the time everyone was coming around, another week had started.


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We all kept busy with a huge stack of movies from the library, and an almost daily burst of sunshine for those who had the energy.

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The girls and I used the magic potion to comb out their dolls and pony’s hair.


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And I devoured this book over the weekend.


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As if we hadn’t watched enough movies, we rented another from redbox.  It was so badly scratched, we called and they gave us two free rentals for the hassle of dealing with it.  I think we’ve checked out just about every movie at our local redbox, so I rented two we’d already seen, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Rise of the Guardians.

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I was barely in the kitchen this week at all.  Well except for rinsing the throw-up bucket.  I started out with a full menu and only got about two days into it.

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Don’t let this stinky little girl convince you she was enjoying her vegetables.  It was all just a show so that she could eat dessert.

Banoffee Pie.


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Yea.  It’s my new favorite.  It’s worth the calories.

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We had French Toast and Tacos and that was the extent of my cooking.  We all had such horrible stomach aches and no appetite that we survived off of crackers, toast, and Gatorade.

Surely I should have dropped some weight, but alas, no such luck!

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Towards the end of the week, I made Green Smoothies.  All the kids love them, except for Nate.  For some reason a blended vegetable puree grosses him out…

Our Weekly Wrap-Up