Monday Musings... What We've Been Up To...

I know I've been pretty much missing in action on my blog lately! We've been fairly busy, with homeschooling and life in general. So here's a combo Monday Musings and What We've Been Up To post!

Outside My Window...
We had a couple of days of good heavy rain last week, followed by high winds. A tree came down at work, and another at M's school - thankfully no major damage in either location. I had to take my wind-chimes down during the worst of it! Today is clear, sunny, and cold. I know 55 degrees is not considered cold in many regions, but here it is!

In My House...
We're prepping the house for the holiday season this week. We're still getting rid of stuff too! Today my goal is to go through the box of free homeschooling materials I was given three or four years ago, and just get rid of as much as possible, unless it is something I really, really think we will use! But as it has now been sitting under The Girl's desk for all that time, virtually untouched, I think most, if not all of it, can go.

In My Kitchen...
I'm trying really hard to stick to a grocery budget. And with prices these days, and being fairly picky about the foods we eat, it is not easy. We'll be eating Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's after all, and I get to bring desserts!

In Our Homeschooling...
We're taking this week off, and then picking back up where we left off for the first 2-3 weeks of December. Here's a quick wrap-up of what we've been doing. There's been math most days (Saxon). The Girl is practicing her reading with Old Mother West Wind (which according to the Lexile level is at her grade level, a first for her!) -- she does most of the reading, though I help her with the rough spots. She's been writing funny little cards and leaving them around the house for us to find too. The Boy is working on a descriptive paragraph, from Write With the Best, and he's been making many pages of diagrams for a future project he and a friend are working on. Together, we've been very much enjoying The Magic of Reality, and all the rabbit trails we've found! We watched Walking With Cavemen, and listened to an amazing 15 year old, self-taught polyglot on YouTube when Dawkins talked about the evolution of languages. We read a bit of The Early Human World, and The Girl surprised me when she searched through the Walking With Beasts series for "the episode with the austrolopithecus in it. I know I've seen it!" (And yes, she found it.) And we enjoyed an art project. I am extremely happy with homeschooling these days!

Bits & Pieces...
The Boy's toe has healed enough that he will be trying out the Teen/Adult fencing class tonight! And I think I might take the kids to see the second Percy Jackson movie tomorrow afternoon while M is at school. The Boy says he wants "to see how badly they messed it up", since the first didn't follow a lot of the book's storyline, though it was still an enjoyable enough film. I've almost finished The Boy's scarf, so I went ahead and started The Girl's as well. I'm going to be taking apart the very first scarf I made, which was for myself, to remake it, as I'd like it narrower and longer.

Have a good week!