Fleur de Lis Homeschool Blog

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Jan. 19-25, 2020 Fix Subaru, Babysitting, SAT prep, Eggs, Flu

Jan. 19-25, 2020

Fix Subaru, Babysitting, SAT prep, Eggs, Flu

Hello Friends,

It was a very cold and snowy week here in Michigan, but we still are way under the normal amount of snow we usually get here.

Flu:

My immune system is really shot. I didn't feel very good all week. I've had a minor flu off and on for three weeks, but on Saturday I faced one of the worst flu's I've ever faced! There aren't words for the 30 hours of anguish I went through...yikes...

Chickens:

The chickens are all doing okay. They didn't get to go outside any this week due to the frigid temperatures. When they are inside all day I have to clean the coop every 4-5 days. I don't know if it is just me, but I just never thought it would be so much work taking care of chickens. Of course, I made them casseroles and rice and special treats most days during the winter and that always adds to how much time I spend on the chickens each day. I've decided to not get any more chickens after these ones pass. I think I have fully scratched the itch to have chickens! Especially since I don't get eggs most days now that they are a few years old. There is so much work on my end and not even a dozen eggs in a week in return.

Subaru:

We have three running vehicles...usually. For the past few months the van has been in the garage for Dh to fix, but then this week our Subaru wouldn't start. It took a little work, but Dh figured out it was the battery that had a problem. It had corrosion built up on the prongs and Dh had to clean that off and put the battery on a charger. It still has an oil leak, but supposedly that isn't a big deal. Dd and I have to share this one car, so we were so glad Dh could get it back running for us. We really need another Subaru or 'snow car' so I don't have to share with her. It is super frustrating to share a car with a busy teenager! I was wanting to look for a job, but I can't do that until Dd has her own car.

Babysitting:

I watched two little girls (4 and 2-year-olds) for a friend in my Thrive Bible study group. She was working from home in the basement and I just played and read to her girls for a few hours on Monday. It was fun being with little girls again.

Hiking with Henry:

Winter in Michigan is the best and worst of times. I just love hiking up and down the hills in our backwoods with Henry!!! It is the highlight of my year! The downfall is the lack of sunshine causes my SAD to go crazy; even after spending my mornings with two SAD lamps on me to ease the dreary days. I am thankful for my Seasonal Affect Disorder lamps to help me through these dark months.

Bible Studies:

I'm still doing two different Bible study classes; Monday nights (Thrive) and Wednesday mornings (Bible Study Fellowship,"BSF"). The Thrive group continues to be very open and friendly and the BSF group is still very educational. I do really appreciate how both are very informative; I am really learning a lot about the Bible.

Dd's Progress for the Week:
Grace Co-op:
Dd is continuing to do very well with her co-op classes on Fridays. She is getting better at getting her assignments done throughout the week and not having to stay up late on Thursday nights. Learning how to spread out your work and not cram last minute is a valuable lesson that I'm glad she has learned before college. Her workload at Grace has declined as one of her classes, the American Civil War, has finished. I'll give her a little break then I am going to increase what we are doing at home since she has time now.

Grace Classes:
Science: Anatomy and Physiology (Apologia)
Art: Painting Studio
English/Writing: Analytical Writing for Research and Essay Papers (IEW)

Math: Algebra II with tutor

Read Aloud:
I'm reading (and dissecting) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens to Dd. We are thoroughly enjoying it!

SAT Prep:

Dd has re-started working on the free resource, Khan Academy, for her SAT prep work. The goal is at least thirty minutes per day.

German:
Dd has re-started working on the free resource, DuoLingo, for learning German. The goal is at least thirty minutes per day. Now that she doesn't have any homework from her American Civil War class she can do some of these extra's she hadn't been able to find time to do...

Fun Reader:
Kenobi: Star Wars Legends by John Jackson Miller: In Process

Work:
Dd is still enjoying working at the pizza shop! I'm glad she likes it so much there.

...........

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Jan. 12-18, 2020 Khan Academy, Flu, Snow and Ice

Jan. 12-18, 2020

Khan Academy, Flu, Snow and Ice

Hello, Friends!
By the end of this week, winter weather has once again returned, but I really appreciated the break from the snow and ice last week!

Such a treat of nice weather I took lots of pictures of the chickens outside enjoying it.

At the end of the week, we had a winter storm, Saturday and Sunday, and received a lot of ice. Our old church canceled, but our new church was open, but I decided to stay home and watch the message on their Livestream online.

Chickens:
I've been going crazy whipping up all sorts of exciting foods, or as I call them, "casseroles" for the chickens. Apples were on sale at Aldi (for around $1.18 a bag) so I bought two bags and have been de-seeding them and dicing them into little pieces and mixing that in with various ingredients like:
brown rice, tomatillos, eggs, eggshells, frozen kale, and Swiss CHard, bread, left-over pancakes and biscuits, various left-overs (ham)... all good stuff that they go crazy for! I don't know why, but my chickens love left-overs better than their feed. When they can't go outside I try to keep things exciting with fun food surprises.

Bible Studies:
I successfully made it to both my Bible studies this week. I'm learning a lot, but wish it didn't take up SO much of my time. I just can't seem to do things at a surface-level; I have to go way too deep and into too much detail. A lesson might mention something like a location; for example: Asia Minor and I'll spend 30 minutes on various atlas and map books pinpointing exactly where Tarsus was in Asia Minor...it might sound funny but it can get really frustrating when I have to figure it all out before moving forward. I'd have straight A's in both my classes if these were graded, but I do have so much else I also need to fit into my week!

Agnes

Khan Academy:
Now that I am thinking about my 'next chapter' or "next season" I've been thinking perhaps I'd be interested in some kind of medical job? Like EEG or Xray technician -- so I've started watching lots of Anatomy and Physiology videos to see if I'm interested...so far it has been very interesting. I'm learning a lot! I don't know what God has planned, but I'm trying to fill my toolbox with some good tools so I'm prepared.

Khan Academy Info:
BTW: Do you know about the awesome FREE website dedicated to educating all people on most subjects covering most grades? I've used it with my daughter for YEARS! and I have honestly used it even more myself!! I love to learn!! It is such an amazing resource---when my Dd had problems with math we would watch extra video's on her problem spots to help explain things. Now that she is preparing for her SAT she has been using Khan for SAT prep. I encourage you to google: Khan Academy and check out their website. I never get any bonus or anything by recommending things that work for us; I'm just sharing.

https://www.khanacademy.org/

Radagast, our Silkie Rooster

Furnace:
Dh figured out which part had died in our furnace. We ordered from Amazon and within one week he had the part and fixed the furnace!

Honeysuckle

Subaru:
Dd came in on Saturday night saying the Subaru wouldn't start. She had parked in our driveway and when she got out she noticed she hadn't parked back far enough and went back to fix it and when she turned the key it didn't start for her. Dh found the battery had a lot of corrosion on it and the battery was low too. He fixed it all up and we hope it will work better now.

Bunny, my hen that has been perpetually sick and I try so hard to help.

Wood flooring/Treads on Stairwell:
This week Dh managed to get ALL the treads up, all the nails pulled out, and the tread put back with a few screws to keep the stairwell working while we start to focus on buying and finishing the replacement treads. The two options we have whittled it down to are: Dutch Oil and Polyurethane. He plans to buy the new treads this week, but we still haven't decided what we are going to finish the wood with---both options are very nice.

Dd's Academic Progress For the Week:

Ms. Lemon, my Bantam hen

Reader:
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Franke: COMPLETED

Dickens

Paper on Diary of a Young Girl: COMPLETED

Henny Penny

Read Aloud:
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
We are on the last chapters...I will miss reading Dickens! He is just such a great author to read aloud!!!

Grace Classes:
Science: Anatomy and Physiology (Apologia)
Art: Painting Studio (brought home an oil painting this week)
History: American Civil War (last class--turned in a paper this week after watching GLORY for research)
English/Writing: Analytical Writing for Essays and Research Papers (IEW)

Math:
Algebra II (Saxon) with a tutor

Work/Job:
Dd had her first difficult meeting this week. She was supposed to work on night when we were getting an ice storm. Many places were closed due to the weather---even our library---and she called in to say she couldn't come in b/c we didn't want her driving home alone at 11 o'clock at night in a storm, as a 17-year-old. Her boss gave her quite the lecture and warned her if she could get fired if she has 2 unexcused absences. Mind you, she makes about $8.00 an hour because she is only 17. This was the only time in seven months she has called off from a shift and he didn't take it very well. It is a good life lesson for her; bosses don't actually care a bit about you and the sooner she learns that the better. She handled it very well. She let him chew her out and kept a professional attitude.

Hair Salon:

Dd had some major things done to her hair this week. She has been going to the hair place in Walmart, but now she has moved up to a real salon! But, her hair is looking very nice.

..........

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Jan. 6-11, 2020 Grace Classes and Bible Study Classes Resume, Flu, Chicken Coop Repair

Jan. 6-11, 2020

Grace Classes and Bible Study Classes Resume, Flu, Chicken Coop Repair

Grand Rapids is a very wet, high precipitation area and moss/lichen seems to shine year-round!

Hello, Friends!

The "Holidays" are officially over and we all have to get back to our studies. Dd spent the last days leading up to her classes trying to get her homework done; she had somehow failed to tell me she had homework over break!!! I had no idea or I would have really pushed her to not wait until the last minute.

Flooring/ Stairs:

You might remember back in August we started putting down hardwood flooring, but we had to stop so Dh could figure out the connection between the stairs going to the basement and the hallway on our main floor. This week Dh has been removing one or two treads on some evenings. One tread (step) had 27 nails that he had to pull out to get the step off!!! We will be using a few strong and dependable screws when we put down the new treads! Nails are a poor choice in this situation and has caused Dh hour after hour of extra work. We are testing different finishing options and trying to decide which finish will be the least slick...don't want to fall down our stairs. We will be replacing the old painted particle board with red oak treads. We will put our hardwood flooring on the landings; we have lots of it leftover from the early job.

North Trail Association: Accountability

I'm putting this up to encourage myself to follow-through with this goal I have. We have a local office for hiking Michigan parks on our local Main Street. I've wanted to walk in there for over four years and finally accomplished that goal this week. I got the information on how to get hooked up with a group to hike with; potentially, that is. I talked with the receptionist and she gave me a contact and some websites to check out...now to do that and hopefully, it won't take me another four years to do it! Maybe before February? I'm trying to stretch myself out of my comfort zones and meet more people like me. My absolute favorite thing is hiking and I'd like to do it more often and in new places.

1) Bible Studies: Thrive with Ada Bible Church:

On Monday, the Thrive group started back up and we were introduced to our new leader. Our first leader was having some troubles and asked for a substitute to take over for December, and then after the month decided to back-down and ask for a permanent replacement and we now have our THIRD leader! I've really, really enjoyed this first book; I actually finished all the lessons although we still have two weeks of classes with it.

An Unexplainable Life: Recovering the Wonder and Devotion of the Early Church by Erica Wiggenhorn

Henry on a hike

2) Bible Studies: Bible Study Fellowship:

Wednesday morning re-started our study on Acts and Letters of the Apostles curriculum. I've learned a lot from these materials and so approach the 'whole-bible' approach this study uses. I am constantly flipping back and forth throughout my bible in every lesson. I just wish I would have clicked with the women in the group better, but I don't think that is going to happen. But, academic growth is outstanding.

Flu:

This was my week for the flu, at the start of it...as it isn't one to quickly move on! Dh was hit in December so I guess I was over-due.

Furnace:

Dh hasn't been able to get the furnace working...trying to figure it out.

Hiking Henry:

We actually had sunshine on Monday and our hike was especially nice.

Chickens:

We had some nice days this week---sunshine and 30-degree weather, so the chickens were able to free-range most days this week. I really make it a priority to get them out and let them scratch in the woods and find bugs and greens for their health. I also took advantage of the nice weather to do repairs on the coop---the plastic I have on one wall hasn't done well, I've fixed it repeatedly. This time I put plastic on the other side of the fence too and leaned two pallets against it as well. I hope this final repair will be the last for this winter.