Journal Jottings of a Maine Mama: January 25, 2016

Where did January go? Poof! Soon, it'll be February! I remember sitting in class, 5th grade actually, thinking how S-L-O-W time went. School took forever and a day to reach dismissal. Now? Days sometime fly by like minutes! But we're getting closer to spring...

CLOCK READS
9:46am

WEATHER IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS
Sun and blue skies. We might just hit freezing today!

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW and IN THE GARDEN
Snow-covered.

WHAT I'M DOING RIGHT NOW and AROUND THE HOUSE
I'm in comfy, cozy sweats waiting for Sam to finish cooking his pancake breakfast sandwich so we can start homeschooling. I've vacuumed and swept the floors, gathered trash, and thought about doing the pile of dirty dishes.

TO DO
☐  Get to those Leaks

DINNER
Chicken, Gravy and Biscuits with Peas, Carrots and Celery

WHAT'S ON TV
"Mork and Mindy"! I found Retro TV shows on Hulu. I never watched "Mork and Mindy" as a child. I was just young enough that it wasn't a show I was interested in, but wasn't that Robin Williams a talent. :: sigh ::

FROM THE CRAFT BASKET
I finished my ripple blanket with fans in Red Heart Super Saver Frosted Green, Aran and White. (Free pattern here.) It measures 40x46. I don't often save my creations for myself, but THIS time I am! With the yarn scraps, I'm going to make a cute, striped owl pillow. (Free pattern here.)

I'm sharing my crocheting creations over at Lucy Blossom Crafts (Mondays), Frontier Dreams (Tuesdays), Small Things (Wednesdays), Oombawka Design (Wednesdays), and Lunamon Design (Wednesdays).

PAGE TURNERS

A BLESSING
My daughter Cati who turning into a compassionate, thoughtful and creative young woman.

DEVOTIONAL and INSPIRATION
And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32)

I'm linking up to The Simple Woman's Daybook and Happy Homemaker are Mondays.

Happy Homemaker Daybook: The Day to Come...

The Clock Reads...
6:06am

Weather in My Neck of the Woods 

Cool, steamy, hinting at a hot, humid day to come.

In the Garden

I harvested our first green beans this morning. Only a handful, but after a rocky start I'll take it. The pie pumpkins have blooms. The 2nd try at cucumbers are yielding results. Unfortunately the chickens got to the peas again. (Do you hear my exasperation?)

Looking Around the House

It's early. The kids are all soundly sleeping. The dogs are all soundly sleeping. A multitude of fans are whirling. There's a basket of clean laundry to hang up. A strainer of dishes to put into the cupboards. All is peaceful, just not quite in their places.

Menu for this Week

It's too hot to cook inside. And it's too hot to cook OUTSIDE. But I'll figure something out. Fortunately, Jake wants to make homemade popcorn chicken tonight so he'll be in the hot kitchen making dinner for us.

What's on my TV Today 

Nothing! We'll be doing some stuff on Camp Google Science-y stuff on-line later though...

What I'm Creating from the Craft Basket

A sweet lil' whimsical owl keychain in purple, white, teal, and spring green. (Pattern.) I don't have a photo of mine yet as it's unfinished, but here's one from the pattern link.

Photo Source: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/owl-key-chain-pattern

I'm Reading

I just finished my DAUGHTER'S library book. I'm fresh out. What a sad thing! I'm heading to the library tomorrow for sure. (I'd go today, but NONE in the area are open.)

Things that Make Me Happy and Thankful

A little AC unit that keeps the upstairs reasonably comfortable. 

I'm Wondering

When will I get a WHOLE day at home? I'm a homebody at heart, but lately I'm always out-and-about doing some errand. I'm going to have to schedule a "day in".

Devotional

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. (Proverbs 15:13) Hope deterred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12) He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. (Proverbs 13:3)

 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 - The Missing Piece: August 11-17

In Our Life
With White Pine off to Advanced Culinary Camp at the community college, it felt like something was missing all week. Funny how that works, huh? And this weekend I'll be packing up the Saplings for a week visit with Grandpa and Nannie Lobster. I'm staying home to catch up on some household projects and gearing up for another year of school, which is set to begin September 4th. 

What's Cooking?
Bread Machine English Muffins!

Ingredients (Place in Order Except Cornmeal)
6-7 oz warm water
1 t salt
2 T butter, cut into small pieces
2 1/4 c bread flour
1/4 c dry milk
1/4 c wheat germ
1/4 c quick cook oats
2 T sugar
2 t active dry yeast
1/4 c cornmeal 

Place everything, but cornmeal in the bread machine and select dough setting and run. When the dough is done, sprinkle cornmeal onto the counter, place it on top, and roll out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 3 inch circles. (I just used a plastic cup for this. ::laugh::) Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet with cornmeal side down. Cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes in a warm area. Now, you can either preheat a griddle or dry frying pan to 250 degrees and cook about 8 minutes on each or side, or you can do it the lazy creative cook way like I did: throw them into a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes and call it good! ::wink:: Makes about 10 muffins.

(Now, I was planning on adding a photo because the muffins did come out really well, but for some reason Photoshop isn't loading up the the photo! ::sigh::)

Homeschool Happenings
Sugar Maple continued to work on her How to Write a Paragraph paragraph. "Mooommm, do I have to edit it again?" Yep! She doesn't see the point in going through the editing process, even to clean up Grammar and Spelling, but we're working on it. And looking up words in the dictionary? ::laugh:: She's been getting around it by changing the words she isn't able to spell into words she can! Sneaky, huh? 

And Balsam Fir continued with his on-line reading, writing and spelling lessons. (Stay tuned for our review later in the month.) I can't say he's crazy-liking these educational games, but maybe it's just being on summer break? I DO like the program though and think it's beneficial to his Language Arts.

I guess all of this doesn't sound like DELIGHT-DIRECTED learning, but sometimes we - kiddos and Mamas alike - need to just tackle something even if it's not on our Happy-to-Do Lists. Some things just need to be worked on! Wouldn't it be nice to skip dirty dishes though? or long division? So, as much as I would like school to ALWAYS be exciting it simply can't be, but I do try to make it as interesting and "painless" as possible.

We're Reading...

...a thriller entitled Gone Missing by Linda Castillo (and it's not from the Young Adult Room!) (me), WHO KNOWS (White Pine), a mystery book called Trixie Belden: the Mysterious Visitor by Julie Campbell (Sugar Maple), early readers Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat (still) and Henry and Mudge and the Bedtime Thumps by Cynthia Rylant (Balsam Fir), and The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden (still) (family read aloud).

A Few of Our Favorite Things
So, I've been continuing to get stuff ready for our new school year. My latest crazy creative idea is to fill a box of hands-on learning games and puzzles for Balsam Fir (and maybe Sugar Maple) to do when he's needing a break from more formal, challenging lessons. I've added Coin War from First Grade Frogs, Math with Roman Numerals from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational, and now Silly Sentences from Instant Display. We probably won't use the games EXACTLY as described, but that's how we roll! ::laugh:: Silly Sentences will be used to learn nouns, verbs and adjectives, and write random sentences with correct punctuation and capitalization, and to read new words. For now.

Roman Numeral Game Board Slipped Into a Plastic Page
Protector. Balsam Fir will Learn to Values of Roman
Numerals First and then Adding and Subtracting

Roman Numeral Playing Cards and Help Chart Slipped Into
Back of Page Protector and Game Board

Colored Coded Silly Sentence Game Pieces

Game Instructions That We Probably
Won't Use

Silly Sentences to Organize, Read and Write into Complete,
Correct Sentences for Copywork

Add up Coin Values on Cards and Highest Gets the Cards.
First to get All the Playing Cards, Wins Coin War

Ponderings
Remember last wrap-up I shared that both boys had loose teeth? Well, Balsam Fir's came out...Well, ONE did. The other tooth was swallowed at dinnertime! Imagine his surprise to notice it was gone while eating cheese pizza! ::wink:: But White Pine is STILL waiting to lose that final molar! It's hanging on!

Giggles to Share

Blog Hops

Lots and Lots of Water: May 26 - June 1

Would you go swimming in 60 degree water? Nah, me either! But it doesn't slow my Saplings down! They swam for hours on Saturday....and Sunday...and Monday...and Wednesday...and Thursday. And I relaxed in my camp chair on the beach, reading Under the Dome, or chatted with friends who popped in with their kids for a dip too. The best part of summer: the lake, swimming, picnics, reading, and friends!

Swimming Late Last Summer...Because I Haven't Taken Any
Photos Yet This Year LOL

How'd your Memorial Day go?

We drove into town early and played at the playground with a friend before Sugar Maple lined up with the Girl Scouts to walk in the Memorial Day parade. It was the first parade in a VERY LONG TIME that we've been too! Afterward, we walked to the town beach and Sugar Maple and Balsam Fir swam while White Pine and I read on shore and observed a HUGE dragonfly that didn't want to leave my finger. Have you ever seen a dragonfly rub its head? LOL 

Olive and Opal Have Moved into the Hen Coop - Hens and
Ducks Laying Eggs in Same Nest!

This week was a slower, more relaxed one with a couple of days of thunder and downpours. As slow as they can be with 3 kiddos and their activities, housework and gardening, and this, that and the other thing. ((wink))

Balsam Fir and his Robot Lego

Sugar Maple got her new glasses! I was a little worried she would be upset about needing them (even though it's inevitable if you look at our extended family), but she thinks they're pretty cool!

I'm excited to write that Balsam Fir has almost completed his 2nd Henry and Mudge book, Henry and Mudge and the Long Weekend!

And I started another read aloud book, Holes, because Peter Pan flopped! Have you ever tried to read aloud Peter Pan? Bleck! The kids also did not "get" parts of the story and felt "lost". So out with the old and in with the new!

This week's summer studies were mostly Math and Reading or Spelling for the Saplings. Nothing new really, but DEFINITELY check out our first summer learning unit inspired by Pinterest post here! We had hands-on fun with MATH COORDINATES!

So, this week (Saturday - Thursday) I decided to keep track of how many hours the kids were outside and how many hours they watched something with a screen for The Daily Outdoor Challenge at Cultivated Lives. Why? Just because! LOL I was curious!

Outside Challenge Time: 23 hours    Inside Screen Time: 13 hours

Looks like we need to work on less screen time! I was surprised that they watched that much TV this week! (I think the 2 days with rain really added up the screen time.) But I am happy about the hours outside!

Stylin' Balsam Fir...Button-down Shirt,
Striped Tie and SWIM TRUNKS...and
Yes, He Went to the Library in This

Can you believe it's June?!