What we've been up to this week

This week has been full.

We hooked up a new CPU! Hooray! I've been blogging for the last year with a computer that wouldn't show all of the little buttons, like text size and pictures. So, I've had to guess where very thing is.

Jeffrey found this game, Liquid Measure 2, at gamefudge. Once you get past the first few levels, it can be mentally invigorating! He mastered the game and is pretty excited about it. He has also been practicing for his first violin recital tomorrow. He's ready!

Brooklynn gave a presentation in her book club. They have been studying, "Josephina," from the American Girl series. She had to report on her favorite part of book 6. Since she didn't have a favorite part to tell about, she spent Wednesday morning making Mexican Wedding Cakes- a treat Josephina might have eaten at her dad's wedding. She also been busy this week practicing her flute. She learned to play, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." She has been working for a year to coordinate her breathing with her fingers moving! What an accomplishment for her!

Mark has been putting in long hours a few days this week with work. Malia has spent her days playing with her babies. Poor thing doesn't have a stroller or bed for her babies. She was using Brooklynn's until she broke it. She's been improvising with empty boxes and baskets from around the house. (I'm sure she is going to love what she is getting for Christmas!) She has also had a great time this week coloring and playing with our nativity set.

I've been up to the usual, cleaning, cooking, laundry, keeping the kids on task with their school work, etc. Nothing really exciting. I decorated the house for Christmas. I think this is why the kids are starting to go crazy. I bought all of our Christmas baking supplies and our Christmas cards ready to mail! Such a fun time of year!

The Pumpkin Bat

This was the first year we used patterns to carve pumpkins! Not bad. Not bad.

Trunk-Or-Treat

Thursday morning, Jeffrey had a dentist appointment and had some work done. While he laid on the couch recooperating, Brooklynn and I quickly decorated our trunk with pumpkins, ghosts, and bats. We headed a few towns away for the homeschool trunk-or-treat and halloween party. There were tons of people there from all over the valley. The kids got enough candy to be satisfied. I had a great time! I met a few moms that I really like. We're going to join the same group for their Christmas Party in Dec. I've already volunteered to help with games and crafts.

Our Snow Princess

Mr. Incredible

Goody Walk

Bean Bag Toss- Jeffrey got the highest score

My little flower swinging

Monster Walk

And last but not least, Red Rover Red Rover!

The Task Master

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!

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!

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!

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

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.