Working Through the Summer

     We finally picked our books back up this week. After a long break from books we are now back on track. We haven't jumped full fledge back in to our books, but we did get some Bible lessons done, along with some reading in our Library Read Aloud, and Literature.
      We are only in to  the third chapter in our Literature of "A Tale of Two Cities" but both children appear to be enjoying it. Earlier this year my daughter was not too fond of the Literature selections brother had chosen so we didn't finish the selection. I think this one will be a go.
     They also worked on their biographical book reports on Charles Dickens this week. Daughter finished hers, but brother still has about one more day of work. Beings daughter wasn't too fond of "The Iliad" we began just reading books about Charles Dickens or by him and turned our Literature in to a study of his life. Maybe next week we can pull in some more of our subjects.
     They both left last night going to a youth service about 4 hours away and will be gone the entire weekend. Happy for time alone with my hubby, but will sure miss my little darlings. That sounds so funny calling them that when one is about to be 14 and the other one 13. Oh well, they will always be my babies.
     I am working on losing weight again and so far it is coming along real well. I weigh in tomorrow for the third week of weighing in.
     Next week my daughter and I are going to sit down and write out her Home Economics requirements  for next year. She will check off each item on the list as it is completed and when all items have been done then she will receive her credit for Home Ec.
     Currently, I am reading lots of books on different diets, grasping nuggets from different one's. So far the one about the three hour diet is probably my favorite. I know that is the one I have been using for an outline of my daily intake and I am losing weight so that gives it a plus for me. I have also gotten encouragement from "The Biggest Loser Ever" diet book.
     I think this about wraps up our week. Not much more is going on around here. Hope all of you are having a great week and have a wonderful weekend.
     Check out some more great blogs over at Weird Unsocialized's weekly wrap up.

Weekly Wrap Up 5 & 6: Fitness, Couponing, & New Job

In Our Life This Week: still trying to adapt to our new schedule with Mama's new job. We could probably get adjusted if we didn't have all sorts of extras tossed up in the midst. I'm sure all will work out in time.

As For Our Schooling: we are accomplishing what we can get to under the pressure of adjustments, Saxon Algebra 1/2, Apologia: Physical Science, Literature (Oliver Twist), Shurley English 7, & some home economic skills.

What I Am Praying For This Week: the healing for several people in our church. Many are sick and afflicted in their body. I know Jesus took care of all healing when He took those stripes. So, I claim healing for all of us in Jesus name.

Getting Fit: ok, I've procrastinated long enough this year. I have to buckle down and lose 20 lbs. before the end of the year. That was my goal at the beginning of the year. Time is running out so I had best get on the ball.

Couponing: shelves are beginning to be restocked due to a few weeks of couponing. two or three more weeks and the shelves will look great.

What I'm Thankful For: I thank God that my Mom began couponing and let me see how much we could benefit from it.

Couponing has some work involved in it, but has been such a blessing to our family.

Finances: about to begin on Dave Ramsey's program again to work some bills down.

I think this will about wrap up our week. Hopefully, I will be able to get around to some of your blogs in the next day or two. I miss visiting all of your blogs seeing how you and your families are doing.

Linking up with Kris over at the Weekly Wrap Up. Drop over and check out some of the other great blogs. You will be blessed. Happy Homeschooling!

Weekly Wrap Up Week 4

     In Our Life This Week: It has been a wonderful productive week. The end of the week has turned out a lot brighter than it began. We began the week thinking we may have a hurricane, but thankfully, for us, it moved over and we didn't receive anything except for a few rain showers. I'm so sorry for those that did get the storm.

     In Our Homeschooling This Week: My son finished 2 Saxon Algebra 1/2 lessons & my daughter finished 2 1/2 lessons. Bible (God's Amazing Creation) and Literature (the reading of Oliver Twist) are moving right on track.

     History consisted of us reading a few more pages in our Josephus book and notebooking some pages to go along side it. As we read the Josephus book, we are reading the book of Genesis from our Bible to see how history lines up with it. This week we learned that the first musical intsrument, Martial arts, & Blacksmiths all came from the descendants of Cain.

     Our school goal this year is to turn in one Current Event per month, so both of them turned in one today. Here's a pic of my son's:

Matthew's current event about a Christian girl under persecution.

 

 

     English was on a light note this week. We did one Shurley English lesson & attended the online class given by Alpha Omega on Thursday.

     Apologia Physical Science has us studying Newton's Laws of Motion. We are learning all about how friction & force affect inertia laws.

Today was a big coupon day so we did not get to our American Sign Language.

Here are a few pics of our Apologia Physical Science experiments for Newtons Law of Motion, 10.1 two inertia experiments: 

 

Here we are spinning a raw egg & a hard boiled egg. the raw egg did not like to spin & when we stop it quickly, then let it go, the raw egg starts moving again because the liquids inside were still moving.

 

We loved the hard boiled egg! It would spin on its side if you spun it slowly, but if you would spin it quickly the egg starts on its side & then it stands up on its own.

 

In this experiment we lay a coin on an index card over a jar. Now we pull it off the jar slowly the first time & the coin moves with the index card. Then we snatch the index card off quickly the second time & the coin stays in the same spot, then drops down.

 

Enrichment: This is what I call any extra work that my children do outside there norm for school.

     This week was the big week for our family developed BrOOK-it Program. Today was the deadline date for them to turn in to me a folder with a title page of the book they had read, an introduction paragraph to the book, 12 vocabulary words with definitions, & a conclusion paragraph to the book. Both were successful with extra in their folder. My son had a page with quotes he had read in his book, and my daughter took it upon her self to just write an essay about her book. I'm proud of the both of them.

My daughter's essay needs some grammar corrections so we plan to let that be her English for next week.

Page 1 - Title page.

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6 - Vocabulary words.

 

 

 

Pics of the BrOOK-it Program:

Matthew showing you his McDonald's Spicy Chicken Bites coupon for a clean room.

Sarah showing you her McDonald's Spicy Chicken Bites coupon for a clean room.

Sarah with her BrOOK-it prize, Little Ceasar's Pizza & breadsticks.

Matthew with his BrOOK-it prize, Little Ceasar's Pizza & breadsticks.

My son has been making models of old war ships this week. Here are some pics of them:

Matthew's replica of a galley ship that "so conveniently" floats in tub water.

 

Matthew says, "this one is called a Spanish War Sloop." Believe me they are both tried, tested & water ready!

     As for the hurricane projects that were began this week, they are still a work in progress. I'll post pics of them later. My daughter had to purchase some more supplies for her diorama so she had to put hers on hold until we went to town today.

People I've Been Praying for This Week: everyone that was in the path of Hurricane Isaac.

     This post has been tremendously long so I'll wrap it up. I'm linking up with Kris for the Weekly Wrap Up. Drop over there to see some more great weeks of other families. I know you will be blessed, I have been. Happy Homeschooling!

Weekly Wrap Up Week 3

     In Our Life This Week: things are about to get caught up from all of the side-tracking that was pitched to us. My children are really working hard on their school work this year, even my reluctant son. Both of them finished their week's work, along with the three days work we missed last week. That's a wa hoo! around here. For those of you that might not be familiar with a wa hoo, that is a thumbs up.

     In Our Homeschooling: Both finished their Saxon Algebra 1/2 lessons. My son does 2 lessons a week & my daughter does 3per week.

Matthew at his desk working on Saxon Algebra 1/2.

     We finished up Module 9 in our Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science on An Introduction of Acceleration. We have felt like detectives in this module trying to determine the speed of different things. Then when we would add velocity (speed & direction) it would seem like a crime scene trying to determine who was going what direction & what speed each person was traveling, we've had a time investigating.

Module 9 experiment: Matthew standing on a step ladder & dropping a ball to be timed with a stopwatch so they can determine the distance from the ceiling to the floor.

     For Literature, we are moving right along in Oliver Twist. Maybe I can get a pic or two of a portion of their outlines to show how well they have picked up on an outline.

     Spelling/Vocabulary went well, except for the day my son informed me that he did not know some of the words I had given him. I laughed and said, "I don't want to give you words you already know. I want your mind to grow & feast on some new words." He did his work, but I don't really believe he like Mommy's answer.

     We began a new book this weekfor our Bible study, that I obtained the title from another HS Mom's list of curriculum, of which I am so greatful, thanks.

     We feel like we are going to enjoy this book. This first week has been slow about getting us into the scriptures, but it looks like next weeks lessons are going to have us digging.

     We only did one Shurley English lesson this week, but we also participated in an online English class through Alpha Omega so that gave us two English lessons for our week. It was our first time participating in one of their online lessons and my children really enjoyed it. They are doing a free class every two weeks on Thursdays, every other week until Dec. Today's lesson was for 7th to 12 grade on clauses and phrases. The next lesson is suppose to be on nouns for elementary grades. The teacher talks, gives examples of sentences. goes over the parts with the children, & then gives a sentence or gets your child to type in a sentence with certain requirements that the teacher has given. If a child puts a sentence on there that does not meet the requirements the teacher goes over it in a very nice way without bringing any kind of shame to the child to show everyone what should have been done. The teacher just uses that sentence for teaching. The class lasts 30 minutes. Although it did go over today about 5 or 10 minutes.

     As for our History this week, we chose not to open a book. We wanted to catch up from last week so we left history off so we wouldn't be so pushed.

     Growth Moments: Mommy has had a couple of sad moments this week. My children's entire school years I have worked on getting them to an independent study level. My daughter has obviously reached that point. She has asked for very little help from me this week (sniff, sniff, my baby's growing up, sniff, sniff). I did not realize how I would feel when they did become independent (sniff, sniff, she's only in the 8th grade, doesn't she need me, sniff, sniff). Here's a pic of Ms. Independent working without Mom, not needing Mom, Mom trying to offer help, but not being accepted;

Sarah working independantly.

Sarah sitting on couch and in deep thought over her schoolwork.

     Pre School Years: Here are some pics of my dear sweet little nephew working on his "cool work" as he calls it:

Daniel's "O, C, L." Not bad for his age. He loves to have school on our dry erase board.

Here he is playing & constructing with giant Lego blocks. His Uncle E had to help him build a big garage for his trucks & cars.

Daniel is studing real hard at the piece in his hand. "Hmmmm, what should I do with it?"

Daniel with a well deserved piece of chicken for a good student. Yum, yum!

     He never puts an "S" on any words that he says with "S". We have to drink milk hakes around hear. And one day they even had to have a herry on them. He can now say cherry. Although, the first time he asked for a herry I had to call his Mom and aske her what he wanted on his milk hake.

     I think that about wraps our week all except for the Park Day we will have tomorrow with our homeschool group.

     Linking up with Kris over at the Weekly Wrap Up. Happy Homeschooling Everyone.

The HMJ/Weekly Wrap Up

     In Our Life For the Past Two Weeks: Last week we had to go take S. A. T. tests so after that we did not do any schooling. The weather was beautiful so we enjoyed our back yard.

     This week the weather has been beautiful and we would have loved to have spent the week again out doors, but I figured we might better do our duties and work on our school work so out side time came after school. Other than the norm of every day life, not anything spectacular has happened.

     In Our Home Schooling: We began Module 8 in our Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science. This is the second Module about weather. Before last week when the weather was so beautiful my children have had a lot of time to study the clouds and the weather around them because it was raining every day, or every other day. There's not any thing like first hand experience to educate. They even had the opportunity to see a tornado coming down from a cloud. Thank goodness it went back up in to the clouds. They were riding with my mother-in-law when they saw it. When they returned to where their daddy & I was we got our ears full of the excitement of weather.

     Math has become fun in my house. We have finally made it to the day when math is not like pulling teeth around here. We are learning so many different things in our Saxon 8/7 math, but Ratio & Proportion has become by far my children's favorite types of problems. Thanks to the pnemonic, "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally," they are having no problem with the order of opperations in the Algebraic expressions.

     Literature/English/Art has been great for my son. We are reading the book "Johnny Tremain." After we finish our reading each day they paint a picture about some part of the reading. Then, they have to write a paragraph about the picture/days reading. At first my son was having a problem with letting his writing be a bit choppy. We would have to sit down, read each sentence, & add/change the words to make his writing flow smoothly. The past three or four paragraphs he has done completely by himself. He is also doing a superb job with putting a topic sentence & drawing his paragraph to a close. Everything has an even flow from beginning to end. I'm seeing improvement in his writing skills.

     For history we read the book "Our Constitution: I Know America" by Linda C. Johnson. This book is small, but informational. It does a great job of breaking the Bill of Rights down on a very low level so that they are easily understood.

     My daughter had sewing lessons this week. She has been wanting to make a quilt from a small quilt top that she had acquired. My mother-in-law quilts, so she has been giving lessons to my daughter on a small quilt square before she starts her quilt top. I'm not sure who is more excited, my daughter or my mother-in-law that my daughter is wanting to learn to quilt. Here's a few pics of the sewing lessons:

     My daughter has decided that she likes quilting much more better than crocheting. It only took her one lesson to determine this.

     What I'm Thankful for This Week: that my children came through their S. A. T. tests with confidence. They were not intimidated by them.

     What we are cooking this week: southern food, collard greens with corn bread, pork steak, corn casserole, lima beans,red beans & rice with CONECUH sausage, bacon egg & cheese sandwiches for breakfast, & of course a bit of fast food style, pizza & french fries.

     I think that will about give you a peak at our home schooling. I'm linking up with the HMJ & the Weekly Wrap Up. Drop over to these links to enjoy some more great blogs. You will be encouraged.

Another Week Down

    In My Life This Week: I began the week by giving my Sweetheart a small gift for Valentine each day. I had read an article about being a marriage warrior, one who is for marriage so I decided to take the week to show my children that you have to work at a marriage to keep it. Each day I just gave my husband a little small gift as a token of my love, 
Monday: a monkey balloon that said I love you with a small bag of chocolate peanut butter hearts,
Tuesday: a Valentine pig with a top hat on (piggy bank) with some chocolate coins to let him know that I considered him a treasure to me,
Wednesday: a little book with love poems & quotes in it with a heart with the little candy hearts in it that said "Be Mine" on it,
Thursday: I give him a card expressing my feelings of how he has been my best friend with a small cardboard heart that had a few pieces of chocolate in it that said "Friends Forever" on the front of it, today he is getting a little set of love birds that are kissing with some more chocolate hearts with a note that tells him "I'm saving all my kisses just for him." I found all of these cute little gifts at our local Dollar Tree, very inexpensive, but enough of thought behind it to get the point across that after 13 1/2 years I am still in love with him.
    To my amazement, on Wednesday I began receiving gifts, not that I was looking for them, but I did. The love still remains on both sides. I told my children that is the way a marriage is suppose to be, love coming from both spouses. Love is not a one sided relationship.
    In Our Home Schooling: we had a great week in math, yes, in math. We have done a math lesson every day this week, hurray! Only a bit in our Government study, but almost an entire Module in our Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science. We have been learning about the Lithosphere & the earth's magnetic field this week. We did our experiments for the Module & will be watching some videos today.
    We have not been doing any formal grammar so we decided to pull out our Simply Grammar book this week & did a couple of exercises in it. Most of the time, we do this verbally.
     I would have to say though that Literature has been the hot subject around here. We have been reading "Little Men" & the entire family is enjoying it. I am loving the way that lots of character traits are being brought out in this book.
    What I'm Thankful For This Week: that I serve a God that is big enough to handle any situation. Praise be to my God!
    On Another Note: my daughter has had the privilege to be one of the mail Valentine birds that delivers gifts to our Senior citizens in our church. It has been a tremendous treat for her. She has come home every day with a new story to tell about what one of them did or something they said when she delivered. I'm not sure who's having more fun this week, the Seniors who are receiving their gift each day, or my daughter who is having a blast watching them receive their gift. She has made some new friends this week. Some friends where she can gain much wisdom should she desire.
    Question For The Week: What did your 7th & 8th grader's school year look like? Curriculum?
Places We're Going/People we are seeing: we finished up our week with a youth service tonight. We had 45 there, that's good. It was a wonderful time of fellowship.
    I think this will about sum up our week. Until next time, Traci
Linking up with the HMJ & Weekly Wrap Up.

Getting Back To Blogging/Schooling/Etc.

Funny

      It has been a while. We got tied up with the holidays & then went straight in to remodeling our house so I haven't had much time for other things. By the time I did my regular household duties, home schooled, & helped with the remodeling not much time was left before I was hunting my bed. We are still not finished with the remodeling, but have slown our pace a bit. It has been very tiresome, but I know I will be so happy in the end. I am already enjoying my new bedroom with a new bedroom suit, (the first new one since we've been married, almost 14 years, yea!).
     As for our schooling we have been studying the Hydrosphere in our Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science. It has been great! The experiments in the book bring so much enlightment in to our studies. They make things just come to life in our Science class. My daughter doesn't like Science very much, but is doing exceptional in it this year & is enjoying it. That's a plus for Apologia.
     We had made us a Literature list at the beginning of the school year so this month we chose Little Men by Louisa May Alcott to read. We are not on track, a bit behind, but we are trudging along in it. Great book!
     Definitely the curriculum is not running us or setting our pace because we are running quite a bit behind on our Saxon 8/7 math. Not that we don't like it or that the children can't do it, just making us pick up the book and working it is the problem. We would much rather be reading something so why bother with a math book. Help us Lord?
     In the past we haven't done a lot of studying on the government so we are working in a couple of books about the Congress, presidents, & the fifty states. I found a book at our local library titled The U. S. Congress by Don Nardo. The book goes back & shows how most of the government branches dirived from the Greeks, which is pulling in our Ancient History. My children are finding out that the Greeks seemed to have been very intelligent. Other than this one book we are reading, the others are just some fun filled fact books with different puzzles, stories, etc. in them. Enough in them to lay a good foundation to a government study. If any of you have used any great studies dealing with this, I am open to suggestions.
     I have to admit, we haven't done a lot of writing lately other than writing our Science lab reports so our Grammar/English has been put on hold.
     As for our house cleaning, we have been keeping up with all of the routines we were trying to establish, like doing the dishes daily, folding & putting all clothes away as soon as they are finished drying, & are now working on the habit of making beds and sweeping the floors on a daily basis. I am still swishing the bathroom from time to time when I go in to take my shower. This seems to be working great keeping the bath facilities decent. Over all the house is remaining presentable should company show up unexpected.
     I think this about brings us up to date so I can get back to blogging. Hope all of you have been having a wonderful time in your home schooling. I plan to get around to your blogs soon to read them.
Also I am going to have another blog give away. Drop back over and check it out. Linking up with the HMJ.

Reading Our Way Through The Season

In My Life This Week:
     I managed to get all of the things on my list done for house cleaning. My hubby dusted the top of the fridge & freezer, cleaned off my bar, & the top of the bread box. I washed all of the bed covers, along with keeping my clothes washed, dried, & folded, & the dishes done every day. Oh, between my hubby, my son & I, we also got my front door covered so we could put the wreath up.
     Our Christmas program at church was yesterday. This year our church chose not to go with the Christmas story (Nativity). We dedicated our program to our Senior Citizens this year & titled it Please Don't Throw Us Away? It was great! We did it with an old poarch scene with several of our Senior citizens sitting on it just talking. They went in to how the government wants to get rid of our elders, how the new generations need the elders to teach them the old paths of prayer & trusting God, oh, it was just great. Then our angels came out & sang Christmas carols. It was simple, but good.

In Our Home School This Week:
     We are still reading through The Secrets of Vesuvius for history. For Literature we finished the version of Robinson Crusoe that we were reading. We have another version in the Great Illustrated Classics so now my children want to read it & do a comparison. The Great Illustrated Classic version looks like it may go in to more detail than the first version we read.

     I'm a firm believer that the more my children read the better their spelling will be. With that in mind we are concentrating on quite a bit of reading during this season. We read two short books this week titled: A Very Marley Christmas by John Grogan & The Miracle Tree by Christobel Mattingley. We also started a Hank The Cow Dog book titled: The Wounded Buzzard On Christmas Eve. My children love reading these books. They always bring lots of laughter into our home.

     No math or English was accomplished this week other than their own writing & counting their own money when shopping.

     That's good though. Life skills have to be learned. We have also been using The Power of a Christmas Prayer to lead us in our family devotions each day & to study the birth of Jesus.

Helpful Home School Tip Of the Week Or Advice:
     Don't stress yourself out during this season over all of the fast living. Accomplish what you can & enjoy the season, especially your family.

My Favorite Thing This Week:
    Was when we saw the power of God come down in our church service & my friend got healed. It was marvelous.

What I'm Reading:
     I finished the first book of the Thomas Kinkade series, Cape Light Novel, I was reading & have started the second one, Home Song.

     I think that about wraps up our week If there is more my mind just isn't thinking of it right now. For more great weeks drop over to the HMJ & check out the fellow bloggers that have joined up. I know you will be blessed by reading about their weeks.
Everyone have a wonderful week!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal Week Wrapped Up

In My Life This Week:
      We slept in Monday morning with no anticipations of school work, just bringing out our Christmas decorations & putting our tree up. We did get our tree up completely by Tuesday evening. My daughter & I worked on getting the tree decorated as daddy & brother was putting up the lights on the outside. With team work both tasks were accomplished. The only thing I have left to do today is hang my wreath on my front door.

Sarah decorating the Christmas Tree.

Elton & Matthew putting up our Christmas Lights on the outside of the house.

The works finished, we have lights!

In Our Home School This Week:
      Between Thanksgiving & Christmas we don't do any strenuous school work so our next few weeks will look light.
     While we were putting up our tree we began listening to the second book in The Red Glove Series by Karen Kingsbury called A Miracle For Maggie. We listened to the first one last year & loved it. It was called Gideon's Gift. It was so enjoyable I put it on our agenda to make sure we read the second one this year. We began that book on Monday & have finished it because my children could not get enough of it. We've just listened & listened & listened this week. They want to listen to the third one now, but I'm not sure what we will do next for our Read Aloud.

     For history we began book 2, The Secrets of Vesuvius, from the Roman Mysteries Series by Caroline Lawrence. There are six books in this series about 4 children who are friends & they are traveling around to different places & living during the Ancient Roman era. I was not familiar with this series, just happened to run across it so we are going to see how it goes. So far we are enjoying it.

     For math this week we used some hands on math. We played Life & the children handled all the money, including figuring the interest when loans were taken out.

     In Literature we are still reading through Robinson Crusoe. We are running a little behind on our schedule we had planned for this year in Literature, but that's OK.

     I did not have any English/Grammar in our lesson plans for this week, but my children have been working on books they are writing. Sometimes when we read a book it inspires my children to write a little booklet similar to it with their own characters. When this happens I use that for our schooling. They write the book, illustrate it, & then we come back in & look at the grammatical structure of it. Sometimes we correct them. Sometimes we just talk about what should have been done. I try not pushing corrections all the time. I don't want to take the fun out of their desire to write. Since I have become more relaxed over their writing I have seen them have a greater desire to write. I am seeing more than usual. I would say that is working for us.

     For Science we worked in our Apologia: Exploring Creation with Physical Science Module 4. We are learning all about water. WE, that's children & Mom are all enjoying the experiments.

Brush the comb thru your hair quickly & hold the teeth toward the stream of water coming from the cup. The static charge pushes the water away from the comb.

Places We Are Going?People We are Seeing:
      Friday we went to see the musical/theatrical play of A Christmas Carol. It was fabulous! We were so blessed. We did not know it, but when we got there our home school group had front row seats, the first three rows. The children were totally captivated during the production. And what was even greater is that the cast came off stage at the end shaking the children's hands & wishing them a Merry Christmas. Here's a few pics of the production.

One of the Historic "Saenger Theatres" presentations, The Christmas Carol.

Here's old Scrooge himself.

     Friday night was our local Christmas fest. We always go there with family every year and walk around to look at all of the booths & my hubby always buys me a "Honey Bee" candle. Pecan caramel is my favorite.
     Saturday was the local Christmas parade. Our church was in it so we road on the floats.
Helpful Home School Tips or Advice to Share:
     Don't get so caught up with school that you & your children can't enjoy the holidays & all the joy that this season brings. Enjoy the season & each other.

My Favorite Thing This Week Was:
       When my hubby & I walked around at the Christmas fest by ourselves. We walked around, held hands, & had some great quality time to chat/laugh together.

I Am Reading:
     Cape Light Novel book 1 by Thomas Kinkade.

     I think this about sums up our week. For more great weeks drop over to WUH & to The HMJ for some more great posts on other home school family's weeks.

Our Week Wrapped UP

In My Life This Week:
    I have had a great time getting ready for the holidays. Thanksgiving is gone now & I have just a few more things to get ready for Christmas. By Tuesday evening I am hoping to have my tree up, the lights on the house, & all of the presents wrapped. We'll see how much is accomplished Tuesday night.

In Our Home School This Week:
    We did not have any planned lessons this week We always take off the week of Thanksgiving. We like to do lots of cooking, free reading, relaxing before the holidays kick in & keep us on the go. So other than a lot of hands on in the kitchen reading recipes, using measurements, or picking up a great book or playing a game we haven't done a lot of formal schooling.

What I cooked This Week:
    We started off the week baking amish bread. It was delicious! My son baked Apple Cinnamon Raisin nut bread while my daughter chose to bake Banana nut with chocolate chips in it. For the last batch they put butterscotch morsels, along with some chocolate chips, & white chocolate morsels. It was good, but very rich.

    For Thanksgiving I cooked a corn casserole, a chicken casserole, 2 pecan pies, 2 peanut butter pies, & a German chocolate cheese cake. The cheese cake was a new recipe, but turned out great. We are adding the recipe to our family recipe files.

Places We Are Going, People We Are Seeing:
    We went to Nanny & Pa Pa's house & got to see lots of aunts, uncles, & cousins. It was such a joy to see some of them beings that most years we only get to see some of them once a year at Christmas. For some reason (which I'm thankful for) lots of the family decided to get together for Thanksgiving.
Went shopping for Black Friday & had a blast! My mother, my 2 sisters, one of my aunts, my hubby, & I went to the Tanger Outlet (a huge shopping place similar to a mall) & hit as many sales as we could, tiresome, but fun.
    My hubby & I started quite a bit earlier than the others as we wanted to get something for our children that was a door buster. So, we started in the middle of the night (not exactly middle, about 8:00p.m. to wait in line, what we won't do for our children, he he he) & met the others at Tanger Outlet around 6:30 a.m. the next morning. We did not get home until about 4:30 in the evening.

I'm Thankful For:
    All the fabulous deals I found on my shopping trip. We really got some great deals on clothing, which my children desperately need (they are growing tooooo fast).
    I'm also thankful I have a husband that gives so much to our family, especially his time. He is so devoted to us & things that we desire, not things we need, but things we desire, you know the things that we don't have to have, but he still goes that extra mile to see that we get them. I'm so thankful for the man that God blessed me with.
    I think this about sums up our week. Hope everyone else had a marvelous week as we did.
To read about some more great weeks drop over & visit Weird Unsocialized for the Weekly Wrap UP & visit The Home School Chick for the Home School Mother's Journal. I'm sure you will be blessed & encouraged from the post you will read.

On Another Note:
    For my Christmas book give away I only have one commenter. It's not going to be very hard to pull a name out of the pot with only one. If you are interested in this drawing please click on this link & leave a comment. I will be selecting the winner ON Monday, November 28, 2011.

My Weekly Wrap-Up & Give-A-Way

In My Life This Week:
    My week began so sweet. I sent my husband an email & asked him on a date to our back porch. He replied back with an acceptance so we slipped out before the children awakened & shared a hot cup of coffee with my favorite liquid creamer, white chocolate mocha, mmm. The week got even sweeter by Wednesday night. Before we went to bed my husband told me he had bought me a gift. "Hmm" my mind was thinking, "I wonder what this is for?" Turns out it was just an I love you and was thinking of you gift. (Wasn't expecting that this close to Christmas, especially since my birthday was only two weeks ago.)
    We have had another couple confiding in us that are having problems in their marriage so my husband & I was talking that they just need to keep the love burning. So while talking about them we started talking about falling in love all over again. That's why my hubby got me my gift. He's so sweet. The road has been rocky at times, but I love him more today than I did 13 1/2 years ago.

Here's a pic of my gift

    I cried when he gave me the cross. The first thing he ever bought me was a sun catcher cross with the words "Love is patient, Love is kind," the cross he gave me this week had those same words with a few more added. 13 years later & he's still got the same thoughts on his mind, me & our love. I'm so blessed.

In Our Schooling This Week:
    I'll just give a quick over view instead of a long report.

  *Math: Saxon 8/7 lessons

  *Literature: Began Robinson Crusoe

  *English: They are liking Robinson Crusoe so much they wanted to write their own story about being on an island by themselves, so that's what we did.

  *History: Read a library book titled Imperial Romans by Jill Hughes.

  *Science: Apologia: Physical Science Modlule 4 & researched the chemical reactions in our Amish Friendship bread starter bag that we are going to be baking next week.
    Our experiment taught us a lot about the energy, pressure, & gases that were in our bag. We learned that temperature & sugar plays an important part in how much our bag reacts. Here's a couple of pics of our bag.

You can see all the gas bubbles forming & coming together in these pictures.

I'm reading This Week:
    I'm actually reading two books at the present moment I am reading a Grace Livingston Hill book titled Crimson Mountain. I read it on my own free time for my pleasure.

    The second book I am reading is A Hope Beyond by Judith Pella & Tracie Peterson from the Ribbons of Steel Series. My hubby and I are reading this at night when we lay down. It is an audio. My husband & I enjoy reading great books together, even if I do slip in a Christian Romance from time to time. Our most favorite ones to read together are history, especially during the Pioneer days.


Give Away:
    I am having another give away on my blog. This one involves a Christmas book, Hot chocolate, & more. Drop over to this link & leave a comment if you are interested in entering. The winner will be selected on November 28, 2011.
I think that about sums up our week. Hope you all have had a great one.
    I'm linking up with Weird Unsocialized & Homeschool Mother's Journal to share our week. For more great weeks in other's homeschools this week, check out these links to see what others are doing.