The Snow Returns: February 25 - March 2

In My Life This Week

Whipped up some new recipes. Some good. Some flops. Walking through mud one day. Mountains of snow to shovel the next day. Lots of eggs. Decluttering bedrooms and piling up Boy Scout yard sale donations. Making camping plans for the summer and located the tent fly. Played many games of Words With Friends.

Cookin' in the Kitchen!

Baked Oatmeal Breakfast Cupcakes from Sugar-free Mom! Yum! These are a perfect on-the-go breakfast or snack AND you can make them gluten-free and Diabetic-friendly and freeze them! Can't go wrong with that, huh? Oh, and toppings can be PERSONALIZED! We made plain, raisin and pecan, pecan, coconut-pineapple, maple syrup and brown sugar (like the saplings favorite flavor of instant oatmeal), and chocolate chip! Cool completely before trying to remove from muffin tin. ((wink)) Visit Sugar-free Mom here for the recipe!

Sugar Maple Whippin' up the Batter

Finished Muffins - Chocolate Chip, Raisin-Pecan and Pecan

Homeschool Happenings

White Pine finished reading ALL Joy Hakim's A History of Us books. His thoughts? "They're OK." High praise from the 13-year-old! LOL He'll start "doubling up" on another subject (of his choosing).

Sugar Maple and Balsam Fir finished up Apologia Astronomy and notebooking. They also FINALLY wrapped up their winter lapbook from WEEKS ago. Up next: Scholastic Easy Make and Learn Projects: Human Body!

The end of our year is "rounding the corner"! Whoop!

Yeah, I know it sounds like I'm excited about school ENDING. Why? There's something about wrapping up a school year that gives me a sense of accomplishment. (I hope the saplings feel this too!) Planning for another year gets my creativity going, but I can't do it until THIS year is over. And who doesn't look forward to warmer, sunnier weather? swimming in the lake? mowing the lawn? BBQing?

Anyway, we recycled brown paper bags (from the grocery store) into a basket this week. Pinterest find! (Don't you just ♥ Pinterest?) Once the glue dried on the basket, we painted it cool colors. Want to make some? Click here for the tutorial!

Our Paper Bags Cut into Long Strips and Folded

Paperclips Holding Weaved Sides Together Instead of Clothes-
Pins (as in the Tutorial) 

Bottom of Basket and Sides Started

Completed Unpainted Paper Bag Basket

Many Hands Make for an Interestingly Painted Bag

Surprisingly Sturdy, Interestingly Painted Woven Basket From
Recycled Brown Paper Bags

Oh, and Sugar Maple started Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Language Arts this week, dropping HER dreaded Saxon Grammar and Writing. (I still think Saxon Grammar and Writing is a thorough program, but I'll admit it's a bit, well, bland.) It's a free on-line K-6 Language Arts program with 100s of "reteach, practice and extend" printable worksheets.

Excellent Extras!

♣ Cub Scouts ♣ Boy Scouts ♣ Clarinet and Band ♣ Community Dr Suess Birthday Party ♣ Library ♣

Off the Bookshelf

One of my favorite books is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Jester. Have you read it? Oh, you should (if you haven't)! This is what Amazon.com says about it:

As Milo heads toward Dictionopolis he meets with the Whether Man ("for after all it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be"), passes through The Doldrums (populated by Lethargarians), and picks up a watchdog named Tock (who has a giant alarm clock for a body). The brilliant satire and double entendre intensifies in the Word Market, where after a brief scuffle with Officer Short Shrift, Milo and Tock set off toward the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the twin Princesses, Rhyme and Reason. Anyone with an appreciation for language, irony, or Alice in Wonderland-style adventure will adore this book for years on end.

So, I started reading it to the saplings. 

On the Screen With Netflix

(Shhh! Don't tell him I shared with you, but White Pine thought "The Smurfs" was hilarious! LOL It WAS pretty humorous.)

Helpful Homeschool Hint

The Magic Tree House website is awesome! I can't wait for Balsam Fir to be reading this series! Have you seen it? Lots of great Science and History chapter books! The website has this really neat passport where kids can read the books, take an on-line comprehension quiz and earn stickers to put on their passport! My favorite FUTURE multiple subject resource!

One of Our Favorite Things

Cleaning the chicken coop and run! Ha! Ha! Just kidding! We did have to tackle this this week though. We've been using the "deep litter" method and it works just fine, but after 3 months we really needed to clean out the decomposing, um, "matter". (Contrary to what you may think, this method doesn't smell too terrible.)

Mustard Says, "Bock!"

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