Weekly Journal

Discombobulated would be the one word I’d use to describe this week. We spent Sunday relaxing from our weekend in western Kentucky. Monday started out pretty good. I spent part of the morning learning the purl stitch. At the moment I am working on a scarf that Littlest has claimed is his. He checks my progress everyday. Once I finish the scarf I plan to make a hat next…maybe in the slouchy style. I can cast-on, cast-off, work the knit and the purl stitches…woo-hoo I’m a knitter! Sorta…amateur anyway.

This kids had a pretty relaxed week in school. We dropped a couple of subjects so the middle two could concentrate on writing their first essays. We reviewed the format style discussing hooks, topic statements, paragraphs and conclusions. Well, they both managed to write hooks and a thesis statement…if you squint really hard and look sideways. They have years to master “the essay” and I’m actually really happy with their first attempt. Oldest spent the week procrastinating. Now that he is in seventh grade he is more responsible for most of his studies. I am more of a coach than teacher with him. I help him to set his workload for the week. He didn’t listen to me this week and paid the price on

Friday when I refused to let him have the weekend to get some of his work done. He knew what needed to be done all week. He buckled down and got everything done when he realized that I wasn’t going to let him off the hook. He also took his second science exam and did quite well. He didn’t finish his math exam but I conceded to him when he pointed out that he is two months ahead of schedule. I think next week will go smoother with him…hope so anyway. We spent quite a bit of time discussing science topics, the Protestant Reformation, Christopher Columbus and the War of the Roses. We watched several documentaries on these subjects over the past couple of weeks. The kids favorite documentary series we watched was called Wild China from the BBC. We loved learning about China’s natural history and culture…beautiful and fascinating. Our favorite chapter was on Tibet. Littlest finished working on his first history notebook page and worked on a week’s worth of math pages.

Sparkles baked at least two batches of cookies this week and a pan of brownies. She has taken quite an interest in the kitchen lately. We also met with her doctor this week and asked questions about her disease and medications. We spent another morning at the hospital getting more bloodwork done and making friends with the pharmacists.

Our weekend was rather nice. We went to Lexington on Saturday and Littlest wore his Batman cape everywhere. The kids and I had a bit of fun in the new Cabela store. We watched the fish in the tank for a while and then went around the store looking at the various stuffed

wild animals and listening to recordings of their vocalizations. We also took the kids to the bookstore to spend their Christmas gift cards (we really made them wait!). I could happily spend forever in a bookstore. I found a few books and took pictures of several books to look for at the library. Littlest patiently hung out with me while I browsed the shelves. He sat down next to me a happily flipped through the book and workbooks he picked out for himself. We went home “the long way round” and stopped to see the covered bridge in Switzer.

Today we went for a hike in cove Springs and just enjoyed the lovely weather. I took pictures of everything and wished I hadn’t forgotten my macro lens. At one point I had zoomed in my lens to get a picture of a fuzzy caterpillar. Just as I took the picture an ant zoomed across my screen and startled me for a moment. It just looked so huge on my camera screen. I flinched and jumped back but then chased him down and got a picture.