Weekly Wrap-up:

Thanks to Mrs. Melody my husband and I escaped the crew for a few hours and enjoyed an afternoon out by ourselves. We ate dinner and browsed a few shops. I also talked to my mother over the weekend and she told me to finish her Christmas shopping this week (I haven’t). I don’t mind selecting gifts for my husband and the kids from her but I find it a bit disheartening to pick out my own gift ( I usually just get curriculum). She also asked me to choose her gift for my brother. I’m having a real hard time with her request. Not only does he despise Christians (call me old fashioned but Christmas is a Christian holy day) but we haven’t even spoke in

over a year…he doesn’t want what I would pick out. I just cannot reconcile this and have decided to tell her she will have to take care of this one by herself.

We had a couple of half days of school this week. The weather was really nice the first part of the week so I sent them outside to play. Nice warm days are going to be hard to find as winter gets closer. I read on someone’s blog that they take the first day it snows off from school and have hot chocolate and

watch a holiday movie. Doesn’t that sound fun? I’m going to surprise the kids and do the same. According to the forecasters we could possibly enjoy that next week!!!

The crew is zipping along nicely in school. They are already at the half-way point in most of their studies. Since we still have more than half of the school year left we can slow some subjects down…maybe hop along a rabbit trail or two. Over the weekend the kids built a spectroscope from their science kit. They’ve had quite a bit of fun with it all week. I had a hard time focusing with it but bifocals would likely help. This week in science we started a book about Benjamin Franklin and electricity. I was so happy to see they had remembered so much about him and his many inventions from our American history studies.

My favorite moments from homeschooling this week were from Oldest. He really does not like writing. This week he finished all of his writing assignments without being prompted. He also wrote on a couple of his papers “this writing made possible by Writing With Skill”. I used to make him rewrite the papers after editing but a couple of weeks ago I just went over the spelling mistakes and editing issues orally. I told him we would pick out a few of his papers when we completed the book and work on editing skills since we would have about nine weeks to fill. He actually does a better job on his papers now that he knows he will not have to rewrite it after discussing it with me! I think he is slowly starting to like writing…but I’m not going to mention it to him.

If anyone is interested I will be starting a new weekly blog series on making healthier lifestyle choices and weight loss. I’ll be sharing my ups and downs and a monthly weigh in. These posts will be on Tuesdays. I had tried to do them on the weekends in the past but my weekends are just too busy and I’ve let it slide (sorry for letting you down Claire). I also have a book that I will be going through written by one of my dear friends in the blogging world…Ellie at New Creations Ministries. Her book is called Life’s Too Short to Eat Bad Cheese..:Nutritional and Life Lessons God Teaches Us” . I think this weekly commitment will help me to stay focused. I’ve lost two sizes (from size 18 to a 14) since starting this journey and I am afraid I am starting to loose my momentum. On Tuesday I will share with you my anti-inflammatory smoothie that I drink most mornings and has made a big difference in how I feel.

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers