Our Week

Last week found me making alterations to the adult XS scrubs I bought for Hannah's Halloween costume the night before Halloween.  

I did custom lengths to accommodate her limb difference and prosthetic, and was surprised at how far off the two sides really are.  

After Halloween, I un-hemmed them, ran them through the wash, and will pass them on to our favorite tiny nursing student.  

Hannie-poo went as a doctor, and Katie-bug went as a lion (makeup by Brianna)

Also makeup by Brianna.  She scared the DoorDash dude.  

I took the girls to a drive through scavenger hunt put on by our church.  It was pirate themed.  They got candy and assorted booty, including Chik Fil A cards we'll have to put to good use soon.  

While we were out for the Halloween hunt, we stopped by the library to scare up some books.  

Our Parisian Sunset pictures.  I used Crikey to cut out some Eiffel Towers, and we used marker to make a sunset background for them.  I actually did another Cricut project this week, but I need to wait for permission before I share it.  

We were going to do another fun project, making models of Parisian landmarks, printed on cardstock, but my printer died this week.  It's been fickle and persnickety for a while, and it finally wheezed it's last.  Even the photocopy feature is gone now.  Hoping to replace it in the coming week.  It's hard to homeschool without one!  

The prescribed art project in our curriculum this week was silhouettes.  

It did not go well.  

Hannah's came out better because I stepped in and traced her.  

Grumman, judging me, from his flag-free perch.  

We watched a couple Nat Geo Kids videos about France, and Bertie curled up with Hannah.  

Grumman is not a lap cat, at all, but he does like to be near us, and he does enjoy videos.  

In keeping with our France theme, the girls also watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame in their down time.  

Katie's work-in-progress travel poster.  She is planning to print a map of Europe and mark the featured locations on it.  When we can print again.  

Our Eat2Explore box for France was another hit!  This was the beef stew.  

And this...  I'm going to call "French inspired" rather than strictly French.  I was tired, and didn't really follow the instructions.  I pulled everything out that was on the recipe page, and after the first step or two, just did my own thing.  But the masses were pleased with it, so I'm calling it a win.  

Why was I tired?  Because Josiah had his wisdom teeth out.  We're waiting for his prescriptions here, after the procedure.  

The girls did drawings from a library book, How to Draw France's Sights and Symbols.

I've seen some real improvement in Hannah's drawing this year.  

More books.  We actually got down to only 40 (of 60 possible) books on hold at one point because I forgot to add new ones when we brought these home.  This has since been remedied.  

Grumman checking out the new science selections.  I swear he's been interested in our Flying Science this year.  From gnawing the notebooks, to watching bird & butterfly videos, to giving the pteranodon books an extra sniff, he monitors it all.  

Bertie had next to no body fat when she came back, so she loved to lay in front of the space heater to keep warm.  I'd turn it on for her whenever she went over to it, so she wouldn't be losing extra calories trying to regulate her body temp.  

She was down to 1# 9 oz when she came back to us.  (She'd been 2# when we dropped her off.)  But she quickly thrived here, with people to snuggle her and Grumman to chase her, so she's back at the shelter awaiting her surgery again.  

I'm missing my furry little friend today.    

From 12 ounces... to 2#7 ounces.  Bertie the first day we had her, and Bertie the last day we had her.  A beautiful cat with a sweet purrsonality.  She left paw prints on my heart.  

Okay [sniff] back to homeschool stuff.  

I added a "day trip" to Greece, since we were about France-d out.  Since (broken record here) my printer is broken, I used Crikey to cut some flag pieces for the girls to DIY their passport flags.  

This proved to be more of a challenge for Hannah and Katie than I was expecting.  Note to self, might want to pull out some spatial awareness puzzles for them.  

I sent a Halloween care package to Sam and got a "proof of life delivery" photo from the delivery lady.  So good to see my boy on US soil again, even though he's still far away.  

Eli is even farther away now, and his Halloween box has yet to get to him, unfortunately.  Knowing this, I ordered his Christmas packages this morning, hoping they'll get to him by Christmas.  Fortunately, he's a good sport, and we've learned to be flexible with all things military over the years.  

Up next, we'll be learning about Germany!  We'll be adding a couple of "day trips" in the next two weeks, when the library books I've requested get here (and this time, I have the flags).  Looking forward to castles and some tasty German snacks.  

Our Week With A Spot Of Cave-Schooling

We're learning about France now.  When I think of France, I think Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, etc.  But, before France was France, the land was still inhabited.  

We got a couple of library books about the ancient Lascaux Cave that was discovered in France.  

And one morning while the girls were playing, I transformed the school room into a cavern so each of them could try their hand at cave painting.  

We ended up switching Katie's paper to the other side, because the underside of her table was too bumpy.  

We used oil pastels for this project.  

I printed "how to draw a mastodon" and "how to draw a horse" from Art Projects For Kids for suggested guidance, but the girls were free to do their own thing.  

We only used 4 colors, since cave people would not have had access to the whole Crayola assortment, having to make their own paints.  "Couldn't we squish up some plants and make green, Mom?"  

We learned about cave ecosystems, too, and talked about what senses would be the most helpful when spelunking.  Now I want to take them on a field trip to a cave.  

I was actually pretty impressed with the finished cave drawing projects.

Grumman thought the whole thing was very weird.  

Poor Grumman.  (Brianna is stacking pencils on him.)  It's been a rough week.  

The interloper (in his mind, anyway) is still here.  I've taken to calling her Jingle about half the time, as she's now sporting a bell on a hair elastic.  I may be projecting, but I feel like Grumman appreciates being able to hear where she is.  He keeps a suspicious eye on her.  

Learning about France means watching Ratatouille and Madeline, right?  (In my defense, we also watched a travel documentary, with some of the Parisian sights.)  

 

You'll never guess what we're learning about now in flying science.  Pterosaurs! 

12 weeks after putting up the first flag in Grumman's space, I finally got smart enough to move them out of his space (the "window" sill between the school room and the stairs) and onto a less Grumman friendly space.  They give the school room a little bit of a "United Nations" vibe, and they help us remember the places we've studied.  

Next week, hopefully we'll do some French cooking.  

The Price of Valor

 

If you remember my Books of 2019 post from January, I mentioned that I read 6 books by Susan May Warren last year.  I want to share with you one of this year's Susan May Warren books, the newly released, The Price of Valor.  

The Price of Valor is book 3 in Susan's Global Search and Rescue series.  Each book can be read and enjoyed as a stand alone story, but you'll want to read them all!  I actually read book 2, The Heart of a Hero first, and enjoyed it so much that I ordered book 1, The Way of the Brave.  You can read my review of The Heart of a Hero here.  

The Price of Valor follows the story of Hamilton Jones.  As a kid, Ham's best friend was the girl next door, Signe.  Through a complex set of twists and turns, they end up married but living apart, and Ham believes her to be dead.  

Not only is Signe alive, but she has a child--Ham's child.  Ham's got some big feelings about missing the first 10 years of his daughter's life, but more than that, he wants to make this marriage work.  

You know how most of us have been indulging in a little shelter in place television escapism?  Well, my drug of choice on the screen is NCIS.  The original and the spin offs.  Well, when I was reading The Price of Valor, it was every bit as action packed as an NCIS episode.  This isn't a fluffy love story.  This is a suspense tale, and it kept me on the edge of my seat.  

Longtime readers will appreciate cameo appearances of characters from other Susan May Warren books.  If you're just coming on scene with this series, you'll appreciate that we get more time with Jake and Aria, and your heart will ache when Jenny drops a bombshell on Orion in this book.  

If you're up for glaciers and avalanches, hurricanes and escaped convicts, an erupting volcano and a terrorist plot, I'd highly recommend this series.  

Vampires and Pumpkins, Oh My!

When I realized the English program I'd chosen wasn't working for Katie, I scrambled to find some other language arts thing else for her to work on.  What I came up with was having her finish one of Jack's old spelling books, and a grammar workbook.  

Well, she polished off that spelling book this week and looked at the blank page at the end wistfully and said, "There should be a certificate or something."  Um, gimme a sec, I can totally make that happen.  I had found some blank certificates during the Great School Room Purge, so I whipped one out and wrote it up for her.  

It was such a simple thing, and it made her so happy.  Hmm, I wonder if I can find a bird themed printable certificate to use when we finish Flying Creatures...?  Maybe present the girls with noisy stuffed birds to go along with them?  

Feeling like autumn around here.  Super easy pumpkin spice cupcakes.  Literally spice cake mix, canned pumpkin, a bag of chopped nuts (pecans, I think), cream cheese frosting, pumpkins and leaf sprinkles.  I don't even like pumpkin, and these were good.  

We might have to make them again with mini chocolate chips in them.  Mmm!  

We learned about Vikings this week!  The girls built model Viking ships from cardstock, and watched 2 Viking documentaries from the library.  

In studying Norway, we learned about the artist Edvard Munch, famous for his painting The Scream.  Art Projects For Kids has a Scream-inspired project that we tweaked a little.  

The original was a crayon resist, but we did the person on a separate paper and cut it out and glued it over the watercolor blow painting.  

I couldn't quite get the girls to give me a scream face, more of an "Ahhh" like you'd say at the doctor's office.  

Paul's replacing a sink in one of the downstairs bathrooms.  Grumman, of course, has to be in the middle of everything.  

Books

Books

And more books.  
 

I was doing my weekend lesson planning before we started Norway, and I saw that the passage we'd be reading in Window on the World was going to be about Romania.  Hmm, day trip?  And down the rabbit hole I went.  Because I tend to get a little carried away when there's a "theme" involved.  

Romania is the home of Transylvania, the home of Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula.  (There's even a castle that has totally cashed in on the tourist trade there.)  

So we read about Romania, we got library books about Romania, we watched videos about Romania, and we made a vampire craft.  

Even though I never did any "spooky" stuff with the older kids.  

And look at that.  The sky didn't fall.

When the girls were doing their Scream faces, one asked, "Should I color the face yellow? Or orange?"  Ack.  Time to get people colors markers.  

We all tried to figure out what color we were.  I assumed I'd be closest to the color "paper" but if I could dilute "bronze" a bit, I think that would be the best match.  

Honestly?  They're all a little off.  

I am tempted to try some real art markers to see if we can find closer matches.  I've seen there's a Crayola 24 pack coming out.  Maybe I should have held out for that.  

One of the assignments in the girls' Europe packet was to make their own flag, or copy an existing European flag.  We killed several trees with this project, as Katie started cutting without a real plan.  It probably would have been easier without Grumman laying on her project.  

Hannah looked at the Flags of Europe page in her flag book and decided to go with Poland.  Personally, I would have chosen to design my own flag.  Hmm, maybe purple, with 9 turquoise hearts in the upper left corner.  

These are Lapland Felt Squares.  (The other suggested craft for Norway was Rosemaling a chest, which we did not do.)  Last time around, we made these as small ornaments for our around the world Christmas tree.  

Poor Grumman had two revolting developments this week.  The shelter sent me a text saying Bertie was not thriving there, and could we pick her up and continue to foster her?  Poor little thing.  She was 2# when she went back, but by the time her name came up on the surgery schedule, she was no longer 2#.  She was only 1.6# when I picked her up.  Her frame is growing; her face is bigger.  But she's fluff and bones.  So she's "home" and she's eating and purring, and enjoying all the attention.  Grumman is Not Amused by this.  

The second revolting development was a costume contest email from SPCA.  I, of course, thought Grumman would make a dignified vampire.  I could just imagine him sitting tall and majestic.  The reality was somewhat less than impressive.  He's not a big fan of costumes.  I didn't end up getting a submission worthy photo.  I'll have to try again another day.  Something to look forward to.  

Our library pickups come in brown bags.  I decided we could repurpose a couple of them for loot bags for the drive through Halloween event we're planning to attend.  

I also had the girls journal what they'd like to dress up as, suddenly realizing I hadn't even thought about that, since we won't be doing a traditional harvest carnival this year.  

In fact, we haven't even made it to a pumpkin patch yet this year.  This weird, weird year.

Pumpkin drawing instructions from Art Projects For Kids.  We've done a few of their guided drawings now, and I like them.  

Happy pumpkin season!