Phew...what a week!
We finished up our first month of school, and I'm so relieved that it is going okay. I really had myself worked up about the extra work and drama that I thought this school year would bring. I know...hard to believe I would ever get worked about anything like that...
For the kids’ journal time this week, we learned how to write our own riddles. A perfect lesson for reviewing nouns and adjectives. They’ve been making up riddles all week long.
We were pretty ambitious and did two lessons from Draw Write Now, the Koala and the Kangaroo. The Kangaroo was really challenging for the kids, but they all did great!
We’ve moved onto Marsupials in our Apologia Zoo 3 book. The kids learned about Pangaea and cut out their own version and tried to piece it together.
We are up to Samson (Judges 13-16) in our Old Testament Bible Study, and finally over the halfway mark of the lessons I put together for them. It continues to go really well and I am so proud of how much they are learning, retaining, and memorizing!
After going to the kids’ Back To School Night last week, I discovered that they are doing Early American History for the whole year they are there. That made it easy to decide not to start our own Early American History. No need to divide our time at home anymore than we already are for a subject they will be getting there!
Saul and I took Olivia to Panera and to Target on Wednesday when the older kids were at HSA. She had fun showing us all the toys she wanted for her birthday and especially loved looking at the Halloween costumes. She begged and pleaded with me to buy her a $40 Princess wedding dress.
I think not.
But we did try on a few wigs while we were there.
It seems like we can hardly go to Target without getting at least some popcorn, if not a pretzel and a soda.
After running our errands, Olivia helped me with some housecleaning. She asked to wash windows, and then did all the dusting. I know better than to think she is just the sweetest, most hard working preschooler in the world. All of the kids used to like doing chores…
We had a nice reprieve from all the rain that we’d been having, which allowed the kids some great outside time. The air is definitely much crisper though.
One of my friends invited me to shop with her at a big consignment event that sells children’s clothes and I hopped at the opportunity. Both girls need all kinds of clothes for this cooler weather. I managed to find some great dresses for this non-pants-wearing girl of mine, but not a thing for Elaina.
Or should I say, not so good eats….
Around here I’m the Biscuit Queen. I’ve been making them without using a recipe since we’ve been married. This week was a total bomb though and I was demoted to Biscuit Baby.
The first batch I tried to substitute Baking Powder with Baking Soda. Now, in my defense, I’m not stupid. I really do know better than to try fooling around with my fool-proof method. I guess I was just desperate early in the morning when I couldn’t find any Baking Powder and on a whim I threw in some Baking Soda. Blech….gross. I will never do that again. They tasted just terrible.
The second batch was a sweet biscuit with chocolate chips that I took extra time to cut into heart shapes. I must have added too much fat to the mix, because they ended up looking like flattened cookies. Which I guess is cool when you’re a kid and your mom serves you chocolate chip cookies alongside your scrambled eggs for breakfast.
Elaina felt so bad, probably because I was so mad, that she made me some heart shaped chocolate chip cookies. She told me, “Don’t worry mom. I think your biscuit cookies were good!”
Then I practically ruined my week of coffee when I bought this yucky creamer. Again. Even Saul remembered when he saw it that I didn’t like it. I’ll probably pawn it off on my parents when they are here next week!
Not everything was a total bomb though. I made some yummy Danish’s for breakfast one morning.
Apple Cookies were sounding so perfect with the cooler fall weather that I just had to make a batch. They always remind me of my friend Sarah, who used to make them and bring them to work to share with all of us hungry nurses. I’m pretty sure she’s earned celebrity status for these cookies. Thanks for the recipe Sarah!
On a whim, I bought these instant noodle cups for lunch one day. I can’t believe I’ve never given them to the kids….They loved them. Of course they are probably one of the worst food substances you can feed to your growing kids, but that’s a whole other blog post.
My biggest undertaking of the week was making Chicken Fried Steak. I’ve never made it before, and now I know why.
It’s a lot of work.
And none too healthy either. You know with the breading, and the frying, and the smothering with gravy…
The kids were like, “Is it chicken…or is it steak. I don’t get it.”
