CM/Classical October Thread - Page 4

[Jennifer3141]

Ah, The Winged Cat... One of those books is more picture bookish and only includes one of the 4 stories - The Winged Cat. The oterh is more along the lines of the size and pictures of a Magic Schoolhouse book but includes 4 or 5 stories. The second one is the one recommended for HO. And it was HARD to find!! It's now at $156 used on Amazon. It bounces all over the place. But we had an absolute blast looking for just the right book...

MLW, thanks for the good wishes on our friend. She's an unschooler but we love her.
She's fighting a pretty bad infection and now the fallout from that.

[crunchy_mama]

Originally Posted by AngelBee

Pretty good day. Abigail finished her MUS book and moves up tomorrow.

I am still super sick. NO VOICE! Makes read alouds pretty hard. I should be in bed...

Ya for Math! Hope you went to bed!

Originally Posted by MyLittleWonders

I think we'll finally make the library next week for the first time since dh went back to work. The new children's librarian is nice, but just doesn't have quite the same personality, if that makes sense.

\
Hopefully you can make it in- I miss the library when we don't get make it in as well. We got a new children's library this year as well, she flat out stinks. Horrid personality. She evidently doesn't really like kids. Story time stopped for a month, evidently she doesn't want to do it. Thankfully they have another girl that took over and really puts a lot of work into it. She is not as good w/ the kids as the last one but she is getting better- she is just shy.

Originally Posted by Jennifer3141

We actually did nothing for school today. Sarah (my classical friend) and I have another friend in the hospital who took a turn for the worse today and Sarah hadn't seen her in there yet. So I stayed home with FIVE kids while she went for a visit. It was actually fine. It was also a little under 2 hours...

Thursday is history/science co-op day. We need to get cracking tomorrow morning!

Sorry about your friend, I hope she recovers soon. Hopefully today is a nice productive day for you.

Originally Posted by Mama Rana

We took a 4 day weekend Friday-Monday, so today was our first day back. Unfortunately, I forgot to finish planning for it, AND our school table was a mess. Today I set aside OPGTR, and started Phonics Pathways.

For "history" we started writing a fairy tale, a la Gilgamesh from SOTW. His involves Egyptians, specifically Playmobil Egyptians, and sorta based on "The Three Little Pigs". Should turn out interesting!

Oh, the story sounds so neat, I agree you should share it when you guys are done, what fun!

Oh, and I just completely cleaned off my table last night! Another reason we need a break, it hasn't been completely clear in I don't remember!

Originally Posted by MyFullHouse

We had a relatively boring school morning, though ds did score a 90 on his Algebra test, and only one of the incorrect answers was due to dropping a sign!

But we made up for it by getting out to the used bookstore, where I found - get this - Latina Christiana I, teacher and student books, for $2 each!

Awesome finds at the bookstore! Kudos to your ds for the Algebra grade.

Originally Posted by MyLittleWonders

I also think I need to resign myself to the fact that we just are not going to have school started until at least 10:30, if not 11am.

We also have done math , writing and grammar (I am liking Growing with Grammar though I am glad we have the foundation of both FLL and MCT Island materials - I think on it's own, at least for my kids, GWG isn't "meaty" enough but it is a wonderful addition to our other grammar/language arts materials).

After our break, we'll do memory work, MCT, plus read some Greek Mythology and Ch. 1 of Archimedes & the Door of Science), and then the boys will alternate independent work (math drill sheet, ETC, and either HWOT for ds#2 or an outlining page for ds#1) with reading to me. It sounds like a lot, but it should only take us about 1 1/2 hours (this morning took 2 hours). I like to keep our days under 4 hours.

Well, you are prego, if you keep going that is pretty good! 4 hrs seems pretty reasonable to me for their ages especially considering all they are getting done. Sounds like fun stuff to me anyway. I wish I had had that kind of education

Originally Posted by *Jessica*

It's almost 11am and I'm just getting to eat breakfast.
I made corn chowder this morning so I can toss it in the slow cooker and have dinner mostly ready when we get home tonight. I'm enjoying a bowl of it right now for brunch.

How about pre-making hard boiled eggs? Pre-making some custards.

Chowder sounds awesome, I was planning some soup today, might look into making some kind of chowder.

Originally Posted by Jennifer3141

Hmmmm... after deserts, I think we'll do fossils as our weekly earth science subject now. Thanks Jessica!!
My kids love making tiny books.

I like tiny books but the kids aren't into it too much.

Give us a report on FLL when your done, I love reading reviews of everything! I am trying to get Simply Grammar: An Illustrated Primer via ILL to review it as well.

Anyway, as I said nothing major today, school wise. I have a friend coming to visit. I will be be cleaning. I did get a video that accompanies the poem Hiawatha, thought it would go good w/ our Native American study. We got books about fall and leaves to accompany Nature Study. We plan to go to a somewhat close spring to check out the leaves- it is always beautiful in the fall there.

Did I mention I have a new printer coming? It prints double-sided at 1c a page b/w! Google books here I come!

[MissRubyandKen]

crunchy mama- Been there, done that with my diet and I know how tough it can be excluding certain foods. I'm currently GF, but the rest of the house isn't which has its own challenges. I was vegan in the past, but since having to go gf I eat alot of meat. I tried gf and vegan and my weight went down to 105! My normal weight is about 120 and I'm guessing I'm currently about 125-130! Not sure, my scale is broke, which is probably a good thing, lol.

We are using Simply Grammar right now. My kids actually like it. My ds, who is 8, says Simply Grammar is his favorite subject. Often the lesson involves making up their own sentences within certain instructions. He enjoys creating silly sentences. I don't mind the silliness as long as he is correct. I also like it. Its straightforward. Each new concept is introduced by a short bit of reading followed by numerous exercises ranging from making up sentences, filling in blanks, and using the pictures to make sentences. The book was made so that you use 10-15 minutes per lesson. You complete however many exercises within that timeframe and then take up where you left off next time. We usually do Simply Grammar twice a week. I also like it because it would work for a wide range of ages as well, so my 8 year old and 10 year old are both able to participate. Its also just what it says, simply grammar. It is an oral approach. There is no copywork or memory work. We also do Daily Grams once or twice a week and are using WWE for narration and copywork.

[Jennifer3141]

Crunchy, our classical friends are gluten/soy/dairy/egg free so I have a small taste of what you go through on a weekly basis. I had to make brownies yesterday using flax seed and I really, really tried to like them but darn, they would have been so much tastier with eggs and butter!!!
And what is it with children's librarians who clearly do not like children!?!? Why? Why? Why?

Jessica, we do tons of HB eggs around here. I bought these egg shapers from japanistic.com that the kids just LOVE.
You basically peel an egg as hot as you can and put it in the plastic shaper. Then you drop it in cold water for a few minutes and when it's done, out pops an egg in the shape of a rabbit or bear!
My only problem with them is that they don't work perfectly on giant, free range eggs. We get some spillover. So I just eat that.

[MyLittleWonders]

Jennifer - those egg shapers sound very cool! I might have to look into those. We eat a lot of eggs around here, but the last couple weeks I've had very little desire to eat them so I have not made as many as normal (I went through a huge egg-salad craving for the first 6-7 months of this pregnancy). We also do GF oats, but the boys have started to complain about those. We also do GF/DF pancakes and french toast, but boy do I miss telling the boys to go grab some yogurt and a piece of fruit for breakfast. Sometimes I splurge and buy coconut milk yogurt, but ds#2 is really the only one who'll eat it (other than dh and I).

Right now we are watching the coverage of the Chilean miners on CNN - it's mesmerizing. Eventually we'll get our day going - we have science scheduled today but from my lesson plans, it says we are doing Lab #3, but IIRC, last week we only did Lab #1, so I need to look through the notebook to see if maybe I just decided to skip Lab #2 or if I misfiled something (I'm hoping for the former ).

[MissRubyandKen]

Those egg shapers do sound cool!

Well, today has been one of those days that just don't work out as planned. I planned to walk my two year old to the library toddler storytime, with the big kids in tow, then walk to Pizza Hut so the big kids could use their Book It coupons. Yeah, didn't happen. I forgot my house key is in the bag on my stroller, which is locked in the garage, which I don't yet have my own key for. I told myself to get everything ready last night, but I started having abdominal pain and just sat around reading and playing with my toddler instead. Sigh. The kids are all disappointed. Mama said there's be days like this!

[Jennifer3141]

The local firemen came to one of the little libraries near us to do a program this afternoon. It was geared to preschoolers but this is the librarian who loves homeschoolers and she invited/reminded us about the program about 20 times. So we went.

Man, was it funny! We watched a video on fire safety from 1962. It was sweet but it was called "Grandpa Joe's Secret" or something like that and when Grandpa Joe took the kid into the garage alone, Sarah and I looked at each other pretty suspiciously. We were both subtly getting into position to grab the kids and run if it had turned out to be about molestation...

It wasn't. Grandpa Joe was a dope of a kid and burned his clubhouse down. That was his secret. Much of the program was pretty dopey / didn't pertain to us, etc. but I do think it was probably a good idea for my kids to see a fireman all geared up in case some awful thing happens someday and they are alone in a housefire.

And the 4 year old that we have doing HO and REAL science about 2 years early, loved it. It was a good reminder to us that we pull that kid up an awful lot and demand quite a bit from him. It's ok to relax every once in awhile and cater to his needs too. He was that perky kid with all the answers for the fire chief and he was in his element. He kept edging closer and closer to the firemen because he was so excited.

We did get several more books read before we went back to the library so we did some school today. But this was another free day. Ah well. The weekend is coming.

[craft_media_hero]

Originally Posted by MissRubyandKen

For Math we're still combining Miquon, Singapore, and MEP. For now the Miquon and MEP are good review and with Singapore they are building confidence and have fully shaken out the summer spiderwebs. I really think I'm going to have them both do 2-4 Math problems 3-4 days a week during next summer.

I totally agree with this! In fact, I think we might just have a two week "summer" and then get back to it, at least with Math and Reading. Dh and I both noticed such a huge re-learning curve this year that we decided year-round schooling might be a good idea. That way we don't have to spend so much time at the beginning of the year on review.


Not much happening here. I'm just really happy that we're getting through all the core work I have planned out.

I think we may have time today for a Geography project, and I believe we will make felt continents for our felt wall and matching labels so she can self-teach on those.

Also, I'm muddling over purchasing the SOTW 1 audio cds. They are kinda pricey. We have the activity book, and the thought of turning on the cd and handing her a coloring page whilst I am able to do something else is awfully appealing. Now if I can just find the books in those as-of-yet-unpacked boxes . . .

Today our Latin talked about nouns, and dd totally remembered nouns and verbs from other casual conversations about grammar. For now, I'm sticking to my plan of no formal grammar in the hopes that Classical Languages will cover it.

Ordered the Greek Code Cracker. Really looking forward to that! I got it because dd started asking me to give her English words to phonetically spell with Greek letters, and she's been rocking at it! Apparently that's how GCC starts out and then progresses into reading simple Greek words. So this will be our first intentional foray into a "formal" Greek program, and I really think she's ready for it. Very exciting. She actually has quite a sophisticated little Greek accent when she pronounces the handful of words she knows. Super cute

Hmmm, on the homefront: ds is having one of those "must be held constantly days", dh and I have an 8:30pm quadruple batch salsa canning date, and dd has decided that maybe Barbies are not the end-all-be-all in play activities.

[craft_media_hero]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mama

Did I mention I have a new printer coming? It prints double-sided at 1c a page b/w! Google books here I come!

btw, what printer is this? Will it print color as well? We are in the market for a new one since my ancient multi-function beast will no longer print past halfway through the ink. As far as I'm concerned, with the price of ink, that thing better print til it's bone dry!

[Bluegoat]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

Also, I'm muddling over purchasing the SOTW 1 audio cds. They are kinda pricey. We have the activity book, and the thought of turning on the cd and handing her a coloring page whilst I am able to do something else is awfully appealing. Now if I can just find the books in those as-of-yet-unpacked boxes . . .

I am thinking of buying these too. I haven't decided if I want to bother with SOTW. We're doing Ambleside, and I may find I'm satisfied with what they have. But on the other hand, people seem to love SOTW. I am going to look at the library copy first I think - but if I do get it, I'd like the audio, because my voice goes so easily - too many tonsil infections as a child I guess.

Today our Latin talked about nouns, and dd totally remembered nouns and verbs from other casual conversations about grammar. For now, I'm sticking to my plan of no formal grammar in the hopes that Classical Languages will cover it.

When I studied Latin as a university student, I used a book called "English Grammar for Students of Latin" which was actually quite useful. I'm not sure if kids would find it helpful, but I can imagine Latin teaching parents might.

[crunchy_mama]

Jennifer- I am cracking up here- Grandpa Joe- that is too funny! We did fire safety last week at the firehouse as well, but no cheesey videos. The kids thought it was neat as well and were excited they got to touch the trucks!

MissRuby= Thanks for your thoughts on Simply Grammar- it seems the review are either love or hate for it. Right now I am just browsing and researching, hopefully I can get it to check and see how it might fit for us. Sorry you had such an awful day I hate those days.


craftmediahero- The printer is a Lexmark Pro Pinnacle 901, the black catridges are only $5 and rated for 500 pages. It is $182 shipped to my door from Amazon. I read reviews all over the place and it seems that for printing it gets very great reviews although some are not pleased w/ it's copying. However, my primary need is printing. It is a 4-in-1 machine- printing, faxing, copying and = I don't know my mind is blank. It has wireless hook-up as well. It does do color as well, although from reading if color copies are your primary need then you can get another machine to probably do those cheaper. But it smokes the others on the cost of black copies. Oh, and has a 5 yr warranty.

I really enjoyed reading about your dd translating the Greek and the grammar as well. We are currently in the waiting on grammar here, although I do want to start educating myself so I stay ahead of them! I cannot remember much from school on that.
We have been officially 100% gf for 2 yrs, longer on the dairy and soy. So, it is pretty second nature and not too much of an issue.

We didn't do any school today, nothing, nada! Lots of reading tonight though, dh is currently reading Magic Treehouse to the kids. They are now on #21. He loves those books. My house is cleaner though and I cooked some yummy corn chowder today, homemade grainfree crackers and super yummy liverwurst pate. Tomorrow more reading, games, cooking and cleaning.

[MissRubyandKen]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mama

We didn't do any school today, nothing, nada! Lots of reading tonight though, dh is currently reading Magic Treehouse to the kids. They are now on #21. He loves those books. My house is cleaner though and I cooked some yummy corn chowder today, homemade grainfree crackers and super yummy liverwurst pate. Tomorrow more reading, games, cooking and cleaning.

I'd love the grainfree cracker recipe if you don't mind sharing ! Have you made gf tortillas? I've been wanting to try for a long time now. If you have a successful recipe please share, you'd make my day . Even though it has been about two years for me I'm still on a major learning curve. I just went without everything for a long time. I used cabbage leaves for rolling stuff, but that is so not the same, lol. I still haven't made gf bread or pizza dough even though I used to make those things all the time before going gf. Also do you have any experience freezing gf items, like homemade bread, tortillas, pizza doughs? I recently got a deep freezer and I would really like to make some gf stuff and freeze it. The expense of making gf items is a big reason why I'm putting it off as I'm afraid of failure! I'm the only person gf in the house so making gf items is less appealing, yk?

[Jennifer3141]

And I want your deep freezer, Miss!
That's one of those things we really need to get pretty soon. This house came with a nice-ish side by side refrigerator/freeser ahich we like because DH and I are tall. But it has ZERO space for a freezer and we feed our dog and cats a frozen raw diet. 1/2 - 1/3 of my freezer is always pet food.

We had to push our co-op until tomorrow. Becasue DH and I don't have enough drama in our lives, our landlord has gotten this house into trouble. We'd already planned on buying it - just not right now. We were hoping for next summer. That isn't going to happen though so now we're fire drilling with the banks. Ah well.

We're going to do chickens and/or goats for science next spring!

It's a catch up day around here. REAL science and history have to get finished so we can start fresh tomorrow. We might do our WTM science on dolphins too.

[crunchy_mama]

/offtopic
Here you go MissRuby, these are the best and easiest crackers I have made. It was divine to have crackers for my liver pate!

Pizza Crust(but I used it for crackers)
1 1/2 cups finely ground almond flour (TJ's sells cheap almond meal- I just grind nuts w/ a little coffee grinder)
2 eggs
3 T oil,(if using coco oil warm to liquify)
1/3 cup parmesan cheese(I used nut. yeast)
2 tsp oregano, basil, parsley,fennel
1 tsp minced onion, onion powder, dried onion etc.
1/2 tsp organic basil
2 cloves organic garlic, minced
1/4 tsp sea salt

Beat eggs slightly with cheese/yeast and oil. Add herbs and nutflour and mix well.

Grease cookie sheet and spread as thinly as possible.

Bake at 425F for 7-10 minutes or until crusts are slightly browned on the edges.

from the healthyhomeeconomist.com

The easiest no fail recipe for pizza crust I think is this lavash bread recipe.
http://glutenfree.wordpress.com/2008...-tomato-pizza/

I can generally whip it up in 10 min. I do other things for pizza as well, like making meatzas or zuc crust pizza(both grainfree). However, the lavash is the easiest and the most like reg pizza. I have tried some fancier pizza recipes but havent' ever been quite satisfied w/ them. The lavash makes perfect bread for roll-ups as it is flexible. I don't generally make bread as I am lazy but when I do I generally go for almond flour or coco flour recipes as they seem to turn out well and are generally pretty simple. I have never bothered to freeze anything though, sorry no help there.

A few thoughts though I like to keep it simple- I stick to sorghum flour and potato starch- for when I do use grains. I personally don't like tapioca. You really do need the xanthum gum. If you try to make that lavash bread it will not turn out w/out it(trust me)! Then some almond and coco flour- Elana's pantry has lots of recipes for both for a good start and they are simple and tasty. I, too, have wasted too much money in the past on this and that flours that I just stick to basics.
/offtopic

Jennifer- we are talking about getting goats and chickens as well. But we have a lot of fence work to do this winter though. WE are trying to figure out if the kids can tolerate goats milk now, still not sure on that.

[*Jessica*]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mama

/offtopic
Here you go MissRuby, these are the best and easiest crackers I have made. It was divine to have crackers for my liver pate!

Yum! I think I'm going to give them a try, even though we aren't GF.

Jennifer, I hope the housing situation works out!

I love the SOTW audio CDs! My throat gets so raw if I read out loud for too long. I really balked at paying so much (especially since I already had the book itself!) but I am so glad I gave in and bought them.

craft, the felt wall sounds neat! Do you have any pictures?

That reminds me that I got our weeks tree up on the wall. I did use the Burgess birds for it. It looks cute! I need to take some pictures.

Everyone gave such wonderful ideas for breakfasts, but I think my point was missed. It's not that I don't have any ideas for what to make......it's that I actually forget to eat! Or I get so focused on what I'm doing that I can't make myself stop to eat. Weekends are better, because Marc is home to make me eat. I'll say I'm going to get something to eat and head to the kitchen. Ten minutes later he finds me unloading the dishwasher or doing laundry. He says, "I thought you were making yourself something to eat." My reply, "I know, but I need to get this done now or I'll forget to do it later." Nearly every weekend starts that way. Then he makes me breakfast so I can finish the chores. He's the best!

Nik got the Lego Harry Potter board game for his birthday. We have had so much fun with that game! We've played it every day for the last four days. Marc and I both agree that it might be one of the best games we've ever played. The boys are learning all sorts of strategy from the game.

We have a field trip to the fire department tomorrow with the homeschool group. That should be fun. Hopefully we won't have to watch any Grandpa Joe videos!

We had an awesome time with the Journey to the Center of the Earth and Junior Plaeontologist materials I linked to a few days ago. We pulled out the rock kit and Nik studied each rock and decided if it was sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous. For some reason he thought that was really cool and played around with it on his own long after we were done with our lesson.

I didn't get to nature study again this week. I don't know why I have such a hard time with this one subject. I'm thinking that maybe we should start our day outside a couple of days per week to force me to get to it. Maybe I'll just count the hour the boys played outside with their cousin on Monday as nature study. They were catching lady bugs and crickets. That counts, right?

Nik started a new book for his reading today. It's The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren. I've never read it, so I'm enjoying listening.

Hm, what else? Oh! Nik lost his first top-front tooth this morning. I'm mourning the loss of his beautiful tiny-toothed smile. His other top-front tooth is about to fall out, also. Right now it is sitting at a very funny angle. He looks quite.....interesting. I wish he would wiggle the other tooth so it falls out before we need to be seen in public.

[MyLittleWonders]

We are being more productive today than yesterday. Thankfully we did some school on Monday even though it was an "off" day for us since dh had a furlough. I also told dh that he's doing science on Saturday with us - not only do I need to get to the store (we are making fudge to simulate how igneous rocks are made, but I need to go get some GF/DF/all natural chocolate chips and marshmellows), but I just don't have the desire to do it now.

We are having fun with IEW's All Things Fun & Fascinating. Today we worked on substituting boring, over-used verbs with strong verbs and talked a lot about how the verb needs to agree with the "mood" of the sentence. I've also noticed how much grammar ds#2 is finding in his other work - between FLL and MCT, he is really internalizing his grammar. Today during spelling (All About Spelling), he basically parsed his dictation sentence - "Mom, 'on my shirt' is a prepositional phrase. The basic sentence is 'I have a red badge.'" Then we talked about how red is an adjective, so really the sentence is just "I have a badge."

The biggest accomplishment, though, has been an improvement in ds#1's attitude. He had such an off day yesterday - all day, down to bedtime. Today he's been more cooperative and less tantrumy/complainy. His attitude, in particular, can make all the difference in everyone's day.

crunchy_mama - I love the recipes too! I am going to have to try the crackers and the pizza dough (but not call it pizza dough or anything resembling pizza ... going DF has cut that out for the boys as they don't like the cheese-less pizza dh and I make with caramelized onions in place of cheese or with nutritional yeast in place of cheese).

I'm off to make lunch - black bean soup, cheater style. I take a jar (about 1 1/2 cups) of salsa, a can of black beans and a cup of chicken broth and blend it. I pour that into the pot, add a cup or so of corn kernels, about 1/2 cup of rice, and another 1 1/2 cups or so of chicken broth (up to 2 cups if you don't want it too thick). I cook it until the rice is done (I really cheat and use white rice, so it takes about 20 minutes) and serve it with tortilla chips. It's good stuff. (Sometimes I'll keep some of the black beans out of the blender and put them in the soup whole, especially if I'm making it for everyone as ds#3 loves to eat whole black beans.)

[MyLittleWonders]

Originally Posted by *Jessica*

Hm, what else? Oh! Nik lost his first top-front tooth this morning. I'm mourning the loss of his beautiful tiny-toothed smile. His other top-front tooth is about to fall out, also. Right now it is sitting at a very funny angle. He looks quite.....interesting. I wish he would wiggle the other tooth so it falls out before we need to be seen in public.

Aww ... I remember ds#1's first snaggle tooth. I didn't think the poor thing would ever come out. (Ds#2 ended up kicking it out - mostly on accident - when they were wrestling at the park one day.) Ds#2 is getting close to that stage - he has 4 loose teeth, the two top and the two bottom. They aren't to the "hanging by a thread" point yet, but I'm thinking he's not much more than a month away from that point. We joke that he'll have all four out at the same time and will be able to slurp everything through the hole in his mouth.

BTW, I'd love to see your tree and birds.

[Bluegoat]

I used to forget to eat breakfast. Then I started to faint, and I got motivated to remember.

We had a good day, but I had a surprise when I read Babar to my girls - what a really weird book! I couldn't get over the Elephant King eating a bad mushroom, all dead and green and deflated on the page. The girl's didn't seem to mind though, dd1 just said "You should never eat strange mushrooms".

She's now only got three pages left in the phonics primer, and is quite excited to finish it. Her reading has really improved lately.

I also finally figured out how to change the ink on our printer, so now we can get back on track with math. Dh left two weeks ago, and forgot to change it before he left. I finally realized I was trying to open the wrong hatch.

[MissRubyandKen]

Jessica- I do that as well, with forgetting to eat breakfast. I often have coffee first thing, then I get busy and don't remember to eat until everyone else is eating lunch.

I really think it is not good for my blood sugar nor my metabolism. I've gained a nice chunk of weight here lately and I really think this is a contributing factor. I end up making up the meal really late after everyone else is sleeping and I'm about ready for bed. I really need to start eating breakfast regularly. It was easy to remember to eat breakfast when little one was tiny and still nursing tons, now not so much. I'm so tired of my weight fluctating wildly. I constantly feel like I have no clothes that fit. It's a good thing I don't mind shopping at the thrift store as often as I need to buy clothes from changing sizes. Right now I'm a 9/10 and there are a ton of clothes in my closet size 6 and 7. Sigh. What's up with that? I swear they just fit me!?!?! I'm planning on going clothes shopping the last week of this month because the local thrift store has a 50% sale.

I'm enjoying all the recipes. I am going to try them all! I love cooking most of the time. I really like to try new recipes .

I think I made up for yesterday being a bit of a disappointment to the kids. Today we did an almost full school day and then we walked our new kite to the park by dp's work. We took turns flying it until dp was off work, then we all flew it some more. Afterward dp took the big kids to Pizza Hut to use their coupons and I took my toddler girl with me to the grocery. I spent $162 and had a cart overfull of groceries. Considering there was meat and gf items, as well as Halloween candy, I think I did pretty good!

Jennifer- the freezer is really worth it! I went without for years. It saves a lot of $$$. I can now shop sales, especially for meat. Meat can be ridiculously expensive. I am also doing a bit of feeding the freezer. Things like pancakes, waffles, cookie dough, soups in bulk, burritos and quesadillas that freeze well and make cheap, good breakfasts and lunches.

[Jennifer3141]

Good morning!

I bought a microscope on amazon this morning. I love starting my day with a little shopping.

We're heading out this afternoon to watch "The Lord of the Gourd" sculpt pumpkins at the cherry store. We're going to do a little bit of history and finish up dolphins this morning.

We had a freezer at the old house, Miss. I LOVED it! It's on the list as soon as the purchase agreement on this house is signed. I try to buy ethically grown meat and that is so much easily done in bulk!!!

Blue, when I founf out how to change the ink this past summer, it was like a whole new world opened up!!