Thursday, June 29, 2017

SL Core H Week 21 D June 18-24, 2016

SL Core H 
Week 21 "D" (Extending out due to Great Expectations by Dickens)
 June 18-24, 2016

Agnes trying to fit into the violin case!
Hello, Friends!



We had a good academic week!  Those are always good to have!!! 

Michigan has the bluest skies and whitest clouds



 The highlight, again this week, has been our read-aloud, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  If read Dickens quite a few times, and A Christmas Carol aloud with Dd before, but I'm finding Great Expectations to be a perfect read-aloud.  I couldn't possibly give a high enough recommendation for this book!  Great Expectations used to be in Sonlight's Core H; starting on Week 18 and ending on Week 22, but at some point, SL removed it from the line-up.  I've kept all my SL catalogs over the years and try to read as many of the books as we can, especially if the book looks extra good!!!  I sure do appreciate the books they suggest!

  

Strings Group Performance:
Sunday our group performed 3 songs in front of our church.  Dd played the ukulele.  


Music:
Dd had a two-week break from her violin lessons with Christie, so this week (and next week) she will have one-hour sessions to catch up.  Dd still practiced her violin, but we couldn't meet Christie at our normal time due to Band Camp, and then the Used Book Sale at HSB was also at the same time as our time-slot.  She has been doing so well with her violin, and I think buying the new bow has really made a big difference.  She had some kind of composite...black plastic bow before, but now she has a nice wooden bow and she says she can really feel/hear a big difference.  

The daisy's are all blooming; all along the side of the pool---so pretty!

Music: Mouthpiece:
Dd got a new mouthpiece for her Alto Saxophone!  It is a "Jody Jazz Jet Mouthpiece," and Dd is loving it!!!  She also got a better metronome---one from Germany that has the metal bar that goes back and forth in front---very old-timey!  She is excited about it, and generally, she isn't a huge fan of using her metronome, so I was happy to buy something that would entice her to use it more often.

The four roses I planted around the pool are all blooming!

Health:
My headache/migraine "cluster" lasted through this week, especially when I was sleeping at night.  As I am typing this up I can share that by Monday (June 26) the cluster finally ended!  That was TWO WEEKS! 

Our Bantam, "Hummer/Hummingbird" named by Dd, but now that he is getting big and walking around I've noticed he walks just like Agatha Christie's, Piorot!  He is also very full of himself and thinks he is the bee's knees!  I might have to officially change his name.

Chickens:
All the chickens and ducks are doing very well.  

Dh made a little inner-sanctum for our Bantams to go into so they could get some of the food we put in, but the other chickens managed to get into the cage too!


We did have one major event; that is funny NOW, but wasn't at the time------the background information pertinent to this story is that two of my older Black Sex Link chickens (Toes, and Aphrodite) always manage to get out and into the chicken run through some secret way that I can't figure out.



  They are our two smartest chickens.  From the new batch of this year's chickens, Amber, who is a Tetra Brown, is our smartest, cleverest chicken.  She has followed the older smarties and can get out too.  On Friday we were one Tetra chicken short, so I looked them over and noticed it was Amber that was missing.  Dh and I called and called and walked all over our yards, out front, out back, down in the woods....and after about 45 minutes of searching, I had to give up.  




You know, not one time has a chicken that has gone missing been found somewhere, at least not alive!  So, I had to accept that Amber was dead.  Still, I went out 3 more times before bed giving her chance after chance before going to bed. 



 Mind you, we are literally out in the woods and there are lots of predators.  Fast forward to Saturday morning, I walk out to the chicken coop, and who is standing inside the long chicken run, the one we had searched high and low last night, but Amber!!! 



 Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord!!!!  I sure had prayed and prayed and prayed for her safe return, and my prayers were answered.  I just can't imagine where she could have been?!?!?!!  I looked everywhere!!  That was a first for us!


Picnic:
After band class on Wednesday, we drove over to the dog park where Dh eats his lunches to have lunch all together!!!  It was such a nice time!

Zeus is getting his tail feathers back in, but they are still very short.

Garden:
Everything is doing really well!  The roses we bought and planted this spring are all blooming, or close to it.  I've plucked off a few of the extra blooms, so we would only get one or two roses instead of more, so the plant wouldn't exhaust itself it's first year.  



I've planted more seeds this Saturday---green beans, zucchini, spinach, and lettuce.  We have finally got our act together on how to properly grow the greens: Every week or two plant a new section of lettuce/kale/radishes/spinach so we will have ongoing supplies of greens for my morning green smoothies.  I don't know why we haven't been doing this all along; maybe or probably it was because of time restraints.  We all have so many things we WANT to do, but never enough time to do them all!  

 


I put up our old umbrella in the chicken run and the chickens are loving the shade!!!




Church:
I am really feeling so blessed to finally find a church where we fit in.  I can't emphasize just how great it is!  I have never felt so at home anywhere, and where people actually are so friendly and genuinely loving!  One would hope ALL churches would be like this; but I can name 28 churches that Dh and I have visited in our marriage and we never experienced this level of loving welcoming.  They really do live the church "family" motto.  On Saturday night we went to a special event at church---a family of missionaries serving in Mexico (for the last 16 years), that we support, came and gave us a Fiesta!  They are also a family band---all playing different instruments---and performed for us.  Then they fed us...oh my....I wish I would have thought to bring my camera!  It was awesome!!!

I keep moving the blue pool for the ducks use; haven't figured out the best spot for it yet.

Our Academics This Week:

Bible:
Walking With Bilbo by Sarah Arthur
Chapter on True Identity using these Bible verses:
Genesis 17: 1-6 and 35: 9-15
Ezekiel 18: 9-15
Matt. 16:13-19
2 Cor. 5: 14-17
Eph. 4: 21-24



Chapter on our Real Treasure, which was a great lesson on not being greedy--really good chapter.  Our verses were:
Proverbs 22:1,  Ecc. 5: 18-20,  Jeremiah 9:23-24,  
Matt. 13: 44-46 and 19: 16-26,   Luke 12: 13-15,
  1 Tim. 6: 6-10 and 6: 17-19



Jeremiah 9:23-24New International Version (NIV)

23 This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom


    or the strong boast of their strength

    or the rich boast of their riches,
24 
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.

I've been taking out some turnip leaves each day to give to the chickens and ducks.  The turnips will still grow just fine.  I've been foraging all sorts of greens for the huge appetite of the foul, usually 3 times each day.



Bible Readers:
The BBC Manual: (Turn Your Bedroom Into a Bible College) 
pg. 103

Live Like a Jesus Freak:
Ch 6

Church, Sunday School, and saw a special presentation on how the church is doing in Mexico.

I'm getting plenty of greens for my morning smoothie!

Math:
Since Dd has been doing Khan Academy for math, for the past few weeks, I thought it would be a good idea if we reviewed our Math U See Geometry before going forward.  We watched the video, took notes, and I had Dd do the test for each lesson; starting back with Lesson 1.
Lesson 1-6 Completed

This section is the potato and 3 tomato plants...the potatoes have started blooming.


Science:
 Apologia Physical Science:
Module 6: Earth and the Lithosphere
Week one completed.


Poetry:
I found, what looks like, a REALLY good poetry book!  So excited for us to get into this book!  I will share more about it as I get to know it better, but the collection of entries are outstanding.   It is called:
The Harp and Laurel Wreath by Christian Book Distributors
This week we read: The War Inevitable by Patrick Henry



Writing:
Book report on Nory Ryans Song completed

Even our weeds are blooming nicely!

Reader:
Nory Ryans Song: Completed

Abraham Lincoln's World by G. Foster
pg 120-157

I've been eating a lot out of this section...and it shows!


Read Aloud:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
ch 43-49

Christian Guides to the Classics--Great Expectations
ch 43-49
(This guide book has been fantastic.  I wish they had a lot more of these; I'd love to read more books with such great information shared.  It doesn't just talk about what happened, but shared terms for what Dickens is doing that I wouldn't have known.)


Art:
Dd made a mixed media piece.  Canvas, a box of crayons, hot glue gun, and a hair dryer!  

Zuchini is doing super well!

Music Classes:
Band class on Wed. 2 hours
Sax lesson with Wendy March 30 min.
Violin lesson with Christie 1:00 hour
Ukulele lesson with Strings Group 1:45 hours

Performance: Our Strings Group performed 3 songs at church on Sunday


Practices:
Dd has been working on Sight Reading a lot lately.  She spent part of her lesson with Mrs. March and Christie practicing.  Her audition for Advanced Band (July 19th) and Intermediate Orchestra (July 26) both ask the students to sight read and then perform that new song, do quite a few scales and octaves, and perform a piece of their choosing. 

Alto Sax: 4 hours
Violin: 8 hours
Ukulele: 2 hours

We are getting all sorts of pretty eggs, and in a varity of sizes too!


Physical Exercise:
Dd invited Hailee over to swim before Strings Group, they swam for about 2:30 hours
Marching: 2 hours

The herb garden is doing well!



Home Economics:
Yellow GF cake with fresh strawberries
Grilled: She made hamburgers and hot dogs!

The chickens are eating up the back chicken run, but with things so scary for them outside I've kept them inside where they are safe.


Good Week!  The weather was beautiful over the weekend--low 70's and windy.

Pippin and Merry, Merry is on the bottom of the photo, and Pippin's tail feathers are starting to curl up.  Looks like we officially got one male and one female.  Hope we get an egg soon!
 ..................

Saturday, June 17, 2017

June Garden 2017

June Garden 2017
I wanted to take a few pictures of our garden before things got too big.  I've noticed many of the plants have really taken off with this latest rain, so I wanted to post these pictures before I take new photos.
This bed on the left is our perennial garden for our herbs.  I planted our two asparagus plants on the left side, from our home in Indiana.  I've noticed this weekend that a Blackberry plant has sprouted up by the asparagus plants!  I am happy to have a new berry plant! Surprised, but happy!  I'll wait until the fall to move it.


The turnips I transplanted are extremely happy with their new space!

Tomato and Potato plants doing great!

These are the three new raised beds we built this year.

Kale

Brussel Sprouts

Two Brussel Sprouts on left, nine mixed pepper plants, and two tomato plants on right side.


There are four celery plants on the left side, they are doing really well.  I've planted spinach and lettuce in the soil in front of the celery and around the iris plants.

The Blackberry plants we brought from Indiana are doing very well!  We didn't get many berries last year--hoping this year will be better.

I've transplanted five or six MILKWEED plants, and this is the only plant that has completely accepted their new home.  Luckily, there were a LOT of milkweed plants in the woods behind our house.  I was wanting to lure some Monarch butterflies into our yard.

.....

HSB Annual Used Booksale and Migraine Week June 11-17, 2017 (Core H Week 21C)

HSB Annual Used Book Sale and Migraine Week 
June 11-17, 2017 
 (Core H Week 21C)
It occurred to me, during the last hour of the sale, to take a photo of the sale!  Things had really settled down and the crowd was thin by this point, but it is still fun to see it!


Hello, Friends!

Monday was a very big day!!!  I worked for a week to prepare for the annual homeschool used book sale, at the HomeSchool Building.  I don't even have words to describe how crazy the sale is, or how hot it was in that tin can gymnasium!  We all literally sweated the whole time!  Dd helped me load and unload our van and set up our two tables.  Then during the sale, we would take turns watching our 'booth' and shopping the other tables.  We arrived at 10:30 am and got home around 8-8:20 pm!  What a long day!  It is nice to give back to the homeschool community.  For once, my Sonlight books did not sell well but my other books did.  I sold a bunch of Life of Fred books that we haven't gone back to in a few years, $10 each, and they sold like hot cakes!  I think I should have put a bit of a higher price on them as everywhere else they were selling for $14 and they weren't in new condition like ours were.  Oh well!  We blessed a few people and were blessed by others.

Sonlight Instructor Guides:
One woman was selling old (13 years old) IG's; specifically 200, 300, and her 400.  I bought all three, but there were to be two problems.  It had slipped my mind I already owned the 200! and one of her IG's was missing the first seven weeks worth of IG pages!  I guess I could deduce what books the core started off with my checking off the books in the 8-36 weeks line up, but, oh, that was a bother!  I did find about ten books for our upcoming cores, and a few that aren't in our cores, but one's I'd like to include!

Garden & Ducks:
When I got home from the book sale, the ducks were IN my garden!  They had been staying in their pool and sleeping there, but today they had really trampled our plants and were caught eating my lettuce and spinach leaves!!!  I've decided the pool needs to be moved into the long chicken run that is behind our outbuilding. 



Garden/Veg:
Our garden is doing really well.  I've gone this whole week without having to buy my "Power Green" (bag of spinach, chard, kale, radish) super bag from Costco.  Instead, I've been picking from my own garden!  I'm not sure if it could be the turnip greens that caused all the extra heartburn or something else--so I've taken the day off of that.  I've planted more Swiss Chard (red, yellow, and white colored), lettuce, spinach, and kale this week.  I've been picking a lot and watering a lot.  This week was so hot and muggy that we decided to go ahead and turn on the air conditioning!  I had to water each morning and each evening.  



New Veg:
Dh came home on Monday with a bunch of new plants from a greenhouse!  I had them planted that night!  Let's see---green peppers, banana peppers, two tomato specialties, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, Rosemary herb, Lemongrass herb, and thyme.  He bought some green bean seeds, and put up the metal poles for their growing needs...now for him to put the seeds in the ground!  We are about full up and don't have much space for anything else.  I think I might be able to put some lettuce or spinach seeds around the brussel sprout seedlings- I don't think they are going to grow too fast.


Chickens:
I found another new egg--this one wasn't in a nice hard shell like the first one I found, but in a rubbery case.  I also found a new hard egg in a little nest one of the Amber or Links made in the straw on the floor of the inner chicken coop.  The chickens are all doing really well and some are getting quite heavy!  Each morning I am bringing all the chickens (and ducks), except the two Bantams, out to the chicken run to spend the day.  Then at bedtime we bring them all back to the chicken tractors in the garage.  We need to build another roost (bar) inside the chicken coop if we want the young chicks to move permanently in with the older ones.  I'm not sure if they have all got acclimated to each other enough to make the move a 24/7 move yet!  But, I think it will be soon.  I'm really looking forward to not having all the extra clean up that comes with the chickens living in tractors in the garage.  The amount of time each day I have been spending on chickens, ducks, or the garden has been a lot!  Unless something tragic happens to the chickens, I am planning on taking next spring off from raising baby chicks.  

Dd's health:
The eye problem is better, and so is her acne, but she has been totally run-down all week.  Friday and Saturday she spent most of the day on the sofa or in my bed.  I'm beginning to wonder about mono---at least that is what Giz thinks could be the problem.  I'm hoping she can get better soon, as she has already been sick for over two weeks as it is.  

Migraines:
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights were massive migraine days or nights, or both.  My migraine on Wednesday was so bad, I was in bed most of Thursday.  For some reason, these have been real whoppers--vomiting and nausea and ugly.  Every once in a while, I will have a migraine cluster; where my body is just on a setting to be too sensitive.  I know I was really pressured trying to go through hundreds of books for the sale and marking each and every book, and that must have taken more of a toll than I realized.  I hope next week can be better.  In the past two weeks, I've gone to several doctor appointments and that is also very stressful for me.  I'm sure no one likes going!



House:
Dh completed the finishing pieces to the windows for the Sun Room.  It took a few different days, but he did get it all completed!



When Grampy was here, they removed the weather damaged pieces and replaced those with new wood.  They put in metal flashing under each window and then topped that off with plastic wood.  It should be impossible for these windows to rott again.



Pool:
On Saturday, Chuck, from our church, came over and helped us get our pool opened.  It has been so very hot this week that we had to turn on our air conditioning, but didn't have our pool to jump into to cool off.  The next week is suppose to be much cooler, and of course, it will be too cold to swim! Ha!  Life has a sense of humor!



Our first picnic of the season:



We went to a local ice cream shop after having pizza at a park.  



I couldn't eat the pizza, but it was still nice to be out with the family!

Academics:
The water at this beach isn't a lake, but the Grand River!



Music:
Wednesday Dd had her weekly Band Class: 9:30 -11 am

Sax lesson with Mrs. March: 9-9:30 am

Alto Sax Audition Sign-Up:
We signed Dd up for her auditions this week; which will be in July.  She has to audition with her Alto Sax for either the Advanced Band or the highest group, the Concert Band.  It is most likely she will get into the Advanced Band, and less likely that she will stay in the Intermediate Band class.



Violin Audition Sign-Up:
Also in July, the week after her Alto Sax audition, will be her audition for the Orchestra.  She is trying to get accepted into the Intermediate Orchestra, but there is also a tiny chance she could get into their highest group, the Symphony Orchestra.  We'll be happy with whichever class wants her!!
A Box Turtle showed up in our yard this week.  It was such a pretty turtle!  


Life Skills:
Dd was my cashier for most of the day on Monday.  This was a great exercise in interacting with strangers and being friendly and outgoing for my normally shy daughter!

Fun Reading:
Prudence by Gail Carringer: Finally Completed!!!


Math:
This week (Tues-Fri) Dd got back on Khan Academy math for 30 minutes each day.



Chores:
Bedroom, vacuuming, dishes, cat, and pool work!  

Next week we will slowly get a start back on some of our normal subjects again.  Things should be calm and regular soon!