My Weekly Notes: A Long Week

 

Life this week...

Ice can be beautiful but very destructive. Last weekend we got to see the destructive side of ice as it covered everything in a thick layer and pulled many trees, power lines, and structures down. It was also beautiful in a way too. It looked like a scene from Frozen. The trees were literally drooping down to the ground (if they didn't break or tip over already), but they were white and shiny. I will probably do a separate post with all my ice pictures, so here's just one for now. The ice was surely not welcome!

Homeschool this week...

Due to the ice storm our power was out for 5 days. It was hard to think about doing much school, but we did get some math done, and we read some. Nothing great and exciting to report on the homeschool front though.

Reviews we are working on... 

We've got a lot of reviews coming up, so it might get a little review heavy here on the blog pretty soon. I'm going to try and counter that with a lot of regular posts too. As for reviews, we have a math review starting up here pretty soon. I've started a fantasy novel that's really thick that I'm hoping to finish by early March. And, we are going to hold some mock trials for homeschool court. I'm excited to share some of these reviews coming up!

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

Need some ideas for Indoor Games? This Homeschool Review Crew blog post has a blog hop of ideas for some indoor games. Having a game day was exactly what we did during our power outage, and sometimes you just need to relax and have fun while being stuck indoors.

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

Alex started back up at Parkour PE this week. Despite the power outages everywhere Tualatin Parkour had power (we didn't on the day we went). So, we went to Parkour and hit up Costco and Target on the way home. That was our only big outing for the week besides trips to the local grocery store for food and supplies.

My favorite thing this week was...

Even though it was hard, I really enjoyed the powerless days with my family. We made some fun memories and we were together.

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

When the power came back on. And also the internet.

Things I'm working on...

I am working on sorting all our LEGO's into colors. It's a slow process, but it's very satisfying to me. I also want to be able to find pieces easier to build with the boys. I'm looking forward to having all of them sorted some day!

Random things the kids worked on... 

April had an art project that involved color gradient and shades so she used a portion of our DVD's to do it. When she put them back up on the shelf they looked so pretty!

 

Something I accomplished...

I finished building a Harry Potter Hogwart's Express train platform set. It took me a while because I had to find a few missing pieces from when Aric built it (this is where the sorted by color pieces really helps). I really enjoyed building this.

 

What we're reading...

We finished reading What Was the Holocaust? by Gail Herman this week. Also, just a fun random thing...April read like 10 of our Who, What, Where books from our What is America? pack

Movies we watched... 

We watched Despicable Me 1 and 2 during our power outage. We had a generator that allowed for these special nights.

 

Games we played...

At Alex's request we got a new game called Bellz! Pretty fun, and fast paced.

 

I'm cooking...

Cooking without power posed some challenges, but we survived okay. This picture was actually from a dinner when the power came back on. But I made Bratwurst and broccoli one night. I chose to eat mine without the bun. We also had a potato, ham, cheese soup one powerless night that was pretty delicious. I cooked that on our big camp stove outside. It was cold during the cooking, and kinda felt like camping for sure. Another powerless night I made chicken on the grill with couscous and corn for sides. Those were probably our yummiest meals. We had to cook most everything because we had no microwave, so we had a lot of either big cooked meals, or just cold sandwiches or cereal or muffins.

 

I'm grateful for...

Spotting the first pink blossoms on a tree this week.

That's a wrap for this week!