Weekly Wrap-Up - Jelly Telly, Pumpkins & BooBoos

This week was filled with climbing and falling, splashing and diving, slipping and gliding, cutting and painting, smiling and out right throwing fits and singing Happy Birthday to a special little 5 year old boy. Was that a super long sentence or what?

It was Zazu's fifth birthday. We spent a quiet day together and enjoyed a nice trail walk, along with presents and food to celebrate the occasion.

As for actual learning sit down school stuff (you like that), Eagle met all his goals for the week, which is great. Next week I plan on doing a lapbook with Zazu, which is hopefully enjoyable for him. I must say, that having a toddler while home schooling is easier than being pregnant or having a wee babe on your hip.

BIBLE TIME

JELLY TELLY

If you do watch Jelly Telly, who's your favorite character?

Can you guess who Eagle's is. Well it's a tie between Brother Louis and the pirate guy, Captain Pete.

We've watched the free weekly show for our devotional time in the morning. It's entertaining and the kids run to the computer when they here the theme song. 
We don't subscribe to it, but I have thought about it. 







Most mornings we (the kids) work on their scripture memory box. It's been a great tool to memorize scripture. It costs very little and just requires a little time to pull it all together at the beginning. Check it out.




The beginning of the week was spent on a fall craft with my younger two.

Pumpkin craft

Zazu making a pumpkin

Life Skills

Daddy and Eagle put up a bird feeder.
I've been wanting that done for a while.
We waited too long and now it looks like all the seasonal birds are gone.
Too bad.
All thats left are the graceful annoying raven and magpie.
Welcome to winter in northern Alberta. uuggg.

On to happier things...

look at that smile

I took the kids on a walk to the park with the intention of snapping some fall/school pictures. 
I got quite a few good shots. 
yeah!

Zazu's big bobo

Our adventure ended with a big fall off the playground equipment. 

His chin didn't need stitches and is healing quite well. Have I mentioned that I have a new fondness for butterfly bandages. They worked really well for holding his sad looking chin together. Just a few days later and we were thankfully able to go swimming with just a band aid over his chin.

Right before the fall

With all the excitement this week I'm surprised that I'm not more frazzled. I have noticed since yesterday that I NEED more God today and more of my regular routine back. I just can't be out of the house more than twice a week for any long length of time. It's now saturday and I have so much laundry and cooking and just little things to do, like the soap dispensers in the bathrooms. You know when your shaking and pumping like mad to get a little suds out. Thursday night I tossed and turned from the business of the week. I'm a home body, what can I say. 

Books of the Week

This may offend, but the boys fav book of the week was this. haha, It's actually quite a smart book.

Pumpkins with Zazu

This was a little fall craft that I worked on with Zazu, that I saw a few weeks back on Carisa's blog in this post. I haven't been feeling much in the mood for fall, seeing as our weather has been extra warm and beautiful. This week began our true fall weather so I whipped up this craft for Zazu and we had some fun.

I followed closely what Carisa did for this and it worked out quite well.

I drew a pumpkin shape on paper and Zazu did the cutting.

I set out a little liquid tempera paint in a paint tray and a marble. The marble actually was found this very morning by Zazu and when it was brought to me I immediately remembered the marble/pumpkin craft that I had seen previously.

I didn't have a box so an old plate that we use for painting worked fine.

After making a few pumpkins with the marble, 

Zazu decided to paint some with a brush

and his finger.

Here's our new fall decor.

ain't it pertty

Weekly Wrap-Up #1: FALL TIME and The Mayor

For starters.

This is my first time linking up with weekly wrap-up.

I've got a little stage fright, but here we go!

Three big outings in a week for us, that's huge.

Last Friday we started it off with a full 5 hour trip to our new rec center with our HS group, where swimming and water sliding was the thrill of the day.

At the beginning of our school week the boys finished off our camping journals from when we went camping in September. The journals were bound with the stick and elastic technique - very technical. KIDDING. So easy and looks super when finished!

Here's the video for the how to.

Since we are Canadian, eh!

Thanksgiving was on Monday.

My little Zazu made a wreath with dried crunchy bits of leaves. It's pitiful, but oh, so cute.

Can you see? He's thankful for cars and lego.

He later asked me what a wreath was. Silly me, I had a hard time answering the question.

A lot of this "uh, well, it's a, well" came out of my mouth. "It's just a circle thing with leaves on it." Oh superb answer mom! That was a college graduate answer, for sure. hee hee.

He was satisfied.

Our second field trip (sorry I always forget my camera) was to the woods. The kind Forestry people took our homeschool group on a guided trail walk. For someone who gabbed a lot, I learned a lot. I have socialization issues. Really I do. I was NOT a good example of being considerate and to only listen to the friendly forestry guide, ask questions and not be a disruption. I was not homeschooled, OK. That's my excuse for my behavior. Kidding, I'm sure I wasn't that bad.

Here's what Eagle got out of the trail walk. I'm so glad my husband was home on this day, because he was able to get this out of him. I wish I had this affect on him. Although I'm not DAD, am I. When I ask for assignments like this one, they are most often half done and done with a poor attitude. Why is that?

We had our fall meeting with our fascilitator this week also, wow what a big week. That was one of my concerns with Eagle. Just doing the bare minimum. My facilitator's answer was "He's a boy". Really is that all? He's a boy. I know that, I want to know what we can do to work around the fact that HE's a BOY.

Here's a sample of what Zazu brought home in his pocket from the trail walk.

• Moss
• Labrador Tea - Yup. It's a place and you can drink it.

I'm working on explaining the season of fall to Zazu.

I thought some books and a craft would help illustrate.

I got the idea for this fall craft from 1+1+1=1.

This smile was SO contrived.

Poor guy didn't want to do the craft but, I MADE HIM.

ha ha *evil cackle* He eventually liked it.

Zazu at his young age, still enjoys cutting, gluing and painting. I'm so glad. Cause I've got a while to wait before Alba is ready for serious crafting like this.

Our third outing of the week was to see The Mayor.

It's election time in our city. We visited the mayor today. It was great. As per the norm, I forgot my camera, so no pictures again. We met her (the mayor) in a large meeting room. While the mayor answered questions, Alba was trying to phone somebody with the phone that happened to be on the floor, I know, funny spot. Zazu told me many times that he was hungry and bored. And Eagle, Eagle was the one to make our family look good. haha. He asked many questions and seemed genuinely interested in what was going on. YEAH!

Our Mayor is great with kids. We discussed the election, what the mayor did on a regular day at work and a bit about who she is and where she came from. The kids all agreed (I think) that they would want to vote for her on Monday, if they could vote. She encouraged them to seek public civic roles, like Counsel and Mayor. One of the moms brought cookies, as a thank you, that read "VOTE BLAKE". Awesome, don't you think?

It was a full week. Really full.

We didn't do much book work and that's totally alright.

So much was seen and experienced that couldn't be done from a book or worksheet.

I'm so glad for my HS group.

*HIGH 5* for Monopoly

OOHHHH...

A CAMPING WE WILL GO

We went camping in early September. It was COLD. The weather in the last 2 weeks, shockingly warm.

oh well.

What's a family to do.

I think they made boats out of sticks and big leaves.

Coming back from a little tree peein'.

and, yes he likes wearing his bike helmet everywhere.

He's like Sam I Am with those silly green eggs and ham.

Mr. or Mrs. (not quite sure) Caterpillar was captured and cared for quite well by Mr. Eagle.

It visited us in the camper for a short time.

He found a hot car to drive.

After their good bye's Eagle and the caterpillar parted ways.

Fall camping was chilly but fun.

Fruit of the Harvest

Carrots from my container garden.

Months ago I planted seeds in pots filled with good soil.

The seeds were watered and tended to and soon little plants popped up through the ground.

Matthew 13:1-23

Carrots like other root type veggies are interesting because the fruit that is grown cannot be seen from above. Then one day there is a glimse of orange. Tomatoes are fun to watch. They flower, form into little green pearls, then ripen on the vine to golden gems.

My little carrots aren't perfect.

Some are gnarly and twisted, some are short and stubby, some even broke on the way out but they're pretty tasty though. Tomatoes always look pretty; round and red, shiny when ripe and just good looking. My carrots won't win a good looking carrot contest, which I'm totally alright with.

A friend of mine told me while on a grocery trip she had picked up a rutabaga, which was included in a stew for her family for dinner that evening. The stew tasted bitter and was unfortunately never eaten. The reason the stew was inedidable was because of one ingredient, the rutabaga. That rutabaga was so detestable, bitter and woody, that the whole batch was spoiled. She tried picking out the dreadful rutabaga but to her dissapointment the flavor of it had dispersed all through the stew making it worthy of the trash. I'm sure the rutabaga looked good in the store. I'm sure it passed the squeeze and smell test. It's not like she could taste it before buying it, and who really does, except for the grapes (which so you know, I don't).

So back to my carrots.

Does it matter how they look or is the taste more of what you're after?

Me, I'd rather eat an ugly carrot that tastes good than a perfect looking carrot that tastes bland or bitter.

How about you?

Do you look good to others on the outside but your inside tastes bad or has no taste at all?

Matthew 5:13

I know that I want to be like that broken carrot that is sweet to taste.

Psalm 34:8

How do you speak to, or of others?

Your kids, the neighbor, your husband, even yourself.

Proverbs 16:24

NOT JUST A TEMPLATE MAKEOVER

I've been thinking about changing my template for a while now and yesterday I found an image that suits me for this season. The Canadian Geese are flying south now for the winter and I feel a connection with them. The Canadian Geese when flying in their "V" formation are so beautiful to witness and they possess qualities that I hope to have on any given day of the week. 

UNITY - The "V" formation that they fly in has something to do with keeping all together (I guess) and conserving energy because of air currants/flow or aerodynamics stuff, anyways... I'm sure you get the point.

LEADERSHIP - The leader leads with strength and gracefulness and when tired lets another goose lead. Taking turns/sharing the load basically. 

ENCOURAGEMENT - The ones behind "honk" to encourage the one(s) in front.

I know there are others but I can't remember them at the moment, but I know that these characteristics are ones that I need to work on.

So, in some way one could say that Christ is imprinted in not just us but in those geese that you might see flying over head in the coming days. 

Those geese posses Christ-like qualities that I pray for God to strengthen in me.

 

1. To be unified with my husband and with other Christians.

2. To be a good leader/teacher in the home and to possess the wisdom to know when to share the load (ask for help) with my husband and with church.

3. To be an encourager to my husband, children and to everyone I meet.

 

I'm glad I can't remember the others, because that's a tall order all on its own.

LOL