Simple Woman's Day book

I haven't actually written one of these memes before but I enjoy reading other people's Day Book posts.

Outside my Window the sun shining on the postage stamp lawn I am trying to save from extinction. The pine tree in the yard is making the ground so acidic so I bought some fertilizer that is supposed to raise the PH. Along with the grass seed we threw out I hope the lawn comes back so our yard isn't just all dirt (which means mud when my kids are out playing there.

I am thinking about science, math, history and language arts for for Fall. Shouldn't I worry more about what we are currently doing? Maybe it is because we keep getting catalogs advertising curriculum.

I am thankful that I haven't gotten sick. My husband is home from work for a bit with a yucky cough and flu. The kids had something less sever a week or so ago. But not me. I just seem to keep on going. Henry even commented that "you never seem to get sick". I hope that remains true!

In the Kitchen I am hoping to use some of the recipes I recently found on The Garden Grazer. She has so many great vegetarian recipes that I am pretty sure my kids will eat.

I am wearing sandals today. I love it when it is warm enough for bare feet or sandals

I am creating a monster! Molly has been very difficult the last few days. She is testing every boundary and drives everyone batty. But she is so cute.

I am wondering if Sophie will be alright attending two LDS girl's Camps this Summer. She really wants to go to camp with her cousins but also wants to go with our Ward/Stake here too. For a girl who hasn't ever really been away from us this could be overwhelming for her especially since they are one right after the other. It will be almost two weeks straight away from home. I have a feeling it will be harder on us than her. She is going to be too busy having a great experience.

I am reading a number of good things. I started rereading Pilgrim's Progress after reading The Preacher's Bride (which was very good!). I also have the autobiography of Maria Von Trapp that I am about 3/4 of the way through. I also just picked up a few new books for my kindle. Perhaps I need to not look at the eReaderGirl blog for awhile so I catch up on all the books I already have on there.

I am hoping for some will power. I want to continue to fit in my clothes but cookies and treats always seem to be around. I guess I just need to exercise more!

I am looking forward to Sunday. Not that the Sabbath is an especially restful day but it is a day I don't feel like I have to crack the whip to get my kids to do their chores, piano practice or school work.

I am learning the joys of Pinterest. I just started pinning and still haven't done a whole lot with it but I can see how time can certainly we wasted wandering from board to board looking at what others have pinned.

Around the house are Legos, Legos and More Legos. It would be so nice to not have to tiptoe through the front room every time I want to go across the room.

This is Ian's own creation. He had no directions that he was following. There is even hatch doors with hinges that open so a mini figure and get inside. This boy is really going to be an engineer!

I am pondering what to do about Easter. We will have an easter egg hunt on Saturday with friends but my kids are already talking about the scavenger hunt on Easter Morning. Last year rather than an egg hunt I had clues lead them from egg to egg to a prize at the end. I guess my boys got some Nerf guns last year. I can't remember what Sophie and Molly were given. Now they are expecting something similar this year. I hate to disappoint but I am not living my life trying to top or even meet what I do for each holiday from year to year. We are enjoying reading through the Gospels at the moment and reading the life and teachings of the Savior. That really should be the focus of our celebration and not Nerf guns or gifts of any kind.

A few plans for the Weekend include a trip to the farmer's market since my husband is sick. He usually gets my eggs and greens there for me. I also really need to scrub our showers so I guess a good bathroom cleaning is scheduled for Saturday morning.

I am not going to include a picture here for "A peek into my day" since I have already included a few pictures. But my real trouble is that I haven't taken any pictures except that one of Ian for about a week. I guess I need to make sure to document a bit more with photos.

A quiet Wednesday Morning

Molly is still fighting the sickness that plagued us over the weekend. She was rather cranky all morning until I finally laid her down on the couch with her pink blanket. While I was busy with doing Math with boys she fell right to sleep.

 Once Henry is finished with Math he needs to do something active so he decides to practice his handstands.

 Sophie's online class is over so she sits and reads a book during her break from online classes. She has three classes on Wednesday.

 At the moment Ian has an online class.

Just a somewhat typical Wednesday morning around here.

Molly being asleep is the only out of the ordinary part. She is usually making messes or demanding attention in some way so having her asleep on the couch makes the day run a bit more smoothly. But such is life with a busy three year old.

Girl with the Pearl Earring

We headed to San Francisco today to go to the Art Museum.

They have an exhibit of Dutch painters and the highlight at the moment is the Vermeer painting of the Girl with the Pearl Earring.

After our school group was taken into the museum, we had a little hands on demonstration about where the pigments for the paint came from and a little history of the Netherlands. Evidently the blue of the turbin is made from Lapis Lazuli which is mined in Afghanistan, the pearl which had to come all the way from Shri Lanka all tell us that the Dutch were world travelers and brought back many of the things found in their many colonies around the globe.

We went through a few different galleries where we saw landscape, still life and portrait paintings done by some of the Dutch masters, including a few Rembrants, before we finally got to see the Vermeer.

Henry made the comment "We drove all the way here just to see that?!".  I guess he weren't as impressed as I was. It really is amazing to see the actual painting rather than just pictures of it.


Of course we weren't allowed to take pictures inside so we snapped a few outside in the gardens.

And since we were so close to the Golden Gate bridge we just had to drive over it

We don't make it into San Francisco often. It was a beautiful sunny day. A nice change of pace for the day.

Week in Review - Starting to get Sick

I have to say this hasn't been a really stellar week for academics.

Monday went alright. We worked on Ian's art assignment. His class is at 11:30 and after scripture and such we tend to do his assignment for the week and turn it in just before class. I really should encourage him to work on his homework before Monday morning but at least he gets them done and turned in. The other kids usually do the assignment too.

After his class we were able to squeeze in the next chapter of Story of the World which was about Richard III and the two princes in the tower. We didn't do much else but listen to it and talk about it. They did their Math and we even read a book about Rocks for Science before they had piano lessons in the late afternoon. While we drove to Piano we started a new audio book, Tuck Everlasting. Which we brought inside when we got home and finished one of the disks before dinner.

Monday was a pretty good day!

Tuesday was more or less normal. Scripture (which is D&C at the moment followed by a video from the Chruch History DVD), Math, and then work on assignments for Wednesday's online classes.  Ian had to write about hiking a mountain for his Geography class. He could choose a mountain from anywhere in the world . He picked Half dome in Yosemite, a little close to home! We haven't ever done this hike but have been to Yosemite. After watching a few videos on the Yosemite park website he was able to write a short report and make his powerpoint slide with pictures to turn in.

We went to the library in the afternoon. The kids always look forward to their hour of computer play at the library.

Then when we came home we finished Tuck Everlasting. It is a short book. Only 3 disks and the kids enjoyed the story. I need to find the movie now so we can compare them.

Wednesday morning Ian woke up sick. He actually was up in the night coughing and needed some cough syrup. When one child is sick it throws everything off. Sophie did do her online classes. And Ian attended his and even read his report. It is nice that he could attend his class even when sick and still didn't spread any germs :)

The check engine light has been on in the van for about 2 months and we finally had to do something about it so the car went in on Wednesday morning and we walked home from dropping it off and then had to walk back when they called to tell us it was ready. I count the 1 mile walk back and forth pretty good P.E. And since we had to walk by a 7 Eleven to get there the kids got to have a slurpee. They never get slurpees so this was a treat!

While having a sick boy and since nobody wanted to do much else I read aloud to them. I made it through the first of the Spiderwick books.

That about sums up what we were able to accomplish on Wednesday. We didn't get to the park for  Park Day because our car was being fixed and because Ian was sick. So the kids got to watch Harry Potter.

Thursday didn't get much better. Ian was still sick and running a fever. He didn't want to do much of anything again. So after our usual morning scripture routine I read book 2 in the Spiderwick series.

Henry and Sophie did their math and then it was time for Gymnastics and choir. Ian stayed home with Harry Potter 2 movie and I dropped the others off at their classes. Stopped at the store for a few items picked the kids back up from from classes and then made it home just at Ian's movie was ending.

Friday is usually co-op but with a still sick Ian and evidently a lot of the other kids in our co-op also sick it wasn't a great turn out. We didn't stay long. We were there for signing and chess but came home before Drama got going. So other than Math and scripture that is all the school work that got done on Friday. The kids played all afternoon and watched a movie.

I cut up another pair of old pants and made a new church bag.

I took the bag ideas from the tutorial I used to make this one but I made the bag bigger and made different straps.  I drew up and cut out a new pattern for this bag.

 It works perfectly for my church bag. I was tired of dumping out the bag so I could use it for band and then for co-op so now this on is designated for church. Maybe I will have to make another just for band.

And while my sewing machine was out I decided to fix the zipper on a Spring dress for Molly. This was a dress Sophie wore when she was little and somehow the zipper broke. I put it away anyway and just kept meaning to fix it. I finally got around to it.


And now Molly has another dress to wear to church and it is even ready before the season is already over.  The only problem is that now Molly is sick. She is a very hot, whiny kid at the moment and if the fever/ cough lasts the three+ days Ian's did I have a feeling we won't make it to church tomorrow.

The saddest thing is that we had a field trip planned for Monday. I sure hope we all are better by Monday.

So not as much academics got done this week as I would have liked but at least we did some and got a lot accomplished.

All the Usual Distractions

I am sure my kids are not the only ones who find any excuse to step away from their school work. It isn't hard to find reasons to get up and leave that workbook sitting on the table. 

On a good day Sophie gets on the computer and does her math or any other assignment she needs to get done.

 Ian is always finding anywhere other than the table to do his Math. He often will sit in on Sophie's Teaching Textbook lessons.

 Henry usually gets out his work but when he sits down to do it something like the following always happens.

 Molly lays out a blanket and gathers some Webkinz friends, her dishes and food.

 She sets up a little tea party. Strawberry tea all around or at least for the lucky four that get cups. 

 Soon the school work is forgotten and Henry joins in on the party.  He can't help but what to help gather up some of the friends she has forgotten to invite.

He even helps with the cooking

And the whole things ends up a big laughing tickle/wrestling mess.

 Then Mom has to be the mean one and send him back to his work and then help Molly clean up the mess.

A book for Molly would be a little less distracting for everyone else.

We are still struggling with finding things for Molly to do while we try to read and do our school work. It is all part of the learning process.

5 for Friday

Since I can't seem to do much more than post a bunch of pictures anymore. I figured I would just post 5 pictures from our week.

1. After finding a jar of homemade, canned apple sauce in my pantry (it is most likely 2 or 3 years old) I decided it was asking to be made into apple sauce cake. I haven't made this cake in years but it tasted so good.  I claimed it was healthy since I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose and coconut sugar instead of white granulated. All I know is it disappeared rather quickly.

 2. Molly puts her princess dress on and is always asking me to take pictures of her. Although the dress covers it up she is wearing her favorite black shirt with a sequen heart and her black pants. It is her new favorite outfit. She says she is "Blackalicious" in it.

3.  Sophie is always practicing the piano sitting like this. She still doesn't use the petal much I guess when she plays. I am surprised her feet don't fall asleep.

4.  My kids found a marble floating around in one of their rooms and spent one morning building marble runs. 

 5.  When we studied about Joan of Arc the kids broke out the playmobil knights and put together a figure to be Joan taking her troops into battle.

And a bonus photo - Ian took this picture of me the other morning. It is rather fuzzy and not the most flattering but since there are not many pictures of me, I figured it was alright to include here.