Our Weekly Notebook: kayaking, library, and storms

Life this week...

Life was pretty low key this week, until the weekend when I decided to become a Pampered Chef consultant and start a business. Now my head is spinning, and I've got a whole lot to learn! I am pretty excited though. I love cooking and I love the Pampered Chef products. Also, my kitchen is cleaner! Knowing that I'm going to need access to my kitchen to try out products soon, I am trying to keep it cleaner and starting to look at what I can get rid of to make more room. Now to do the same for laundry because my laundry room spills into the kitchen.

Homeschool this week...

We took our school to the library on Tuesday afternoon for a change of scenery. I will have to figure out how to make our school books more mobile so we can do this more often. It was so nice!

Alex started a new Language book, Language Smarts B by Critical Thinking Co. I ordered this through the charter with some leftover curriculum money. I think it will be a good fit.

Just writing capital and lower case alphabet letters took a while. He doesn't quite know all the lower case letters very well. He read the little abc story to me...

And wrote letters...

I got the same Language Smarts book for Aric, but level E.

I think this will be a great book for us to do over the summer to catch up on some language arts gaps.

Reviews we are working on...

This was a review heavy week here on the blog, but I'm glad to have some new ones to start! We just received this one this week. Artistic Pursuits sent us a new text and video art curriculum. I am excited for this one because, as most of you know, I love art. I will be doing this with Alex (1st grade), and possibly Aric if he wants to join in.

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

We saw the Salem Youth Symphony for the final Spring concert this school year. It was beautiful, and April played beautifully. Hard to believe next year might be her last year in this orchestra unless she goes to college close to home.

Outdoors this week...

Last weekend we went to a paddle fest up in Vancouver, WA. Mike/Daddy wanted to try out some solo canoes, and the boys just had a blast trying out all the kayaks. I even got in one, and realized how much I love kayaking. We owned kayaks when we were first married, but sold them when April was born. That was so long ago!

Alex wanted to try a kayak with Dad.

It was a beautiful lake on a stormy day. The sun peeked out a few times, but it was mostly cloudy, and even sprinkled a few times, but still warm-ish enough to enjoy.

A rain cloud was headed our way!

It was fun to see the boys out on the water. There were a ton of people paddling around, so I was lucky to get this shot of them mostly by themselves.

Aaron and Alex paddling. Alex loved that kayak, and stayed in it until the guy said he needed it back for someone else to try.

There was a lot of running into each other too. Although, I think in this picture Aaron was trying to keep Alex from getting away.

These guys were super helpful. They carried a lot of boats back and forth for us as the boys tried them out.

My favorite thing this week was...

Getting some yard work done on Saturday morning. That's all. Our yard needs lots of work, and it felt good to get started.

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

Getting surprise dinosaur LEGO sets in the mail. 

But before we got those Aric built this dinosaur from the LEGO's we already had. He used the directions from a LEGO ideas book from the library. He was pretty happy he was able to build it.

Things I'm working on...

• a puzzle with a picture of a cute cat in a watering can
• quilt squares for a quilting project
• learning about pampered chef
• cleaning up the yard/thinking about how to fix it and make it better.

Random things the kids worked on...

This isn't really random because it was for an assignment. April made these cute little felt foods for her decorating/design class. They turned out pretty cute.

What we're reading...

We read these books at co-op this week for a gardening theme. I really enjoy both of these books, and the kids did too (we read The Tale of Peter Rabbit from the Peter Rabbit collection).

Then we went outside and made chalk "garden" squares.

The boys read Magic Treehouse book 1--Dinosaurs Before Dark together.

I'm cooking...

Fried rice for lunch this week. It has become a favorite around here to use up leftover rice. It's a quick and easy lunch too!

What's working/not working for us...

I have been trying to figure out if having a cat is working for us. The kids love him, and I do too. But, my allergies don't. I'm not allergic to the cat himself (I don't think), but I'm allergic to pesticides it seems, and I can't get the fleas to go away. I think he needs a chemical treatment for the fleas, but I'm afraid of how I'll react. It's really not a comfortable feeling, and I take days to recover from it. I hate to get rid of him, but I don't want the fleas. What to do? I have told the kids of the possibility that we might have to find him a new home this week. They didn't take it well. All of them were sad except one who doesn't like him so much. I also have to admit I hate the hair everywhere. And the litter box. Those things I can live with though. Not the fleas.



I'm grateful for...

Cool lightning storms that I can watch from inside my home. I know it's a weird thing to be grateful for, but I enjoy watching weather. I also love interesting clouds. I will often point them out to my kids. I think looking up in the sky reminds me to be humble, and can be beautiful even though lightning can be kind of scary.

That about wraps up our week! I am linking up to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly wrap-up.