Week in review

Ok so this week was a little better. :) Maybe we'll get back into a routine by, oh Jan or Feb. hehe It is hard enough getting back into a routine after "taking a break for the summer" but after taking a break from sit-down-book-learning for a few years, it is REALLY hard to get back into things.

I had hoped to do some geocaching this past week, but the weather was not all that great for being outside. The temps were low but the humidity was just ridiculous! I felt miserable just going out to get the mail. Our upcoming move (no clue as to where yet, but we are staying in the same town just really need to get out of this apartment!) is looking like it will be Nov or later. We're going to have stay here at least another month. The places we've been looking at just aren't nice on the inside. And while we hate living here, moving into a new shitty place just to get out of another one isn't going to work. So the search continues!

On the school front, here's what we did:

We have everything (or will after I go shopping for the last few items this weekend) for chemistry, so Mon will start on that finally. My Home Science Tools order came in on Thursday right before I had to head out for my weekly MNO. (A bunch of us went to see The Help, great movie! We were all crying, and a group of 8 ladies crying together is quite a scene! We all looked like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer coming out of the theater. hehe) So anyways, back to chemistry... I should have lots of fun reports next week on our experiments. We're looking forward to getting started.

Math - Jake finished book 1 of the Key to Algebra. He breezes right through most of it and actually went ahead and finished this coming weeks work as well. As for the geometry, he only did the minimal amount he had too. LOL There are 8 books in the set but we only have the first 3. Not sure if I'll have him do them all or not. I just wanted him to have a little bit of geometry, so if we do more it might be next year.

Writing - This weeks lesson was on Parts of Speech. He had to copy out the sentences and label the parts of speech. Not the boys most favorite way to spend his time. LOL But he got through it ok and didn't do too bad.

Grammar - Not much to say here, he finished up his 5 lessons for the week.

Economics - Same here, Chapter 3 read and questions answered. These chapters and questions are usually pretty short, so he gets them finished up quickly.

Art - He finished up his chapter reading, but didn't get the Artist Bio pages started. So he can either do them over the weekend, or first thing Mon.

He also finished up a "small" amount of his geography work. Why he is dragging his feet on this is beyond me. *sigh*

Another thing I wanted to note is the reason I do not mention Amanda in my posts is because she has basically "finished" homeschooling. But she isn't quite ready for taking classes at the community college yet either. So she is actually doing some things at home as well. She needs some math review so we are working on that. But she also wanted other work so she is doing the art lesson along with Jake. Plus she is doing a Shakespeare unit study and some other Language Arts "classes" (vocabulary and writing). And of course reading history books. We have to go digging through the boxes of books I've already packed up because apparently one of her fathers military dictionary type books was packed away by mistake. And she needs it out.

So that's out week. Hopefully I'll have picture to add in next week. :) Of chemistry and hopefully some nice Fall scenes.

Poe & Pumpkin

So far so good... I've been able to do something Halloween-y every day so far. Although yesterday might be stretching it a bit, but who cares. LOL

Oct 4 - was our homeschool groups's picnic. I usually do a NBTS picnic sometime the end of August or beginning of September, but with the move this year I just didn't get to plan it. So the owner of our homeschool group suggested a picnic where the newer members can join in, plus dads. So it was sort of a combined picnic.

As for what I did Halloween-like yesterday, I ate "poison" brownies one mom brought. We had a lovely day outside with friends and enjoyed the crisp Fall air. And I even ate some candy corn last night. ;)

Oct 5 - Today I took 2 frames I had that I really didn't like the color of and sanded them down and repainted them black. I just used some acrylic craft paint as I didn't want them to look glossy like spray paint looks. I had printed a picture of Egdar Allan Poe in black and white, made a mat and then placed both into one of the frames. Then I added 2 googly eyes. :) It looks pretty cool.

And here is the pumpkin roll recipe I use every year. You can see pictures of one we made last year here: Pumpkin Rolls

Cake:

2/3 Cup Pumpkin (we use the pumpkin pie filling because it has more seasoning to it)

3 eggs

1 Cup sugar

3/4 Cup flour

1tsp each salt, baking soda, and cinnamon

Line cookie sheet with wax paper, spray with Pam. Combine all ingredients, spread evenly on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Let cool about 5 minutes or so, then cover with a dish towel, flip cake onto towel & remove cookie sheet and was paper. Sprinkle well with powdered sugar, roll up (in towel) and put in the freezer to cool completely.

Filling:

8oz cream cheese

2 TBS butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 Cup powdered sugar

1 whole tub (8oz) cool whip

Cream together. Unroll cake, sprinkle again with powdered sugar & spread filling over cooled cake. Roll (sprinkle more powdered sugar on the outside of the roll while rolling, to help from tearing) and wrap in foil.

December Photo Challenge

I saw this on another blog and thought it'd be fun to join in. I am a few days late, but better late than never. :)