Snow Day and Happiness

So, I was supposed to go grocery shopping on Friday and I didn't end up doing that until Monday ... which means that my menu plan that I made for this past week got switched up a little bit. But you can still read the original and how I shop for a family of 5 for only $400 in my post I wrote here. So, Friday we did all of our normal book lessons and online lessons. I crocheted more preemie baby hats, my goal for the month is to make one a day to donate to a local NICU. This picture was taken on the 10th, ten little bitty beanies for ten little bitty babies! I also had to jump on this new trend of "messy bun" hats and make one as a gift for my eldest niece and another for myself. I'll only show the one I made for myself here just in case my niece actually reads my blog or her mom does before Christmas.

Noni's birthday
slipper socks!

Saturday and Sunday we were basically trapped in the house due to either the cold temperature (Saturday) or the falling snow (Sunday). Daddy had another appointment out of town Saturday so the campers and I did our crafting while Daddy was away. YCJ finished her first ever on her own sewing project! I think it turned out adorable! ECJ has fallen in love with origami and made several planes and then made a crane for me! Such talent! Peanut spent the time off and on working on her plastic canvas butterfly project, she's insisting on doing it on her own so it's taking her awhile to do. I'll be sure to highlight it when she's finished because I'm awful proud of her determination! I finished up a gift for Noni's birthday, that's not until the middle of January, on Sunday. I had originally made her a scarf but gave it to her last month as she was already chilly and it wasn't even out of the 40's yet. Noni definitely needs to move south when she retires in my opinion, these northern winters are too much for her skinny little rear.

Monday we called a snow day!!! The local schools all around us cancelled school, some of the bigger cities did too, because of the snow and since this year we've decided to school the month of December (with a week and a half off after Christmas. December 24-January 4) we've also decided that snow days are going to have to be a must. Most years we take off the whole month of December since we school year round, but because we're planning on taking more time off next summer it's important that we get what work we can get done during the winter. The campers of course thought that this was an excellent idea and spent the day relaxing while Daddy and I went grocery shopping. When we got home ECJ went out to shovel some walkways for neighbors, got paid $20 for his efforts, and decided that he's going to start saving up for a car. He figures whatever he can save between now and January 2017 will be a big help getting him a car and he's sure it'll need work when he gets it so he's planning on saving even more money for car parts and is even willing to learn how to fix his own car once it's bought (Daddy's been teaching him mechanical work for years but now ECJ has a reason to pay attention). Both girls headed right outside, after bundling up, right after the groceries were put away. Seven to eight inches of snow is just too good to pass up playing no matter how cold it is outside.

** Just a little aside here. Normally we don't allow the campers outside to play if it's below 30 degrees. Even bundled up it wouldn't take long for frost bite to form on cheeks or an unprotected ear. Monday it was 30 degrees and we didn't let them stay out more than forty-five minutes due to the fact that they'd soon be chilled to the bone. ECJ took a break in between some of the houses he shoveled at to come inside and warm up. Mr. Frost in the wintertime is nothing to play with. Yes, we're a bit over protective, but I'd rather they get grumpy at me for not letting them out in temperatures below freezing than have to deal with a case of frostbite. **

Spanish DVD set.

On Tuesday we were back to our regularly scheduled lessons. Instead of doing double lessons for the day we missed I've decided simply to move Friday's lessons to next Monday and enjoy what we are getting accomplished. But first I had an appointment with my doctor at 10 AM, don't worry I'm fine it was just a three month follow up visit because of some medications that I'm on. We banged out lessons when I got home and had them finished, book lessons and online, in an hour and a half! Which was a great thing for me because I have to rewash about ten loads of laundry. I'd used a new laundry soap and it turned out the entire family was allergic to it and we were breaking out in hives. So a late night visit to the store for our regular laundry soap and two emergency loads of laundry later we went to bed late on Monday night. Now I just have to wash the rest of everything that was washed in the other soap, including the girls spare sets of sheets for their beds! We also have catechism class for the girls this early evening and I tweaked the menu yet again to make tonight's supper breakfast. We'll be having turkey bacon, eggs (I now have 66 eggs in the house because I got 3 18 count eggs for 99 cents and another dozen for another 99 cents!), and toast. A simple and filling supper that the whole family enjoys and takes me very little time to prepare. And in between loads of laundry, cooking, and taking girls to catechism I will be working on a preemie hat for my goal today and another hat for Daddy since he never seems to keep his hats. The campers watched a different Spanish DVD  after lunch that I had picked up from the library to try out. They enjoyed this one much more than the previous one I'd had them watch. We'll be starting Spanish for You next month after I get some more printer ink. (* I received a copy of one of their lessons Conversaciones for free to do a review about, so please look for an initial reaction review in January and a more in depth one later on in the year. *) In the meantime we've been watching videos online, DVDs on the TV, and doing some of the free mini lessons from Spanish for You that I had printed off at the beginning of the school year.

So, on Wednesday it was freezing outside! We stayed inside and kept warm. We took our time doing all of our lessons, which means that it took us about three hours today to do them. The afternoon was filled with electronic devices, both educational games and regular video games (even the regular ones have reading built in which really helps YCJ with her reading in a fun way). I blogged here a bit, played around on Facebook, and then crocheted the rest of the night. Daddy made two batches of his homemade chili for supper, with the second batch being for Grandma and Papa and we'll deliver that this weekend. My contribution to supper was just making the Jiffy cornbread, which means I had an easy time of it. I also finally caught up with all of the laundry that had to be rewashed in detergent that we're not allergic to. So the bedding for all four beds in the house is super clean because it's now been washed twice this week!


Finally we come to Thursday, where I'll leave you again this week in favor of playing with the campers after lessons tomorrow. We did all of our lessons, text and computer, in about two hours today while Daddy was at an appointment. This was a good thing that we were finished by the time he got back because we had to un-decorate and redecorate the Christmas tree because both strings of lights burned out (they were only five years old lol) so we replaced the dead ones with new ones and now our tree glows brightly again. It only took us about half an hour or so, which wasn't that bad. We're having chili and corn bread tonight (leftovers from last night, if you read the menu post we did NOT stick to the menu this week). As you can tell we were pretty relaxed today. All three of the above pictures were taken within seconds of each other after book lessons were finished. Tonight Peanut will get to see Santa and all three campers will eat cookies with Santa. I'll be sure to snap pictures to put on Facebook (so if you haven't liked us on Facebook yet you just might want to).

One more four day week to go before we take about two weeks off for Christmas! During the break we're taking I'll post on Facebook but I won't be blogging. I'm going to share as many photos as I possibly can during that time!

And here is the link to the book review I did on The Christian Home School.
Linking up this week with Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap Up.