Weekly Wrap-up: Week 20 - 13 Inches, 90 Days, 26 Candles

PILING UP AND NO WHERE TO GO

Yet MORE snow fell over the week. :sigh: Winter 2015 is shaping up to be one of our coldest, snowiest seasons ever. How many days until spring? 

Snow is AWESOME for some things though! It's the perfect time to wrap up in cozy blankets and read, crochet or watch movies, to bake banana bread to go with hot cocoa, to simmer beef stew in the crockpot for dinner, and take a long nap. Quiet days at home! (And sometimes I NEED those days...)

Cuppa Cocoa

QUICK MUNCHIES
There are just some nights were NONE of us are up for cooking dinner.  Sometimes you just need something super quick-and-easy. Cati and I whipped up quesadillas on Wednesday and served them with chunky salsa and baby carrots. Everyone loved them! And there was little effort or time involved in prep!

Ingredients: Light Whole Wheat Wraps (6), 2 c shredded Mexican blend cheeses, 1 # boneless chicken breast, sliced into thin pieces and sprinkled with taco seasonings, salsa

Directions: Place 3 wraps onto cookie sheets. Sprinkle with cheeses. Add chicken. Top was remaining 3 wraps. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until cheese is melted and wraps are just a tad crisp. Serve with salsa.

How about dessert? I found a recipe on Pinterest for chocolate-dipped cherries and thought it would be super fun for us to make. (No, not healthy, but it IS dessert...) But I'm a lazy cook so I took the easy way out...and didn't follow the recipe tweaked the recipe. Both Sam and Cati helped with these yummy creations.

Ingredients: 2 jars Maraschino cherries with stems, 1/3 bag milk or dark chocolate chips, 1-2 T milk (optional), jimmies (optional)

Directions: Drain cherries and place on paper towel to dry. Melt 1/3 bag of chocolate chips slowly in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds or so. Add milk to thin a bit if needed. Dip cherries into the melted chocolate then sprinkle with jimmies. Place on waxed paper. Chocolate will harden after a few minutes.

(And if there's any chocolate left, don't waste it! We smeared the leftovers onto banana slices and froze them. A favorite treat around here!)

LEARNING CONTINUES

Although public school kids are off for February break this week, the younger Mountain kiddos were homeschooling. Somewhat. (Jake worked on finishing up his bedroom redo.) We've taken off a number of days "just because" so our school year is bound to go into June if we don't "buckle down" and get our days in. (Maine homeschoolers are required to complete 175 days of school.)  We definitely like to enjoy as many days possible of summer vacation. So, we did a bit of schooling this week...

Stripe, our cat with a 'dude, likes Saxon too! She joined Cati one morning for Algebra...

It'd been awhile since I read from Story of the World (Vol. 1) so I made a point of getting to it this week. We keep a history timeline on the wall in the diningroom/schoolroom and label maps to go along with our reading. It's our 2nd time through this series, but it'll only reinforce our learning. (Truth be told, I'm ready to study American History. I enjoy it so much more!)

Our wall timeline the first go 'round. We're using the same cards this time too.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Years ago I pulled our library card from the local library. Just 4 miles away, it was frustrating to borrow items from another library further away, but a library volunteer mistook another patron for me and allowed her to borrow under my name. Unfortunately, this patron wasn't timely about returning those items for which I became responsible for. Now that that volunteer is no longer volunteering, I signed up for another card and we're enjoying a "new" selection of books and movies.

Downtown. Yes, DOWNTOWN. LOL Our library, Rec Center and Post Office in WARMER, LESS SNOWIER times.

BIRTHDAY BOYS

Not that we didn't enjoy some "off" times this week. My boys celebrated birthdays! All my kids are in DOUBLE DIGITS now. :sigh: Where does the time go? Sam turned 10 and Jake turned 16. (Would you believe that they were due on the same exact day 6 years apart?) We celebrated with a red velvet cake topped with chocolate frosting and Heath, M&M and Kit Kat pieces. And on Valentine's Day, between their birthdays, we went to our local ice cream parlor for FREE ice cream sundaes with Thomas and his kids.

Flashback to younger years! Jake, age 11, and Sam, age 5, at the lake. Look at all that hair!

As always, special thanks to the these bloggers:

Don't forget to read my other blog posts this week:

Friday Four Fill-in Fun: Week 200
Six Word Saturday: What Hits the Spot
Wednesday Hodgepodge: The Government Edition

Happy Homeschooling!