Tuesday Tidbits... A Lot of Rambling...

Well, yesterday, there was no homeschooling going on. My mom had a colonoscopy 12 days ago. Within hours, she was violently ill. My sister took her to Urgent Care, where they diagnosed her with a flu. Fast forward to yesterday, and she was (is) still sick. She's lost over 15 pounds in 11 days. I took her back to Urgent Care, when I went to pick the kids up after work, and found her unable to get off the couch for more than a few minutes at a time. They gave her some stronger medication, and are running tests, since they no longer believe it is a flu. This morning, she seemed much better - it seems the meds helped enough she was able to get a good night's sleep. Phew! I'm still worried of course, but she looked a lot better. Please keep your fingers crossed that this will pass, and that she won't need surgical intervention.

Anyhow, I'm still debating between the books below for history right now... hmmmm.

OR, the combo of

 OR we can return to simply listening to the Story of the World....

I think we are leaning more toward the first selection right now, though I am not positive in part because I have plans to start String, Straight-Edge & Shadow this week, and it would really compliment the second two books. Maybe I'll test run the American history book today, and see how that goes. Then we can add in documentaries like The Story of US (which we like... I know a lot of people don't), just abut anything by Ken Burns, and I'm sure there are many more worthwhile documentaries. I'm not positive yet whether the kids are ready for We Shall Remain, though with them having Native American heritage, this side of history should be on our agenda.

Today's plans:
I have work, then I have the kids for a few hours before I head to class. M is acting as Teacher's Assistant for the first time today. Here's what I am hoping to accomplish:

• A load or two of dishes.
• Read a couple of chapters aloud from The History of US.
• Math: Life of Fred, one lesson each, and maybe a problem set from Zaccaro for each of them too.
• Reading practice for The Girl; have The Boy work from Write With the Best.
• Read a chapter from The Complete Book of Marvels.
• Have The Boy read a section from The New Way Things Work, and read from Life in a Bucket of Soil with The Girl. If we still have time, I'd like to read from A Really Short History of Nearly Everything.
• Gathering up library books for tomorrow. today! We never made it last week!

I'm waiting for the time change. It is not fun feeding all the animals in near dark every morning! Though I guess I am glad in a sense that it will take place after Halloween this year, so that trick-or-treating won't be in absolute darkness. Speaking of trick-or-treating, The Boy was asking me yesterday how old he can be before he has to stop this particular activity, and I'm not sure. When I was a teenager, I stopped at about 13, as did many of my friends. But now, I see older teenagers out and about, gathering candy on All Hallow's Eve, so I just don't know. And on the note of kids getting older, when should I tell them about Santa Claus? I'm thinking I should do that relatively soon. I think they have their suspicions, but I'm afraid of crushing that excitement. Why do my kids have to keep getting older?

So in my efforts to plan out menus, I hope to make better use of my crockpot. On the crockpot agenda this week are two dishes, Butter Chicken for Wednesday, when The Boy has fencing, and Butternut Squash-Orange Soup (this is the closest to my recipe, which I may post later in the week) on Friday, when we're at the park all afternoon. I'm also trying to make sure we have two meatless dinners a week (cheaper and healthy!), and that I balance out the meats served during the week... no chicken every night kind of thing.

Hope the week is going well for everyone! Happy Tuesday!