Sonlight Core G Week 23 “C” March 20-27, 2016

Sonlight Core G Week 23 “C”

March 20-27, 2016

Giz and Grampy Visit

The tomb is empty!!!  Happy Easter!

Hello Friends!  Giz and Grampy are back in Indiana, unhappily sick with our bug!  It was a very lovely visit, and we are so glad to have new memories with them.  The week went by in a complete flash, and they ended up staying a day longer than they had planned.  They left on Thursday morning, right before we headed to our last classes at LINK homeschool Co-op.  I thought about not counting this as a homeschool week, since we didn't have our noses in our books, but, really, she learned a LOT about so many things that I can't do it.  So, I am counting this as a homeschool week, just in subjects we don't always do.  I wish we had more weeks like this, more often; laid back "doing" weeks. Dd worked with Grampy, Giz, and Dh---not me---which was great for her.

Board Game Evenings:

Each evening we played games together at the dining room table—“Pit,” “Skip-Bo,” Yaytzee, and “Life.”  

Grampy's Work:

The other major (and expensive) issue this week, while G&G were here, was our refrigerator died!!!  Good grief!  We have not had two weeks go by that we haven’t had an unexpected and large expense occur!  I guess we are in a season of expense!  It was great having Grampy here to hook up the water (and unhook the old water) to the refrigerators.

Grampy tried to fix our refrigerator, but it was already gone...he did try!

Grampy fixed not one, not two, but ALL three toilets for us!  He had put new parts in two of the toilets when we first moved here, but the old parts broke in the six months that has gone by.  It is hard to believe all three toilets broke down at relatively the same time.  They each still worked, but they ran and ran and wasted water unless we took the top off and held down the flapper. We sure did keep Grampy busy from morning to evening each day. Grampy worked on the truck almost every day.  Dh and Grampy did fix the transmission hose problem, and took the truck for a quick drive around the drive-way, and the BRAKE hose broke!  They lost brakes to the front of the truck!!!  So thankful it happened on our property, and not on the highway!  So, they had to make numerous trips back to Auto Zone and other car places for multiple tools and parts.  The “flair” tool they bought didn’t work, and had to go buy a second one, that did work.  Dh is back to working on the truck by himself again!  We had been waiting on the truck to buy all the wood and things we would need to make the chicken coop, but Dh and Dd used our mini-van and got the things to make a chicken tractor instead.  We need to buy big sheets of plywood for the coop, so that will probably be on hold while we wait for the truck to get repaired.

Outside Classes/Activities:

Dd had Band and Choir classes, her 1:1 private sax lesson, and her last Government/Nursery/and Cake Decorating class.  We also went to the library twice.  Dd had another big test to take, for her homework this week, in her Government class.  


Seeds, Planning, and Planting:

The organic medicinal herb farmer : the ultimate guide to producing high-quality herbs on a market scale

Dd and Giz went to SEED shopping and started four containers of seeds for her future garden.  She has done a good job keeping her seeds misted with water and quite a few have already sprouted. 



Giz and Dd brought in a long table into the “Sun Room” for her new plants.  Dd has checked out “The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer..” and has been planning out which herbs she wants to grow this summer.  She has been really studying this, and very keen to get started.  It was really nice of G&G to buy her the soil and seeds, so she could get going on it this week.

Fires and Grilling: Dd also made and grilled hamburgers for us all. 

 She loves making fires and kept the wood stove going in the outbuilding for Grampy, to keep him warm while he worked on the truck, and doing well on her grilling.  *Some people* get black on their hamburgers, and it is her goal to not burn any!  She does a good job getting them just right!

Work Tour:
Dh took all of us to his work and gave a tour.  He showed how various machines worked, and turned things on for us.  It was like a mini field trip, for just us!

We took Giz and Grampy to church with us last Sunday, and they enjoyed our little congregation.


Genealogy:

Dd got G&G to go through tons of photos and write down who was who on the back.  Dd has been very keen to study the family genealogy, and they were happy to spend hours with her on it.

Giz and Dd had an afternoon at the sewing machine.

Music:
Each day Giz and Dd spent a good amount of time together on music.  Giz has long been Dd’s favorite piano teacher, and Mrs. March gave Dd a few songs to work on, on the piano.  It was a VERY musical week—at least two hours of music per day. 

Dd showed Giz how "Smart Music" works.  You can see how well or correctly you are playing, and get a score of your performance.  This is a really cool, high-tech thing that blew Giz away---super impressive.  

 Dd knew she had a “challenge” to play at Band this week, so she played extra for that as well.

Dd is reading her assigned “Reader,” 

The Saga of Erik the Viking

Aug 1, 2013

by Terry Jones and Michael Foreman

The Saga of Erik the Viking---almost done.

The Force Awakens (Star Wars)

Jan 5, 2016

by Alan Dean Foster

Fun Reader: Star Wars, the Force Awakens---she is super excited to finally get this at the library.

BIRDS:

Robins and Red Winged Blackbirds

 arrived on March 19^th!

Phoebe’s (Fly-Catchers) arrived on March 21^st.  The Barred Owls have been calling to each other quite often throughout the day.

Kefir: 


I got a batch of Kefir from my friend, Michele, and it was a good batch.  The kurds and whey separated on time, and was easy to see that it was good.  The batch I received from Kim never did that (separated), so I didn’t taste/try it.  I am so glad to have my own grains and can make my own.  I had bought one drink from Aldi and it was almost $3 for one!  It is SO much cheaper to make your own...once you can find someone who has some!  I'm putting it in my smoothies.

Kombucha:

Doing really well, and the SCOBY was getting so big!  Michele told me if your SCOBY gets too big that it makes your Kombucha too acidic.  She told me how she takes off her older SCOBY layers and feeds them to her chickens, so I did that too!  And the chickens LOVED it!!!  I didn’t think they would love it so much, but they did!  My GERD/heartburn had been really bothersome for the first part of the week, so I stopped drinking my Kombucha to see if that would help my symptoms to die down some.  I’m trying new supplements now too.

A major bug has been going around in our area.  We had a lot of people missing from band/choir and co-op.  I’ve had 9 days of it, and am feeling better now, but have a horrible, yucky cough.  Dd has had it  14-15 days and is still trying to shake it off.  Poor Giz managed our company for five days before she woke up with it.  I hope it doesn’t take her as long to get over it as it took us.

Fun Reader:

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

This was a week of ‘electives’---gardening, cooking, building, reading, and genealogy.  It was a really good week.


Some of the dishes Giz made for us:

Pumpkin Pie

Cabbage and ham

Some of the dishes Dd made:

Asparagus with lemon juice

Chicken Tractor:Dd also co-made a Chicken Tractor this week with Dd.  She really likes making things, and this was right up her alley.









Happy Easter! 
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