A (Cold) Week in Review

Schoolwise we had a much more productive week this week than last. We accomplished most of our school-work huddled in my bed under comforters, and wearing robes, jackets, and in the case of my daughters, multiple layers of socks. The reason for all the layers of clothing is that it has been extremely cold all week, and we have yet to turn the heat on. We live in a 70 year old house, with the original boiler and radiator heat. I detest turning the boiler on for 3 reasons:
*I'm terrified of it, and am so afraid we will one day be the victims of a boiler explosion
*Once it is on, the heat in here is atrocious, and the humidity levels drop to near zero. This results in several months of the girls and I being miserable with dry, itchy, painful skin. My hands become bloody nubs, from doing dishes, laundry, and all the other assorted household tasks that involve me putting my hands in water. This doesn't bother my husband in the least, and he lives by the "warmer is better" theory. It is often 75° in our home. The first thing I do when he leaves for work is shut the heat completely off, and by 6 or 7 hours later it cools down to a more survivable temperature...just in time to finallly stop sweating, and have hubby arrive back home from work. and crank the heat back up.
*The main reason our heat isn't on yet, is that our power bill goes from a managable $150-$200/month to well over $500/month, and in the REALLY cold months of January and February it has been known to be over $600 for one month. That's 2 full weeks of pay from my husband, and we obviously can't afford to spend literally half his monthly earnings on a mere luxury such as heat.

So, with a little extra clothing on, we made it just fine through school this week. We had such a boring weekend last week that we did 2 full days of first grade, and caught up on what I neglected to do for fifth grade the week prior. We continued on every weekday this week.

C began her literature last Saturday, and she LOVES it! I intentionally chose a book she would like for her first book study, "Laura Ingalls Wilder", a biography of the author of the Little House books. I had to read the book first, before assigning it, and I felt it was dry, and poorly written, and probably a little above my daughters reading level due simply to the dryness of it. Much to my surprise, she is an avid "Laura" fan, and begs for more and more pages to be assigned. She doesn't like being limited to certain pages/chapters. She is doing very well with the written assignments, and only has one minor difficulty applying the difference between describing someone's PHYSICAL traits as compared to describing what makes the person unique.

C finished chapter 4 of her BJU English. Her final assignment was to write a persuasive business letter...not an easy task for a 5th grader. Not really an easy task for ME...I can't think of a single time in 37 years I've ever had to write a persuasive business letter, but I do think for someone hoping to eventually run her own no-kill animal shelter it's a skill she will use over and over. If you're going to run a non-profit business, you'd better be good at writing letters asking people to give you money. On her own she came up with an idea for writing her own letter. She chose to write to the local pet stores and ask them to donate any expired or damaged goods and supplies from their inventory that she could then donate to our own local no-kill shelter. We actually mailed the letters, so I'm praying at least one of the pet stores contacts her.

She then moved on to Chapter 5 in English....VERBS. Oh, how she and I hate verbs. If it was simply a matter of recognizing a verb we'd be fine. It's all this other nonsense....linking verbs, state-of-being verbs (which are both the same thing), helping verbs, participles, predicate adjectives, predicate nouns, objects of the verbs. ACK! Who cares?!?! I never learned this stuff. Not once. I think I am able to write fairly well. I've never gotten anything lower than an A in anything English related. This is the point C and I were both in tears last December, and finally gave up on Abeka's English. I still see absolutely NO use for all this in-depth study of a verb. But I am remaining calm. We patiently did day 1 of this chapter. She did much better than I expected, but not as well as I'd hoped. I ran off copies of extra-practice worksheets, and we worked yesterday on the extra practice for the first days lesson. (Thank you, M, for letting me use your printer!)She did better, but still not 100% on the extra worksheet. It'd be nice if there was more than 1 extra worksheet per lesson. I've never needed them before, but with this chapter I need 10 or 12 per lesson. Please pray for C and I to make it successfully through this chapter.

C also did 4 or 5 lessons in math, and took 2 math tests yesterday. She only needed to take 1 math test, but she wasn't paying attention, and did test #12, which she had already done the week before, so she had to then take test #13, which is what she was supposed to take. LOL She got an A on it. She is really flying through her math this year.

We're finishing up with chapter 5 (I think...it's too dark to go double check) in science, and in history we read about Islam. Her history book devoted a mere 22 pages to Islam, most of it a fictional story about Sinbad. Unlike many Christians, I feel it is imperative to learn about other religions, and other beliefs, so we are now taking a break from her history book, and spending a good month or two studying in-depth the middle east, Islam, and the Muslim culture in general. I have 3 AWESOME books for her age on this, and conveniently, have a Muslim neighbor who adores the girls, and isn't offended by any questions we come to him with. He has even been so kind as to loan us his Q'raan to see and compare it to our Bible, and Christianity's teachings.

C bagan her 2nd light unit in Bible, and this one is MUCH better than the first one. Each lesson is one of the parable's of Jesus, and she and I are both LOVING the lessons.

We had a review week in spelling, and next week is week 7 of our official school year, which means we get to skip spelling. C is also still working on one page a day of Daily Grams.

As far as first grade is going...E is currently flying through her math, too. Danny hasn't done math with her for a good 4 or 5 weeks, but she's been working almost daily in it with me, in addition to timing her on her flash cards. I would like to take this moment to say to my husband, "I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!" Yes, I know that is not a proper, humble Christian attitude, but I really did tell him so. LOL The way I see it, I had 2 options. I could have nagged him every day, and angered him, or I could have just quietly noticed he was not doing math like he promised, and done it myself. E's handwriting has also improved by leaps and bounds. It is so pretty (if she has lined paper) I wanted to actually scan some of her work to post here, but my printer/copier/scanner has died, and I no longer have a way to get photos on here. Oh, wait...I have a digital camera, so I guess I could. We'll see if I actually get around to it. LOL

Anyway, E has had a wonderful week. She has worked VERY hard, and done tons in all her books. It's hard to break it down, but I am definitely seeing a big improvement in her attention-span, and her willingness to sit still and write. Thank you, God!

Still going through some personal strife and issues, but I'm used to that, and my main priority is the girls' education, happiness, and well-being. We had an excellent week. Blessings to you all!

Week in Review

This has been a horrible week for school. C had such a busy weekend last week with her best friend. She had fun, but virtually no sleep, and tons of sugar. By the time Sunday night rolled around the poor thing could barely hold her eyes open, so I let her sleep in Monday till 10:00! That gave me time to really do a good cleaning on the house, but because it was such a late start I skipped science and history. We're also having finanical and family issues here at our house, and I've not been in much of a mood to be cheerful and do much school. E only did 2 days this week, and C slid by with just math, spelling, grammar, english, and Bible. Both girls finished a light unit in CLE Bible. C finished the 1st one of the year, E finished #4 for 1st grade, so only has one left for the whole year. We only did 1 day of science, and 2 days of history. I did finally begin C's lit program. I intended to only do 4 book studies this year, and this is an extra class, so we aren't behind. She is loving it, as I knew she would.

Not much else to blog about. I'll return to my normal, cheerful, overly-wordy self soon. Blessings to all!

Happy Birthday, Wee One!

I maybe shouldn't call you, "Wee One" anymore; you're almost as tall as me. You're ELEVEN years old today. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

A friend calls you an "old soul". I don't think so, at all, although I can see where your personality would lead others to think that. You've been the same since labor. You took your time getting out into this world, but when you decided to finally show up, the "pushing" stage of labor lasted all of one minute. I see myself in you every day. You may look almost exactly like your Daddy, but your personality is just, ME.

An old soul is someone who has maybe seen more than they should have, lived through more than they should have at a young age. You come across as much more mature than girls your age. Well, you HAVE seen more and been through way more than I would ever have liked for you to see. I suppose to someone who doesn't live with you day in and day out you seem mature, because you have learned to patiently wait while others go through their problems, you have learned empathy and compassion. I remember when you were a baby, one of the most important things I wanted to instill in you were these qualities, and I can at last see that I did succeed. I've worked hard to raise a daughter that cares about others, cares about even the littlest animals, and you do. I see my mother in you every day, but when I'm really thinking about it, like now, I realize how similar you are to me. When I was a child, people always said *I* was an old soul, and it made me so mad. LOL No, I wasn't...I just had a lot to deal with and a lot of maturity pushed onto me ...just like you, sweet C.

You are the helper around the house. You are the comforter to others. You're slow to warm up to people...but once you decide they're safe you're all love. This is exactly how I wanted you to be. I didn't neccesarily want you to have to see many of the things you've had to see, but I'm glad you're not sheltered from reality. Life is hard, some people are not good, and much better to learn how to deal with that while still young and the person who loves you (and your sister!) more than anything else in this world can help you properly deal with issues. Just because life is tough doesn't mean it isn't great. Just because people are mean doesn't mean ALL people are. You've learned daily that promises are meant to be kept, honesty is the only way to go, and loved ones are meant to be cherished.

I also see the other side of you...you get silly, but not as silly as me yet. (Took me 23 years to get to where *I* could be silly around others.) You get mad and pouty when you're tired or embarrassed. You are NOT good at sharing, and while you've learned to cherish just about everyone else in our world, you have far to go on that with your younger sister. Unfortunately, this is also me. LOL You're sarcastic, which I love. You have an attitude big-time, and I don't think that's because you're approaching adolesence...considering you've always had it, and your mother may have just a tiny bit of an attitude,too. LOL I don't mind sarcasm and an attitude, as long as you can control them, and not abuse these qualities to harm people.

C....you're real, and honest, and have a big heart, and those are the most important things to have. I'm SO proud of you, and I love you SO much. Even though you're only eleven, you really are my best friend. I hope you have a wonderful birthday, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. May God continue blessing you as you enter another year on this world.

Feeling Nostalgic

These pictures were taken within the first month my husband and I knew each other. The one of the girls and I dancing, I was 25, April (in front) was 6, and B was 3. This is just one of my all-time favorite pictures. Those 2 step-daughters of mine and I used to have SO much fun!


Anyone recognize THIS handsome guy? Yep, that's how D looked when I met him. (Excuse my finger in the picture...I had a tendency to always do that. LOL) Easy to see the attraction. Well, that and the fact he would NOT leave me alone once he met me, so I finally agreed to go on one date with him just to shut him up. LOL