Friday, September 28, 2012

Weeks 3 & 4

In my life this week…
I've been thinking a lot about getting a puppy :)  But we have some travel plans coming up, so now is probably not the best time...but they are just so cute...and maybe we can cancel all our plans and just stay home...but then winter is a good time for staying home....
Allie & I went shopping--I HATE shopping for clothes!
I had an epiphany in Hobby Lobby--EVERYONE is welcome at this table!
Allie liked the fabric!
(A Hobby Lobby JUST opened in our area--first one we've ever been in!)


In our homeschool this week…
we decided to try KhanAcademy for Math.  It was a very spontaneous decision on my part, I did very little research.  I read a review one morning and decided to switch things up that day...right now we are just "trying" it.  The girls have actually not minded Math U See and I am impressed with their retention.  The girls seem to enjoy all of our other subjects, math seems to be the area that they just "don't mind"...so I figured we would try Khan Academy to see if we can get from "don't mind" to actually liking math.

My mom has bins and bins and bins of fabric.
Allie gets an itch to sew and create often; we take my mom up on her offer to take any fabric we want.
While Allie was looking for fabric, I found this little "Fabric Walk Down Memory Lane"...my childhood was decorated with the fabrics above in the form of slipcovers in our living room, my brother's bedroom & pillows in the TV room.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… give your kids time. Don't schedule every second, give them free time to explore their interests.

I am inspired by…
My girls!  I am absolutely inspired by their creativity!  Allie feels an "itch" to sew and we had to run to my mom's house so she could get more fabric (my mom has TONS of fabric).  Allie creates handbags and doll clothes and is working on creating her own Halloween costume.  Piper makes videos...she spent hours and hours making a video in which she plays SEVERAL characters and splices the videos together so perfectly that it looks like all these Pipers are in the same room!  The movie is too big for youtube, so she is looking at other options.
The Hubinator has been out of town a lot and/or at a lot of evening meetings...so the girlies and I have been checking out the local fro-yo places, and getting Piper's favorite Chinese ribs!
I also got to take Allie to see Bruce!  I am a HUGE fan.  I saw my first Springsteen show when I was 12--the same age Allie is now, so when she asked me to take her, I jumped at the chance!

 My favorite resource this week...
TIME!  We made a conscious decision to NOT over-schedule this year.  We just picked the things we REALLY wanted to do and didn't feel bad saying no to some of the other things.  Having TIME has allowed my girls to sew and make videos and all of us to just feel more peaceful and content.
The girls spent A LOT of time creating a cruise ship from their dollhouse furniture and they've played with it A LOT this week.  Allie created the handbag above with fabric from my mom's fabric collection, she created the patchwork design BY HERSELF, using pieces of light and dark denim, she had no pattern for this and just created!  We also discovered Khan Academy computer programming classes and are HOOKED!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
In the last two weeks we have been to a Springsteen concert, the WTC Memorial, on several playdates, choir, art classes, homeschool soccer; Allie has been to her job as a mother's helper and this afternoon we are going apple-picking AGAIN!
We went to the WTC Memorial

My favorite thing this week was…
Hanging out with some old friends of Jason's...Jason's friend is a mechanic and he changed the timing and some other routine maintenance stuff on Jason's car.  It was nice to drop Jason's car off, pick it up, hang out with friends that we don't see that much...remember who we are connected to in this world...the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Ok, people, NYC pizza is where it is AT--if you ever come out this way and want to know where to get a good pie, look a girl up!
Our thing in the city is to have dinner at one place, stroll around and have dessert someplace else...we picked Molly's Cupcakes!

 Things I’m working on…
I have a thing about homemade Christmas stockings.  The girls have outgrown the Disney Princess stockings my mom and I made for them when Allie was in pre-school.  Last year I started working on a counted-cross stitch stocking for Allie and...I am still working on it, but since we've been watching movies for history, I have pulled it out again...
I found these movies from 1969 about Anne Boleyn & Mary Queen of Scots...I previewed them and found them acceptable for my girls--but I would caution you to preview and make a decision for YOUR kids.
Here's a link if you want to know more.

 I’m reading…
The Letters by Luanne Rice and Joseph Monninger
I also had a bit of a meltdown this week when I found the clothes I bought Allie on the day of the first collage UNDER HER BED, IN A BALL!  along with wrappers and blankets and garbage!  This meltdown culminated in a round of one of my favorite things...purging!  So I have officially completed the character arc of photo collages...I hate shopping & I love getting rid of clutter!  THE END.

 I’m cooking…
Sopa de Seca, Vegetable Curry with Crispy Tofu and Jasmine Rice and Butternut Squash Ravioli with Brown-Butter Sage Sauce.

 I’m praying for…
My Uncle Tom.

 This weekend I am looking forward to...
Jason being home for the first time in a LONG time!
Allie's art class on Saturday and a birthday party for one of our good homeschool friends on Sunday!
Linking with

InstaFriday at  The Pleated Poppy

 I am going to try to do these posts weekly, otherwise it's waaaaay too much...and I want to remember it all....Thankfully the girls are still writing their own weekly summaries of what they learned for their portfolios this year, so this is just ALL ME.
at
Labels: , , , ,