We have had a really good week around here and it makes me so happy! Aaron has 2 nights left of 3rd shift which is AWESOME! Jake and I found this on our walk the other day:
(yes that is our table outside-kitchen reno's required it for cutting on. It is old and beat up and I am going to repaint it gray when we have a house of our own...hopefully "my house" in SC.)
Only in the South can you find a branch of cotton on the side of the road in a pile of racked up leaves. I have seen it in fields all over but never up close and we had a great time examining it. It is so soft and pretty. :)
Jake had his first piano lesson from Nee and really had fun with it this week. I of course had to take a picture to document the occasion:
Don't be mad I posted this picture of you Nee. She is usually well put together but she is wearing her painting clothes in this shot. Have I mentioned that for the past 3 weeks we have been living in a renovation zone?..I think I have...Aaron and my dad took out the old counter tops in the kitchen and put in a new gorgeous one, a new sink, and put in a back splash. It took longer than expected (as these things usually do) and there were a few mishaps...Like me vacuuming our bedroom one day and when I turned the vacuum off I heard the dish washer sounding a whole lot louder than it usually does. I went out into the kitchen to find water ALL over the hardwood floor. I turned off the dishwasher but still heard water. I opened up the cabinet under the sink to be drenched by a wave of even more water. Jake and I (we were the only ones home) ran and got towels and mopped it up as quickly as we could-after I wrestled with the hose under the sink and found the right knob to turn to turn it off! I then went downstairs into the basement and spent some time frantically moving pictures in frames and other things being stored down there because the water was coming through the ceiling...or floor of the kitchen-whichever you prefer. BUT that happened last week and so this week is good! Not to mention it was an easy fix, not something major as it seemed the moment it was happening. I will get up before and after pictures once the chaos is completely cleared.
Homeschooling has gone GREAT this week which also makes me so happy. :) We have accomplished everything on the list we wanted to accomplish and Jake make a break through with writing today: he actually liked it. That is big for him-he is a math and science guy and he HATES to write. Today was "13 minute Thursday"...I don't know it kind of rhymes...Making up little titles makes writing more enjoyable for Jake. He has been really into a Zelda Wii game that he rented (with a gift card from the local video store he got for Christmas) and has been playing it every possible moment that I would let him. The main character in the video game is a guy named Link and I had Jake write a journal entry as if it was Link writing it. He had fun and it was REALLY good. I was really impressed and so proud of him. He has also been having fun doing a unit study on the "Science of Flight" with Papa G (my dad is a retired pilot) and they have been having a ton of fun with it. We are starting a couple month unit study of the Presidents and US history that I am psyched about. I just finished reading a book about George Washington in preparation that I loved and I am so excited that our local homeschool store (it is a consignment store that rocks. You can use a curriculum and when you are done go and consign it and get some money back! I already had a $7 credit for bringing back the math curriculum I bought and didn't like at the beginning of the year! I used it to buy the George Washington book I read.) carries more of (I have another one on C.S Lewis that is going to be fun to do this summer). Fellow homeschoolers have you seen this series?
If you ever come across them I highly recommend them...or at least the George Washington one. I am sure the others are great too. And I am totally counting it toward my
30 new books to read this year. :)
We went to the library for a change of pace while studying today and the librarian, Ms. Gayle, signed us up for the book club we forgot about next week. And can you believe it-they actually had the book there to check out! We always seem to have to wait for the last minute to check it out 2 days before because it is always checked out. See how good our week is going?
Another awesome thing that has happened is this:
I finally found the perfect shade of gray nail polish I have been searching for, for over a year. (and that is a sneak peak of the new counter top!) Granted my search has be confined to Walmart and Target...but I looked every time I went! I have even purchased 2 others that didn't pass the perfect color test. One was too dark (I still like it and wear it is just wasn't exactly what I was looking for) and the other ended up having a lavender undertone that I couldn't see until I got it home and painted my nails and was a way from the florescent lights of Target..(..That one really bummed me out because it was
$7 but I was so sure it was the right shade that I bought it even though $2.50 is my usual max on nail polish.) I actually got this the end of last week but I am just so happy about it I had to share my joy. It is the simple things that make me happy.
And while I am talking about material things that make me happy...Let me introduce my new bag:
For those of you who have been here a while you may remember I have been searching for a year for a large black bag to replace the one our new (at the time) puppy had chowed the strap off of (you can see the damage
here if you need a reminder. I have searched in vain for a black bag but found this rusty red (? I don't know what else to call it) one that I loved and my mom bought it for me for Christmas. It is the perfect size and it stays on my shoulder great. I was lucky and my sister-in-law got me an adorable brown bag with a C monogrammed on it in a teal color that I love! I haven't taken a picture of it yet (what am I thinking?!) but I will and post it too because cute bags make me happy. :)
What makes you happy? I guess you could call this a Simple Pleasures post...(
Cocoa used to do a link party every Thursday on peoples Simple Pleasures. I miss that Cocoa you should do it again!). I may have to start doing those again because it is a good thing to count your blessings. I have more than I can count and I don't even deserve it! :)
