Peek at our Week {February 2, 2014}

I’ve been pretty behind on blogging these days. 


I don’t remember if I blogged Olivia’s birthday, which was in December….

I haven’t updated Olivia’s preschool posts since Letter H, and we are finishing up L…

It’s completely possible that I will stay behind too.  For the time being, life is pretty overwhelming…






We’ve had a bit of snow lately.  The first storm didn’t leave much, and Elaina was bound and determined to build herself a snowman.  It was more of a dirt-dried leaves-pine needle-man.

The next couple of storms were much more fruitful, and definitely snow-man building material.















On the school front:



The kids are working through a special Giraffe Unit I put together.  Lots of fun stuff to do!  We are gearing up to start back up with our Old Testament studies next week, finishing Artiodactlya (cud-chewing animals), and writing “If You Give A Giraffe…” stories in Language Arts.



I shared last week that we’ve been growing through some homeschool challenges.  It means some changes and tweaks to our system, which is a bit daunting to me.  Just working out how to manage my time differently….better.  Figuring out how to start making some positive changes, or at least shift us in the right direction.








Keeping Olivia busy during our morning group lessons is proving difficult.  She’d really rather that I spend my morning on her own private lessons.  I’m trying to re-direct and also include her more, but I am feeling a shift coming for her.  She is ready for more than what I am doing with her, but not yet able to participate in our group activities.  She feels very left out if I don’t have printables for her too, or a workbook of her own.  She is no longer interested in playing alone or even watching a movie for a little while.  I’m thinking I need to capitalize on this readiness she is showing me, I just need to figure out how to squeeze it in…




We are still working through her letter of the week stuff and I throw in lots of theme work as I am able.  She is quickly learning her letters and their sounds. 




I’ve been playing a bit of catch-up with school planning and finally finished printing the Bible Study lessons.  I’m also planning a Fun Friday for Valentines Day.  We’ve never done a Valentines party so that should be super fun!


I read a couple more books this week, both of them I really enjoyed.  The Forgotten Garden, another Kate Morton novel, and The Shift, which was sort of a “how to lose weight without going on a diet” book.










Once again, I am struggling to find balance in the kitchen.  I’ve asked the family if we could switch to eating cereal most school mornings rather than a big cooked breakfast.  While they all happily agreed, their hunger is over-ruling.  Most mornings by 11:00 they are starving.  And whining.  And have lost all interest in school. 



Thus I am back to cooking our breakfasts.  And I really have a hard time starting off our busy mornings with a messy kitchen.



I’ve been trying to eat more salads, which almost never sounds good on an ice cold day…maybe I should make a big batch of vegetable soup next week instead?



I only made bread once, and No-Bakes were the only treat that I made.  I stayed away from the bread, but the No-Bakes were like irresistible….I ate waaaayyy too many.



This weekend has been pretty laid back.  The kids are complaining of sore throats and headaches which probably means we are due for a week of colds. 


I think I’ll dose up on Vitamin C.


And maybe finally get my countertop cleaned off…maybe…