Happy Homemaker Monday - April 24, 2017

Family Corner

The weather.....has been beautiful - in the 50s to 60s. The weekend was in the 60s. Had the windows open to hear frogs and red-winged blackbirds singing.

Right now I am....waiting for a load in the dishwasher and laundry to get done. Still have one more load of laundry to do.

Thinking....about the homeschool conference that I attended from Thursday through Saturday. Learned a lot about PSEO and CLEP options for high school students; and time management ideas from speakers.

Reading...looking at the shelf by my bed, I have several books that I want to start this week: Choose Peace and Happiness, The Man Who Planted Trees, Unlikely Angel, and Debt-Free Living. Hoping to finish some by the end of the week.

On my TV.....since I was in a hotel room in the evenings from last Wednesday through Friday nights, I had the t.v. on as background noise while I worked on other projects. The home shows - remodeling ones - were the ones that tended to stay on the longest. It's amazing how homes needing work can be improved and completely changed with a vision, skills, and money.

Favorite blog post last week (mine or other)....last week I did a post for Friday Foto Friends that was a look back on some of the highlights from the week.

Sophia playing the harp while Olivia pets Chinook.

The photos were from our time volunteering at the humane society (Sophia plays the harp while Olivia and I pet the animals who are waiting to be adopted), preparing for Easter (making desserts and panoramic eggs), and making welcome baskets with seniors at the nursing home.

Something fun to share....back on April 24, 2010, I took a photo of a journal quilt I made for April. Each month I was creating a little quilt (no bigger than an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper). The items represented things that happened that month.

This is what I wrote at the time about it:

This is the journal quilt I made to remember activities and special holidays in April. I'm doing one quilt per month as a personal challenge as well as for a swap on Swap-Bot.

The journal quilt includes fabric from a quilt that I made for my mom this month that celebrates her 80th birthday.

The clouds were the first version of two words that describe her, but I ended up not using because the white embroidery floss against the light blue flannel didn't create enough of a visual contrast (she has macular degeneration).

The bunny represents Easter which was on April 4th.

The tree represents my favorite oak tree in the west pasture. I hand-sewed 80 beads on it to represent my mom turning 80 on April 24th.

The tree swing represents my daughters who love to swing on their tree swing in the apple tree in the backyard. It also reminds me of the night when the girls and I were swinging on the swings in the backyard and having a lot of fun.

The lime-green grass reminds me of a tiny lime-green frog the girls and I spotted in the pasture. It sat in our hands and on our fingers so we could get a closer look at it.

The swirls in the green fabric represent the long vines that the girls found in the pasture that they pulled up so the horses wouldn't trip when they gallop.

The 2 flowers represent the 40 wild irises that the girls and I transplanted from the pasture next to the house.

Blog hopping (newly discovered blog)....found The Home Scholar which focuses on homeschooling through high school.

Source

These last two years for Sophia and last four years for Olivia are critical; and I want to make sure I'm doing all I can for both of them.

On the menu for this week....I need to look to see what I have on hand and create a plan from there.

On my to do list....I'm looking forward to having two days where we can stay at home and/or do things around here. During Spring and Summer, I'm hoping to see more days like this - more days with some margin built in to enjoy relaxing and spending quality time with family and the pets.

This week, in addition to homeschooling, there are these activities:

Monday - Attend the volunteer appreciation lunch at the nursing home, volunteer with Sophia at the humane society (cat socialization), and take Olivia to gymnastics (she's moving from beginner to advanced today for her class - skipping the intermediate level). While she's doing that, I'll go grocery shopping and return books to the library.

The cat I spent time with two weeks ago

while doing cat socialization.

He ended up falling asleep in my lap.

Tuesday - Homeschool co-op for both the girls; and an extended harp lesson for Sophia in preparation for a spring concert and CD recording.

Wednesday - Mary B. here in the afternoon. Go to Fare for All to get food. (It's a place where they sell different food packages much less expensively than if you purchased them in the store. It's a great way to stretch your food budget.)

Thursday - No place to go!!

Friday - Olivia has speech therapy and a gymnastics lesson.

Saturday - Take Sophia to camp counselor training 30 miles from here (60 miles round trip). The girls were invited to a birthday party as well that is 12 miles from where Sophia will be doing the training. Logistically I'm trying to figure out of I can take Sophia to the training in the morning; drive back home and get things done for several hours; take Olivia to the party and stay in the general area while that's happening; and then pick up Sophia and head back home.

Sunday -  No place to go!!

In the craft basket....Finished the northwoods flannel quilt while at the homeschool conference.

Ended up putting the yarn ties on every other square (54 ties).

I think that was sufficient to hold the three layers in place.

Looking forward to this week....wrapping up the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. This was a big undertaking for the month: going through all the homeschool files, getting rid of what I no longer needed or wanted (recycling or donating items in the process), and writing a daily post.

I went through photos I had taken throughout the past decade (by searching my Flickr account) to illustrate what I was writing about. It was nice to go back and look photos I had forgotten I'd taken. So many good memories!

Looking around the house....still need to do quite a bit of Spring cleaning. Got one section of the air ducts replaced, the entire duct work system cleaned, and furnace filter cleaned last week. What a significant difference!

Still need to put away Easter decorations. Didn't have a chance to do that before leaving for the homeschool conference.

From the camera...

This was my Mom's 82nd birthday (April 24, 2012).

My sister is next to my Mom; and I'm by Olivia and Sophia.

She would have been 87 this year...today.

Also linked to:

Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth