My weekly notebook: A birthday and a holiday

Life this week...

We had a nice long weekend for Memorial day. We also celebrated a birthday on Sunday. Aaron turned 14. He didn't want much, and a party was definitely out due to quarantine, but I tried to make it a special day/weekend for him. I like celebrating people. Especially people in my family. I think birthday's are a special way to do that. Taking time to really appreciate someone just for being born is just a cool thing to celebrate.

We didn't do much for Memorial day. Once upon a time we used to camp (it's been a few years) every Memorial day weekend to kick off our camping season. I caught myself remembering some of those camping trips, and the happy memories we made during those. I'm thankful for memories like those that I can look back on during times like these. About the only thing we did was make some American flags with chalk pastels.

Homeschool this week...

I tell ya, it is getting harder and harder to get a full day of school in around here. The weather is getting nicer, and we just want to play. All of us. Being at home all the time does not equal more work getting done either because...I don't know why. I just know it's harder to focus for many reasons right now. So, I think I will highlight a curriculum that was worked on today. This week I will share our reading curriculum. I have really enjoyed Mosdos Press Literature. We received this in our Timberdoodle kits for each boy, so we have the 3rd, 6th, and 8th grade. I really like the stories in each level. The pictures inside are colorful, and there are so many great questions to answers about the readings. Lots of great information packed in these books!

It does get a bit confusing knowing which levels are whose because they don't have numbers. I can see the benefits of not having numbers, and I actually like that, but I needed a way to quickly figure out whose book it is so I put their names on the front with some masking tape.

The workbook page that Alex (3rd grade) worked on today...

Reviews we are working on...

I am happy to announce that this writing prompt is back on my weekly wrap-up because I am back on the crew! I have missed it. The break was definitely needed, but I'm happy to be doing it again. No reviews yet though.

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

We actually went somewhere this week! I have been itching to get out for a walk in the trees or anywhere (that's not my neighborhood), so we went on a hike to the "witch's house" in Portland. It's one that April has wanted to do for a while now. We tried it once but ended up not having enough time to make it all the way to the witches house. It was a nice hike. Alex really loved it.

My favorite thing this week was...

Eating this very well crafted cake. It was a little bit of heaven with peanut butter and chocolate going so smoothly together.

Things I'm working on...

Starting a little garden. Growing things to eat. Learning how to do this. I pulled the pool out of it's storage place in our yard today, and it uncovered a beautiful little patch of dirt that I plan to use for a garden as soon as I can get it ready. I only have that hand tiller for now, so it's going to be a long road. Salem wanted to explore this newly uncovered spot in our yard. He proceeded to roll in the dirt.

We have some things we planted a few weeks ago. I decided on a whim to just plant a bunch of stuff with Alex one evening. I had found a bunch of seed packets from last year that we never got around to using so I thought, why not? Let's plant them and see what happens. It has been so fun for Alex to see this process. He planted the seeds and so many of them sprouted so beautifully.

Random things the kids worked on...

Alex has been so excited about his seeds and figuring out where to put them. We were looking at pots at Walmart. Actually, we were looking for a watering can, but found the ceramic pots. Alex wanted to paint the biggest one to put some of his seedlings in. He came up with the idea to paint it like a watermelon. He started today and it looks pretty awesome. It needs another coat, and black seeds. Then it'll be finished.

What we're reading...

So many things! I decided to start reading Anne Frank because it has been years and I want to know if my boys are ready for this yet. The last time I read it was high school so I am looking at this from a different lens in more than one way!

I'm cooking...

I had some german sausage in the fridge that I wanted to use up, and I had recently seen a post from a friend about roasted bratwurst and peppers so I was inspired to make something very similar to hers. I just sliced my sausage up, and added potatoes and onions to her original recipe. It was delicious, and it was gone in a flash. It was a nice and easy one pan dish.

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

Having this calendar up is not working for me. It just makes me feel all kinds of emotions when I walk by it knowing that so many things aren't happening. We originally purchased this calendar so we'd have all the events happening in the Portland area at our fingertips in case we wanted to check any of them out. None of these events are happening right now. I need a new calendar.

Questions/thoughts I have...

What will this summer look like?

I'm grateful for...

Air conditioning comfort. We were able to get our air conditioners in this week. What a relief!

A fun picture from the week...

Actually this is from Mother's Day. I love this picture. I never shared it on Mother's Day for some reason, so here it is now.

That wraps up this week!  Hope yours was good.