A large family, homeschooling, adoption, special needs, whatever strikes my fancy, sort of blog.

A large family, homeschooling, adoption, special needs, whatever strikes my fancy, sort of blog.

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Mostly Books and Cats

This edition of Our Week is actually almost 3 weeks.  First, I didn't have much to say.  Then, things got busy and weird.  


A display of bird books and noisy birds for the primary kids.  The bird/card/letter tiles activity went over okay, except the kids wanted to keep the birds, of course.  3 of the cards walked away during the activity, so I may not be able to do it again next year, depending on how many students are in each class.  Lots of bird books were checked out, and I used the bird coloring pages from Twinkl as a "filler" afterwards.  


I think I mentioned that Hannah had decided that she wanted to quit piano.  Well, she changed her mind before her last lesson.  I'm glad she's still playing.  Her teacher has her working on a piece to play in church soon.  


Our library received a 70 book donation from the author of All About China, who is local to us.  I'm excited to have some new titles to put out with my upcoming Chinese New Year display.  


Grumman must have been chilly, because he climbed under the covers for a nap with me.  


Katie needed to pick up a copy of Wonder for school, so I took the girls into the library on Saturday.  We came out with so many books, Hannah couldn't carry all of hers.  


I thought Grumman might enjoy his bird videos on the big screen.  He was interested, but Fiona literally leapt into the air to try and get the birds.  Hmm, maybe not such a good idea.  


Then Miss Fiona had her spay surgery.  I was told when I picked her up that she was "spicy," clawing and biting the staff.  Which is not how she behaves at home.  I mentioned this to my dad, who had the unenviable task of putting a freaked out Fi in a carrier once and he said, "That critter knows when she's not safe."  She came home and laid on that blanket for about 3 hours straight.  


The kids were a little weirded out over her belly being shaved.  

Speaking of the kids, they're home this week.  The middle & high school teachers are out with Covid.  It was very weird going to work and leaving the kids here.  


Ignore the mistletoe; it's everywhere.  The trees are budding!!!  Spring is coming.  


I picked up some sugared pecans at Trader Joe's before Christmas, so when we did pretzel treats, I used those.  Oh my.  They were amazing.  I needed some more of those, so when I found similar pecans in the salad section of the grocery store, they followed me home.  


In my head, there would be another picture, of the finished treats, with the rolos slightly melted and the pecans squished down on top, but I didn't quite take that picture.  And once they came out of the fridge, they disappeared really quickly.  Yum.


Speaking of yum, I tried a new taco.  I threw a pouch of liquid taco sauce on some preshredded chicken.  So easy, and pretty tasty, too.  


This is how you can tell another week has gone by.  We're at the library again.  


I was mildly curious about historical fashion, but when I went to the library site to request A book, I found a few other things that looked interesting, too.  

To keep this from getting too long, I'm going to do a separate post with all our Chinese New Year "stuff."  Here's a little teaser:  


"I'll just lay this photo backdrop out flat in the school room to let the wrinkles diminish a bit."  


Oh Grumman.


You adorable goof fluff.


Fiona is doing much better now, but is spending more time on my lap than usual.  


She's a pretty girl.


Hey!  That's *my* chair!  


Grumman's so weird.  He's been burrowing under things lately.  


This picture really illustrates the difference between a 6# cat and a 12# cat.  


"I always feel like
somebody's watchin' me..."  

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Best Buddies book review #readyourworld


You guys know how much I love to get my hands on a new book, right?  That's one of the reasons I enjoy participating in Multicultural Children's Book Day each year.  


This year, we received Best Buddies, by Lynn Plourde.  While my girls are too old for this charming picture book, I'm excited to share it with my students in the school library.  


Best Buddies is the story of a boy and a dog, and everyone can appreciate the special bond kids and pets share.  When the boy goes off to school, both he and the dog are sad, but in the end, they overcome their sadness.  This would be a great title to read aloud at an end of summer get ready for school event for incoming kindergarten and preschool students.  


Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2022 (1/28/22) is in its 9th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those books into the hands of young readers and educators.

MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves. Read about our Mission & History HERE.

MCBD 2022 is honored to be Supported by these Medallion Sponsors!

SUPER PLATINUM: Make A Way Media

PLATINUM: Language Lizard

GOLD: Barefoot Books, KidLitTV, Candlewick, Capstone, Abrams Books

SILVER: Pack-n-Go Girls, Charlotte Riggle, Kimberly Gordon Biddle  

BRONZE: Carole P. Roman, Patrice McLaurin, Dyesha and Triesha McCants/McCants Squared, Redfin.com, Redfin Canada, Redfin Mortgage, Redfin/Title Forward, Create & Educate, Star Bright Books, Vivian Kirkfield, Dr. Eleanor Wint, Kind World Publishing, Snowflake Stories, Lisa Wee, SONGJU MA, Melissa Stoller, J.C. Kato and J.C.², Crystel Patterson, Audrey Press, Pragmaticmom, TimTimTom, Wisdom Tales 

MCBD 2022 is honored to be Supported by these Author Sponsors!

Charlene Mosley (official MCBD2022 Poster Creator)
Illustrator Isabelle Roxas (Class Kit Poster Creator)

Alva Sachs, Brianna Carter, Ebony Zay Zay, Rita Bhandari, Gwen Jackson, Lois Petren/The 5 Enchanted Mermaids, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, Josh Funk, Afsaneh Moradian, Eugenia Chu, Maritza Martínez Mejía, Diana Huang, Kathleen Burkinshaw, CultureGroove, Sandra Elaine Scott, Dorena Williamson, Veronica Appleton, Alejandra Domenzain, Lauren Muskovitz and Sandfish Publishing, Tonya Duncan Ellis, Kimberly Lee, Susan Schaefer Bernardo & Illustrator Courtenay Fletcher, Nancy Tupper Ling, Winsome Hudson-Bingham, Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett, Sivan Hong, Michael Genhart, Debbie Dadey, Elizabeth Cureton, Stephanie Wildman, Maryann Jacob, Sherri Maret, Rochelle Melander, Dia Mixon, Kiyanda and Benjamin Young, Shereen Rahming, Linda Thornburg and Katherine Archer,  Rebecca Flansburg and BA Norrgard , Maxine Schur  Natalie McDonald-Perkins

MCBD 2022 is Honored to be Supported by our CoHosts and Global CoHosts!

MCBD 2022 is Honored to be Supported by these Media Partners!

Check out MCBD's Multicultural Books for Kids Pinterest Board!

FREE RESOURCES from Multicultural Children’s Book Day

Diversity Book Lists & Activities for Teachers and Parents

Homeschool Diverse Kidlit Booklist & Activity Kit

FREE Teacher Classroom Activism and Activists Kit

FREE Teacher Classroom Empathy Kit

FREE Teacher Classroom Kindness Kit

FREE Teacher Classroom Physical and Developmental Challenges Kit

FREE Teacher Classroom Poverty Kit

FREE Homeschool Diverse Kidlit Booklist & Activity Kit

FREE Teacher Classroom Raising Awareness on Systemic Racism in America Classroom Kit

Gallery of Our Free Posters

FREE Diversity Book for Classrooms Program

Join us on Friday, Jan 29, 2021, at 9 pm EST for the 8th annual Multicultural Children's Book Day Twitter Party! Be sure and follow MCBD and Make A Way Media on Twitter!


This epically fun and fast-paced hour includes multicultural book discussions, addressing timely issues, diverse book recommendations, & reading ideas.

We will be giving away an 8-Book Bundle every 5 minutes plus Bonus Prizes as well! *** US and Global participants welcome. **

Follow the hashtag #ReadYourWorld to join the conversation, connect with like-minded parts, authors, publishers, educators, organizations, and librarians. See you all very soon on Twitter!

Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

Monday, January 17, 2022

Birds & Gold & Cats & More





There I go again, painting more TP tubes.  I'm hoping these turn into "firecrackers" for Chinese New Year.  I usually have lofty goals, but I need to get better at the follow through part.  


I'm planning to put gold washi tape along the top & bottom of them and use baker's twine to hang them in a chain.  I'm really looking forward to decking the library out for CNY.  


We'll be talking about birds in the library next week, so I pulled out the animal toob bucket and the letter tiles.  I'm going to have the primaries do some matching.  I think I'm going to hand a card to each of the children as they come in and have them try to find the bag with the right bird in it.  Crossing my fingers it goes as well in person as I'm imagining in my head.  


I'm reading the 5th graders Badge of Honor, which is set during the Gold Rush.  So I got them pyrite mining kits to dig some "gold" last week while I read aloud.  

Speaking of the library, we're having our very first fundraiser!  Check it out!  


I kicked a chair and bruised my toe.  :sigh:  


Went to the fabric store, hoping to find something to inspire me for Chinese New Year, and saw this agate fabric that reminded me of Brianna, who loves pretty rocks.  


I pulled the Tylenol out of my desk at work this week and thought, "That's probably not going to last me the rest of the school year, is it?"  It was NOT a full bottle when the year started, though, just a random one I brought from home.  


You can really see the size difference between 6# Fiona and 12# Grumman here.  


They're tolerating each other a lot better these days, particularly when it comes to sharing the "electric sunbeam," the space in front of the space heather!  


Jack Jack went on a hike with some friends.  I wanted him to bring a hoodie, but Heaven forbid his friends find out he owns sleeves or pants.  :eyeroll:  It was 53* when I dropped him off.  


Because I rank among the #worldsokayestmom team, this is my First Day of School picture on Josiah's second day of school.  :facepalm:  

Hannah's project

Dante forgot a circle:  Science Fair.  The most undervalued benefit of homeschooling is that there's no science fair.  You can science any way you want.  I hate science fair kind of like I hate school performances & ceremonies.  I'll go along with it, but I'm going to complain the whole time.  I should probably work on that.  Although, it seems like the kind of sin I'll outgrow in a few years, anyway, so maybe I'll just wait it out.  

Katie's project

I found it amusing that Katie never bothered to "experiment" on Fiona.  She could have had twice as much data.  


Grumman has been far more of a lap cat than usual lately.  And I've been getting less and less accomplished lately.  But it's really not his fault.  I feel like my "get up & go" got up and went.  It's just that since I'm sitting around doing nothing, my lap is more available to him.  I don't know if it's the weather, or I'm fighting a cold, or what, but I really hope I can force myself to start getting more done soon.  

Friday, January 7, 2022

Cats, Chocolate, Books, and Shopping



As we headed back to school after Christmas break, I wore my new book scarf from Zach & Heather.  


The cats continue to be big purrsonalities around here.  Tuzi (the bunny) has been spending some time out of his cage lately, and Grumman wants to wrestle with him the way he does with Fiona.  Um, no.  That's not going to fly, you predator.  


Fiona will be going in for her spay surgery soon.  It was surprisingly difficult to find a place to get her in to.  As soon as one of the places I put her on the wait list for sent me a link to schedule an appointment, I scheduled, but even still it was 2 months out.  


Paul put an assorted bag of Ghirardelli chocolates in my stocking, and one of the parents at school gave me some girl scout chocolates, so the kids had a comparison taste test.  Responses were pretty evenly split; they were both good!  


The filing cabinets got moved out of the library, and a new to me cart was moved in!  Since our theme for the first week back was SNOW, I thought a penguin/Antarctica display would be appropriate.  


I haven't found a source site I really like for my monthly Notable Events display yet.  I'm sort of cobbling things together from a variety of places.  


I taught most of the classes about Snowflake Bentley this week.  (affiliate link)  Since Wilson Bentley had such a thirst for knowledge that he read his mother's set of encyclopedias, I pulled down the dusty 1995 encyclopedias in the library and explained to the high schoolers that back in the days before Google, this was how we learned stuff.  I had them do their silent reading time with an encyclopedia, and afterwards the students shared something they'd learned.  All sorts of new fun facts, from Blood to Taoism.  It went well enough that I think I'm going to try it with the middle schoolers.  


There's a saying among Air Force mamas, "Find a dime; your airman's fine."  So I was excited to see a coin in the washing machine.  Except, it's an Australian 5 cent piece.  Hmm.  

A very well packed envelope.

There's this boutique clothing shop, Take Courage, that I found on Facebook.  I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I've picked up a few things, and been happy with them.  I like that they help families fund adoptions.  


I got Katie a Year of the Tiger Chinese New Year shirt, since she was born in Year of the Tiger.  And the other two are Valentine dresses for both girls.  Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures when they wear them.