Outside my window... It is a bit overcast and cloudy right now, at 8 a.m., but the day is supposed to be warm and sunny.
I am thinking... About skiing with Rylan tomorrow. I need to figure out what we are wearing and I am thinking about the drive. The news channel just showed the traffic on I-70 this morning, and it was horrible. It won't be as bad tomorrow morning, but the drive home will be!
I am thankful... That earlier this week, when we went to McAlister's Deli for dinner, six year old Owen was happy to play along when I pointed to different letters around us and asked him, "What's this?" Owen dislikes playing any sort of answer-call letter games. He dislikes letters, period. :/
From the Learning Rooms... I heard back from Colorado Calvert Online Academy this week - they received our applications and all three older kids are registered for the fall! (happy dance) I feel such an immeasurable sense of relief. We hit the books this week with a renewed sense of purpose, and it felt very good. I looked into duoLingo this week, and brushed up on my rusty Spanish by completing the intro round of lessons. It is not as entry-level as I had hoped - more adult-friendly then kid-friendly, but it is very thorough by requiring an equal amount of reading/writing/speaking in both English and the chosen language of study. I think Jordan will benefit from it. One drawback to Calvert is that it does not offer any type of foreign language, so I think this will be a good stand-in.
In the kitchen...Nothing but an empty cup of coffee...be right back!
I am wearing... The Saturday requisite of pj's and robe. No socks. And my freezing toes could really use a pair. Be right back!
I am creating... Still trying to come up with a solution to coming up with a weekly menu. I hate menu planning. I hate shopping. What might help me is a list of recipes to choose from. So I am making a master list of about 20-30 favorite recipes for each of several different categories: chicken, beef, pork, fish, meatless, pasta, Sides, Salads, and breakfasts. Each list is divided into three columns: the recipe name, where I can find it (book, file, iPad...), and the ingredients it calls for - apart from staple items. That way, when I sit down to menu plan and write the shopping list, I am sitting down with 9 sheets of paper - not piles of cooking magazines, cookbooks or endlessly scrolling through Flipboard or my Facebook wall. Last Sunday I worked on 'Sides', and it took me all day! I now have a nice list of about 35 recipes to start with though! That will probably evolve into my longest list, since it includes subcategories like rice, pasta (ex. orzo), grains (ex. couscous), legumes, and by vegetable. Some of the recipes are on simple end, like 'Steamed carrots". No recipe needed, of course, and all I need on my shopping list is a 1 lb. bag of carrots. I am making sure that I have a good variety of recipe complexity - including lots of slow cooker meals to help this homeschooling mom deal with Arsenic Hour. This is going to take a long time to finish and fine-tune, but I hope that it is done by the end of April. I am soooo tired of frozen fish sticks.
I am going... Well, if all goes well, Rylan and I are heading to Copper Mountain tomorrow. We'll head over to the ski shop later this afternoon and get our skis, boots and poles. Dean and Jordan went skiing in December, and Dean got a free lift ticket from Copper after enduring over an hour of being stranded on a broken ski lift. He has been after me ever since to make use of this ticket. I am not the biggest fan of Spring skiing since the snow can be sloppy, but the base is phenomenal with all the snow that we have had, and it is still cold enough up in the high country that it isn't all slushy like it usually gets in late March/ early April. So we are going! This will be Rylan's third time on skis, but she hasn't been since the season before last, so I don't know how she will do. I am honestly not looking forward to it. I am hurting all over since I just started back up with running this week (horrible timing), in my hips especially. My shoulder is still not 100%, and I am not 100% from the BR surgery either. I am terrified of falling, being in such tender shape right now. I am a pretty decent skier so I don't usually fall, but with Rylan in the mix, she will undoubtedly cross my path and I will have to ditch to avoid her. Hope for the best!
I am wondering...Hmmm.. nothing?
I am reading... In the non-fiction arena, I am reading Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, edited by Dale McGowan. It has been on my reading list for some time. I didn't realize it was actually a collection of essays and such by a variety of authors, but I am enjoying it for the most part. There are a couple of pieces so far that have made me cringe because of rather bold word choice, but other than that, I find it rather rewarding to read words on a page that echo my exact thoughts - it is comforting to finally hear other people who feel much the same as I do. I don't discuss religion much with others, so at times it can feel like you are the only one who feels a certain way.
In regards to fiction, I am still slogging through Diana Gabaldon's Drums of Autumn. It is almost punishing at this point. I. just. want. to. finish. it. and move onto something 'funner'.
In the garden... Last week I picked my first tiny crop of butter lettuce and baby spinach, and it is just about time for picking again. My 'crop' is planted in a single seed-starting flat, and sits in my large west-facing window. We planted several weeks ago, and they are growing fast! I will wait to transplant them outside for a couple more weeks. We are also maybe just a couple weeks away from picking some fresh green beans. The kids picked some dried-up bean pods that had poked through our fence from the neighbor's garden, so we planted them (indoors) in January to see what would grow. Low and behold, the plants have climbed up a trio of 6 ft. bamboo poles and back again, flowered profusely and now numerous tiny green beans are growing. It has been fun to watch it grow a few inches every day!
I am hoping... I don't hurt myself tomorrow..
I am looking forward to... Some mommy/daughter time!
I am learning... or 'relearning' Spanish verb conjugations. uugh.
I am hearing...Owen singing along with a Backyardigans song on TV, Colin playing with toys upstairs and the washer entering the spin cycle.
Around the house... Today is 'get every-last-bit-of-laundry-done' day. And 'find Colin's lost tennis shoe' day.
I am pondering... Not much, at the moment.
One of my favorite things... Vanilla yogurt, granola, sliced bananas and juicy blueberries.
A few plans for the rest of the week...Ortho appts for Rylan and Jordan. Rylan is just finishing up 18 straight days of cranking her new expander, so now they will measure and determine the date the braces will go on. Maybe Jordan will hear when his braces will finally come off. Which is 9 months overdue, at this point. We also have our homeschool science fair next weekend, so this coming week will be spent working on our projects. Jordan will be presenting his work he is doing on his quadcopter, and Rylan is experimenting with making butter.
Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...
To read more entries and visit a variety of other blogs, go here...
I am thinking... About skiing with Rylan tomorrow. I need to figure out what we are wearing and I am thinking about the drive. The news channel just showed the traffic on I-70 this morning, and it was horrible. It won't be as bad tomorrow morning, but the drive home will be!
I am thankful... That earlier this week, when we went to McAlister's Deli for dinner, six year old Owen was happy to play along when I pointed to different letters around us and asked him, "What's this?" Owen dislikes playing any sort of answer-call letter games. He dislikes letters, period. :/
From the Learning Rooms... I heard back from Colorado Calvert Online Academy this week - they received our applications and all three older kids are registered for the fall! (happy dance) I feel such an immeasurable sense of relief. We hit the books this week with a renewed sense of purpose, and it felt very good. I looked into duoLingo this week, and brushed up on my rusty Spanish by completing the intro round of lessons. It is not as entry-level as I had hoped - more adult-friendly then kid-friendly, but it is very thorough by requiring an equal amount of reading/writing/speaking in both English and the chosen language of study. I think Jordan will benefit from it. One drawback to Calvert is that it does not offer any type of foreign language, so I think this will be a good stand-in.
In the kitchen...Nothing but an empty cup of coffee...be right back!
I am wearing... The Saturday requisite of pj's and robe. No socks. And my freezing toes could really use a pair. Be right back!
I am creating... Still trying to come up with a solution to coming up with a weekly menu. I hate menu planning. I hate shopping. What might help me is a list of recipes to choose from. So I am making a master list of about 20-30 favorite recipes for each of several different categories: chicken, beef, pork, fish, meatless, pasta, Sides, Salads, and breakfasts. Each list is divided into three columns: the recipe name, where I can find it (book, file, iPad...), and the ingredients it calls for - apart from staple items. That way, when I sit down to menu plan and write the shopping list, I am sitting down with 9 sheets of paper - not piles of cooking magazines, cookbooks or endlessly scrolling through Flipboard or my Facebook wall. Last Sunday I worked on 'Sides', and it took me all day! I now have a nice list of about 35 recipes to start with though! That will probably evolve into my longest list, since it includes subcategories like rice, pasta (ex. orzo), grains (ex. couscous), legumes, and by vegetable. Some of the recipes are on simple end, like 'Steamed carrots". No recipe needed, of course, and all I need on my shopping list is a 1 lb. bag of carrots. I am making sure that I have a good variety of recipe complexity - including lots of slow cooker meals to help this homeschooling mom deal with Arsenic Hour. This is going to take a long time to finish and fine-tune, but I hope that it is done by the end of April. I am soooo tired of frozen fish sticks.
I am going... Well, if all goes well, Rylan and I are heading to Copper Mountain tomorrow. We'll head over to the ski shop later this afternoon and get our skis, boots and poles. Dean and Jordan went skiing in December, and Dean got a free lift ticket from Copper after enduring over an hour of being stranded on a broken ski lift. He has been after me ever since to make use of this ticket. I am not the biggest fan of Spring skiing since the snow can be sloppy, but the base is phenomenal with all the snow that we have had, and it is still cold enough up in the high country that it isn't all slushy like it usually gets in late March/ early April. So we are going! This will be Rylan's third time on skis, but she hasn't been since the season before last, so I don't know how she will do. I am honestly not looking forward to it. I am hurting all over since I just started back up with running this week (horrible timing), in my hips especially. My shoulder is still not 100%, and I am not 100% from the BR surgery either. I am terrified of falling, being in such tender shape right now. I am a pretty decent skier so I don't usually fall, but with Rylan in the mix, she will undoubtedly cross my path and I will have to ditch to avoid her. Hope for the best!
I am wondering...Hmmm.. nothing?
I am reading... In the non-fiction arena, I am reading Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, edited by Dale McGowan. It has been on my reading list for some time. I didn't realize it was actually a collection of essays and such by a variety of authors, but I am enjoying it for the most part. There are a couple of pieces so far that have made me cringe because of rather bold word choice, but other than that, I find it rather rewarding to read words on a page that echo my exact thoughts - it is comforting to finally hear other people who feel much the same as I do. I don't discuss religion much with others, so at times it can feel like you are the only one who feels a certain way.
In regards to fiction, I am still slogging through Diana Gabaldon's Drums of Autumn. It is almost punishing at this point. I. just. want. to. finish. it. and move onto something 'funner'.
In the garden... Last week I picked my first tiny crop of butter lettuce and baby spinach, and it is just about time for picking again. My 'crop' is planted in a single seed-starting flat, and sits in my large west-facing window. We planted several weeks ago, and they are growing fast! I will wait to transplant them outside for a couple more weeks. We are also maybe just a couple weeks away from picking some fresh green beans. The kids picked some dried-up bean pods that had poked through our fence from the neighbor's garden, so we planted them (indoors) in January to see what would grow. Low and behold, the plants have climbed up a trio of 6 ft. bamboo poles and back again, flowered profusely and now numerous tiny green beans are growing. It has been fun to watch it grow a few inches every day!
I am hoping... I don't hurt myself tomorrow..
I am looking forward to... Some mommy/daughter time!
I am learning... or 'relearning' Spanish verb conjugations. uugh.
I am hearing...Owen singing along with a Backyardigans song on TV, Colin playing with toys upstairs and the washer entering the spin cycle.
Around the house... Today is 'get every-last-bit-of-laundry-done' day. And 'find Colin's lost tennis shoe' day.
I am pondering... Not much, at the moment.
One of my favorite things... Vanilla yogurt, granola, sliced bananas and juicy blueberries.
A few plans for the rest of the week...Ortho appts for Rylan and Jordan. Rylan is just finishing up 18 straight days of cranking her new expander, so now they will measure and determine the date the braces will go on. Maybe Jordan will hear when his braces will finally come off. Which is 9 months overdue, at this point. We also have our homeschool science fair next weekend, so this coming week will be spent working on our projects. Jordan will be presenting his work he is doing on his quadcopter, and Rylan is experimenting with making butter.
Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...
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| Denver Zoo, 2-27-14 |
To read more entries and visit a variety of other blogs, go here...
