Hard at Work

Lots of work is going on round here! Sure, Josh and I are working our tails off, but we've got another crew of two, too. Our friends Kevin and Kathy, who happen to be certified chimney people (CCP is the technical term I'm sure), are repairing and updating the chimney. The original chimney was classic brick but it's being transformed with river rock. It's already making the living room appear bigger and brighter. The woodstove should be hooked up just in time for the return to cooler weather at the end of the week! And then I will not fear snow for my household... cause we will be warm and toasty by the fire!





The kids and I resumed our normal homeschool schedule our first week home- as if there is any normalcy right now. Wait, maybe this is normal. Renovations, unpacking, searching for obscure items.



Anyway, school has been going great. We finished Life in the Great Ice Age and began Our Weather and Water by AIG. It's so great how it ties in with what we learned about the Ice Age and what caused it! I love when dots connect and I don't even plan it!








Don't mind my sideways picture of the atmosphere. It's always a little sideways around here (and I'm super tired so don't mind my silly blurbage either).


We have resumed art, beginning volume 2 of Artistic Pursuits for K-3. I thought for sure I had taken a picture of the kids art work but I can't find it. Oh well. Kathryn has been enjoying art at her own leisure, decorating all the walls with crayons she finds. Very few in the house have been left untouched. I think I have found all the stray crayons and now guard them like a hawk.





We are also learning all 50 states and capitals right now, with the help of Geography Songs (which the kids love). We're learning lots of nifty things about our country, like the rarity of albino buffalo, that George Washington had dentures made of horse and donkey teeth (among other things), and cool landmarks. I have been reading Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling Clancey Holling to the kiddos and they beg for more! I really thought Paddle was going to make it to the sea via the Mississippi... but I peaked ahead and I was wrong.





We are also trying to collect all 50 state quarters! We have 6 so far...

We accomplished so much this weekend, I just have to enumerate each one:

-Hung more curtains

-Set up and organized the school room

-Got mirrors for the master bath

-Got paint for the entry and first floor bath

-Made a makeshift coat closet

-Cleaned and organized the entire kids' wing

-Installed a shelf in my closet (Shelves in the closet! Happy thought indeed!)

-Found the iron

-Have only three random boxes of stuff upstairs to find a home for

- Stacked more wood in the basement

And lots of other little things I can't remember. It's starting to feel like home!