~ Wednesday ~

My body is healing!!  Woke up this morning with a slight headache (day 3 of this headache), but no stiffness in my ankles!  It seems like whenever I return to eating grains I am miserable with stiffness in my ankles and hips.  I think I'll stay away from the grains for good.  It's nice waking up and being able to walk without limping!

Breakfast this morning was 2 cups of coffee with homemade coconut cinnamon creamer, two fried eggs, small amount of sauteed kale and some delicious homemade "cereal".  It was actually very good, and just what I was craving on Day 5 of my Whole 30 Challenge!  Here is what I did ~

Handful of slivered almonds and sunflower seeds, toasted

1/2 small apple chopped into small cubes

full fat coconut milk w/ cinnamon (Mine was chilled in the fridge. It's also what I use for my morning coffee)

Mix together and ENJOY!!  Yum! :)

Our children have had a good day ~

Minecraft

Playing house
Morestarfall.com
Read about St. Felix of Valois
Read/discussed lesson 2 in The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism
Took Unit 1 test on My Catholic Faith Delivered ~ aced it!!
Completed Chapter 5 of Jesus Our Life (on My Catholic Faith Delivered)
Read "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" from the book Today I Made My First Reconciliation.  This is an absolutely AMAZING book.  I highly recommend it!  It is broken up into sections that are the perfect size to read and discuss.  It is great for either a Charlotte Mason or Classical education approach. The story line is great and is holding our children's attention.  They actually stop what they are doing to see what's going to happen next.  They are truly learning about reconciliation.
The boys attended their last Sacramental Prep class with daddy.  The next step is their first reconciliation!
4H meeting
Created habitat pictures :)

~ Monday ~

I got up this morning and enjoyed 2 cups of coffee while reading a book.  Once the children started strolling out of bed I started breakfast.

Today was our day to go to Catechesis of the Good Shepard.  This is an amazing program and every Monday morning all of the children are excited to get going :)

Before heading out though, I wanted to get the house picked back up and vacuumed.  I was able to get the bedroom, school/toy room picked up and vacuumed. I also got the laundry done for the day ~ huge accomplishment that actually took me 2 days!

Today is Day 3 of my Whole 30 challenge and it's a struggle for me today.  I don't really want to eat what's not approved, but I have a horrendous headache and just want to crawl into a hole and sleep it off.

We didn't get any formal school done today, other than CGS.  However, the children enjoyed their day doing other things.

Jumpstart together
Drawing
Played restaurant with each other
We are going to counting it all good.

Sam's picture of heaven that he drew today in CGS

Friday...

Morning meeting ~

Emma and I were the only two at morning meeting this morning.  Katie slept in.  She went to see The Hunger Games last night, and didn't get home until early this morning :)  We started with a continued lesson from The Catechism of the Catholic Church on sin, and another chapter from our current read aloud.

Emma drew another picture of "Vadeeya"

(I got her permission to post it here :)

She also worked on her Friendly Defender Cards (Church and Papacy); completed math lesson 43; editing lesson 29; sketched "Darkitect"; completed lesson 113 in her grammar book; scanned her pic into the computer; looked up "stuff" on Lego Universe.  Her goals for today are to read from Famous Men of Rome, complete spelling lesson 12A, and "basically everything else".

Thursday's Thankful To Do List...

L slept in this morning!  This allowed M and me some one on one time.  We rocked and read this morning, while everyone slept.  It was a great way to start the day...

Now, our  Thankful To Do List!

~Morning meeting with K and E... Our morning meetings consist of the girls sharing what they did the day before, learning, or playing, or just being.  Their activities and learning are all self directed.  They set their own schedule and learn what they want.  I micro manage nothing in their day.  However, I do request they meet me in the mornings and discuss the previous days activities, it works for us :)  So, here is how this morning went:

E read All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (this is usually a read aloud in the morning, but she slept in yesterday morning and wasn't at morning meeting). Practiced her Friendly Defender Cards on Church and Papacy. Read from Famous Men of Rome. She has recently drawn a new character "Vadeeya", and she chose the colors for her. Later in the day she digitally drew and colored her on Paint Tool SAI. Watched Lego Ninjago.  Her goals for today are to basically do much of the same, write about the people she's reading about in Famous Men of Rome, a grammar lesson, work on her digital picture of Vadeeya, and attempt drawing a sketch of a person and then putting a word that best describes them in the background.

K ~Home Ec: cooking and recipes, she is creating her own breakfast and lunch menus for the week.  We supply the food/ingredients and she prepares those 2 meals for herself.  She read a chapter on celery in  Knife Skills Illustrated: A User's Manuel by Peter Hertzmann.  She is really enjoying this book; so much so, that we bought her a copy of it.   She looked up more sign language, made flash cards for them, and demonstrated them for us: dishwasher, clean-up, Canadian, Canada, Michigan, from, cheat, like, win, and because.  She has also been increasing her vocabulary.  Yesterday she look up these new words:  hemoglobin, homogeneous, hubris, and hypotenuse.  She shared the definitions with us.  She spent the rest of her day yesterday reading The Hunger Games, in preparation for the premiere of the movie tonight.  Her goal today was to finish this book.  Her and A are going to see the movie tonight.

We continued to read All of-a-Kind Family as a read aloud this morning.  Learned a few new things.  The story is about a Jewish family living in New York in 1912.  It is actually pretty good.  Today we read about Purim Day, traditional Jewish foods eaten on the celebration of Purim, and the fact that Jewish women and children only go to the synagogue on special holidays (I'm not sure if this still holds true). 

~Breakfast 

~Lunch

~Get supper started in the crock pot this morning supper started but not in the crock pot.  The day got away from me :)

~Clean main kitchen window ~ Only got half done :)  Such is life in our home....

~“Gluten – Friend or Foe” class at 6:30 pm  decided not to go

~Laundry washed and hung on the line

~Diapers washed and hung on the line

~Make beds

~Quick pick-up in all rooms

~Strip E's sheets, wash and hang on line to dry

I believe that's all...

~ The little's all had a great day.   They looked through a family photo album,



drew, watched Wild Kratts, helped me hang clothes on the line, played hoola hoop,

practiced writing letters,



played on the swings,



and just enjoyed being together,



Not everything got done today, never does.  But, we're good with that.  Tomorrow, I'll share the "mud fun" pictures.  Time to help M put our favorite lovee's to bed :)

First Day of School...

     Today started the first day of school for many.  Many children got up early,  put on brand new outfits, filled brand new lunch pails, and filled brand new backpacks with pencils, folders, crayons, glue, emergency cards, etc.  Then they went out to the bus stop and waited for the big yellow bus to pick them up.  They met new teachers, new "friends", and were introduced to new routines.  Their days were full.  When that last bell rang, they gathered their new books, backpacks, and coats and lined up at the classroom door for the bus to take them back home.

      Today, our children were on their 6th day of school.  Their routines were familiar ones.  They got up early and got dressed.  Hubby gave K a ride to volleyball practice, and the rest of them gathered at the table for breakfast.  We prayed, and then ate breakfast together.  After breakfast, school began.  They had the same "old" teacher :).  They chose where to work on assignments...


...a few chose comfortable seats...


...others chose desks, with...


...with a beautiful view!


Some worked with scissors...






...others worked with glue (sorry, she won't stay dressed :).

They played with their "best friends":











     Their day was full!  There was no "last bell", no packing of backpacks, no standing in line at the classroom door.  There was no big yellow bus.  They were already home, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

The Feast of St. Nicholas...

     A little late on this, but better late than never :)  December 6th was the Feast of St. Nicholas.  Here are some pictures from some of our activities...



Our yummy candy cane coffee cake from Catholic Cuisine



Our goody basket, the kids really enjoyed all of these treats ~ even into the next day :)



Our gold coins...a big THANK YOU to the awesome mommy at Shower of Roses for creating the document of St. Nicholas gold coin covers!



J working on a St. Nicholas puzzle



P is enjoying a treat after working on his puzzle



S and another puzzle



K is working on a St. Nicholas memory game



Some help from P and M



P is cheering K on after she was successful at a match!!

I got the puzzles and the memory game from another wonderful website: The St. Nicholas Center

Enjoy your day!! :)

"Family Day" to the museum...

We don't call trips out 'field trips'.  Field trips are very nice trips the school's do for children that families should be doing.  Truth be told there is a minimal (if any) amount of learning that occurs during a school 'field trip'.  When we head out it is a "Family Day" ~ basically we tell the kids "it's a surprise!!"  Not too long ago we visited a children's museum in a nearby city.  We had an absolute BLAST!!  There are a lot of photo's so this may end up taking a few days to share them with you!  It was soooo much fun!

 

 

Have a great day!!!

The Titanic...

This morning we watched a documentary about the Titanic on the History Channel!

The Titanic by Samuel :)

The rescue boats ~ by Samuel :)

Here they are building the Titanic and the rescue boats with Lego's.  The book that Samuel is holding is a book about the Titanic.  He is showing them what an iceberg looks like :)  All of the individual Lego's scattered about are the people who were unfortunately not in the rescue boats as the boat sunk.  They are swimming around.

Self directed learning, I LOVE IT!!

Live Stations of the Cross...

     Thursday evening, Katie participated in a 'Live' Stations of the Cross at church.  She was a narrator.  I actually took a ton of pictures but only a few turned out.  It was dark in the church, even using the flash didn't help.  Oh well!  At least I got a few :)  I also got a few pictures at the reception afterward.  Katie did a GREAT job!  She does not like speaking in public, so this was a HUGE deal for her :)  She was very nervous the day of the show, so much so that she was basically unable to do a whole lot of focusing on anything else!  It didn't help that the day before she had burned her chin with the curling iron ~ it left a pretty good sized burn blister on her chin.  This made her even more anxious about narrating!  We covered it with make~up for the performance ~ that helped a little :)

 

That is Katie at the podium, she did a really good job!

 

This young man is portraying Jesus when he begins to carry the cross to Calvary.

Here is Jesus again, this time he see's his mother.

Here the crowd is looking at Jesus after he has died on the cross.  All of the kids did a great job!

 

This is at the reception after the performance.  Jonathon was very excited to see green cupcakes at the table!  Samuel was also excited ~ he found green cookies!  (Can we say "HULK"?)

 

This precious little thing (who isn't so little anymore!) behaved very well during the show!

 

Our sweet, sweet Emma had a great time too!