Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Don't Know What I Did To Deserve This

Like the title says, I don't know what I did to deserve these wonderful gifts from my Love.

The weekend was full and busy for him.
First he sought out, secured and brought home some re-claimed oak hardwood.

He tore out the baseboards, carpet and underlay.
Removed the tracking and prepared the subfloor. 


He painstakingly puzzled the pieces to fit.
It took him roughly a full day of work.

He put everything back together and even swept up the mess.

He literally put blood, sweat and tears into this project for me. Well, not tears. None that I saw anyway.


He did all this for me. All for my yoga studio upstairs.


I am hoping to get up there this afternoon to try it out.



My meditation pillow awaits me.




And on top of it all, before the project began he brought home these lovelies.




 He is a good man. Thanks honey!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Learning Notes: Weeks 9 and 10

The time is flying by. I cannot believe we are finished 10 weeks of schooling already. Although I was sick and we didn't "do" school all four days this week a lot of learning was accomplished.

Math:
Played UNO
Counting backwards 10 - 1
Counting 1 - 100
Addition 4 though 7, meaning 4 + 1 up to 4 + 10 etc. She is using kidney beans to tally but has graduated to little ticks on the paper. Some she can do off by heart.
Reviewing telling time. She is getting good at it. Also she is getting good at announcing the speed limit to her Daddy each time she sees a sign. You can bet he loves this. Now he really has a backseat driver.
Played war and crib for counting purposes and learning greater than or less than.

Language Arts.

Ordinary Parents Guide  up to lesson 52. I hear her all the time now sounding out any word she can find. In Costco today she read 7up. Easy I know but the thing is, she is reading!
Flash cards of sight words and any other we have learned. We have about 50 of them, although she can read more words than that. This is one thing she loves and even asks for.
Read Bob Books

Science:

Reviewed Chickadee, Owl and Goldfinch.
4H club work included a wild animals of Saskatchewan study so we spent a lot of time completing the unit.
She filled in her general information such as name, age, date of birth,address, phone number. Seems like 4H will be good for her. She has a meeting this coming up week and the theme of the month is Dog Care.
Read about bird beaks and all weird birds of the world. Did you know some birds throw their feces at predators and some puke on them and still others spit a smelly oil at them? Neither did I.


Music Study:
Reviewed Beethoven and listened to several cd's of his music. She is beginning to be able to pick out some pieces of his. Mostly the 5th Symphony and Fur Elise. I played Fur Elise for her on the piano and she was quite impressed. I was quite unimpressed. My old fingers are not as nimble as they once were.I am quite rusty but I enjoyed it too.

Yoga:

Did a brief introduction to yoga and its benefits.
Practiced yoga 3 times.
She spent most afternoons outside. I mean from 1pm until 5pm every day. Good stuff. She loves snow and lamented today about its disappearance with the warm weather.

Reading:

Beaks
Beastly Birds and Bats
Listened to Jim Weiss Animal Stories.
Read the novel Catwings
Moon Dogs
Beethoven Lives Upstairs
We're Back - Dinosaurs (more times than I wanted to)
The Fox and the Hound
Now One Foot, Now The Other
 

PS I don't expect you to read these learning notes. They are simply my way of keeping track of the years learning.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Let This Be A Lesson To You

What do you think would happen to someone who:

Tries to plan and carry out the PERFECT education for her home educated child?

Tries to shop for, plan and prepare healthy whole food meals... every day?

Who keeps her house impeccably clean (even though she has a very hairy dog)?

Who washes all bedsheets and towels twice a week?

Who vacuums her entire house every other day? ( See very hairy dog comment above)

Who forgoes her own pleasure time and time again because that closet really needs to be re-organized?

Who tries to keep up with current events, the latest home school resources and the most recent health news?

Who has to re-wash outside windows which were done mere weeks ago because winter is coming and they are a little  dirty.

Who tries to please her husband and make his life just this much easier?

I could go on and on here but I will spare you.

Why she gets sick of course. Yes, yes she does.

All work and no play makes Mama a foolish girl.


Thursday, November 4, 2010

Oh no.


I am beginning to suspect that Athena has an allergy to the dog. I hope it isn't so. She has had some respiratory complaints for a whole month now. This has never been the case before. She has a cough that usually only appears in the morning and now her eyes are tearing and she has the sneezes.

I really am hoping it is not what I think it is. This is one GREAT dog, and I am not a dog person. For me to say the dog is great means she is really great. I am puzzled at what these symptoms could be in her and why they are lasting so long. We have had the dog for 6 weeks and she has displayed the symptoms for 4 of them. Is it just a lasting cold? Possibly. Or am I just trying so very hard to ignore symptoms that could signify an allergy to her pooch. I already vacuum the house every other day. The dog does not go upstairs to where the bedrooms are. How can I tell if she is allergic short of taking her for testing. Sigh. What to do, what to do.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Yarn Along

Ginny over at Small Things has started this weekly peek into what is on the needles and what we are reading so I decided to play along.

This week I am working on the first ever sweater for me! It is the same pattern that I knit for Athena last spring. I loved the look of it and thought it would be easy for me to accomplish. It is the Tomten Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I hope it fits me when all is said and done. It is looking a bit large. But... too large is much better than too small now isn't it?


And sadly enough, I am reading a book called Catwings aloud to Athena. When I finally get into a groove
maybe I'll have to read something for myself. And you will not that she just had to sew cat wings on her "stuffed up kitten". She likes to sew and cares not that she put the wings on upside down.

Expect to see this sweater in upcoming Yarn Along posts. I am not the fastest knitter on the block.