Wet Wednesday... The Rain Has Returned!

I was thrilled last night when I heard raindrops on the roof, and thrilled again when I woke this morning to a sky that looked like this   -------------->

And I am thrilled that it is supposed to rain all the rest of this week!


Of course, the excitement is because of this...

This is Folsom Lake, one of the reservoirs in northern California. Not looking too good, is it? You can see more pictures of what the lack of rain is doing to our state's lakes/reservoirs here. So yes, a week's worth of rain, off and on, is very, very good news.

This has been a jam-packed week so far. On Monday, I took my dad to his doctor's appointment--a follow-up with his cardiologist--and then to the pharmacy, and then The Boy went to fencing.

[Side-note: The Boy was invited, on Monday, by his coach to try the more advanced épée work. He accepted the challenge quite happily (ear-to-ear grin!), and went off for some personal training with one of the assistant coaches, D, a man who works with foil, épée, sabre, and historical fencing weapons. D is a fantastic (assistant) coach, patient, soft-spoken. After about half an hour of intensive work, The Boy fenced his first épée bout... and lost, 2 to 5. Then he talked with D some more, worked a little more, and fenced his second épée bout... and won, 15 to 14. The coaches all agreed, watching him, that he has a gift for épée fencing, it is his fencing weapon. D said he had never trained anyone before that picked it up so quickly. So The Boy is now allowed to work twice a week with the more advanced fencers on this new skill!]

Anyhow, back to the busy week. Then on Tuesday, I took my dad to his tax preparer. We read about rainbows in The Magic of Reality while he was inside.

And today... M has a job interview, and The Boy has fencing. Tomorrow night, I have my class.

Another reason to be thankful for the rain... we fell behind (yesterday) on my goals for this week's homeschooling, so I am glad we will have a Friday afternoon at home to catch up! Of course we'll still have our family movie night, exact title to be determined.

The one day so far that we actually did our schoolwork, Monday in between the pharmacy and fencing, went well. I'm trying this schedule:

Rotational reading (Afternoon Basket): which, on Monday, was a chapter and a half from K12's Human Odyssey, about ancient China and Confucius. Tuesday was science reading (the only thing we actually got done), today will be geography reading, and then we'll work in some literary analysis and math reading Thursday/Friday.

Basics: Math, reading/spelling (The Girl), writing (The Boy)

Literature: More of A Wrinkle in Time

Personal Studies: On Monday, it was some Caddie Woodlawn and animal reading for The Girl; The Boy read about black holes in National Geographic, and read from I, Robot. Then we ran out of time. I am hoping next week to fold in biography reading time, etc.

I think this pattern, this rhythm, will work well for us!

Now that we are midweek, how is your week going?

Monday Musings...

I can't believe the weekend is gone already! And here we go again... fresh week, fresh start.

Outside My Window...
Sunny and beautiful today. The narcissus at work is in full bloom, so I've been keeping a few in an old milk bottle at my desk for the smell, and because they are pretty. We're supposed to be getting a storm later this week (yay!), and so The Boy and I cleaned out all the gutters yesterday, making sure everything is ready to go. M and I also further weatherized the chicken hutch, which somehow involved me hitting my temple really hard on a corner of some plywood. I saw stars! Thankfully there was no real damage... just a bruise.

Around The House...
The Boy has completely taken over doing his own laundry, which is kind of awesome. I have some housework to catch up on this week -- some vacuuming (if the vacuum will work--it is being very temperamental lately), some mopping... the exciting stuff!

In the Garden...
Not much to report here. We've put off pruning due to the fact that new growth takes more water, and with drought conditions still very much looming over us, we weren't sure that was a good idea. And we're trying to learn a little about dry gardening, just in case. Either way, we're hoping to take a trip to the fantastic local organic seed store soon, though we have to be very careful shopping there, as there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of seed choices.

In Our Homeschooling...
I plan to work with The Girl on both reading and spelling this week, to help engage different parts of her brain. The Boy will be rewriting and expanding his very short story this week. I think we'll continue with Greek history, and Black Ships Before Troy.  The Girl will be doing Saxon Math again this week, supplementing it as desired with Life of Fred, and I realized that I don't need to buy the Key to Fractions for The Boy (which I talked about doing here), as I have Math Mammoth Fractions already! Both kids are hoping their independent study books (biographies of Sacagawea and Nikola Tesla... I'll leave you to guess which one is for which child) will be at the library this week, and The Boy is ready for book two of The Hunger Games.

Reading & Watching...
I somehow, from picking "new fiction" at the library, managed to read two books on World War II, back to back. The first was the story of a girl who became a field nurse to search for her lost brother, and the second of both a Nazi war criminal and a young woman seeking closure. Both were exceptionally good books--they really drew me in, and I found them hard to put down! This week, it's back to assigned and more practical reading. I'm reading Uncle Tom's Cabin for class, and Overcoming Dyslexia to help The Girl and I (thanks for the recommendation, Jessica!) The kids and I are still working our way through Mankind: A Story of Us All, and M and I have been watching American Horror Story, which I am surprised to say I like!

Everything Else...
The kids ride their scooters most days. This week we hope to adjust the gears on The Girl's bike, and fix a cable on The Boy's, so they can enjoy those again. It'll be a busy week--I take my dad to the doctor's this afternoon, and then to his tax lady tomorrow, plus there is fencing, my class, etc. I feel tired already!

Hope you all have a good week, and here is a picture of The Girl's creation to enjoy!