Weekly Wrap Up: Harvesting while Homeschooling

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Morning Glories

In our life these two weeks…

We’ve been busy harvesting, like squirrels.  I wonder if they ever get as tired as I do?  But we’ve managed to keep up our learning, and in the exhausted evenings I read.

After almost two weeks of tummy trouble, Miss 11 has a (small) appetite again.  But still, the tummy pain and accompanying wrinkle in her forehead come back so easily.

In our homeschool …

We’re enjoying Math Score (link to my review) for review and drill this year.  It’s proving to be an excellent way to ease back into math after the summer.

We’re also progressing in our Greek, French, Omnibus, and map studies.  A little bit every day does go a long ways, so I try to make sure we work diligently even in this busy harvest time.

In our garden…

We’re harvesting tomatoes, peppers, melons, apples, pears, raspberries, squash, and corn as well as almost everything else.   We’ve been freezing tomatoes, raspberries, pear chunks, and applesauce, eating up onions that aren’t keeping well, making salsa, and setting squashes out to cure in the sun.

Three times we covered the garden to prepare for a frost, and two mornings I staggered out of bed very early to spray the frost off the raspberries and other tender plants. So far, the only frost damage was a few faded raspberries and some squash leaves.

Our blue morning glories LINK survived the first frost, and our yard is still colored by black-eyed Susans, red poppies, purple coneflowers, marigolds, red geraniums, a few late hollyhocks and roses, and the fall sedum. Purple asters decorate some of the weedy edges. For the first time I bought two enormous fall mums to put near our front door.

In the kitchen… Breakfast apple crisp.  Zucchini lasagna.  Pear pie and pear muffins.  Pumpkin slice.  Fried apples ‘n onions (Almanzo Wilder’s favorite).  All sorts of fresh vegetables and fruit.  Bruschetta.  Chicken wings from a box (our second time ever; not as good as the first time).  Ham and broccoli quiche.  Stewed pears.  Rare steak.  Well-cooked pork chops.  Mushrooms and hot peppers.  And, of course, putting away food for the winter, like our salsa and salsa soup stock.

Some of my favorite things were…

• Evenings, when it’s time to stop working.
• The day Miss 11 managed to eat again:  26 crackers, 7 raspberries, and one grape.
• Going to bed early.
• Progressing in our schoolwork.

Questions/thoughts I have…   I’m trying to ensure that the schoolwork gets done even though it’s harvest time.  That means I spend many, many hours standing in the kitchen, and the girls do less than other harvest seasons.  So far, it’s a positive thing, but it will all change when the salsa-making begins.

Fitness… Last week my steps averaged to about 10,000, but this week it’s been significantly less.  If I’m standing at the counter, I’m walking less, but feeling much more fatigued.  There’s absolutely no spare energy for other exercise, but picking raspberries and hanging out laundry are both modest workouts.  Most days I ate well and rested adequately.

Some of the things I’ve been working on…

• Schoolwork preparation, teaching, marking, and recording.
• Harvesting the orchard and garden.
• Reading.
• Setting up to learn Visual Basic programming.  Years ago I taught myself to program in Basic, Fortran, and C, but everything has changed and I’m off on a new journey of learning with Miss 13 and Kid Coder (related to the Teen Coder I reviewed last year).
• Washing all our blankets in preparation for  winter.
• Starting our annual fall dejunking.

We’re watching and playing…

My husband and I watched Under the Greenwood Tree, and he watched Princess Bride with the kids.  The girls and I enjoyed Little Lord Fauntleroy (1937 version available on YouTube), and Miss 15 and Miss 13 started on Emma again.  Miss 15 and I watched Bright Star, and now I’m much more interested in the upcoming chapter in Saving Leonardo.

I’m reading… Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.   I finished The Adrenal Stress Connection, Snow on the Tulips, Head in the Clouds, Courting Trouble, and Swinging on a Star.  The last two are enjoyable fluff, but Snow on the Tulips is about the Resistance in Nazi-occupied Friesland and touches on our family’s history. Currently I’m reading (very slowly) The Passionate Mom, 1000 Gifts, The HomeScholar Guide to College Admission and Scholarships, and Saving Leonardo, and I’m taking a break from The Discoverers, and Standing on the Promises. Occasionally for a quick break I dip into The Little Book of Talent.

Reading Aloud… The children and I have almost finished Job.  The Little Misses and I are loving Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, and all of us are enjoying the adventures of the good-natured sugar-bun baker and his super-neat-and-proper wife in De Zoete Suikerbol #2.  This great series is in Dutch and has not been translated, but it should be.

When my husband is home for meals (very rare these days) we read Acts.

I’m grateful for …. Chairs to sit in when the legs get tired.  Fluffy books to read when the head gets tired.  Family that helps out when the harvest work gets to be too much.  And the light at the end of the tunnel:  in a few weeks the harvest will be over!

Quote or link to share….    Jessica has written a brilliant post about what to do when you’re ready to homeschool but your kids are still too young.

This post is linked to Kris’s Weekly Wrap Up .