Monday Musings... Here Comes the Rain Again...

Outside My Window...
Finally, it feels like fall! Cool weather (70s for the most part), rainy days and nights, bits of sunshine here and there. The trees are changing color, and I am hoping that things won't look quite so parched for much longer.

Around the House & Kitchen...
I caught up on some housework during our week off from homeschooling. I am thinking about rearranging the family room, since I am happy with the rearrangement I did in the living room a couple of weeks back.

As far as food, I am so glad it is soup weather. Tonight, at The Boy's request, we having many-bean vegetable soup with kielbasa, and I may bake up some cornbread to go on the side. The Girl has requested meatloaf for this week, and I might make ndole later in the week as part of our African studies.

In Our Homeschooling...
Back to the grind this week! Actually, I am looking forward to it, though truthfully I a still debating... should we drop history altogether right now except for the odd documentary here and there? I think we might well do that after we finish up Poop Happened, as the geography studies are probably enough by themselves!

So this week we're back to a full load of our "basics" (math, language arts, sciences), and then we'll fit in the "extras" (geography, art, etc.) as we go.

Reading & Watching...
We'll be reading more of the Marvellous Land of the Snergs this week. Such a fun book, and you can definitely see how it would have inspired Hobbits! The Girl will continue with reading Charlotte's Web and listening to The Girl Who Could Fly, while The Boy is balancing The Maze Runner (currently, and temporarily, taking place of The Lord of the Flies) and Dandelion Fire. I am going to start The Paris Wife this week -- a novel based on the real life adventures of Ernest Hemingway's wife. I saw this book on display at the library, and it just looked intriguing!

We're finishing up season 2 of Once Upon a Time, and season 3 of Eureka. We have a few more episodes of Wild Africa to go as well. I want The Boy to re-watch episode one of Cosmos this week, and for The Girl I have planned Creatures of the Deep, from the Life miniseries. We really enjoyed The Corpse Bride and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! over the weekend.

Making & Crafting...
I am two-thirds of the way done with both The Girl's scarf and my own, after leaving my knitting bag at roller derby, and having it lost in the Lost & Found for a week. Next, I would like to learn to knit a hat. The kids are both hard at work crafting their own Halloween costumes. The Girl has been working on coloring damp tissue paper with pens, and watching the ink spread... I'm not sure what she's making there exactly, but it is pretty! And The Boy is rebuilding a stereo system in his room out of old semi-functioning components -- so far, so good.

Other Plans for the Week...
We 're heading to a birthday party this week for a friend who is turning the big 4-0. It's catered, and there is a pool for the kids to play in, so it should be a nice event. I am trying to finish getting over this cold first, as are the kids. There is fencing, if The Boy is feeling well enough, and derby, if The Girl feels well enough. We went, briefly, to a harvest festival yesterday, where The Girl enjoyed seeing, and touching, reptiles, and had a great conversation with a man belonging to a local branch of an antique tractor association. The rest of the festival was so-so, much of it being oriented to small children. Next year, I hope to take the kids on a pre-Halloween field trip to the Winchester Mystery House instead!

Hope your week is off to a good start! Here's a picture of the kids and a snake from yesterday for your viewing pleasure (wish I had gotten more of The Girl in there!)