-I requested a whole bunch of winter books to read the kids, to the point where the librarians were giving me a look as I picked up my holds recently. I managed to sneak in a comment about stocking up for the spring semester of school, and ever since they have been exceptionally friendly to me. I don't know if they think I'm a paid teacher or if they suspect we homeschool, but either way, after they realized I was educating kids it's been a whole new experience. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think a regular old mom who is checking out a huge stack of picture books for her kids should get the same level of respect, teacher or not, because every mom is a teacher. If you are a mom, you are your child's first teacher, and best teacher for their entire childhood. The things you teach them, intentionally and unintentionally, are the lessons that are most likely to stick. That's one reason I have long wished every mom could go to a homeschool conference, even if they send their kids to school.
-We went over to my parent's house on a Sunday, and got to snowmobile for the first time this year! Then we looked outside and saw a moose, just standing there. It was like a painting, with the moon shining on the snow.
-I did finally finish the photo books that gave me a bloody eye, and they arrived in the mail this week. They are gorgeous. I am so happy with them! I ordered from Chatbooks, and not only is the quality even better than the last time I got a book from them over a year ago, but their customer service is top notch. One of my books accidentally got switched to softcover before checkout, and I didn't notice until it arrived in the mail. I sent them an email, and they are sending me the book in hardcover like I intended - I just had to pay the $5 upgrade from softcover to hardcover. I was so relieved to not have to buy a whole new book! That was the final thing that sold me, and I will likely be using them for our photo books next year too. Very pleased.
-On Martin Luther King Day, our family went to the stock show, which is always an event around here. We watched ranchers showing cows, we saw the sheep and pigs, but we sadly missed the poultry show. It ended up being a fun day overall though!
However, we did get completely thrown off with school the rest of the week, and there were tears from certain children and myself. Ironically, I remembered that the topic for our upcoming homeschool support group meeting at church was supposed to be "how to salvage a bad day". After the week we had I hardly feel qualified to lead that topic. Homeschool moms, how do you salvage a bad day? If you have any good articles or videos that have encouraged you, let me know!
-A couple weeks ago we had a small birthday party for Derek's 40th birthday, and we did a "flashback to Derek's childhood" theme. It was so much fun, and I'll probably try to write a post about the party soon. But I have to mention it here because for the party we bought several iconic 1980's toys, including two Rubik's cubes. I so wanted to keep the cubes perfect for the party, but they were messed up almost immediately by little fingers that couldn't resist. However, after the party I decided to learn how to solve a Rubik's cube - and I did!
I think I am more excited about this than anyone else.
But nevertheless, if anyone is interested, this is the video that I found very helpful. There was only one part that I thought he explained poorly, but I think I figured out the solution. The first cube took me a couple hours to solve, mainly because I made a couple mistakes that required me to start completely over. But the second cube I solved in 15 minutes! Now I kind of want the kids to mess it up again, so I can practice and solidify my knowledge.
That was too many paragraphs about Rubik's cubes. As I said, it's exciting to me, but not necessarily anyone else!
-We went snowmobiling with my parents again over a weekend, this time way up in the mountains, and it was so much fun! Snowmobiling is such a great way to get outside in the winter. I wrote a post about this last year, and I can't even remember if I published it, but this is another perk to living close to your parents as an adult. When they do fun things, they may just take you along! Snowmobiling is not something we would get to do at this stage in our lives if it wasn't for their generosity in sharing their hobby with us.
-I was going to go on about a book that wrecked me last week, but I think I'm going to save that for an upcoming book post/video in the next week or two. I'll keep the title to myself and just leave you in suspense.
-This week started off weirdly, with a severe ringing that started in one of my ears, with no apparent cause. I went to the doctor yesterday, and they gave me a referral for an audiologist, and hopefully we'll get it figured out. The only possibility that seems feasible right now is an atypical migraine that causes your ears to ring. I'm hoping we can figure it out, because the constant ringing is making me extra-sensitive to loud noises, and it's hard to hear voices if there is also background noise - and loud background noise is a regular thing in this house, so as you can imagine, that is making my days a little difficult at the moment!
How was your January?
I love the photos with the moose!
January was a tough month over here. I feel you on the bad homeschooling days. We’ve had our share of them lately and I’m still trying to figure out the best way to reset and keep going. Often sending the kids outside or taking frequent breaks helps. I’ve had some days lately of putting myself in time out in my room, haha.
The ear problem sounds awful!! I hope you get that resolved quickly.
How beautiful color for winter!
The pictures of the sun coming up are so pretty! How fun to get to go snowmobiling. Growing up in the country, a lot of our neighbors had snowmobiles. Here in suburbia, they are not that common.
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