In our life this week…
We read, and looked for ways to organize our 200+ library books so they’re not just piled on the coffee table and scattered all over the floor. Now they’re in neat piles on the floor.
We froze our kale crop and the sauerkraut we made, and now our four freezers are full.
Today Miss 15 and I visited Augustine College for their Student for a Day event (see my write up on the previous one) and we had our first real snowfall. And when we came home, the whole main floor of the house had been reorganized and the living room windows were covered with their winter plastic!
In our homeschool …
Even though it was our annual reading week, we did schoolwork in the mornings. Knowing they didn’t have all day to study seemed to motivate the girls to working more diligently.
In the afternoons, we visited the library and the girls read. Fluff books like Asterix and Garfield were reserved for after supper, so the girls read a lot of history and historical fiction. They’re trying to convince me that Asterix is educational because it’s about history.
Because I was still a bit tired, and because freezing kale was a bit exhausting I read a fair bit too, mostly kids’ historical fiction. The first book in Eric Walters’ series about Camp X was so suspenseful that I couldn’t sleep, but Miss 13 just laughed at me and said it was not scary at all.
In our garden…
We’ve finished the kale! The garlic hasn’t come up yet, but has been covered with asparagus stalks in preparation for Sunday night’s cold temperatures, and we’ve started cleaning up the frozen windfalls from the orchard.
In our gluten free kitchen… Stampot with kale and with sauerkraut. Meatballs. Bread. Pancakes. Biscuits. Lots of squashes of all sorts. Steak. Mushrooms and hot peppers. Ham soup. Guacamole. Vegetable-filled ground beef chili. Left-overs. Apple crumble, since our apples are getting soft.
Some of my favorite things were…
- Watching the girls read.
- Eating popcorn while reading.
- Tramping through the muddy fields with the girls on a foggy afternoon.
- Our warm fireplace.
- The visit to Augustine College.
- The new arrangements of the living room and the study.
- Time with family and friends.
Questions/thoughts I have…
Happy people have so much more fun than glass-half-empty types. After reading One Thousand Gifts (link to my review) I think that one key way a sad person can become truly happy is by learning to give thanks for all that God gives.
The title of one of the books I read this week, Eat, Move, Sleep, basically covers my main health emphases, although some of his specific ideas are not very relevant to a gardening, cook-from-scratch kind of person. But the emphasis on sleep surprised me. Did you know that people who sleep enough are 3-5 times less likely to catch colds?
Fitness… I’m feeling stronger, walking close to 10,000 steps a day, and able to move at a normal pace again. I did my knee exercises most days.
Some of the things I’ve been working on…
- Reading historical fiction for/with the kids—especially Canadian material.
- Finishing off our harvest.
- Getting the basement back to normal after last week’s mini-flood.
- Resting.
We’re watching… We watched The African Queen. So much fun!
I’m reading… Jeremiah. While resting, I finished An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Legends of Lake on the Mountain, Eat Move Sleep, Adolphus Tips, The Silver Sword (a skimmed reread), and three books of the children’s series about Camp X, Camp X, Fool’s Gold, and Shell Shocked. Currently I am reading The Soul of Science, Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye, Awakening Faith, and another Camp X story, Trouble in Paradise. Look for a review of the Camp X series sometime soon.
Reading Aloud… We’re still reading Psalms and William of Orange, the Silent Prince and we’ve moved on to volume 3 of In de Zoete Suikerbol.
When my husband is home for meals we read 1 Corinthians.
I’m grateful for …. Our warm, cozy home. Four full freezers. Godly people who are willing to share their knowledge, like the profs at Augustine College.
Quote or link to share…. Sorry, after listening to 5 hours of lectures at Augustine College today, I cannot think of anything suitable to share except, perhaps, the link to my last Augustine College experience.
This post is linked to Kris’s Weekly Wrap Up .
Sounds like a good week. Reading and eating popcorn is a fun thing to do. 🙂