A Really Good Week

I'm so thrilled & wanted to share that I have finally figured out a system for myself for having menu plans a week at a time. I made up 4 weeks worth of menu plans today & it was pretty painless, surprisingly!
In plastic protector pages, I put in a paper that has the dinner plans Mon-Fri on the left column and on the right column is the list with all the ingreds needed for those recipes.

Then, behind the plan & list is all the recipes I need so I don't have to look for them.

They look like menu plan packs.
Also, Susanna lost her first tooth today-it was a momentous occasion. LOL
And, I came across a website full of great science tools called At Home Science that I want to share.

So far, we've done Molecularium and I downloaded to the computer a program called ImmuneAttack. They are both fantastic & the kids are having fun and learning a ton from them. The Molecularium one was perfect as we were doing a chemistry lesson on alkane hydrocarbons & it really brought the lesson home. Even my 5 yr old could do it with some help-but all she was getting was the letters & counting, really. Still, it was good exposure. :)

The immuneattack one is a little tricky to navigate at first, but once we figured it out, it was a huge hit-very fun & educational. The funny thing is Susanna was drawing a picture about it, but she couldn't remember any of the names of the things. She drew what she called the blood tunnel (veins & arteries), the bad guys (monocytes), the red things (red blood cells) and the white things (white blood cells). All she did was watch the older kids play.

We had a really good week this week. The house has stayed somewhat tidy, the laundry is somewhat caught up & the dishes are somewhat washed. LOL!! You know what I mean, homeschool moms! :) Anyway, I did get 4 loaves wheat bread made, a dozen tortilla shells made & granola made, along with all the usual meals.

School has gone mostly well. It's hard to find enough time in the day to get everything done that I would like done, but we're doing alright & having fun & making memories. Today we changed things a little bit & I think we're going to make Fridays like this as often as we can.

This morning after Bible, memory verses & Greek & Latin rootwords, we read poetry & there wasn't a time limit. I read several, Hannah read several & Jonah read a few. I get so emotional reading poetry-I so love poetry-it's music, but you can only hear the tune in your heart. Susanna colored while we read & Alyssa ate crayons. Until I caught her, that is. LOL

We did composer studies, we read a story out of the Burgess Book of Birds and we read lesson #7 in The Handbook of Nature Study about studying birdnests in the Winter. Then, the 3 older children went out into the snowy weather to search for nests. The baby is feeling sick, so she & I stayed in. They had a good time finding nests & found one they could bring back:

They answered the questions in the lesson about the nest, measured diameter, depth & perimeter. Susanna enjoyed the outdoor nest hunt so much that she had her own indoor nest hunt. She took a picture of her find. She said she found it in her brother's room:

Another plus this week is that Hannah & Jonah have been working on playing music together. Hannah plays piano & Jonah is learning guitar. Them playing together is really helping Jonah to learn faster & it is so cool to hear them play together!

Last night my dh & I went out to dinner w/ friends. Except, the guys left much earlier and drove snowmobiles to get there. lol. Hannah watched her siblings while Tanya & I did some grocery shopping together & then met them at the restaurant. The guys had a good time & we all really enjoyed having dinner together. Pat rarely gets to play, so i was so thrilled for him.

It's a gorgeous snowy day out. It looks like Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" poem. I love that poem!