SL Core H Week 14 A April 8-16th, 2017 (spring break, Easter, b-day party sleep-over)

Sonlight Core H Week 14A

April 8-16^th, 2017

(Mostly spring break & birthday and Easter)

Hello, Friends!

Someone celebrated a birthday!  Here she is opening her birthday gifts:

Dh woke up at 3 am to make Dd her birthday lamb cake.  In his family, they always make the birthday girl (or boy) a cake with their old cast iron lamb mold.  It turned out great!

She received a Joann Fabrics gift card from my mom--yay!

She got books, 2 bibles, bible tabs, gummie bears, and socks!

This was NOT a normal, academic week.  The weather was mostly nice and Dd had a birthday party to plan and host.  I decided this was a perfect excuse to get my spring cleaning done around the house, and boy was our house in need of help!  Dd’s birthday party was a ‘dress up like your favorite Marvel character’ party.

Dd made two handkerchiefs with "PC" for Peggy Carter.

  She decided to be Peggy Carter; which meant we had to go shopping for her outfit.  Peggy Carter was Captain America’s girlfriend if you happened to see the movie.  We went to a few thrift stores looking for some 1950’s type clothes and found a perfect skirt.  She had a lot of fun planning this party, and getting dressed up like Peggy! 



 It sure if different planning a teenage party, not focusing on games but more on food.  We did a lot of grocery shopping.

Church Membership:

On Sunday (April 9^th) in our church bulletin, it was listed that we have been approved for membership at our church, though we already feel part of the family.

Before

After

Zeus update:

On Monday,  (April 10^th) our neighbor, Dave, the owner of the bull terrier (Lucy) that had attacked our Buff Orpington rooster, Zeus, walked over to our house for an update on his condition.   I was very impressed that our neighbor came up to see how our boy was doing, that showed real character.  Speaking of Zeus- he has been ever so slowly improving.  Each day that goes by raises a point in favor of him making a full recovery.  The worst part was that each day I could see more and more of the damage to his skin.  As the dog ripped out feathers he also ripped off the top layer of skin, which is now turning into scabs.  I’ve been using Bag Balm and Neosporin to keep his skin moist and flexible for healing.  I also gave him warm baths in my tub, emptying a whole new container of salt into the warm water to help keep out infection.  As each bath went by he got a bit more feisty about permitting such behavior willingly!  He had a really bad smell, I think his feathers sitting on top of the wounded skin made the offensive smell.  In desperation, I took scissors and cut off the feathers that were sticking to his wounds so those wounds could get proper air and healing, which improved his smell quite a lot.  The poor rooster looks shameful missing so many feathers, but at least he is healing and hopefully will be able to grow new feathers eventually.

Music Lessons:

Even though we were off of our normal lessons, Dd still had her violin lesson, Strings Group, Beginning Band, Intermediate band, and private music lesson with Mrs. March.

Look how long they are now!  I put in a handful of spinach and they gobbled it right up!

I don't think they will fit in a Cool Whip bowl any longer! 

Nature:

On Thursday morning, looking out my library window I saw a young doe!  A few hours later, while doing dishes, looking out my window, I saw a wild turkey by my birdfeeder!  This week was full of animal activity and daffodils blooming all around.  Such a gorgeous week!

Home Economics: Cooking & Cleaning:

Dd and I spent endless hours cleaning, tidying, and doing food prep for her party.  Dd made cheesecake cupcakes, lemon filling cupcakes, lunchmeat/cheese wraps…  We bought croissants and Nutella for the breakfast after the sleep over.  For the lunch- pizza, for the dinner, hot dogs grilled over the campfire, followed by S’mores, followed by ice cream later!  The girls watched some movies and stayed up late.  They played basketball and enjoyed the campfire.  It was a nice small group of friends.

Some of our activities qualify for ‘academics’ this week:

Bible:

As a family, we looked up and read Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, and Psalm Sunday in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  And Matthew 10.  Dd received two new bibles for her birthday gift-plus 3 sets of bible tabs to organize her bibles.  She has been reading in her new “NIV Bible For Teen Girls by Zonderkidz” that she wanted from Christianbook.

Finding God In Lord of the Rings by Jim Ware and Kurt Bruner

Three chapters, pg’s 1-16

I’m not sure about this book yet, I’m still evaluating.

Church and Sunday School on April 9^th and Easter on April 16^th

Olympians- Dd volunteers for 1:30 hours

Church party on April 15th

Audio:

Dd and I had been looking on Chelle’s blog for book choices, and decided to start: The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle using Audible, so we could work while we were listening this week.  It has over 20 hours of audio, so we will be listening for a while.  It has been very, very good!  Thanks to Chelle for her recommendation!

We've been listening to this off and on too

Chelle, when I put out my Pooh flag, for spring, I thought of you!

History Readers:

I was hoping Dd would be reading her Reader, The Broken Blade this week, but she didn’t read any of it.  She did read a chapter of her next Reader: In Search of Honor. 

 She did find time to read some of her fun books a few evenings this week:

The Courtship of Princess Leia by Dave Wolverton

Prudence by Gail Carriger (birthday gift from a friend)

We planted a lot of bulbs in the fall, and here is our first daffodil of the season.  By the end of the week we had 3 of them and one hyacinth!  

DVD’s:
John Adams – Miniseries by HBO

Doctor Strange- Marvel Movie with Benedict Cumberbatch (b-day party)

We finally went out and bought Dd a new rim for her basketball playing, but we didn't get it up in time for her party.

Physical Exercise-Basketball:

After the other girls left Dd got to spend some 1:1 time with L, the very first friend she met in Michigan.  They have been friends for over 2 years now.  I will have to share the story of how we met her mom on a special post.  Lately they have been exchanging favorite books they own to each other.

Playing Basketball:

2x this week: 1:30 minutes, plus helped us put a new metal ring on the old backboard/stand.

Art:

Water coloring and Drawing: 9 hours this week

Hopefully, next week will be fairly back to normal, though the week after a break is always super tough on us, so perhaps we will just get back into the swing with low expectations.

Garden Prep:

I dug up 20 buckets of hummus from out in our woods, put in wheelbarrow for easier climb up our hill, and we are getting closer to planting our 2017 garden.

Agnes in the plants in the sunroom!~

I finally finished the crochet blanket I had been working on this winter.  I put a packet of seeds on it to show the scale.

Chicken Update- The two Bantams and two Isa Brown tractor:

Here is what cute little Hades looked like at the start.

"Hummer", aka "Hummingbird" has grown so much!  We are wondering if she might be a boy, it looks like she is getting a comb (that part above her eyes, on the top of her head).

Hades has gotten prettier as she grows!

Here is Hades her first week with us to compare to how big she is now!

The two Isa Brown's: Agatha and Mrs. Marple

The Amber Links and Tetra Brown tractor:

The ducks won't leave the side of the chickens; which is totally different behavior than chickens have.  A chicken would have happily pecked all around the grass and wandered around, but not these ducks.  They followed the tractors and were only happy when they could see their pack. I was surprised.

Here is an early picture of an Amber Link, back on March 28th! My, they have grown fast!

Zeus in his section of the tractor, enjoying the sunshine:

I put up a cardboard "wall" to keep Zeus alone.  Yesterday, Hades, found her way under the wall and was inside Zeus's area--and they got along fine.  I expected Zeus to want to peck at the little ones.

Green Grass!  Our summer umbrella is out and we've been eating outside!

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