Am I the only one that never seems to be caught up on what I call my scrapbook posts? The reason I started blogging in the first place: to document our lives...Here are a few of the things we did last week-not in any order at all...
Jake and Corey, after what seemed like hours of playing the Wii, decided to take a break and put their imaginations to work (and I didn't even tell them it was time to turn it off. That makes me happy.). They made up a super hero they wanted to be and drew it. Then they explained to each other what they could do and what their powers were. Boys are pretty cool when they aren't being gross and crazy. :)
This is Jake smiling after we did math. That is right he was smiling. Even though he loves math he doesn't usually smile after it because there are so much better things you can be doing when you are at home. That is one of the things that makes homeschooling tough-you are home...where all your toys live. But after this fun math lesson we are hooked on a book I heard about on
Latter Day Homeschooling (which is on of the websites you could sit and read for hours). It is called
Family Math and we are doing it on Fridays to take a break from the norm. We learned about tangrams and made up puzzles for one another to solve.
AND my genius husband found the most amazing website called
Khan Academy. You have got to check it out. This very cool guy had made awesome videos that explain math in a way that even I may learn to like. Have you ever heard of
lattice multiplication? You probably have because you aren't as dumb as me in math. It is pretty cool. I want whatever this guy is using to make these videos. I have no need for it, but I want it.
We had a 3 in 1: play, school, chore the other day and it wasn't planned. Those are some of the best teaching moments. We decided to play with action figures in the sink and pretend they were discovering a sea that no one had ever swam in with creatures that were never seen before (Ben 10 aliens and GI Joe action figures + Jake's imagination is always interesting.). When we were just about done we made whirl pools to see if it would drag the action figures around. It did-which was pretty cool. We also watched as funnels (I can't think what they are called right now so I am just going with funnel....you know when it looks like a tornado in the water?) were made as we drained the water from the sink. I took pictures of the funnels but uploaded the wrong one so the picture below is Jake making the whirl pool with his action figure in his hand when we dropped it in after it zoomed around the sink with the current.
Then we shined the sink with some comet (I prefer Bar Keepers Friend-have you ever used that? It is awesome for shining sinks and cleaning glass stove tops. Try it you will love it!) Jake was surprised how shiny the sink was after. We were multitasking and we didn't even plan it. :)
I no longer feel guilty about sitting for long periods of time on Pinterest. I have done a couple of the ideas I thought were cool so it is worth the time I
waste spend on it! I made these cute little lists of the basic chores we have to do to pick up each room in the house. I liked the idea even though Aaron said: "Don't you just know what you have to do by now?" Yes dear husband I do, but it is fun to look at these cute little laminated (I love to laminate) lists (I love lists) and check off what I have done. Not to mention it reminds we to smile while doing it. See how the little 1950's housewife is smiling while she cleans? Plus I can give one to Jake and tell him to go forth and clean the living room while I clean the kitchen and he won't have any excuse about not knowing what to do. It is actually much more fun to guess how long it will take to clean a room and see who was closer after we clean it together. :)
We also did this cool idea to the left. You use a ketchup bottle to have pancake mix on hand and ready to use anytime. Jake has been really into making breakfast for the past couple of weeks and today (yes I these pictures are actually from today) he made a special heart shaped pancake for Nee. She is going to spend a little over a month with Tina (my sis) and her family in the Ukraine, so Jake wanted her to have a special breakfast.
This is Jake's pancake. It was extra large with chocolate and peanut butter chips in it. Doesn't really sound like breakfast...more like dessert!
On Tuesday we went to our local library for "Ghosts Galore!" An author from the Carolina's named Terrrance Zepke was there to share some ghost stories from her lasted book called
Ghosts of the Carolinas for Kids that we got. She autographed it and wrote "Jake read with all the lights on!". (Later we talked about how when ever someone asked her if ghosts were real she laughed and kind of talked about something else. She did a great job of telling the stories in a way that wasn't scary and let you know that although she thinks ghosts are an interesting idea she may not actually believe in them. :) She travels the two states and gathers research on "hauntings" that people claim to have happened and shares them with us! She was really funny and not only does she love ghost stories but she loves PIRATES. We have been searching for some books about Black Beard (he was a real pirate that I am sure you have heard of that terrorized the Carolina coast and his ship sunk and he was killed in NC) because Jake really wants to do a project about him. Ms. Zepke also wrote a book called
Pirates of the Carolinas that we got that not only is full of Black Beard facts, but also 3 other pirates of the Carolinas.
Since Nee is going to be gone for Thanksgiving we decided to celebrate it with her before she left. it was a "quick" Thanksgiving dinner as far as preparations. We used Stove Top stuffing, potato pearls, and Jiffy corn bread mix. It wasn't the full blown meal but it worked! Papa isn't going this time because he is going to go in March when Saku turns 8 and gets baptized.
We couldn't resist letting Sadie have her first Thanksgiving meal with us. She got the left over potato pearls and the turkey skin and fat. I have never seen her eat so fast!
We were domestic last week too: My mom and I canned meat! Sounds gross and I have to say it looks gross but it tastes great. Aaron just walked in eating the homemade cookies I promised I would make him 2 weeks ago and finally did. He looked at the picture to the left and said: "Oh look a picture of a jar of raw meat." He doesn't understand the hard work that goes into canning, the mess it makes in the kitchen, the danger of exploding canners. He doesn't understand that I have to document this so that
our posterity will now I am not a complete slacker. Women in 2011 do can! Not as much as women of the past did-they had to. We do it for our family...And so we can brag and feel like we are awesome when it comes to being prepared...even if it is just every now and then. Mom posed for a picture. She was humoring me, isn't that nice of her?
It was still boiling after we took it out of the canner for at least an hour. We remembered (it has been a LONG time since we have canned meat) that you need to kind of stuff it in a little so it will be more full. Next time... I know it looks gross but seriously pour this in a pot with the juices, add a little flour to thicken it, along with potatoes, carrots, and an onion and you have the best beef stew EVER! Canned red potatoes are amazing too....
On Saturday we went to Spartanburg for the county fair. Nana works at it every year and got us tickets to get in and a wrist bracelet for Jake to go on all the rides as much as he wanted-all for free! Thanks Nana!!!! We had a blast. Jake and Della must have ridden a million rides and I of course have the pictures to prove it.
I just realized I didn't warn you ahead of time this was going to be a long post with lots of pictures...Sorry. This is your official warning. Matt (Aaron's little bro), Jeremy (bro-in-law), and Aaron are the guys leaning against fence. See the empty swing? Della is right behind it and Jake is behind her.
I also just realized I don't really have to tell you about every picture of the fair...You are on your own from here on out. Jake, Della, and sometimes Matt are in the picture of the rides somewhere. You can think of this kind of like a where's waldo.
Except this one on the left! Matt and Erin are having a baby!!! They told us while we were eating lunch. Erin said: "We brought dessert!" and put the cake down on the table. How cute it that? Congrats guys. I am calling a girl and it isn't just because we have the only boy grandson so far either. :)
Papa Harmon's hand carved goat won a second place ribbon.
We finished off the evening at Nana and Papa's with a fire and roasting marsh mellows.
Last Tuesday we went to the Rain-aissance Festival...I mean Renaissance Festival. We had about 2 hours with misty rain and the rest with full on getting drenched rain...It was still fun and spent the week before studying the Renaissance and even making our costumes to wear. It was pretty fun and educational. We even had a girl stop Jake and I to take our picture. We must have looked pretty authentic. :) It is usually only open on the weekends, except a couple of school days during the week. You could tell who the homeschoolers were because we were in costume.
Random picture upload in the wrong spot! Jake lost another tooth last week while eating his lunch. The tooth fairy still has not brought him his money for it yet...He keeps reminding me but I keep forgetting. :)
I have to brag just a little...When the King and Queen went by with their royal court everyone was supposed to bow in the Renaissance fashion. Those of us who did our research (they had a packet of info. that you could down load to learn all about the Renaissance. We had fun reading it and learning how they spoke, dressed, and lived.) knew that we needed to bow or curtsy. Well any way, the Queen saw me curtsy and she said: "Very well done", as she bowed her head back at me. It is amazing what being in costume and playing the part can do-it makes you feel like you are there living in that time period. I am sure any Renaissance maiden would have been very excited if the Queen spoke to them personally. :)
The joust was very cool, even though we were sitting in the pouring rain. Our knight to cheer on was "Sir Max A Million" and though he was not the "good knight" he was much more fun to watch and seemed to be very "knightly". Is that a word? The other knight was a skinny guy that didn't really look very tough. Our knight really
looked like a knight. It didn't hurt that he was very handsome either. :)
That is a rain drop going by Jake's nose-not snot. I promise. We couldn't resist the cool Jester hat. It was only $6 and it kept his head dry...kind of...Can you tell the fun was wearing off.
This is the view of the mass exodus at about 1:00 from the safety of my umbrella. A lot of people gave up and called it quits about the same time we did.
As we were leaving I took a shot of the people biding us farewell. You can really see how bad it was raining in this shot. The guy was saying to me: "Madam do not point that cannon at us!..." He said something else but I was too busy laughing. They are in character at all times and do not reference things from our time out right. He meant cannon as in a weapon...but also a hint to the camera brand Canon. I know it was too far away for him to see, but my camera really is a Canon. :)
