He said, "Let's set up a fort..

Our snow day..

Snow fort..

And, best neighbor award for bringing the kids hot chocolate at the end of our hard labor.

Winter would have no spring

At the start of the week, I could sense Spring.
I remembered what warmth and sun felt like.

School..

Hints from the garden..

And, we started at Flat Eli and Flat Ollie exchange program. We are hostessing a lovely young lady from Nebraska. If you would like to host one of these fabulously polite young men, please let us know. They are free for adventures.

And, then SNOW!

And, therefor, board games with the family.

Builder of rainbows up in the sky,

Certified tree hugger, captivated by texture, curves, and lines..

Child led and executed projects...

Building zig-zag fences on a rainy day: bull strong, horse high, and pig tight..

Making treats for those cold birds....

Baking vegan cookies..

And observing nature on rainy, cold days..

And prayerfully, peacefully, meditating..
I miss the sun and feel my energy slowly evaporating. Once this week, I wished we were sick so that we would have an excuse to stay in bed all day with the covers pulled over our heads. Thank God, we aren't. The above beads I've fashioned into prayer beads to fidget with while in prayer. They have been a comfort, and way to stay focused..I am sticking with this goal this week as I strive to make it more of a normal part of everyday..
Peace.

I said a quick prayer and I felt satisfied

This weeks change for the positive, my goal, is to spend more time in prayer, meditation, and yoga. Namaste.

We strive for the same old ends

Can I just reference one from the archives as I am going back through to label..Proof that sleep happens.

Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you

Our week in Homeschool

My new very, very,very, very, very organized homeschool shelf :) (Thanks, Mom) We don't do folders or drawers here, but we do now have a shelf. Each boy has his own shelf and the bottom shelf is for general activities. We pull from this each day.

Monday, the boys wanted to learn about the human body. The Grandparents gave us a great second hand book this Christmas about each part of the body. It was perfectly detailed and led us to a great website. We played with our new model of the body, and then proceeded to build this guy.. He has 20 teeth like children do (Eli had to count them.) He has funnel ears, which is how our ears work. He has flashlight eyes. Our eyes let IN light. We did pupil experiments in light and dark. His trachea is a pitch pipe, his heart is a pump, his stomach is a bag with food in it, his kidneys are footballs, his intestines are rope, his veins, also rope, his joints -balls connected together with rubber bands or tendons. We talked about functions and names and the boys helped come up with each part of this guy. I loved this activity.

We then measured how much sugar is in a soda. 37 teaspoons said one source. (We don't drink soda, but we did want to measure it.)

We also found this book in our collection and began to talk about fractions.

We cut paper plates into pieces and began to explore and played with fractions. Ollie's reader is pictured above. We practice with it weekly, and he loves to read stories from it.

Yesterday we had Spanish class, library, and Yoga class. Our Yoga instructor references animals and body parts correctly. She is Montessori influenced and jives with my educational philosophy. So far, so good this semester.

Gonna change my way of thinking

Hey, did you notice the new feature on the blog? On the right, I have labeled my posts, so if you want to see all the awesome pictures I have of Eli, you can find them in one easy spot. I haven't yet labeled ALL the posts from past years, but I am slowly working on it. Yay!

Also, just a quick update on my resolutions. Work out and bible reading are going great. I am going on week 3 of keeping up with these two things. My goal this week is to memorize a bible verse a week and cut out fried food. I dreamed last night I was eating a big plate of curly fries, so I have a feeling this one might be harder than I thought. I do like adding these changes bit by bit, and will keep you up to date on becoming the person I've always wanted to be...

I'll leave you with my verse from this week (from memory :) "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." Philippians 4:5

Poor man lookin' through painted glass

Weekend art class...

Fun!

Light yourself a candle

The end has come..
A week or so before Ollie was born, I was supposed to be on bed rest. I was utterly convinced that my life was over, and that I would have no time to do anything that I wanted to anymore. So, I became a candle making factory. I poured, melted, and waited for days. I used old candles, hemp wicks, coffee mugs, and 2 or 3 molds I picked up from garage sales, including the turtles pictured above. That was almost 6 years ago, and everyone I give gifts to has gotten at least-usually more-candles over the years. I burn them. And, they are just now dwindling to the last few ones. I only have a couple of the these homemade candles left. I used an old crock pot and pot and let the wax melt and simmer, then poured, let them dry, then topped them off, then waited. I have kept all of the candle making materials, so who knows, maybe we'll do it again soon, but dear friends, you may not find them in your Christmas baskets next year.

Oh the history books tell it

One of our projects from this week included making our own ink from blueberries, vinegar, and salt. We then used our new quill pens to write on scrolls or parchment. We are reading Harry Potter, so the kids thought this was very cool, but quills are also used historically, of course, too.

This led Ollie to want to write in cursive.. Great little project. I found these pens and recipes for ink for only $3 at our local historical mansion gift shop. They have several great, inexpensive toys like: wooden jump ropes, ring tosses, pick-up sticks, yo-yos, excavation kits, etc, -all for less than $5 each.