Peek at our Week {November 9, 2013}

I think I’ve mentioned before how strongly I dislike having to change time twice a year.


There really seems no logical reason to it other than to regularly screw up my kids’ sleep, and therefore screw up mine.



This momma needs her sleep.







My Dad came down for a visit on Sunday.  The kids always have so much fun playing cards and telling him their jokes.


He sat and played about 5 games of UNO with Olivia and let her win every time. 






I think it’s time to break down and buy a new set of cards.  These are pretty fuzzy and I don’t even want to think about the germs and boogers on them….








We are still plugging away with morning journals.  This week the kids wrote descriptive autumn poetry.  I’m always amazed at what great writers they are all becoming!





The kids are nearly though with their Primate unit.  I really can’t say enough about this Apologia series.  I LOVE it and so do the kids.  I really love that I can teach them all at the same time, especially since as they have all gotten older, there just seems to be less and less time to get everything done.






The kids learned how to draw chimpanzees and spider monkeys from Draw Write Now book 7 .  The chimp was a hard one, but they all pushed through.










The big project of the week was a Primate Brochure that they each got to design.  Gotta love a review of information disguised as a fun project!


Next week they are going to learn how to write a research paper with a special animal focus on Gorillas.  That should be interesting.  I hope I’m not in over my head…






I grabbed a Dick and Jane book from the library for Elaina to read this week.  One look at all of the words, and she immediately freaked out.  We took our time working through it each day and she finally finished.  Even Nate helped her sound out words one afternoon when I was doing school with Olivia.




Elaina worked really hard this week to finish off her math book.  Yea E!






We’ll have to supplement her math with other stuff for the next week or so until I get her next book.  (Find Inchimals Here)





Olivia had a fun week with G is for Giraffe. 

I had to take Duck to the vet twice this week. 


He woke up Tuesday morning to a swollen paw that he couldn’t bear any weight on.  I’m certain it was from one of his middle-of-the-night neighborhood romps, but I’m not certain why he put his paw in another cats mouth.  That has yet to be determined.



The vet found a puncture wound, shaved his paw and tried to drain out the infection.  After four days of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds, his paw was even bigger and his fever was still high.  So I took him back and they dosed him with another shot and a long acting steroid.  That seems to have done the trick because his paw is nearly normal size this evening, and when he hobbled over to the sofa I saw him once or twice try to walk on it.



Poor kitty.  What’s going to be hardest is keeping him inside from now on….





We’ve spent a lot of our evenings this week reading together.  It’s just been too hard to squeeze it in during school hours.  Elaina chose Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, which is of course hilarious!  And The One and Only Ivan is for our Primate Unit.



My wise and wonderful friend Carrin gave me the idea to allow them to draw or sew during reading time.  That has really done the trick to get them to sit still for longer, and be more engaged with the stories.







Nothing too fancy to eat this week. 



I made pulled pork tacos and then turned the leftover meat into sweet and spicy BBQ Sandwiches.  Yumm-o!  I baked a pumpkin for the first time ever.  I think I ended up with just over 2 cups worth which is enough for a pie, or maybe a couple loaves of cream cheese stuffed pumpkin bread.









I made tortillas one night too.  They were so good, you could eat them with butter and salt and be perfectly satisfied without anything else to go with them.  All I had on hand were canned beans and the kids were like, “Are these REAL beans mom?”  haha….






I spent today with my BFF.  We went to a fun craft fair and my favorite thrift store.  Doesn’t get much better than that. 



Well, unless you add chocolate. 



Chocolate can make everything better.