This and That...

...Job News...
Ugh. So I posted last time about my job at the junior college being frozen due to decreased revenue. No summer work, and as it turns out, no fall work either. So I had to scramble to find something to keep ends meeting. I started working at Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago. At first, I wasn't sure if it would work out, even for the summer, as I was getting very minimal hours, as in about 10 each week. I applied, and interviewed, for a couple of other jobs, with no real success. Thankfully, today I had my first evaluation, which went very well, and I picked up a lot more hours for next week. By the time I got home from work today, they had called to see if I wanted more hours this week too, since they "really like" me. Of course I said YES! Phew!

I also have a job interview next Tuesday for an instructional assistant position in a middle school. If I can get that, and work as a tutor at the local university in the fall, I may be able to quit grocery again. We shall see!

...Job Training News...
I also mentioned that The Boy will be doing some job training soon. He'll be working in the café at the teen club, and will be learning interviewing skills, resumé building, etc. This program is free to club members, and comes with a $200 stipend at the end. He's got plans for that money already... buying an engine for his 1972 Chevy pickup... or perhaps rebuilding the engine it has, though option A seems more likely. He might also use a little of the money for barista training, so he can work on getting a job.

...In Our Homeschooling...
I've asked the kids to take on more responsibility for their schoolwork. I'm making a weekly assignment sheet, and they have from Saturday mornings to the following Friday at noon to get it all done. Of course, I am available for assistance, and we still read our book of the moment and watch documentaries together, but they will be doing their math, other reading, and writing largely on their own. We've also added audiobooks back into our circulation! We're going to finally finish the Percy Jackson series, then listen to The Lord of the Rings. I'm in the process of updating our Afternoon Basket page at last!

...Around the House, Kitchen, and Garden...
Since I'm working shifts that are all over the place, and M puts in 10-12 hour days, I'm working again on actually meal planning. We have a few vegetarian/plant-based dinners a week now, both for health and to save money, and then some meat a few times a week. I need to put my crockpot to good use!

We have a list of things to be done before mid-fall too, like tarring the family room roof to help with leaks, rototilling a big chunk of the backyard and amending the soil, etc. The Boy and The Girl will have to be my primary helpers. Decluttering continues, especially after we've started watching the documentary Minimalism.

We planted several tomatoes this year, along with plenty of peppers and onions, some squash, and some lemon cucumbers. All are thriving! The above-mentioned rototilling is part of our plan to put in a real garden next spring at long last.

...Random Pictures...
Just some recent and random pictures to wrap up this post!

Waiting for fireworks

A recent leaf drawing by The Girl

A trip to the beach on the fourth

Meet Ted, our new caterpillar!

Summer Stuff...

A run-down of what we've been up to, and a few pictures...

The kids won a month's free skating, so they've been skating once or twice a week.

We fixed all the bicycles, so there's been a lot of that too.

My bicycle

I've been working out 3-4 days a week, plus doing steep hill walks with my sister, and regular walks with The Girl and her dog.

We spent a lovely afternoon out at the coast...

The "creek" that runs out into the ocean

Dunes, beach grass, cypress, and waves

A giant dune that we scrambled up a dozen times, and rolled and jumped and slid and ran back down

Sandcastle in progress

You can see how pretty and sunny it was, and then we drove 45 minutes home into a thunder-and-hail storm. Just crazy!

We've been reading The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and really, really enjoying it. We watched part one of Peter Jackson's movie version, and we all agreed... while we do love the LoTR movies, we just don't feel the same love for The Hobbit films. There was just far too much extra stuff added. ONE movie, that followed the book, would have been so much better.

Documentary watching has been half hit, half miss. We're enjoying our history selections, but haven't started science ones yet. That's okay. We will get there, and we've basically come to accept that we are year-round homeschoolers anyway.

Math is going pretty well. The Boy likes his Great Courses algebra lectures quite a lot. The Girl is making great progress through the Prodigy math game, where I set up problems several times a week to match her textbook.

The kids have taken to biking to the teen club, which saves me time... and gas. They visit it once or twice a week, and spend almost all their time in the art room. The Boy might be doing a job training program there soon, and they both want to take barista training.

I'm taking a very intensive Spanish course at the moment.... online. One semester of Spanish covered in only six weeks. So far, I've kept up. The Boy is teaching himself computer coding (I think javascript at the moment), and The Girl is working on her butterfly identification skills.

I'm also on the hunt for a job, as my position at the junior college has been frozen due to decreased revenue. I was supposed to start back next week, but that is not to be so at this time. I don't know about fall yet, though I am still hopeful. I may fall back on my grocery experience for the summer. Thankfully M is working a gazillion hours, so we're scraping by.

We're hoping to get out to the coast, and the river, soon. We have FOUR boogie boards now, so that will be fun! I plan on teaching the kids to grill -- they've been taking turns once a week to cook a dinner start to finish, and grilling in this weather would be nice.

And there's housework, decluttering, a recent return to fencing (The Boy), and gardening. I have tomatoes, squash, lemon cucumbers, peppers, and loads of herbs going now!

Hope anyone who reads this is having a lovely summer so far! Here are a couple of random pictures to wrap things up, then I'm off to make breakfast.

The local lake during my early morning trail run last week

A two hat kind of day

It Can't Really Be April Already!

I absolutely can't believe it is April already, and that I missed March on this blog entirely.

What We've Been Up To:

The Girl turned 14!!!

The Boy is enjoying the Big History Project. This will take us through the next year as well, since I'm adding in science, and it took us a while to get off the ground with it.

I've decided to apply for a Roots & Shoots mini-grant to help The Girl and I with our front-yard-turned-wildlife-habitat project.

The weather has finally gotten much nicer, so The Boy will be returning to his truck project.

Again, since the rains have (mostly) stopped, we can get a veggie garden going! I decided we would start relatively small this year, and add to it regularly, rather than overwhelming ourselves with another giant project at the moment.

Homeschooling on the whole is good these days! Math is going well for both, we're working on writing projects, we're reading The Golden Compass, and we discuss a lot of politics/political science.

We've also been enjoying sunny park days with friends; the kids go roller skating every week; they also visit a local teen club twice a week (most weeks) for arts, crafts, and more; and The Boy is loving his figure drawing class!

So instead of rambling on and on, here are some pictures from recent days, in no particular order...

The Girl got clay for her birthday, and is making mini sculptures

The cat loves his boy

Minecraft flower mini-sculpture by The Girl

Drawing from The Boy's art class

The view from an uphill walk I try to do at least twice a week

I love seeing hot air balloons when I drive my husband to work in the morning

Another drawing from The Boy's art class

I always see such pretty flowers when I'm out walking!

Have a great weekend and week! I'll try to check back in more regularly!

Up and Coming...

I didn't realize how long it had been between posts! Ooops! So I thought since I have a moment, I would stop by and give an update, Monday Musings style.

...Outside...
It's been alternating between quite cold, and very wet. It's almost time for the annual apple and olive tree pruning. I already cut back the lavender, rosemary, etc., and took out dead annuals. I also took cuttings of my geraniums and Mexican sage, and potted some baby spider plants! Almost everything seems to have taken nicely. I'm still planning to put in raised beds in late winter/very early spring, so I've been pricing lumber, soil, and more. The Boy is still on board for helping me design a new chicken hutch, and we're hoping to get some chicks around the same time we put in the raised beds, which means maybe we'll have fresh eggs by mid-late summer!

...Inside...
My seasonal cleaning and purging urges have hit. I'm weeding out books for donation to the local library, donating clothes that don't fit, and am urging the kids to follow suit. We've also been thinking paint colors for spring renewal, and after watching reruns of Friends, I think I want more colors than I originally planned... for example, we plan on going with a soft, warm brown (on the lighter side) for the kitchen walls, and a warm cream for the cupboards (currently a yellowing white), and I think I might add accents of robin's egg blue. That should all go nicely with the dark olive-y green tile backsplashes. Our Christmas decorations are mostly in place, though we still need to get the lights hung outside.

...Cooking...
M wants to spend the month of January as a vegetarian, sort of a cleanse, I guess. So I've been thumbing through my moderate collection of vegetarian cookbooks for menu ideas. I figure it will save us money too. In the meantime, we've been eating a lot of soup, to counteract the cold weather.

...Homeschooling...
We're on an unofficial break from most subjects. We've decided to go ahead and read through a number of the Little Histories (world, American, science, philosophy, and religion) starting in January, and will pick math back up at that time. The Boy is taking figure drawing and comparative mythology at the junior college next semester, so I am trying not to overload him at home. He's on a break from the truck rebuild project until after the holidays, and in January, trainings start back up for the wildlife rescue center for The Girl.

...Watching and Reading...
Lots of Christmas movies this time of year! And we've got the kids hooked, at last, on Star Trek Next Generation. After that, I think we'll tackle Voyager. We're still reading both Dickens and the Street Children of London, and Lois Lowry's Messenger. This series has been such a good read for us! One more book to go, and then we'll have to find something new.

...Work and College...
I'm wrapping up my first semester of teaching! Overall, it has been a very good experience. I really like my students, and feel much more at ease teaching than I did at first. I'm eagerly planning for spring while trying to wrap up a lot of end of the semester grading, and my own essay for my British lit seminar.

And... I've got a timeline for actually graduating! I'm taking a teaching seminar in the spring and am reading my lit list at last for the comprehensive exam, then starting my language work (one year foreign language) and thesis work in the fall of next year, with a planned graduation date of May, 2018. In the meantime, I will teach another year in the teaching associate program, and will continue working as an assistant at the junior college.

...Everything Else...
M still loves his job at the wholesale nursery, and is looking at a supervisor position by next spring. The Girl has been on a sewing craze since we read Gathering Blue, and she's developing some nice embroidery skills. I might have her learn some more from my mom soon, who used to embroider all the time. I'm maintaining my 40 pound weight loss, with another 18 pounds, approximately, to go. Exercise is a huge mood stabilizer for me, and I've developed a good friendship with the core group of women I work out with. The kids joined a local teen club with a fantastic art room, rock climbing, a computer/game room, a music studio, and more, and have started hanging out there a couple of late afternoons/early evenings each week. They're having fun, working with cool artists, and making new friends!

Making plans...

Backyard Farming Project Plans
 I wrote in this post about my garden planning, and then started research on building beds without going broke. I ended up finding this awesome tutorial on building raised beds with cedar fence boards, as cedar is naturally rot-resistant, rarely "treated", and fence boards are quite inexpensive overall. They still won't be $10 beds...more like $25 apiece, but that's far, far cheaper than getting them pre-made, with prices starting at $46 for something of comparable size. I'm hoping to put in 4-6 beds (leaning toward six...we have the space!), and a couple of potato towers. I know we want to grow tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cucumbers, squash, beans, peas, lettuces, chard, maybe broccoli, etc., and I just learned about tree collards, so am fascinated with them!

I also really need to rebuild for the chickens. We want to relocate the chicken run, to free up our mini orchard space, and so I want to take my time to do it properly. Our chickens are sadly down to two in number, and have aged out of laying entirely, so I am seriously considering investing in 6-8 lovely ladies in the spring. I've been perusing Backyard Chickens for ideas in the process of designing my own new coop and run, which will all be made from reclaimed lumber, chicken wire, etc., much the way this blogger built one.

Cooking Project Plans
I've decided I need to learn how to can things. My mom does it all the time, so next time she has a canning project planned, I'll be watching and helping! I'd also like to try making cheese -- I understand both ricotta and mozzarella are pretty easy, so I think I would tackle those first. I also want a dehydrator at some point....

Household Project Plans
More decluttering really. I find more and more that we need far less stuff than we have. I'd also like to sew new curtains later this winter, as curtains are an easy way to really change up a room's appearance. So everyone will need to choose curtain fabrics for their rooms, and then I get to choose for the main rooms! Another deep cleaning is needed soon too. We have other plans for next summer, including a roof overhaul (just the addition, thankfully), and a shower wall and plumbing overhaul. I'm just glad those jobs are a ways off!

Finishing Grad School Plans
This one will take a while. I need to get the required foreign language out of the way (yes, a foreign language for an MA in English). I also need to take my GRE and write my thesis. So this is a 1.8 year plan (I'd say two, but this semester is almost over). I will continue with the jobs I have now if given the opportunity in the 2017-2018 academic year, and then graduate in summer, 2018. To keep me busy in the meantime, I have essays to assign and grade, and a 15-20 page seminar paper of my own to write by mid December.

Homeschooling Plans
We're doing much better with math these days, and have kept up nicely with history (Victorian times) and literature. Getting writing done though has been like pulling teeth, so that is the next area to tackle. I think both kids will be taking sculpture at the junior college in the spring, and I'd really love to incorporate a thorough study of biology into our next semester.

And there you have it... my current plans! Plenty to keep me busy!

Happy October!

October is my favorite month of the year. Something about the weather (we had rain today!!!), the pumpkins and squash, the leaves changing color, and of course, Halloween, all together make me feel very content.

What We're Up To...
We just started, last night, watching our Halloween-related/spooky movies, with Sleepy Hollow. Also on the list are Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic, The Addams Family, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and, quite likely, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, among others. Perhaps Phantom of the Opera as well this year? We watched Dracula last year, so maybe Frankenstein should be considered. We have been watching Penny Dreadful, and it has been intriguing to watch characters from classic horror films/novels unfold.

Math is going along well for both kids, and we're getting going slowly with language arts. We've begun reading The Giver, and that's been found to be very thought provoking so far. We do plan to watch the movie after we finish the book, for comparison. This is the first novel we have chosen for a plunge into dystopian society, at the request of both kids.

The Boy is doing very well in his astronomy class, with a high A average at the moment. He's also been back at work on his truck restoration project after a couple of weeks off. And he's been visiting car shows/air shows, and has made videos for both. The Girl spends a lot of time lately sculpting again, and we're working on our wildlife habitat. She reads a lot on her Kindle lately, both in games, and about games, and animals. She set up a fishbowl in her room for a Betta fish, painting the backside of the fishbowl with a tropical underwater scene, so that her new fish, named Pearl, would "not be bored in there." We do need to get going on the Big History Project though, which The Girl has decided she will participate in, albeit somewhat loosely.

Other Tidbits...
I love my jobs teaching/working with students. I am far more content these days than with all of last year's crazy hectic scheduling, even though we have a little less money.

It's also soup season, and that makes me happy! Last week, I made a giant pot of taco bean soup, and right now I'm also craving butternut squash-orange soup (I spice it up with smoked paprika, ginger, cumin, and a little chili powder), and The Girl wants this eggplant one.

I spent time today at the hardware store drooling over bulbs. My favorites are grape hyacinths, crocus, crocosmia, daffodils, and paperwhite narcissus, so I think there might be a bulb-purchase-and-planting day coming up soon! Other yard-based tasks to be done include harvesting olives in another month or so, clearing ground for raised beds at last, and strengthening the chicken hutch before winter gets here. I also really want to get/make a Halloween wreath for the front door by next weekend!

Enjoy your October!

Fall Is On Its Way...

I love this time of year! Fall is, without a doubt, my favorite season. Crisp days, cool nights, the changing colors, pumpkins, holidays on the way....

The Boy has started back to school, and has just wrapped up his second week. He's taking stellar astronomy at the local junior college, with a fantastic teacher, so he's excited to go to class each week, and excited when he finishes class too, and gets to tell me everything he's learned!

His class is during my office hours on the same campus, which makes it easy to coordinate driving!

My teaching position is also going well! The first class was stressful... I won't lie. I actually finished it up (early) wondering if I had made a big mistake. Fast forward to today, and the class went very well! Discussions are happening, there's lots of writing going on, and I have my first set of essays to grade over the weekend!

Next week, we'll be starting back up with all our other school activities. The Boy says he's ready to work on more algebra and writing, and The Girl is definitely ready for some math. She's asked for something computer-based for spelling though, so maybe Spelling City, or ???

Other September plans...
-- Celebrating my brother's birthday today!
-- Finish stripping the front yard down... deadheading, removing the last of the dead weeds/grass.
-- Enjoying the first day of fall!
-- The Girl and I will be attending an orientation for the wildlife rescue center volunteer work she wants to do this year. Puppy petting is fun, but it just petting young puppies, and she's ready for something more.
-- Bake an apple pie for Johnny Appleseed Day
-- Make some applesauce and apple butter (to freeze) from our backyard apple tree.

How is your fall shaping up? Anything exciting, like special days/plans? Starting back to school?

Catching Up & Moving Along...

Summer has flown by so quickly! Next week, we'll be back in the thick of things, though we did manage to have a lot of fun the last couple of months.

Catching Up...

There's been fishing, hanging out in scenic spots, and -- for me -- trail running:

And a day at the local fair, thanks to a set of free tickets I won from the bank! We went on some rides, ate funnel cakes, gazed at the amazing flower show, and visited the animals!

I even have a classroom now! There's been continued truck work, and some random fun moments along the way.

Moving Along...

The Boy starts a stellar astronomy class next week, so we're shelving chemistry for now. The Girl has a new volunteer orientation coming up at the local wildlife rescue center, so fall will be spent studying and rehabilitating animals.

I start my new career next week! I have my first day planned, my syllabus written, and a few writing assignments designed/under design. And I start my own classes.

We'll start our full-on homeschooling after Labor Day. Our first read-aloud for literature will be Watership Down. For animal studies, The Girl will be reading various selections from our collection of vintage books, alongside numerous library books, and I think she and I will enjoy The Tarantula in My Purse and 172 Other Wild Pets. She and I will also work on turning our habitat plans into reality.

Hope your summers have been going well!

Sanctuary...

image courtesy of NWF

One of our summer goals is to be able to certify our yard (front and back) as a National Wildlife Habitat. We became inspired to do this when The Girl and I were walking around our neighborhood, and saw someone down the block with a small sign that designated them as such. So I've been doing research into this as a family project, and found that we need the following elements in order to obtain certification:

• Food (at least three sources, can include feeders, plants, etc.)
• Water (bird baths, seasonal water sources, and so on all count)
• Cover (we could put in a roost, or grow some dense bushes... two sources needed)
• Places to raise young (2 sources again... we're thinking nesting boxes and host plants)
• Sustainable practices (2 practices... we already grow drought tolerant plants, and native ones)

This doesn't seem that it will be too difficult! I'm researching native/host plants, and then as a family we will choose some to install in our yard(s). One host plant I know I want would be Dutch Pipe, or pipevine, good for swallowtail butterflies...

In the meantime, I've been planting some flowers, many of which attract a variety of bees. I love getting my hands covered in dirt, whether through planting or weeding. As M works for a wholesale nursery, we get discards (plants that are beyond their prime for sales), and we get a 20% discount on wholesale prices for other plants! Yesterday, we planted marigolds and lobelia; in the recent past, we've added a number of foxgloves to the garden. Lilies from a friend that I transplanted in have bloomed too, so here are a few pictures from my garden to enjoy!

We also have hummingbirds zipping in and out all day, as well as finches, crows, a mockingbird that sings for us every morning, Towhees, a few Black Phoebes, the occasional Western Bluebird, swallows, and more. One crow has taken to snacking from our dog-food bowls, and often hangs out on our back patio's overhang! That reminds me... I think I'll hand The Girl this book to read over the summer!

We always grow some veggies (mostly tomatoes, peppers, and herbs), so this will be a nice change from that. We're learning about the micro-climates in our yard (influenced by trees and more), and hopefully, we'll learn to identify many of the species of bird and insect that we attract. We'll also be amending our terrible soil (very dense), removing some invasive plants (the bindweed battles continue!), trimming up trees a little, and more! A dear friend of mine has been working on similar gardening goals, and she serves as a font of inspiration.

I'm looking forward to our summer of gardening!

Weekly Wrap-Up... Rain, Gardening, Books, & More!

It is pouring outside! And we might have a thunderstorm mid-day! Since we seem to be living in a "state" (pun intended) of perpetual drought these days, I don't mind the rain. And that means we have an afternoon at home, rather than the park, to play a little catch-up!

From one of my morning walks this week

...Homeschooling This Week...

The Boy is making progress with one and two step equations in algebra, while The Girl and I played Totally Tut yesterday. I think we may play it again today, and I want her to work on multiplication and division facts with Circles & Stars (up to four dice). Remedial work, yes, but once she's really got this stuff down, I know (from experience teaching her addition and subtraction) that she'll make a big leap, mathematically speaking. And I found something that looks awesome for a little later on... the Interactive Mathematics Program (samples here). In the meantime, I think she might try Prodigy (online free math-wizarding game).

The Girl is making great progress through her spelling book too.

We did some reading from Outbreak! Plagues That Changed History, learning about the Black Death, and how it shifted the balance of power in feudal society. I'd definitely recommend this book for a different view of world history—lots of interesting tidbits, and a good, conversational writing tone.

And of course we watched some Downton Abbey, which led to a discussion on mourning practices. 

The Boy has been reading lots of recent articles on Hawking Radiation, Planet X, and other space phenomena. He keeps me up to date on what he's learned! The Girl has cycled back to her sea creature fascination, and at the same time, very sadly pointed out to  me this week that she does not remember ever visiting a zoo. I plan to remedy that in a couple of weeks, when M's day off cycles back to a Saturday.

Today's agenda includes math, spelling, nailing down The Boy's essay topic, A Wind in the Door, and the first chapter of DNA. And possibly an early evening trip to the indoor trampoline park! The Boy and I are also planning on watching Contact tonight, while The Girl and M watch Drop Dead Fred. We'll do a family movie tomorrow!

...Everything Else This Week...

The Boy misplaced The Martian, so he's working on finishing Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, book 1. The Girl is deep in Harry Potter. I am reading The Longest Night, a novel centered around the 1961 nuclear disaster in Idaho Falls, and The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family, which is just fascinating!

The Boy had parkour last night, and has decided he needs to strength train more at home. The Girl had derby practice, and said it was really tough, as they were (finally) learning some new skills this week. I tried out kickboxing, did a HIIT workout, and worked on my running.

My plantings/transplantings from last Sunday seem to be doing well, and I am sure the rain will help! Tomorrow, we're picking up a few tomato plants, herbs, and pepper plants... at last. It turns out it is just as well that we did not get them sooner, as we had a freak late frost last week that killed a lot of people's veggie starts. We're not doing a big veggie garden right off the bat. Instead, we're starting slowly and adding things in over time. I'm hoping to get a lot more done in the front yard too!


...Goals for Next Week...

Math, of course. And spelling for The Girl, and some writing/grammar for her. Some light essay work for The Boy, and I think I'll have him try out Excavating English with the two-week free sample, as I bet he'd really enjoy it. I'm hoping during our Sunday lessons, that we can either finally watch another episode of Human Planet, or work in Mapping the World with Art (or both?!?). And we need to get going next week with The Private Eye! All this means a trip to the store for spiral bound sketchbooks.

My other goal: more of our Afternoon Basket read-alouds!

Hope you all had a good week, and that you have a great weekend!

linked up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Monday Musings...

...Outside My Window...

It's been gorgeous here lately, though quite warm, with the last few days in the 80s! It is supposed to cool back down to the 70s tomorrow, and there might be some rain by the weekend. The dryness, and high pollen counts, have got The Boy in constant allergy agony, so we're going to try switching allergy meds, and taking him in for allergy testing. Poor kid.

With such clear skies though, we have seen plenty of these!

...In My Yard...

I spent the late morning/early afternoon yesterday weeding, and relocating some lamb's ear. I also finally got a gift of daylilies situated too, as well as the tiny euphorbia my mom found next to her big one, and gave to me.. M's been trying to keep up with rapidly growing grass in both the front and backyards, but with the rain, then warmth, then rain, then warmth... the stuff is growing like crazy!

...In the House and Kitchen...

I've been getting bits of the house deeply (spring) cleaned... a little at a time. I'll get it done yet! And the kids are working on choosing paint colors for their rooms for this summer's big project (besides the bathroom plumbing).

I'm getting better at planning ahead food-wise. I cook several breakfast items ahead for the kids to pick and choose from, and then they add fruit, tea, etc., and I pack my own snacks/lunch the night before. On the dinner menu this week are: turkey burgers; roasted chicken; quesadillas made with leftover roasted chicken; and probably this awesome casserole from Kalyn's Kitchen.

...In Our Homeschooling...

The Boy is starting chapter three in algebra this week, after doing very well on his end-of-chapter 2 test last week. The Girl is working on multiplication more in-depth, because fluency with it will only help her as she moves along.

In language arts, I really need to get The Boy working on his expository essay! The Girl did another 3 lessons in Spelling Workout, and will do more this week. I am also hoping to have each of them memorize a poem by the end of April (free choice of poets and pieces), and maybe do a freewrite this week.

...Reading and Watching...

A Wind in the Door is going well, though we're only a couple of chapters in so far. The Afternoon Basket is high up on my to-do list this week! On their own, they are continuing with The Martian and Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone. I just finished a very odd and intriguing page-turner.. The Children's Home. The Boy wants to read it when he finishes his current book, so we'll switch at that point.

We watched another few episodes of Downton Abbey, and will watch another couple this week. I'd really like to get in another episode of Human Planet as well. And we've been enjoying the end of Once Upon a Time's season three!

...On the Agenda...

For me, running and weight training, plus introductory karate tomorrow night. I tried, and loved, TRX resistance training over the weekend, so I really want to do more of that!

The kids have parkour/roller derby, afternoon skating tomorrow, and maybe (just maybe) a fencing session this week.

Other than that, my class was cancelled today (phew!). I do have tutoring tomorrow, and office hours at the junior college on Wednesday. So altogether, it is a lighter week than usual!

I'll leave you with The Girl's last puppy petting session for the "R" litter. The "S" litter is due in early May, so we should be playing with puppies by mid-late May!

Have a great week!!!

Monday Musings... A Weekend Hike & More...

Yesterday, we added another name to our list of local mountain peaks conquered... Mount Tamalpais. Tamalpais, by the way is a combination of Coast Miwok words, meaning "coast [or sea] mountain". And I believe we have one Miwok ancestor, so visiting what was once theirs is an interesting experience. 

We ended up hiking just over 7 miles during the afternoon, and of course, I took plenty of pictures, as did the kids!

On top of the world

Photographing wildflowers

The view

Above the fog

Amazing views that stretch out seemingly forever

After the fog cleared

Wildflowers 1

Wildflowers 2

Wildflowers 3 (and more)

It was beautiful weather, and we could see so much from the top—San Francisco, the East Bay, bridges, the ocean, lakes, boats, the clouds... We enjoyed a picnic at the top, and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring.

...On the Agenda This Week...

Math, of course

Language Arts: 4 spelling lessons for The Girl (all review work); the beginnings of an expository essay for The Boy

Reading, to include the book on the Romanovs, and A Wrinkle in Time (no, we haven't quite finished it yet)

Then, I am trying to decide between a couple of books... either The Plant Hunters: True Stories of Their Daring Adenvtures to the Far Corners of the Earth, or Frost Hollows & Other Microclimates. The Boy was commenting a lot yesterday on all the microclimates he noticed during the hike, so that one might be good. 

The Girl and I plan to work on identifying all the wildflowers we found, hence all the pictures. We know a few already, but there are some we're not sure about.

More Downton Abbey, naturally. We're in season three now!

Parkour (The Boy); derby (The Girl); roller skating for both (recreational); workouts for me, including a karate class.

We're also getting this book this week, and I already got these supplies to go with it (thanks, Erin!). I'm going to pick up a spiral-bound sketchbook for each of us too.

...Around the Home, Garden, & Kitchen...

The front yard, and backyard, look so much better with all the crazy-tall grass cut down! This week, I'm hoping we can move the Spanish lavender we had planned to move last week. My hyacinth beans, a gift from a friend, are coming up nicely—I'm hoping in time they will cover the chain link fence. My artichoke plants are ginormous, and have already given me two very tasty artichokes. The apple and cherry tree have bloomed, and there are the beginnings of tiny green cherries already!

I've decided against Monday as a slow-cooker day, because I'm gone for too long—the food overcooks. Instead, it is quick, pre-prepared foods on Mondays (like stir fry, which I can prep the night before!), or tonight's chicken burgers (again, prepped and waiting in the fridge). Wednesdays, when I can stop at home briefly on my lunch break, are better crockpot days.

And we're going to try to finish reorganizing and rearranging the family room this week.

...Random Thoughts...

Years ago, I purchased the book for Mapping the World With Art. I think it might be fun to break it out once a week, and draw the maps in a sketchbook. Maybe do some of the activities too. The Girl has been playing more of her virus game and is learning some geography, but since both enjoy drawing, making their own geography books might be fun!

And I've decided, since we primarily learn history and science through interest-led activities and readings, that I won't wait for "next year" (fall) to start things, like the map book. Strike while the iron is hot! There's my new motto for you.

Have a great week, and happy trails ahead!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We're not doing a lot to celebrate the day, though we do have a fair bit of Irish in our bloodline, but we are definitely all wearing green!

M asked that I make corned beef and cabbage, with carrots and red potatoes, so I am throwing that in the crockpot at lunch time. We don't drink, so no Guinness!

We'll listen to The Chieftains (partly because I love their music anyway), and I'm planning to make green smoothies for the kids before their sports tonight.

We're also looking forward to the Spring Equinox (Ostara)! I'm on vacation next week (woo hooo!!!), so the kids and I have plans to go hiking, and gather some wildflowers for pressing. I'd like us each to plant a small pot of flowers for our front steps too (I'm thinking pansies, geraniums, and cheerful flowers along those lines), and I have great hopes that I will be out in the garden much of the day, after making some lemon-lavender muffins for breakfast.

Dinner that day will be a frittata, with veggies to be determined, and a salad full of baby spring greens and sunflower sprouts on the side.

Now, while I will be vacationing from my jobs, and school, the kids are not on Spring Break. We inadvertantly did that the week of The Girl's birthday. So we'll be hitting the books every day — I'm looking forward to having that less-interrupted time with them.

And we'll be doing yard work (lots of weeds to pull), and housework (maybe I'll rent that steam-cleaner at last!). It will be a week of caring for our home, our garden, and our learning.

Enjoy your St Paddy's Day!

It's March!

image courtesy of bestcalendartemplates.tk

...Plans for March...

...Holidays...

March 4 is a most important day. Why? Because this little one will be turning 13!

March 11, Johnny Appleseed Day

I think we'll have to make something with apples, of course! And maybe, for old times sake, read a lovely copy of the story (perhaps this one?).

March 14, National Pi Day

Obviously, I will have to make a pie!

March 15, Ides of March

Well, it certainly feels like spring around here! Maybe a Roman style dinner, with olives, bread, cheese, etc.

March 17, St. Patrick's Day

We always celebrate this one, as both M and I have Irish heritage, especially me (I'm nearly all Danish, Scots, and Irish, with a few other things thrown in the mix). We'll wear green, have an Irish dinner, and bake some soda bread!

March 20, Vernal Equinox

I love spring, so I'm happy to celebrate it! We'll plant some flowers, and have a spring themed dinner—I'm thinking an asparagus frittata, and a big salad. I always do first-day-of-spring baskets for the kids too, since they get Easter baskets from my mom when the time comes. And of course, we'll have to try balancing eggs on end!

March 27, Easter Sunday

We have a big midday dinner at my mom's after she goes to church. She usually does lamb, couscous, etc. I bring homemade hummus and pita chips, and the kids get Easter baskets!

...Other Plans for March...

The Girl and I will be going to my cousin's baby shower next weekend

We have lots of gardening work to do, including the actual building of our raised beds by mid-month!

I get a week off from both my jobs and college!

More decluttering. We did not get to clothes over the weekend, but have high hopes for this Saturday!

...What Else We're Up To...

M's new job, at a wholesale [plant] nursery, is working out fantastically so far. He loves being outside much of the day, working with plants, and soil. He's working 9+ hours a day, and probably 5-6 days a week. Definitely a big change for our household!

In homeschooling, we're plugging away. The Boy is doing very well with the change in algebra programs, and The Girl actually really likes Math Essentials (though she's iffy still on Fred). We watched the first episode of World War One: The People's Story, and it was very well done! We're keeping up with most of our history reading, and science reading, and are making good progress with finishing A Wrinkle in Time. The Boy is thinking about doing a math lesson while he's at my mom's on Mondays, to help make sure he hits the goal of 4 lessons a week, and then The Girl and I can tackle math on Monday evenings while The Boy is at fencing.

It's all about making things work!

It's Friday! A General Wrap-Up for the Week...

I'd say this sums up pretty well how I'm feeling at the moment!

Overall though, it's been a good week. We made some good strides in homeschooling; I made it through both jobs and school once more; I didn't have a crazy appointment of doctor's visits (for my dad) on top of everything else; I kept the kitchen counters clean all week (yes, sadly that is a victory for me) and kept up on dishes; and I am having a blast planning out my front yard!

...Homeschooling Report...

This week, as part of our Downton history studies, we moved into season two, and so into World War 1. We watched half of World War 1: Cause and Effects, taking us up to 1916, which is where we are in the Downton timeline. We also read about the start of the war in The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia.

This weekend, I hope to get in one more episode of Downton, and perhaps the first episode of World War One: The People's Story.

Mathematically, we are doing quite well! The Boy completed 4 lessons in algebra this week, working with equations, variables, the order of operations, and more. The Girl did 3 chapters in Life of Fred Fractions, and two lessons from Math Essentials. 

The Boy completed lesson 2 in writing, and The Girl worked diligently on a new list of spelling words. She had to write a sentence for each word, and instead wrote sort of a This is the House That Jack Built tale (though not as long) about a chicken that went a bit crazy. 

Yesterday, I had them each read something scientific while I was at work, and then narrate it to me when I got home. The Girl talked about chameleons, and The Boy about eyesight. He and I also watched an episode of Through the Wormhole, about black holes.

Next week's plans:

More math (at least 4 lessons for each kid)

 Lesson 3 in writing for The Boy; another spelling lesson for The Girl

Some freewriting for both

Another couple of Downton episodes

More free-range learning in science, plus a (short) hands-on science lesson with a book I just ordered

More on World War 1 and the Romanovs

And finishing up A Wrinkle in Time! 

...Household/Gardening Report...

 I wrote the other day about gardening plans for my front yard, and wasn't quite sure what to do with the larger "half" of the yard, except that I want it to tie in with the smaller half, which I can already picture as complete. Then, I thought about my mom's front yard, which my sister re-did for her last year, putting in a fabulous dry stream... In case you're not familiar with dry streams, this is what they look like...

Pretty, isn't it?

So I think I will do that, kind of winding through, past the two boulders. On either side, I'll have a crazy-quilt patchwork (large-scale patches) of creeping thyme, lamb's ear, etc. Around the fenced corner of that section, I'll keep the rosemary and French lavender I have now, though I'll be removing the overgrown and shabby-looking Spanish lavender (my brother-in-law planted them, and they're not my favorites). Maybe some more French lavender, maybe some fern-leaf lavender (which I love), some bulbs tucked in here and there for spring blossoms, and a few other pretty things. 

I know it sounds like a lot, so here's my 5 minute sketch...

I think this could come together really nicely.

I hope.

And then, this weekend I'm tackling the first task in
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which is clothing. I was going to do books first, but M will be at work tomorrow (new job!), so it seems a perfect time to drag all the clothing in the house together.

...Odds and Ends...

I need to come up with a menu plan for the upcoming week, and grocery list. I plan for Monday as a crockpot day, Wednesday as a quick and easy dinner day (stir-fry works well), and I generally do something like a casserole on Thursdays, as M or The Boy can pop it in the oven while The Girl and I are at her roller derby practice.

I'll be figuring out what to read aloud after A Wrinkle in Time.

The Girl and I will almost definitely be petting puppies again tomorrow. 

I'm going to try to get the kids out for a bike ride too. And I need to do some strength training. I'm down almost 15 pounds now! I had lost a bunch of weight a few years back, but in the fashion typical of crash dieters, I gained almost all of it back. Grrrr. This time, I'm simply eating healthfully, and exercising. What a concept!

As to M's new job, you remember he went into cooking quite some time back. And has sadly found, after several layoffs, that the culinary world is unpredictable (at least in terms of employment), and that it is less enjoyable than he hoped. He still loves cooking, at least at home, but needs full-time, steady employment. So he's returning to an earlier profession, and will start a trial run tomorrow at a wholesale nursery, working with plants, and gardeners, and the like. We are all really hoping that this works out well for him... he needs something he can depend on and enjoy! And he does miss working with growing things, and the smell of dirt, and being outside.

II think that's it for now. Happy weekend! I'll leave you with a totally random picture of one of my favorite things in my kitchen right now...

linked up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers