This Week At Home, Number 35

As my camera is going to be in the shop for the next three weeks, I thought I'd dip into the archives to "decorate" my posts.

Boy, do I feel old! Just a mere 4.5 years ago... They were little. Now, they are BIG!!! *sigh*

Trevor, age 5

But let's talk about this week, the here and now. What else do we have? 

The weather went from a high of 90 to a low of 43 in one day. Since then, the weather has been very fallish, a welcome change for sure.Although, I realized that I forgot to spend some time on my hammock, so I will be looking forward to that soon.

9 years old!

We got 4 solid days of school work done, despite some of life's interruptions.  I must be growing because interruptions did not send me into a fit of muttering.  I did have to bite my tongue, quite a few times.  However, that is nothing unusual, unfortunately! 

7 years old. 

With the change of weather came the discovery that most of us need "new" warmer clothes. Plus shoes.  Our clothing budget took a huge hit this week, even with shopping at Good Will, using a 20% off at Kohl's, and free shipping at Lands End for those items we were not able to find otherwise, namely husky sized pants.  Thankfully, no one needs a new winter coat.  That is a miracle.  Now as for winter boots, that is another story.  I will have to start looking soon.  All 3 of the kids are in adults shoe sizes, so they are not cheap. Take it all to Him in prayer, comes to my mind... 

Here are some of the highlights from our week:

• Friends visited us on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday! 
• Got hugs from our favorite AZ Grands who are in town for a family funeral.  The funeral was a beautiful celebration of homegoing. 
• Found gold at the library.  
• Jeff got through a difficult tax deadline, working extra hours on top of teaching highschoolers at AWANA.
• Grace finally passed her challenge in AWANA!  

A rare one of me! 

This weekend we are visiting with more family.  And our church family is moving into our new building. As always, I thank you for taking time to read. 

Jenn

Late Summer Musings

All of a sudden it is late summer.  The weather is playing its fickle dance between summer and fall.  Today, summer is winning.  It will be 90.  Tomorrow, fall will win with temperatures in the 60's. 

This is a busy time of the year for us.  We've been "meeting-ed" to death.  Every ministry, every activity is back into full gear.  I know this is all good, but wow, sometimes I really miss the freedom of summer. 

One thing I adore about late summer is apple time.  I've been to one orchard.  I am planning my next.  I can't wait!  I think I am an apple addict.  Do you have a favorite apple? 

This Week At Home, Number 34

Four out of Five

What a glorious week we've had! I'll let the pictures do most of the "talking".
I will never tire of Indiana Dunes State Park. It has to be the most lovely place in Indiana.

Beach House Blowout

Always stairs! 

Sand sculpting

Magnificent!

Happy campers

Rip current warnings! (No swimming) 

Blue sky

Visit to a local museum

Orchard time

Where was the oldest in our family? Well, he got the honor of spending Labor Day Weekend working! He was at grandparent work camp.

Work camp

And as for our school week, well we got three good days in this week.  Today is going to be a half day because there is a birthday to celebrate.

Happy Birthday, Mom!!! 

No Poo Update No. Two

Anybody out there still thinking about going No Poo?  Well, it has been 7 months now for me and I am still very pleased.  It is as if my hair has gone on auto pilot.  I love the bounce and shine.  I am amazed at how the oil glands have shut off as well.

When I went camping, I pondered taking my little travel sized shampoos with me or whether to take some soda.  It turns out that I needed neither.  I wore my hair in a pony tail and brushed it each morning, but it never got oily or gross after 2 full days.

I have noticed that if I do not use a lot of vinegar, my hair is tangled.  I also have to admit to using a spray de-tangler sometimes.  If I were to get my hair trimmed every 6 weeks or so, this would not be such a problem. I have also used a natural conditioner twice after swimming this summer.

My family has not embraced this journey.  The men use a honey oatmeal bar soap from Trader Joe.  My youngest son has really bad dandruff and uses a dandruff shampoo, much to my horror.  I would really like to find a natural product that works.  My daughter uses a natural shampoo and conditioner.  

How is every one else doing with No Poo?

Click here for first post with No Poo links.  

RIP Dear Camera

My camera died on this last trip.  It won't focus.  I think this is the last picture it took.  It was unable to focus afterwards and this is kind of blurry, although I like it. 

So, guess it is back to the big box store to see if they will honor the extended warranty I bought last October.  Now it seems like a wise decision to have paid the extra since this is the second time the camera has failed me! I really wish cameras were better made.  *sigh* 

A Little Preview

We made it back safely, for which I am grateful.  It was a great, but exhausting trip.  I will post more later.  Just wanted to say hello. Back to lessons, here we go! 
~Jenn

This Week At Home, Number 33

Look at what a little fertilizer can do! 

It's been another great week.  We got a whole 5 days of our curriculum done in 4 days.  At the end of today, we were back to full speed.  The kids were pushed and did a brilliant job.  Our ancient world studies are in a groove. 

Mr. Math

Quite unexpectedly, I discovered that my youngest was B-O-R-E-D with his current math program, which is a full grade level higher.  So, he happily went back to Math U See, Epsilon.  He even wrote his weekly essay about why he likes MUS.  He says it is more challenging.  (That makes for one happy mama.)

13.5, almost

Mr. Teen stumbled onto something involving math as well.  He is doing MUS Pre Algebra, on his own.  He has been breezing through at a brisk pace.  He reached lesson 16 and discovered something interesting, Honors questions.  He'd been skipping the Honors questions, not that I had really expected him to do those, but when he noticed one that looked interesting, he went ahead and did it on his own for FUN.  (Non-math people, gasp!)  Now, he wants to go back and do them all.  This is great!  Stretch that curriculum a little, I say! 

Studying hard. 

The only person struggling this week is my sweet girl.  She has reached a review section in her AWANA book that is giving her trouble.  She has over 7 verses to say at once, plus the "questions" that go with the verses.  She will get only 2 helps.  Poor thing spent an hour and half yesterday in tears as we "drew" each verse. 

My baby. 

My baby is having a good week.  Although, we kicked her out of our room at night again.  She doesn't like that much. 

As for me, well, I am enjoying the simple pleasures that come my way, like hanging clothes on a line, eating apples from the farm market, having friends over for dinner, getting ready to go back to my lake. 

Ah, my lake!  Six weeks since I last laid eyes on it.  I'll be doing more than just looking at the pretty blue water.  I will be walking up and down those sand dunes as much as possible.  I do hope that the predicted rains for Saturday are minimal. 

I'll be super busy tomorrow getting packed for our trip.  I promise to visit y'all as time allows. 

~Jenn