Fleur de Lis Homeschool Blog: Dec. 29, 2019 to Jan. 4, 2020 Return from Indiana, New Years, Snow and -7 degrees, Dresser Handles, Yoga Class

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Dec. 29, 2019 to Jan. 4, 2020 Return from Indiana, New Years, Snow and -7 degrees, Dresser Handles, Yoga Class

Dec. 29, 2019, to Jan. 4, 2020

Return from Indiana, New Years, Snow and -7 degrees, Dresser Handles, Yoga Class

This is Henry being an obedient dog; which he really is...

But, what you don't see...is that when he isn't being patient with me he is running like a squirrel on fire! Lightning!

Hello, Friends!

We had enjoyed our Christmas party, with Dh's family in Indiana, on Saturday, but on Sunday morning we had to wrap up our visit to the farm and head back up to Michigan. The family got to meet Henry (our dog) and Seth (Dd's first boyfriend)...both guys were accepted in immediately, though Henry was hugged a lot more!!!

The past few months have been awesome for our usual daily hikes in the backwoods. I love this time of year; hiking with Henry and refilling our cups! The burrs are about gone, as are the fleas and most ticks...and we just love hiking together as often as possible!

Weighted Blanket:

This year seems to be the Year Of The Weighted Blanket! At the Xmas party, the two youngest nieces each received their own weighted blanket and Grandma Giz got one too! Dd liked it so much she ordered herself one before we had even left the party. Her blanket arrived this week and she is also loving it! It was fun to see the big trend coming to our little family!

Snow:

We finally get out the snowblower for the first time this winter. It was so cold and we had about 7 inches. The snow in the woods is always so beautiful, but it does make you worry about a tree falling on the electric lines.

Dresser:

A few years ago I found a nice solid wood dresser at our local thrift store, but it doesn't have any hardware to open the drawers. They built in wooden decorative molding that is supposed to be your 'handles,' but you have to use both hands to open a drawer. I found some pretty brass handles at our thrift store about 6 months ago and I finally took the time to sit down and measure how to put in each of the handles for the six drawers. The extra bonus was I used my Christmas presents to do it...my new cordless drill and bits. Bonus, now I can open my dresser with one hand!

Carpal Tunnel Left Hand:

This week marked a month since my surgery. My hand is healing, but there is so much more pain than I thought there would be. My right hand seemed to have less pain and heal faster, but I also rested it more. My patience for not using my hands is long gone!

Can you see the round dark thing in the very middle of the picture? It's a hornet's nest from last summer---I've enjoyed watching it disintegrate over the winter.

New Year's Party:

I was SO pleasantly surprised that Dd and Seth were able to do our traditional party---sparkling cider with a round-table of what we were thankful this year until we had finished off the two bottles. Up until this week, Seth hasn't been able to come to our house. He works for a chicken company---they have thousands of chickens laying eggs and they sell the eggs. There is some weird rule where they are totally not allowed to go onto any property with other chickens because they could pick up some bacteria or germ and that could infect their chickens and chaos... It has been so hard not having our house be a place where they could visit each other and I get the chance to get to know him better. I brought out our brass thing with the angels circling above the heat from the four candles below---the same kind my grandmother celebrated New Year's with us. It's important to keep up traditions.

Close-Up of the hornet's nest

Yoga Class:

So, I've been doing yoga and Pilates since the birth of my daughter---almost 18 years ago! I've never gone to a class before, I just like doing my workouts at home. But, our library is having a yoga teacher come and offer a free class on Saturday morning and I went this week. I'd been waiting for my hands to improve, plus I've figured out how to work around my hands--using my elbows or knuckles. I had a great time! It was fun---hope they keep this up!

Furnace:

Our furnace stopped working! Luckily we have a back up GeoThermal system we can switch to when this happens, but it runs off electric instead of gas and that is much more expensive here. I hope Dh can figure it out soon.

Dd's Weekly Progress:

Bible:

Church and Bible Study

SAT SIGN-UP:

We *finally* signed Dd up to take the SAT in March! Yay for us!

Read Aloud:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
I'm loving every chapter and trying rub off my excitement on Dd!

Movie:

Dd and Seth took Hailee to go see the new Star Wars movie--Rise of Skywalker. I think that was her third time seeing it? But, Hailee had not seen it yet and Dd had to be a good buddy!