I'm not sure what drove me to have Brooklynn complete 12 language arts lessons today or to have Jeffrey do 3 math lessons and a unit test. Maybe it was their whining that their work is too easy? Maybe it's the way K12 has set up their website? Their feedback with charts and numbers, the 'percentage complete' page (Brooklynn is 33% done with her language arts) and 'projected end date' calculation button ( all courses will be completed by May 6) keep me plowing through the workload. My brain is swimming in circles and it hurts- just like during finals week in college.
Brooklynn has a few math problems left, and we haven't started history. I'm ready to wrap up and call it a day. Tomorrow we'll stick the to plan- one lesson per subject!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Yesterday's Fire
I was outside yesterday afternoon and couldn't miss seeing BIG plumes of smoke coming over the mountain. A few hours later the flames were on our side. The fire department and national guard evacuated 1600 homes. We were 16 blocks north of the mandatory evacuation area. We put the kids to bed and weren't concerned.
A few hours later, strong winds blew the smoke to our neighborhood. We discovered our windows aren't sealed properly. Smoke was coming into the kids' bedrooms. We packed a change of clothes, some breakfast food, and spent the night at Mom's. Thanks for your hospitality, Mom!
I was't worried about the fire hitting our place, but since we've got a touchy smoke alarm I was worried about it going off. And in turn, setting off the sprinkler system. Last night was a loooooooooooong night!
Here are a few pictures I 'stole' from my brother.
Mark and I came home this morning. One side of the mountain is charred, but the fire was stopped before it hit many homes. Three homes are lost. It looks like the fire is almost out, but we haven't heard anything official on the news. A few hot spots are left smoldering. The winds have changed direction and sent all of the smoke south. Safe to come home! Great job fire department!
A few hours later, strong winds blew the smoke to our neighborhood. We discovered our windows aren't sealed properly. Smoke was coming into the kids' bedrooms. We packed a change of clothes, some breakfast food, and spent the night at Mom's. Thanks for your hospitality, Mom!
I was't worried about the fire hitting our place, but since we've got a touchy smoke alarm I was worried about it going off. And in turn, setting off the sprinkler system. Last night was a loooooooooooong night!
Here are a few pictures I 'stole' from my brother.
Mark and I came home this morning. One side of the mountain is charred, but the fire was stopped before it hit many homes. Three homes are lost. It looks like the fire is almost out, but we haven't heard anything official on the news. A few hot spots are left smoldering. The winds have changed direction and sent all of the smoke south. Safe to come home! Great job fire department!
The school district cancelled local schools for the day. We came home and the kids are a bit grouchy from being up late. It's hard to motivate them to get their school work done when the neighbors are having fun outside!
Lesson learned: Come up with a better plan for our 72-hour emergency kits. Besides food and water, they really do need to include clothing, toiletries, shoes, important documents and cash.
On the brighter side: I have a working oven and have reorganized all of the closets and dressers! Yeah!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The State Fair
We went to the "Homeschool State Fair Day". Jeffrey earned a cubscouting patch for his attendance. The kids rode a few rides, went on the bumper cars, we saw calf judging, and spent some time in the garden produce area. Now that I know what to expect, we'll have even more fun next year!
Riding the Helicopter
Before the ride went too fast and they turned green Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
2 Steps Forward, 3 Steps Back
We've been doing this little dance the past few days...
- Spend an afternoon to get all drawers and closets organized only to have a bigger jumble of a mess after the kids put away the clothes. It took longer to organize the second time.
- Scrub all the walls in the house- Aahhhhhhh CLEAN- just to have the kids accicentally put a hole in the bathroom wall by swinging the door too hard (Malia had removed the door stopper a few minutes earlier) and roll their skateboard in the kitchen and use the wall as brakes. Yeap, a big hole. So much for the walls looking nice this week and a few projects for Saturday's To Do list.
- Create a new menu to incorporate more vegetables, get all the shopping done, preheat the oven and begin preparing the first meal on the menu (roasted vegetables) only to discover Malia's plastic Ikea plate is now a liquid and ON FIRE! The entire house stinks and the oven can't be used. I let the oven cool and now there is a blue plastic coating on the oven racks and bottom of the oven. I've got the oven 98% clean, now the racks to clean this afternoon. Hopefully, I can use the oven to make dinner tonight. Microwaved vegetables and casseroles just aren't the same.
I'm hoping this little dance will end soon. I added the "Keep Calm" on the sidebar to remind myself to inhale and breath and move forward! I'm sure the memories will be funny to me in the future.
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