Journal of a Mom: October 12, 2015

THE CLOCKS READS...
5:43am

WEATHER IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS

It's dark outside. Pitch black. But my quick dash outside earlier told me that it's not going to be a cold day. AccuWeather says it's going to be a sunny 70 degrees today. Perfect!

IN THE GARDEN

Everything is dying back for the winter. The pine needles and leaves are starting to fall from the trees and litter the ground. With winter approaching faster than we would like, we started yard clean up this past week, storing away the kayaks, putting bikes and scooters in the shed, gathering downed trees to burn in the firepit.

Conway, New Hampshire - October 11, 2015

LOOKING AROUND THE HOUSE
Rosie, the Golden Retriever, and our prodigal cat, Stripe, have decided to cozy up at the bottom of my bed. Cate's music from her bedroom is competing with the music for Jake's. (Perhaps they can coordinate radio stations...) 

ON MY TO DO LIST

☐ Scoop the Tree Seedlings Out of the Rain Gutters
☐ Burn Pile of Wood (and Don't Forget S'mores Supplies)
☐ Buy Straw for the Coop
☐ Harvest the Pie Pumpkins

MENU FOR TONIGHT'S DINNER
Baked Boneless Chicken Breasts with Rice Pilaf and Peas

WHAT'S ON TV 

Are you watching The Voice this season? Survivor? Amazing Race?

FROM THE CRAFT BASKET

I've almost finished Cate's Red Heart With Love scoodie, a combination hood and scarf creation with pockets. (The pattern is free from Posh Pooch Designs HERE.) Then I'll be back to working on Sam's shell stitch afghan in ocean colors. (The Red Heart pattern is HERE, but I changed up the size and color sequence on Sam's blanket and probably won't put a scallop border on it.)

I made 2 DC beanies with scalloped edges and hydrangeas for a friend's daughter a few weeks ago. She chose the yarn colors in Red Heart worsted weight acylics. They came out cute and colorful, and she loves them!

And I am loving the big whimiscal hydrangeas! Definitely a pattern keeper!

Free Beanie Pattern & Hydrangea How To Video

I'm sharing my crocheting creations over at Lucy Blossom Crafts (Mondays), Frontier Dreams (Tuesdays), The Philosopher's Wife (Tuesdays), Small Things (Wednesdays), Oombawka Design (Wednesdays), Lunamon Design (Wednesdays), and Natural Suburbia (Fridays).

I'M READING...

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY AND THANKFUL

I'm thankful for my wonderful daughter who of late has been super helpful. She's growing into a beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, creative, and humorous young woman.

I'M WONDERING...
Why did my van stall out yesterday? It suddenly stalled as I was slowing down for a traffic light. I was able to turn into a parking spot and get off the road. The van started up again after a few tries, ran rough for a half a minute and have been fine since. Not even a check engine light on. Vehicle troubles are worrisome.

NO WORDS NEEDED

DEVOTIONAL
Sometime this week my Local Church Bible Publishers KJV bible should arrive. I'm been anxiously waiting to start bible journaling, gathering supplies in the meantime. For more information, click over to the Time Warp Wife for Bible Journaling 101.

 I'm linking up to The Simple Woman at The Simple Woman's Daybook and to the Diary of a Stay At Home Mother at Happy Homemaker on Mondays.

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 4-5 (Days 42/44) - The One Where Autumn Returns

Autumn has returned to Maine. In just a few days time, we've gone from hot, humid high 80s to cool, comfortable 60s. Trees are starting to show their reds, oranges and yellows. Sweatshirts have been pulled out of the closets. Windows are cranked shut around dinnertime. Soon, flip flops will disappear. Soups are warming in the crockpot and cocoa is back in the cupboard. If only Autumn would last until Spring...

As you may have noticed, I haven't been keeping up with our weekly wrap-ups. We have been chugging along, learning new things, experiencing life, enjoying our time together.

Tom and I are getting in our last days of fishing in our little dingy. Soon, it'll be too chilly to head out for bass and perch. We've had a wonderful time together!

Sam has been discovering "Sun Science" with Apologia Astronomy Lesson 2. We have 2 more projects, modeling a solar eclipse and making a pinhole viewing box, and we'll be moving onto Mercury. But, in the meantime...

He melted (and burned!) chocolate by focusing the sun's rays with a magnifying glass (in the parking lot of the school while Cate was at concert band practice). 

And made a solar oven out of a pizza box, tin foil and plastic wrap. He baked a cheese burrito for lunch with chunky Southwestern salsa. It "only" took 45 minutes to melt the cheese on a 65 degree day.

Cate loves Chibi, a form of Japanese manga or anime, and has been printing out and coloring them from a website called Deviant Art. With some encouragement and You Tube videos, she's started to create her own Chibi this week (but isn't ready to share).

Who would have thought that after 4 months our supposed-to-be-indoor cat, Stripe, would return! Tom heard her one early evening yowling outside our garage. (Apparently, she was the culprit getting into the trash the last couple of days...) She dashed across the road into the woods, but came to me when I called her. She's in remarkably good shape with no fleas or ticks, but quite thin.

In the meantime at STEM, Jake had an unexpected day off from school yesterday and today. On Wednesday we were pelted with sheets and sheets of heavy rain, sometimes as much as 3 inches an hour. The school's basement flooded! Clean-up and assessment of damage was done yesterday and today.

As always, special thanks to these bloggers for their weekly homeschool blog link-ups. Click on over to see what other homeschoolers are doing!

Happy Homeschooling!

Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies

One of the unique places we like to visit occasionally (when we're in the area) is Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies on an island off the coast of Maine. Not only do they have a "jam kitchen" to make their special treats from Maine fruits, but there are interesting sculptures and structures to explore...made from "dump" finds! The kids love to wonder around, exploring the "playhouses" - a country store, a restaurant, the knights' castle - and sometimes play checkers.

C, S and J in the Restaurant with "patrons" in the behind them

Bear Playing Drums

Knights Inside the Castle, Drinking and Eating

Knight

Ladies Cooking at Stove

Market with "Patrons" Outside - Dog is REAL LOL

We ended our exploring by buying some Blue Razz Conserve - blueberry and raspberry jam - and some maple sugar candy.

Nature Study: Snow, Snow, Snow!

The Brook That Runs Our Property

Snow, snow, snow! With most of us having the sniffles this week (and C struggling with a belly bug), our nature study was unstructured outside playtime, climbing Mt. Snow Pile, and taking a short walk to breathe in fresh, crisp air on a warmish late winter day.

J Poppin' Up From Behind a Snow Pile

C Poppin' Up Behind HER Snow Pile

S Climbing a Snow Pile

C Found a Pine Cone

The Boys With Our Dog Running Ahead

 We saw some interesting trees and plants along our walk. It's strange how you miss these things even though you've walked this area MANY times!

Lovely Broadleaf Lines

Moss and Lichen Growing on a Pine

A Discussion of Phototropism and Auxims

After the Seeds have Dropped

For a fun, new twist, we brought in a bucket of snow and made snow sculptures, "painting" them with food coloring. COOL fun! (I couldn't resist the pun! LOL)

Our Food Dye Paints

S Getting Started

S's Exploding Volcano Sculpture

J and his Rabbit

J Conducting his own Experiment - Blue Dye and Melting Snow

C Painting with Gloves

C's Tie-Dyed Rabbit

This Sculpture Didn't Quite Make it

S's Trying Again After Destruction

Check out other nature studies at The Outdoor Hour, Winter Wednesday, Science Sunday, and Nature Connections. Click the buttons on my sidebar!

Art Study: Claude Monet

Art hasn't been a big part of our homeschooling adventure. We've tried different programs, but nothing has clicked or lasted long. C and I enjoy doing crafts, but J not so much and S is just starting to enjoy drawing. So, when I found Harmony Art Mom's free Art and Music Appreciation notebooking pages, I decided to give it another try. We LOVE notebooking!

We read the books Claude Monet: First Impressions by Ann Waldron and Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Monet by Mike Venezia, looked at Impressionist paintings in an out-dated wall calendar my mother-in-law gave me, and filled out our notebooking pages.

Here are J's (on the left) and C's (on the right) completed notebooking pages. We LOVED these! Simple, but thorough enough for a beginning Artist Study.

And, after I FINALLY purchased some Tempera paints, the kids, including S, created their own Impressionist-inspired paintings. J and C's notebooking pages are glued to the backs of their paintings and put in plastic page protectors and stored in their 2010-2011 portfolios. Photos: Right: C. Left: J. Bottom: S.


We wrapped up our study of Monet by spending time discussing what Monet painted (i.e. water and the "natural environment"), how his paintings were detailed with colors and various brush strokes, but not sharp, contrasting lines, compared them to various other paintings in different styles, and how to use shading and colors to create a "mood". (Not too bad for someone - ME! - who doesn't know much about this stuff, huh? LOL)

The kids had a BLAST learning about Monet and creating their own works of Art! This was DEFINITELY a wonderful hands-on learning experience for them. Next, Georgia O'Keefe!