Weekly Wrap-Up

I'm not really sure what happened in this past week. I know I helped unload hundreds of boxes of citrus from our American Heritage Girls fall fundraiser. I know I helped load cars with citrus and delivered citrus to our customers. I ate a lot of grapefruit.

But beyond that, the week is pretty much a blur. We started one of my favorite books, Little Britches. In fact, the kids love it so much that we read and read and read for hours this week. Pretty much everything else got shoved to the wayside, although we did a few math lessons, Latin, and handwriting. Who needs anything else when you have a great book to read?

The most exciting event: Randy and Jesse attended Fall Preview Days at Belmont University, where Jesse hope to attend next year. Their experiences at the preview days really solidified in both of their minds that Belmont is a fantastic fit for Jesse. Now we just are awaiting news of admission—and scholarships.

And that's about the extent of my wrap-up. Tomorrow is our last day of fall co-op classes on Mondays, although I still have two weeks left of my high school World Lit/geography class before we break for Christmas. We're looking forward to a relaxing week coming up, filled with good friends, family, and plenty of food.

What are your Thanksgiving plans?

For more wrap-ups visit, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Friday Quiet Rambling

* This is one of those rare nights that I am terribly reluctant to give up and go to bed. The house is incredibly quiet, and I haven't quite finished unwinding.

* We painted the main entrance doors at our church red tonight. That's not an idiom, like "painting the town red." We are taking steps toward making our church more guest-friendly, and red doors seemed necessary. Probably it wasn't a great idea to paint them at night when we couldn't really see the results on the outside part, but sometimes you just have to strike when the iron's hot. (That is an idiom, and I'm always proud of myself when I get one right. I have a tendency to say things like "Strike while the kettle is black.")

* The dishwasher is leaking. The pipe under the sink is dripping. The bathtub faucet is leaking really fast.

* We need friends with plumbing skills.

* We only have one day left before our co-op breaks until the end of January. I am so happy! I love classes and enjoy seeing everyone, but how I love to burrow in for a couple of months.

* Peppermint Hershey's Kisses are fearfully addictive. Unfortunately, the sharp chunks of mint always cut up my mouth so I have to stop eating them before I really want to. All food should be like that.

* My firstborn is going to college in 9 months. How is that possible?

* What will I do when my children are all grown? I vacillate between wanting to teach creative writing somewhere, working at the library, or just staying at home and writing. Perhaps I'll keep my house very clean and shiny. I'll definitely meet friends for coffee and walks.

If you stay home with your kids now, where do you see yourself when that time comes?

Wordless Wednesday: Basking

If you're my Facebook friend, you know that I'm often irritated by the dog, and you might even get the impression that I'm really not much of a dog person. But this is pretty darned cute. And how much would we all love to bask in a sunny spot all day? For more "Wordless" Wednesday posts, visit Wordless Wednesday, Momspective, and Five Minutes for Mom.

Tackle It Tuesday

I have a lot, a whole lot, of areas that need tackled in my house, especially after a whirlwind week like the last one. Tackle It Tuesday encourages me to start with one small place, so today I chose the first spot that you see when you come in my house.


This is the buffet/cupboard in the dining room, where most people enter (unless you're a stranger and come through the front door) and where all family members drop their stuff. I really do try to keep this cleared off, but it's gotten ridiculous this week. And those flowers in the vase on the wall might look OK in the picture above, but here is what they really look like:


Attractive, I know. So, I got busy this morning and put all that junk away or gave it to the person to whom it belongs so he or she could put it away. Laurel found the fall table runner (I didn't remember that we had one!) and the sweet little picture of Duncan's handprint/turkey in a closet, and I tossed out the dead mums and replaced them with greenery.


Aaah. This is a much more peaceful view from my side of the dining room table.

And then there is the project I didn't get done today:

That's a basket of junk I swept off the counter before a party here 3 weeks ago.

Maybe next week on Tackle It Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom.

(P.S. Don't forget to share a soup recipe with me and check out the great ones I have received so far! I'm having one tonight!)

I Need Soup!

Soup season is upon us, and I need soup recipes! I grow weary of wading through recipe sites; I really do. So I want to know: what are your favorite soup recipes? I know you've probably posted a recipe or two before on your own blog or bookmarked a favorite recipe. Or maybe you've been meaning to post a favorite soup recipe on your blog but haven't gotten around to it. Or, like my friend Laurie and I like to say, "If you can't think of anything else to blog about, blog a recipe!"

So I'm asking you all: give me a recipe or two; I know you have them! You can link in Mr. Linky or post a favorite in the comments. Save me from my endless soup surfing! (And to start things off, I linked to my favorite beef stew recipe. But one can only eat so much beef stew...)

Today in the Smokies

How can I possibly express what it means to live within 30 minutes of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park? To head out late on a Saturday afternoon, to leave the busyness of the city for rushing rivers… my heart is happy.









"Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail."

~John Muir

Weekly Wrap-Up

This was one of those weeks that, when we finally finished the last Thing at 10 p.m. on Friday nights, Dr. H. and I slumped on the couch and said, “We survived!” This weekend stretches out blissfully empty in front of us.

But back to wrapping up the week. Monday we had our regular co-op classes. We discussed Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in our literature circle. Living so close to Oak Ridge and the home of the Manhattan Project, the kids for the most part were quite familiar with the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is even a model of Little Boy at the science center in Oak Ridge, and nearly all the kids have been there. This books was an awfully easy reading level for them (grades 5-8), but the subject matter was at their level. (I wish the book had been written at a higher reading level, because the subject of dying from radiation is really too intense for K-2.)

We had a good school morning on Tuesday, getting in lots of good reading of The Wright Brothers and tackling a few lessons in math each. Of course we have our trek to Knoxville for dance and drama on Tuesday afternoons, and Jesse had his biology class at the community college. Tuesday evening we had the Cub Scouts monthly pack meeting. In honor of Veterans Day, Randy had two veterans speak to the boys. One is the dad of one of the Cubs, and he was simply fantastic. What a tremendously gifted speaker! I think the boys and the parents could have listened to him for hours.

Wednesday was Veterans Day, and we were so happy to see the sun after torrential rains on Tuesday because we had a parade to march in. Four out of our five area American Heritage Girls troops shared a float in the Knoxville Veterans Day Parade. (Click on the collage for a better view!)

Thursday morning we managed to squeeze in some book learning before flute lessons and AHG/Cub Scouts. We finished The Wright Brothers, which was wonderful and which also means that we get to start one of my favorite read-alouds—Little Britches—next week. Our American Heritage Girls meeting was packed with various activities: the oldest girls learned how to handle knives and axes for their Outdoor Skills badge; the Explorers made lap blankets for a local homeless ministry and made their AHG t-shirts; the youngest girls finished up their Outdoor Skills badge; and the whole troop contributed items to pack about eight boxes for Operation Christmas Child.

I forgot to mention one major part of this whole week: Jesse was writing and revising essays for college applications. I am pretty sure he must have had about five drafts of each essay before he ironed out all the kinks and produced what I think are a collection of pretty darned good essays. Applications for early admission are due by Dec. 1 but his goal was to have them in the mail by this week. Phew! A big, big, big accomplishment in our homeschooling journey!!

So, Friday. I had hardly seen my sweet parents all week, so the kids and I decided that playing cards and having a geography quiz with Oma and Opa was much more important than reducing fractions. We spent a couple of hours just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful morning and the joy of grandparents. That afternoon I gave Part 2 of an exam in my World Lit/Geography class, and then we had a bit of a party, which is always important after finishing up a unit! The rest of the class was so much fun. I split the class into two teams and had a geography bowl, drilling them with all sorts of questions. They were hilarious as they became more and more competitive—in a very friendly kind of way. It was just one of those great classes.

Friday night brought our first Boy Scouts Court of Honor in a long time. Jesse and his friend Everett were the night's emcees—something they needed to do for their Communications badge—and Randy did a fantastic presentation on their adventure to Philmont Scout Ranch last summer. A few months ago we had a split in our Boy Scout troop when the Scoutmaster behaved badly and needed to leave. It was so evident last night what a good thing the split was; there was no underlying tension and lots of laughter. It has been so wonderful to see Jesse take a renewed interest in Scouting under our new Scoutmaster.

This was the last crazy weekend for a long, long time. Activities are beginning to wind down as the holidays approach. Our co-op classes are nearly over until mid-January. I am looking forward to some good family time—and tackling my filthy house.

How was your week? Wrap it up at the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

If You Came To My House Today…

If you came to my house today, you'd probably wonder where you could sit down. You'd probably look around and say, "Holy COW! What a slob!"

It's the end of a very, very busy week. Cleaning has not been a part of this week's agenda. The kitchen counters are fairly clean but only because I had to go through piles of paper to get to find the stapler. Those piles of papers were mostly my son's many drafts of his college application essays. Many, many drafts.

The dishes are mostly done, but only because I had to do them to get to the crockpot at the bottom of the sink. I needed the crockpot for tonight's supper.

There is an ironing board in my dining room. I've never had an ironing board in the dining room before, but the living room was so crowded with laundry baskets that I couldn't put the ironing board in its customary spot. I had to iron my son's green Boy Scout pants and iron on the Life Scout patch that he earned about a year ago. I'm a little behind on that.

The living room, as I said, is crowded with three full laundry baskets. At least I can say that the baskets contain folded laundry, thanks to my husband.

The hallway has a huge pile of laundry and a laundry basket filled with stuff I scraped off the counter 2 weeks ago before our big soup party. I really should go through that and find all the bills that are no doubt due by now.

The bedrooms, well, let's not talk about bedrooms. My daughter's is clean because she enjoys keeping her room clean. Our bed is made because my husband makes it every morning. Yep. That's all I can really say about bedrooms.

I forgot to mention dead flowers in all the vases. Books and papers piling up on surfaces. The hedge-trimmer, gloves, and pruners I left out on the front porch last weekend. The dying 'mums all around the outside doors.

But it's all okay. Some weeks are like that, and the important thing, my husband is actually yelling this moment: "we survived this week!"

Tomorrow I'll begin the process of putting it all back together again. Until then, I'm really, really glad that no one really came to my house today…

What would we see at your house today? La Vida Dulce wants to know!

Wordless Wednesday: Veterans Day

On the weekend before Veterans Day, our American Heritage Girls troops place rose petals on the graves at our local Veterans Cemetery after the Boy Scouts have placed flags at each site. It's a lovely tradition, one that connects the girls to the world in a way that parades and speeches cannot. For more "Wordless" Wednesday posts, visit Wordless Wednesday, Momspective, and Five Minutes for Mom.

Immersed

No, this post is not a discussion of immersion vs. sprinkling, so sorry if you came here looking for answers on that topic. Sometimes words just pop in my head, and this week I feel utterly immersed in activities. I don't nearly have the drowning feeling, but I feel like my head is barely above water. (I guess the "immersed" analogy just fell apart…)

Nonetheless, I shouldn't be sitting here blogging. I should be doing dishes or putting away laundry or sending out an email about our AHG meeting this week or creating a test for Friday's World Lit class or doing sit-ups or baking cookies or, at the very least, taking a shower to get ready for our day. But sometimes, you just have to blog it out.

This is one of those weeks in which everything and more hits. This week, I am praying for a sunny day for the Veterans Day parade in which our area American Heritage Girls troops are marching tomorrow. For Jesse to get his college application essays DONE and in the mail. For the ability to send out all the right emails with all the right information as we have our last "working" AHG meeting on Thursday until January. (Our December meeting is a Christmas tea.) That I can figure out exactly what it is I'm doing in class on Friday—that I can capture all the ideas running in circles in my head and nail down a solid plan. For Jesse to get those essays done (did I say that already?) and plan the Boy Scouts' Court of Honor which he has to emcee on Friday evening.

And then, of course, I need to teach my sweet children. That is what I am looking forward to most today: heading over to our cozy apartment, wrapping up in fleece blankets next to the fireplace (OK, it's gas, but still...), and reading to my little ones (who aren't really very little).

But what is really, really nice? This is the last officially crazy week of the year. When I come to Saturday morning—just four days away—I can get out my sewing machine and start all kinds of fun projects. And finish one sweet baby's quilt.

What's happening in your world this week?