Homeschool homework

We've managed to get behind on our history so are trying to play catch up now. As a result, we just got to Joseph yesterday.

I think it kinda worked out for us, though.



The assignment for "younger" students focused on Joseph's coat of many colors. I thought the girls would like to do the "younger" work, as well as their own. I was right!

The younger set is supposed to make a sugar cookie coat of many colors and decorate it with frosting. How come I don't remember ever getting an assignment that required making cookies when I was in school?

They used toothpicks to decorate their cookies. Hey, I had to challenge them somehow, didn't I?

Of course, there was the rest of the batch to roll out and bake so we now have some Christmas cookies, too. As if we needed more sugar around here this week.

Today we moved on to Hammurabi. No cookies for him. I've decided I like Joseph best of anyone we've studied so far. ;-)

Pink?

You Should Have a Pink Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays represent a time of friendship and sharing. You're happy as long as you're spending time with the people you care about. You are passionate about the holidays, and that start of the holiday season makes you very excited. You sometimes go a bit overboard in your celebrations. You just can't help it! Passionate, easily excited, sweet, giving, love, friendship, sensitive, caring Your pink tree would look great with: More pink! You should spend Christmas Eve watching: The Muppet Christmas Carol What you should bake for Santa: Rice krispie treats with red and green food coloring

What Color Christmas Tree Should You Have?

I am cracking up over this.

I love pink but never, ever, never would want a pink Christmas tree.

Nor do I want to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol.

And I happen to know that Santa prefers several other types of cookies over rice krispie treats with red #40 so I'd whip up chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies.

Other than that, though, I'm sure it's spot on. ;-)

We are Santa's elves

Every year, our co-op group gets together for a Christmas party. We have a tradition of exchanging homemade Christmas ornaments with each other that apply in some way with one of the books we've studied during that year.

Since our co-op friends aren't aware of my blog, I can share this year's ornament with all of you.



The girls started working on them the other night while watching Charlie Brown Christmas. You can see how attentive to detail Allison is when the Peanuts gang is on TV.

We've made these ornaments before, just not for our co-op group. This time, Julianne decided to try small silver beads instead of little pearls on some of them.

Now Julianne is preoccupied with Charlie Brown and his gang. "Sure, Mom, I'll hold up a completed ornament-but I don't have to look your way while I do."

The girls chose these ornaments because this year we read Number the Stars with our group.

It's hard to capture how pretty they really are. The lights on the tree make them sparkle. The bonus is that they are quite simple to make and don't require expensive supplies, so rather than making one ornament per family, the girls want to make an ornament for each child.

Now I can't get that "We are Santa's elves. We are Santa's elves..." song from Rudolph out of my mind.

Change of plans

We set off for Greenfield Village Saturday morning, driving both cars as far as town, then planning to leave one there so we could split up and go in different directions when we returned.

It was a great plan. Until I tried to stop for a yellow light and proceeded to keep rolling through the intersection. We were getting a light snowfall and the road was slick. Thankfully, no one else moved and I didn't get hit but it made us reconsider the wisdom of driving almost two hours to Dearborn. It made us think seriously about replacing the tires on the car, too, especially after getting stuck in the driveway the other day.

We ended up going to a Christmas store and taking several shots of the girls there. As we walked from the parking lot to the stores (it's like a little village), I found myself thankful that we didn't go to Greenfield Village after all. It was very cold yesterday!



This is not the winning photo since some people I send cards to read this blog. I want them to be surprised. ;-)

We took our pictures, then headed over to Sam's Club where we got a couple new tires installed while our Christmas cards were being printed. Nice to have both those things off the list.

Now the envelope addressing begins!

Updates on various things

Wow, I managed to post every day in November, then I took this whole week off. I didn't quite plan it that way but I've felt less than 100% all week and something had to give.

The tractor is running sporadically. Clarence got it going and was able to plow our six-inch snowfall the other day. Now it won't run again. I think he's going to try a new battery next, or something with the alternator, or something well, never mind. I really didn't understand anything after "new battery".

Belle is still on meds since his UTI wasn't cleared up last week. He will have to get re-checked next week and then we'll see if we have to make any further decisions. He continues to spend his days inside with us and his nights in the garage. He got banished to the garage when he started feeling well enough to come up to my bedroom early in the morning and wake me up. It brought back memories of why he started living outside in the first place years ago. I was thinking it was just my pregnancy and not wanting the litter box around. It's all coming back to me now.

I've been doing some sewing when I get a chance. I got some fabric and a .99 pattern for a skirt and jacket on Black Friday. I'm going to try to get a pattern for a shirt to go with it this weekend.

We are planning to go to Greenfield Village tomorrow to attempt to get a picture of the girls for our Christmas cards. I know, I know, it's getting late to get them done but we're gonna try anyhow.

Whew! Lots of rambling, no pictures. Sorry about that-I'll try to use pictures in my next post, which will, hopefully, be sooner than five days from now.

The tractor won't start

We are supposed to get 6-10 inches of snow by sometime tomorrow. Allison decided to build a snowman. Clarence went outside to take some pictures for me and helped her stack the snowballs to make him.

He convinced her to give the snowman a high five. Let it be noted for the record: she didn't want to.

After that, she had just enough time to do a little sledding in the front yard before dinner.

We'll see if we're snowed in tomorrow or not. I'm really hoping Clarence can figure out what's wrong with the tractor because I don't miss shoveling our driveway by hand. When it's snow covered, the driveway is about 3/4 mile long. In good weather, the length is about 250 feet. I wonder what the scientific explanation is for that phenomenon?

At least now we have a couple additional helpers who weren't big enough to help in the days before the tractor.

Ava and Nicholas

Our extended family got together today to celebrate cousin Daniel's daughter's birthday. Ava turned one a couple weeks ago but her family lives in Ohio so the party had to wait until this weekend.

She is one of the two miracle babies born into our family in the past year.

She liked playing with her cake more than eating it. I guess that's pretty much the case for first birthdays, isn't it?

And here we have niece Vicky with miracle baby #2, Nicholas. Since Aunt Sharon is his grandma, I knew she'd want to see him as well as Ava when she checks in here. We hadn't seen him since the end of August and he has grown so much since then. Don't you just love those cheeks and baby rolls? And that expression on his face? It cracks me up.

They are both such special blessings to their parents and to the rest of the family. It was great to see all of the cousins and their kids today-and with Christmas coming, we'll actually get to see them all again pretty soon. Don't you love the holidays?