SL Core H Week 21 "E" June 25-July 1, 2017 (Great Expectations...almost done!)

SL Core H Week 21 "E" 
June 25-July 1, 2017



Hello, Friends!

We had a good week, lots of thunderstorms, some rain, and growth in our garden.  I still fought my cluster of headache's on and off for the week. We managed a lot of different things this week! 

Violin:

Dd had another hour long lesson with Christie.  The only problem--Christie had forgotten we were coming and it took a bit to get inside, set-up, and playing.  Dd has scheduled her date for auditioning for the Intermediate Orchestra, which will be July 26th.  The Beginning Orchestra class was held at the same time her band class was going on, so she had no choice but to take 1:1 violin lessons to learn all the Beginning Band material.  She actually has gone through the Intermediate Orchestra book now as well, so we are hoping she will pass her audition.  Only two-three weeks left to prepare for her audition!

I planted green beans on the right side of the kale and broccoli plants, and it came up in just a few days!  It grew so fast!

Performances with the Strings Group:

We had performed three songs in front of our church on Sunday.  It went really well and we all did fine.  In our rehearsal before church, we had a few misunderstandings that were cleared up in the nick of time!  So thankful we didn't do that in front of everyone! We are also preparing for taking our "show" to two nursing homes next Sunday.  Our small group is growing in number, though there is always a few people that can't make it to the lesson or performance so it is hard to set an accurate number.  We have one retired man on a bass guitar, another retired man on an acoustic guitar, one retired man on either his banjo or his harmonica, one retired woman that plays the piano, three teen girls on guitar, three teen girls on ukulele, one adult woman on the ukulele, and one wonderful woman in her 80's or 90's that plays the Baritone Ukulele,  Martha, our pastor and I sing, one mom plays some cool instrument--can't think of it's name--like a guitar; a stringed instrument that she lays on her lap and it makes such a beautiful sound, and then there are a few other singers that come and go.  We have ages from 12 to maybe 90's--quite a large diversity from our congregation!

Dh built a new nest box and put it under the old nest box.  The new box has four nest spots.  One day last week when I entered into the coop, there were THREE chickens crammed into ONE slot!  I told Dh he needed to get on the new box asap!

Spending the Night:

After band got out on Wednesday, Dd went home with her friend, Lexi--to spend the night!  They swam in her pool and had a good time together.  I'm so thankful Dd has such good friends!

The chickens walk behind the box, down the "hallway" to enter whichever box they want to use.  

Chickens and Ducks:

Things are going well for the critters--except for Thursday when I bent down to pick up a chicken and Merry (the female white Peking duck) bit my cheek!  Oi! and it left a bite mark on my check too!

Dh tried a few different solutions, and settled on this new set up and new "roost" on the right side of the photo, for the younger chickens to roost on.

I've learned a bit in the year I've been raising chickens, and am doing a lot of foraging of greens for the fowl to eat.  For one, we had planted a lot of turnips, which have a lot of leaves per turnip, so I have been thinning those greens down to give to the chickens.  The exact turnip seed packet we bought this year, is a thorny green, so it didn't sit well with my delicate stomach, but I've been able to tolerate a few of the very small young leaves, before the thorns break out.  Last year's turnip greens were not this kind, and I enjoyed adding those leaves to my green morning smoothie.  It seems the foul like just about any kind of green I give them.  This week I was able to not buy any store bought greens for me but found enough in our garden for smoothies and salads.  Our lettuces are doing really, really well.  I also found that I can put lettuce in my morning smoothies without it tasting weird.  I experimented around this week and tried adding basil and rosemary, which I hadn't tried before.  I've been using: spinach, lettuce, dandelion leaves, beet leaves, baby turnips leaves, kale, chard, celery leaves and stalks, (all from our garden) along with some fruit for sweetness.

The doors open in the front so I can get the eggs out.  I opened them up to take the picture.

New Nest Box and Chicken Roost!

Saturday Dh worked hard ALL day and managed to build two necessary things to help me get the younger chickens out of the garage, in their chicken tractors, and into the chicken coop!  This week our young hens have taken off on their laying eggs; which is awesome!  Dh actually got to take two dozen eggs to work to sell.  We sell them for $2.00 a dozen for our 'free range' and well-loved eggs.  We had a few days where we found 12-18 eggs in one day.  Some of the young chickens haven't started laying yet, but it won't be too much longer.

Dd cleaning the pool.  This picture was taken a few days before the green hint arrived in the water.  I wish the pool had stayed this clear!  

Swimming:

Our pool has lost ground with the rain we got last week, and has turned a shade of green!  We still have been swimming as we add more and more salt to get the right pH so we can add more chlorine.  It is a "salt-pool" and a bit harder to get right, maybe not 'harder' but longer perhaps.  Hopefully, it will be back to its normal clear waters soon!  Dh says it is still much cleaner than a lake, so that helps!

Our lessons this week:

Bible:

Walking With Bilbo by Sarah Arthur: COMPLETED

We finished this book this week, and I think the Walking With Frodo was a little bit better, in my opinion.  I especially liked the format, where the author would pick a different theme each chapter and at the end of that chapter would have 4-8 bible verses for you to look up in your Bible to support that theme.  It was fun hopping through the Bible for these little gems.  I especially liked the chapter on not being greedy, a good reminder for us all!
If your family are Lord of the Rings, or Hobbit fans, then this book is a fun way to learn more about the bible.  We often do so many serious bible studies that it was a welcome break to have a different approach to bible study.
This weeks sections:

Chapter 21: Adventure's End

"I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again." Philippians 1:6

The Bible verses that went along with this chapter are:
Psalm 139;  Hebrews 10:32-39 and 12:1-3; James 1:12; Revelation 21: 4-10

Chapter 22: Home At Last
"He was now weary of his adventure.  He was aching in his bones for the homeward journey." From Chapter 18 of The Hobbit

The Bible verses that went along with our last chapter are:
Matthew 11:28-30; John 14:1-7 (awesome); 2 Corinthians 5:1-9; Hebrews 4: 1-11; Revelation 21: 3-4 (awesome).

Activities: 

Church and Sunday School on Sunday.  Monday: 1-hour violin lesson with Christie.

Wednesday: Band (9-11am), then Dd went to Lexi's house--swam for a few hours and spent the night.  Thursday: Strings Group (Church) 6:45-8:30 pm with visiting missionaries from Mexico! 
 Friday: Swimming 
Lessons in between the activities!

Dh building the new, bigger nest box

Dd's SL Bible:

The BBC Manual (Bring a Bible College in your Bedroom): pg 45 & 107

Live Like a Jesus Freak: Ch. 8

Hummer, now "Poirot" our Bantam Rooster, checking out his new home.  It took a lot of work, and hours of supervision to get the bigger chickens to accept our two Bantams.  I would bring them in for an hour (or two) while I supervised and then put them back in the chicken tractor when I couldn't be there to protect them.  Doing that day after day slowly built up the tolerance in the bigger chickens to leave them alone.  It was a time consuming challenge, but now the Bantams fit in with the other fowl.

Science: 
Apologia General Science: 
Module 6: Earth and the Lithosphere: Completed, Dd took the test on Tuesday and didn't do as well as I thought she could, so I had her re-study and re-take the test on Thurs, almost good enough, and re-do it on Friday to perfection!  Monday she had finished up her reading pages, Student Notebook pages, and Study Guide.

Math: Math U See: Geometry:
Re-do of Lessons 7-10, we rewatched the video's and took notes, then Dd did the test for each of the lessons.
  

Poetry:
The Harp & Laurel Wreath: excerpts from The Tempest and one from Shakespeare's, Julius Caesar.

History Reader:  
The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel

The mixed media piece Dd did this week.  She used a glue gun to stick the crayons on the canvas/cardboard and then used a blow dryer to heat up the crayons so the colored wax would melt down.  She is always doing something!

History Reader:
 Abraham Lincoln's World by G. Foster (pg's 158-179)

Read Aloud: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (ch's 10-18)

Read Aloud: Christian Guides to the Classic's, Great Expectations (ch's 10-18)

Language Arts:

Word Roots: pg's 78-81

Khan Academy online Learning:

Coding and HTML (1:00 hour)

Fun Reading/ Fun Audio:

Benedict Cumberbatch Reads Sherlock Holmes Rediscovered Railroad Mysteries

The Gender Game (In Process)

Imprudence (In Process)

Les Miserables (In Process), not only reading but watching the movie and listening to the soundtrack!  She is *really* enjoying Les Miserables!!!

State of Fear by Michael Crichton (In Process)
As you probably have noticed, this whole year has been a situation where Dd reads "her" books faster than SL's list of books to read.  I'm struggling with how to work with that honestly.  Usually she reads way more SL books than fun books.  The pendulum has swung over to the other side, and I hope it swings back soon!

Art: 5 hours

Tie-dying Week!  Six shirts and White Jeans: Completed

Music Classes / Lessons:

Violin: 1 hour with Christie

Band: 9-11 Wed.

Strings Group: 2:00 hours on Thurs., and 1:00 hour on Sunday (warm-up and performance for church).

Music Practice:

Violin: 3:30 (plus lesson = 4:30 total)

Alto Sax: 2:30 (plus band class = 4:30)

Piano: 1:30 hours

Ukulele: 2:00 total hours

Next Week:

Dd has TWO parades next week, so things will be busy.  I'm still trying to figure out how to do a TRANSCRIPT so I can take her to GRCC to enroll (and take their pre-application tests).  Prayers appreciated as I try to figure out all this new stuff!  Dh is off on Monday and Tuesday, so not a lot of academic lessons planned while he is home!

Dh is working on making a bigger, better clothes line for me to use:

We got the two posts put together and marked where the two lines are going to go.  Dh has already bought the hardware and metal line.  Now we need to put the hardware on and start digging the holes to put the posts in.

Dd has a July 4th parade in Grandville, MI coming up on Tuesday, and then another parade over the weekend.  Then on July 13th Giz and Grampy are driving up so they can see Dd in one of her parades.  I love that they try to support her as much as they can even though we moved so far away from them.  

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