Thursday, April 26, 2012

Another Week Closer to Another Year Completed: April 21 - 27

April's almost over?! Really?! Wow! Has it flown by for you too?


White Pine went camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend. He packed up his LL Bean backpack with the essentials - socks, a change of clothing, a pillow, first aid kit, bug spray, sun screen...and a GALLON of Gatorade and enough Beef Jerky to smell up the whole kit'n kaboodle! He has SUCH a GREAT time camping with his buddies! And I'm glad he can share his STINKY jerky somewhere ELSE! ((wink))

Balsam Fir has become SURVIVIORMAN! Have you seen the show on Netlfix or Discovery Channel? A man named Les gets "lost" in different environments for 7 days, living off the land and recording his experience. Well, Balsam Fir thinks this is the COOLEST and walks around wearing a backpack and a bandana hat just like Les, pretending to be lost in the woods. And yes, we've gone over the finer points of the show: how Les is trained, has a plan and people coming back for him, that PREVENTION of getting in these situations is ALWAYS BEST, that eating "wild edibles" should not be done, and no, "marking his territory" around the yard is not acceptable to keep wild animals away. ((wink)) I think it's cute though! And why not learn survival information?


Guess what?! We've lived here for just over 6 years now and enjoyed the woods, lakes and mountains, but would you believe that we never knew there was a 16 mile trail system just 5 miles away? ((sigh)) Anyway, we headed out for a 3 hour hike to the river on Thursday.





We planted corn, cucumber and "goblin gourds" in the mini greenhouses to get a jump-start on the growing season. And Balsam Fir is SUPER excited that his peas have started to sprout!

Soak these Soil Cups in Water for a Few Hours
Poke in Seeds
Cover with a Plastic Lid and Voila! Mini Greenhouses!

Breakfast - It's what's for dinner! How can you go wrong with pancakes, right? Well, one of our favorite dinners is applesauce-cinnamon or pumpkin spice pancakes. And it's a "wing it" meal! LOL I put 1/2 a box - Yes! Simple, just-add-water box pancake mix! LOL - in a bowl, and then plop in some natural applesauce or unsweetened pumpkin, spices (like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger) and a tablespoon? of dark brown sugar and mix. Now, adding the water can be tricky because the apple and pumpkin have some liquid in them. I just "eye ball" the amount of water, stirring, adding more if needed, until I get the right consistency. Ever had peanut butter-and-jelly pancakes? LOL

Pancake Mix, Applesauce and Cinnamon
Pancake Mix, Pumpkin Puree, Dark Brown Sugar, Cinnamon,
Nutmeg, and Ginger
Dinner! Pancakes and Syrup, Scrambled Eggs (from Our Hens'
Eggs of Course), Red Seedless Grapes, and Cantaloupe

Oh, yeah, we did some school work too. ((wink)) Nothing too exciting though, just our regular ol' bookwork. We're DILIGENTLY working through our Language Arts and Mathematics so we can wrap up the school year on May 11th. Can it be done? We'll see! This time of year is hard for us to focus! So many OTHER THINGS seem much more interesting...state parks, wooded trails, gardening, riding bikes and scooters, running through the sprinkler, and...the list goes on. But the date is set: May 19th for PORTFOLIO REVIEWS!

I did start on NEXT YEAR'S curriculum organizing, pulling THIS YEAR'S books off the shelves. I like to put Post-Its on pages with schedules, answer keys, problem sets, etc. to make it easier to find things. The Post-Its are usually gone by mid-year, but by then we know where to find what we need easily. And I started my NEED TO BUY list...composition notebooks, colored pencils, GLUE STICKS, and so on. (Are we the only family that NEVER has enough glue sticks?! LOL) Fortunately, our supply list isn't going to be very long...because the To Buy curriculum list IS! Who's all set for next year?

Weird Unsocialized HomeschoolersFavorite Resource This WeekFun Stuff FridaysThe Homeschool Mother's JournalHip Homeschool Hop Buttonabc button
Magical Mouse SchoolhouseChestnut Grove Academy

23 comments:

  1. Great photos!!!
    I am green with envy that you are ready
    for next year's school year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The camping trip sounds like a lot of fun. Balsam Fir looks just too cute doing his Les imitation! :-) Can we come join you? You guys just have so much fun! Hope you have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. P.S. And thanks for linking up with "Try a New Recipe Tuesday!" My kids can't wait to try it. :-)

      Delete
  3. Wow!!!! what awesome photos of the kids! :) SO cute about balsam wanting to be Survivorman LOL .. funn! and WOW i love those soil cups :P ... We do breakfast night a lot at our house! :) mainly cuz we all just LOVE breakfast and who has time in the a.m. to make HUGE ones LOL

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love the survivorman in your family! How great to find the trail system so close to your house! I would be in heaven. We discovered a pond with a path around it after about a year of living here and while it isn't as great as a hiking trail system would be, it is so great to have it so close by. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi! Thanks for visiting! I've also read over at your blog - love the volcano and rock study and your American Girl stuff! - but I can't seem to find where to comment! LOL

      Delete
  5. LOVE that picture of Balsam being SuvivorMan. Too stinking cute.

    The place you live seems so perfect to this Nature Loving HS Mama. And that trail!!! Love the mini Greenhouses too.

    Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite things. That cantaloupe looks so good...one of my favorite fruits!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oooh, we love breakfast for dinner. We rarely have pancakes because I'm pancake-impaired. No matter what I do they are awful, even the from a box type. We have French Toast instead.

    We don't go through so many glue sticks as pencils. Seriously, I'm beginning to think the child eats them.

    Your descriptions of the woods and rural life make me almost want to move to the country, *almost* ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. thanks for visiting my blog

    looks like a fun educational week :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. What?! No marking his territory?! LOL - love that!

    ReplyDelete
  9. ha! Let the boy mark his territory! Just Kidding :) a three hour hike to the river, fun! Can't wait til mine are big enough for long hikes :)
    Good job with the gardening and prep for next year! You rock!

    Thanks again for the good advice last week!

    ReplyDelete
  10. HA! Be happy you live out in the country. My friends kid once "marked his territory" in the library and week later at church! Now that was funny!

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a lovely time you're having! Our little girls are making bows and arrows, quivers, sheaths, and costumes to go with it all..and one of them is throwing a javelin quite accurately.

    Survivors sounds a bit more peaceful!

    That looks like a wonderful breakfast. We're having buckwheat porridge....

    ReplyDelete
  12. Loved reading about your week!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm just getting started with planning for next year. I've really been enjoying it! I, too, have pulled some things off the shelves to get ready for the coming year (AOP Life of Christ Lifepacs, Notgrass Exploring America).
    Quick update on my sewing project: the skirts are still not finished, but I'm going to keep at it. I'm sharing pictures on my blog (by request), probably Wednesday. Thanks for the encouragement! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love seeing all that wonderful nature you get to enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am excited about almost being finished with school... but I have to do portfolios! And that is daunting me... and the evaluation... I guess I am ok with portfolio time but I have a folder of like 100 pictures I need to get printed out to organize for each of them... It is coming too quickly! But on the other hand... yay!

    ReplyDelete
  16. My girls are really wanting to watch Survivorman...I was talking about it after reading your post! And your little Survivorguy is pretty cute:)

    ReplyDelete
  17. What fun!

    And the pancakes are a must try here! Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Your boys look like they get up to the same tricks as mine here on the farm. I love the scouting movement and all my boys go. Do join my Country Kids linky, your post is perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I have never been camping. It is in our plans to take the girls on a camping trip this year. I hope that it will be fun. It looked like you all had a nice week!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Great pancakes, we usually make plain of blueberry but we are going to have to try some of these more interesting combinations!

    Thanks for sharing at Happy lil ❤'s are baking!

    ReplyDelete
  21. We have been making apple pancakes this last week too...but using diced up apples instead of applesauce...yum! Thanks for linking up at BTT!!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for reading! Please share your thoughts in the comment box. We love hearing from our visitors!