On Thursday, we ended our unit on Egyptians in Story of the World. We decided we wanted to try some ancient Egyptian food, so we invited some friends over and made an Egyptian feast. We made Meat Kofta, Egyptian Ful Medames, Stuffed Potatoes with Meat, Ramadan Dumplings, and an ancient, Biblical recipe, Tigernut Sweets.
On Friday, we went to a creamery with our co-op, where we learned about cheese-making (fascinating!). We got to pet the sheep; we watched them pour bacteria into the big tub of milk, and saw the milk gelatinize. We watched them comb through the gelatin and make little cubes; most of the water is extracted from the cubes, various flavorings are added and then the cheese is aged. We toured the cheese cave. Then we sampled at least 40 different kinds of cheese and brought several pounds home for Jason to try!
The girls and I took a nap when we got home on Friday, and then it was time to decorate for A's slumber party! She had several public school and homeschool pals sleep over Friday night.
They made their own pizzas, watched "Ramona and Beezus" and stayed up talking into the wee hours of the morning. the public school girls caught the other girls up on all of the gossip. After hearing about some of the "dating" and "fashion" and "clique" issues, A and P agreed that were really glad not to have to deal with that right now. I am shocked that 10 year old are dating at quite the rate they are!
Jason made the girls sticky buns on Saturday morning. As they were being picked up, we learned that several of our homeschool pals were going to a craft show, so we decided to join them. The girls were able to make a scrapbooking page and we all made bracelets, and did a little Christmas shopping. It was great fun!
When we got home, Jason had made his first loaf of bread of the year (baking bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is one of his fall/winter weekend hobbies). We selected a nice beer and we all enjoyed some of the fine cheeses with the bread, and apples and grapes, for dinner! To me, that is the ultimate perfect dinner! It could only be made better with some dark chocolate at the end!
On Sunday, after the girls sang in the choir at church, we went to visit my father in law, and then I had to go to work.
Monday we were at co-op most of the day and then enjoyed tea with my Grandma!
Today, A has finished Life of Fred and P has perfected all of the cursive capital and lower case letters! We are working on Thanksgiving copywork, and a new writing exercise. This afternoon I will drop the girls off at choir and meet my mom for some holiday shopping and a nice dinner out, just the two of us!
The last few days were great, but I tend to be the kind of person who needs {a lot} of downtime to recharge and refuel and regroup. I need to be able to sit on my couch for a few hours with a book and have uninterrupted solitude. I envy people who are go, go, go...those families with three soccer games and a sporting tournament on Saturday, who then meet friends for dinner and do it all over again on Sunday...but that is just not me. And by default, my girls are used to having some personal time and space to be creative or read or just be.
We had a lot of fun and a great time these last few days, but are now just really looking forward to just being for a little while.
