Holiday Happenings

Been awhile since I've posted and I thought I'd do an update. :) We finally moved! The end of October to be exact. It was a bit rough at first... Amanda is never good about change, so we had about a week before she felt "ok" about living here. She was the one that BEGGED us to sign the lease and then once we moved she wanted to go back to the apartments. (She was like this when we moved into the apartments as well, but I thought it was because we moved from Smithsburg because we HAD to, not WANTED to.) I was very stressed about about various things and that was the icing on the cake. On the plus side of it all, I did lose 10lbs. lol School-wise things are up & down. We started off ok back in Sept. then with the move we kind of slacked off since we were packing and what-not. And since we've been moved & unpacked things haven't restarted yet. The Holidays came up quickly and we were wrapped up in that. We did manage to sneak in a field trip in Nov. We drove to Triangle VA to the Marine Corps Museum. We had a really nice day. There was a LOT to see there.

We've done a bit of baking since early Nov. Cupcakes, pie, coffee cake, and cookies. A LOT of cookies!

Jake also turned 16, so that's why the slice of pie is getting a candle stuck in it. ;) Mid-Dec we attended our homeschool groups Christmas party. We wanted to go since we really aren't "active" in the group much anymore. There aren't many older kids in the group so there just isn't anything going on for my 2. :( But anyways, we went and had a great time. The kids each got a gift from the kids' gift exchange. Jake got a recycled butter box with about 27 tiny wrapped "presents". He had to open each one to find the Gamestop gift card. We had a fun time watching Jake open them. Amanda got a cool Hello Kitty "lunch-box" with 4 Hello Kitty Pez dispensers. I had seen this at AC Moore and told the mom about it. So Amanda was happy about getting that. For the moms gift exchange, anyone participating just brings a gift. we draw numbers and go round choosing or stealing a gift. Whoever gets #1 can go again at the end to steal if they choose. I got #1 (again) this year. My first gift was a bunch of nice ornaments and scented items. It of course was stolen. My 2nd one was a really nice crochet shopping bag. It was stolen. The 3rd time I thought I was picking up some candy or something, but it was a Port City Java gift card, a really cute coin purse and a handmade Golden Snitch ornament. I LOVED it. And I warned everyone if they took it from me I would be stealing it back at the end. So of course, I kept it. :) I had made a really awesome recycled newspaper sparkling tree. I have to make one for myself yet. So hopefully will get that done this week. lol

Amanda and I also made cranberry & popcorn garland for the trees out back. I meant to get this done for the Winter Solstice, but we were a day late. Christmas has come and gone and we had a very nice one this year. Kids got a lot of cool & fun stuff. I guess they were pleased as they both dove into their games and such. lol

Here is sweet little Dwight posing...

Amanda's pile

Jake's loot

Family gifts

Now we just need to figure out what to do for New Year's Eve, besides eating Chinese Food.

Brrrr!

It is so freakin' cold here right now! Winter certainly has slammed into us hard here in MD. Monday it was almost 70* and now this morning it is a toasty 11* (-7* with wind chill).

I am sick. :( Started feeling bad Thursday evening. It hit me all of a sudden. I was fine all day, then by about 8:30 that night I started with a bad sinusy headache, the major nose drippage. then when I woke up Friday morning, I felt horrible. I was feeling much better yesterday, but I guess being out grocery shopping wasn't the smartest thing to do, but hey ya gotta have food in the house. So this am. I woke up and my throat is on fire, I can't talk but a bit of a squeak (tried talking to the cat because no one else is awake). So I am downing hot tea today. Getting ready to make my 2nd cup here in a second.

Last week started our Christmas/winter break. Monday was our homeschool groups holiday party. After much craziness, we made it there. I had invited my mom to come along, but then she ended up not. So that left us without a ride. So we were bummed about having to miss the party. Then after some emails & phone calls back and forth we had a plan. :) One mom would come pick up 1 of of us (Jake) and another mom would come pick up the other 2 (Amanda and I) because she had 2 seats left as her littlest one was sick. :( So she stayed home with her daddy (and he ended up missing his Christmas party so the rest of the family could have theirs). This is what the holiday season is all about... being with your loved ones, lending a helping hand, and making others happy. So we have several people to thank for helping my kids and I get to our Christmas party: Mindy & Kim for the rides; Jim for giving up his party to stay home with poor little Maggie; Marti, Krista and Pat for their offers of help. I love my group of friends.

So then on Tuesday we had our Earth Scouts meeting & book group scheduled. But the weather was totally the opposite of Monday. It was cold, snowing/raining/sleeting. So I went ahead and canceled. The roads were most likely ok, but I didn't want to take that chance. So the kids and I finally got to decorate the tree. And Amanda and I baked some oatmeal raisin cookies.

The rest of the week we had nothing planned until Friday. Which was our co-op's last day for the Fall semester. We were going to build gingerbread houses, but of course we missed that because I woke up sick. But Marti's oldest dropped off our house before taking her sisters to co-op. So another thanks goes out to Emilee. :)

So I was hoping we could have done the house over the weekend with Randy, but I just didn't feel good enough to. I am hoping maybe this afternoon or at least tomorrow I be feeling better. I have a TON of baking to do also. But I did get the grocery shopping and Christmas shopping finished. Our ham is ordered, Randy will pick it up tomorrow evening. So we'll at least have food, maybe not too many cookies though. But I'll at least get a batch of chocolate chip cookies made. hehe

Updates and plans

Last week well, school wise. The kids finished up a lot of work. Grammar and math are finished until January, YAY! We have a little history and science to do yet, and well get that finished up this week. Hopefully by Thursday at the latest.

We didn't have an Earth Scouts or book group meeting last week. Our Earth Scouts had planned to go to a local nursing home to sing and spend some time with the residents. We didn't make it because I had some kind of yucky sinusy thing. I had a constant headache for almost a full week, couldn't sleep, and anytime I tried to do something I just felt horribly tired. But all better now.

Friday we had our co-op. Pretty much it was the last session of classes for this semester. So in Wizardology, the boys worked on understanding wizarding codes. Then they each had to write something in code. 2 of the boys wrote out what they wanted for supper, the 3rd used a form of pig Latin to tell me goodbye. LOL Then in science we used baking soda and vinegar to blow up a balloon. Place the baking soda in the clean bottle, vinegar in the balloon. Attached the balloon to the bottle and pour in the vinegar. The reaction of the 2 will puff up the balloon. It was simple and quick. The kids had fun.

Now, for this week, we'll be finishing up Unit 1 in our science book. We didn't get to work on this today any. We have 3 lessons to do, so we'll have this finished by Thursday. For history, we are behind in our Lewis and Clark unit study. But by the end of the week, we'll have at least 5 lessons out of 9 finished. So once we pick back up in January, we'll be finished that within the first week. Then we're moving on to Pioneers.

The kids are having some teens over Friday for a game day. They wanted to do something before Christmas, and I wanted them to do so before we put up our tree. LOL Otherwise, our small living room gets smaller. And I don't want anyone knocking into the tree.

Usborne Books - Huge Holiday Clearance Sale!!

All books are brand new, used for display only. Most titles can be found here - www.ubah.com/T0639 Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!


30% off Christmas Titles -
Christmas Snap (cards) 6.29
The Christmas Nutcracker (Ballerina Dreams Series), PB 3.49
That's Not my Reindeer (Touchy-Feely book), HB 6.99
Christmas Eve (Touchy-Feely book), HB 8.39
Christmas (You & Your Child activity book), PB 4.15
Christmas Fun (Preschool Activities), HB 9.09
Christmas Carols, PB 4.85
Christmas Sticker Dolly Dressing, PB 6.29
(2) How to Draw Christmas, PB 6.25
The Nutcracker (Picture Book series), HB 6.99

25% off Regular Titles -
That's Not my Kitten (Touchy-Feely book), HB 5.99
Baby Brother (Look and Say book), HB 5.99
Stories of Dolls & Fairies, HB 7.49
Illustrated Stories for Boys, HB 14.99
Trash and Recycling, PB 3.70
What's Happening to Me? (Girls Edition), PB 5.25
Ted and Friends, PB 7.49
Wizard things to Make and Do, PB 5.25
Growing Up (Facts of Life), PB 5.95
First Encyclopedia of Animals, PB 7.49
First Encyclopedia of Seas & Oceans, PB 7.49
Big Cats (Discovery Series), PB 6.70
Birds (Discovery Series), PB 6.70
Art Ideas, HB 12.70
1001 Things to Spot in Fairyland, HB 7.49
1001 Pirate Things to Spot, HB 7.49
On A Pirate Ship, HB 7.49
Little Read Riding Hood, HB 7.49

50% off Clearance Titles -
Egyptians Kid Kit 4.98
Halloween Activities Kid Kit 6.48
Science Activities, Vol 2, HB 6.48
Life on Earth (Starting Point Science), HB 8.98
Making Models, PB 3.48
Polar Wildlife, PB 3.48