My weekly notebook:

Life this week...

We have this fireplace in our living room, and we turned it on for the first time in a few years.  It had been so long since we had lit it up that Alex (7) didn't even realize it worked and made a fire. He didn't remember our previous times of having it on (age 3 or 4). We just don't use it because it is so warm. Even when it is off the pilot light keeps the living room a little warmer. But, we had it on a few days this week. I have to admit it was nice sitting there next to it while we watched a movie. I have been extra cold and tired this week, so this was a nice cozy place to be. Problem is, it kept putting me to sleep being so warm.

We also rearranged our living room so that we could see the fire place better. That might be another reason we never use it. We had a couch kind of cutting it off from the main part of the living room. I have to admit I love the new arrangement of our living room. I will have to get a picture of it sometime.

The movie we watched by the fire was Paddington. We finished the book one morning, and I promised the kids that we could watch the movie after we were done with the book! It was cute. 

Homeschool this week...

It was a Mindstorm/LEGO building week for the younger 2 boys. Aric built this printer, and several other projects with his Mindstorms. Alex re-built his big motorhome LEGO set from his birthday to make the boat. It was tedious, but I helped him, and he just kept saying to me "I just love building with Mom." We may not have got much math or science done, but we had bonded over some lego building, and it was so sweet to hear him say that.

Aric building his Mindstorms printer. This is the 2nd time he built it, and it worked! He couldn't get it to work right the first time.

A printout from the Mindstorm printer.

Reviews we are working on...

I got a little excited for the start of the year on the review crew and said yes to a lot of reviews coming up. Here is one we started this week. A new Heirloom Audio production called Wulf The Saxon. We listened to this while building the LEGO projects one morning. We didn't finish, but we listened for at least an hour.

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

Feel like you are running dry on curriculum/books. If you're like me you've probably got books galore. Have you considered pulling out some old curriculum or books that you've shelved because it either didn't work at the time, or you didn't get through it for whatever reason. I always forget to look at what's on my shelves already. I found some old math books and took out some other books this week that I realized one of my kids could use now. So, that's my advice, don't forget to check the dusty shelves you haven't touched for a while.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

It's a book and movie kind of week for us. Last Saturday we went to see Ferdinand as a family at the Wunderland theater up in Milwaukie. We have been reading the book Ferdinand all week for FIAR, and doing a lot of fun activities with it. It was our culmination of the two weeks it took us to see the movie.

None of the other kids wanted to be in the picture so it was Alex and I.

My favorite thing this week was...

Making the list for new reviews. We can ask for certain reviews, but we don't always get them. I was thankful I was chosen and made the list for a few of them.

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

I always forget to ask them this. I will have to start asking them at the end of the week so I don't have to guess. I would guess... Probably all the LEGO building I let them do during school time.

Things I'm working on...

Getting caught up on blog posts. I'm so behind on the abc's, and my 52 lists. Problem is I'm blanking on both. I need to just sit down and think about it.

Something I accomplished...

I actually accomplished this 2 Saturday's ago, but I am just so excited to finally have my sewing space back and usable. I have had so many projects waiting to be fixed/mended/sewed since summer. This particular one felt good to get done because the patches and awards kept piling up. I also got Aaron's new boy scout shirt ready for him to wear.

Some cub scout awards needed to be put on Aric's shirt for a long time!

What we're reading...

A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

 The Twelve Days of Winter by Deborah Lee Rose

(this book has a boy picking his nose on every page)

That about wraps up our week. It wasn't really all that exciting. Definitely one of my more quiet weeks!