My Weekly Notebook: winter, outdoors, and Monopoly

 Life this week...

It was a very gray/dull week as far as weather, and I'm sure that has been affecting my energy level. I was also very cold all week. That's how you'll find me in the fall/winter months anymore cold, covered in fleece or sweats and a hoodie because I'm just so darn cold all the time. I don't remember always being this cold during the winter. I guess that comes with getting older.

Homeschool this week...

It was only a partial week for us as Monday and Tuesday (kind of) were still days off for Christmas break. We did manage to get some math lessons in. I used a lot of time though for teacher prep. Getting my head back into the game and getting school work organized. It is definitely a hard time of the year to find any motivation to do anything. 

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

If you have a hard time starting on a Monday morning, pull out a game. Start with that. Also, works for getting back into the groove of things after a long break or vacation. I really like this advice from Wadlock Way for getting back into the school groove after a holiday break.

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

We went on 2 hikes this week. On Monday we went as a family to Suavie Island up in Portland. There's a pretty easy loop around Virginia Lake and we did a very small portion of it because the kids were just not thrilled about it. Also they were hungry. The 2nd hike was on Thursday with our new Wild + Free group. We were a bit more close to home in Wilsonville at the Memorial park nature area. There are some trails in the wooded area by the river there. Both were nice low-key hikes. 

The bird watch at the Virginia Lake hike.

My favorite thing this week was... 

Building one of my new LEGO flower sets. It turned out so pretty and I had fun making the different flowers. LEGO continues to bring me joy and relieve stress. It's something that I can focus on and complete in a short time with something pretty/nice to look at.

 

My kids' favorite thing this week was... 

I'm pretty sure this is hands down Alex's favorite thing from the week. He has been saving up money for a while and he realized he had enough money to get a really nice RC car. He took the plunge and purchased this one from Hobby Town USA on Monday. He has been having fun driving it all week. We went to the park and we've walked it around the block a few times. He just keeps saying how much he loves this car everytime he drives it.

Outdoor time...

We reached our first benchmark of 10 hours since starting over on Jan. 1 with our 1000 hours outside challenge. That's huge for us, and a great accomplishment. I'm going to take it! It's hard to get out on these cold/gray days of January. 

A picture of the river on our walk around Virginia Lake on Sauvie Island.

Games we played... 

Alex got this Animal Crossing Monopoly game for Christmas so we decided to open it up and play on Tuesday morning to get back into the swing of things. It is a fun version of Monopoly!

I'm cooking/eating...

I made muffins, poppy seed and chocolate chip. They were so good. Especially the poppy seed. 

I'm grateful for...

A relaxing Saturday.