My Week in Review/THMJ/Weekly Wrap-up

This is a 2-week update since I was unable to finish this post last week due to our car accident.  Here is what I had for last week:

It has been a fun and busy week here at the Home to 4 Kiddos.

On Monday, Kiddo #4 finished an apron that she has been working on in sewing class.  Isn't it pretty?  I love how it has multiple pockets.

We have continued our geography work in Eastern Europe as well as Ancient Egypt in history.

On Friday, Kiddo #4 had a ceramics class and she made a beautiful fall dish with a leaf impression in it.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  After the class, we were told that we could visit the many apple trees on the property and help ourselves to some apples.  Wow!  You know I will be posting some apple recipes and soon.  :-)

Friday evening was our Welcome Back party with our 4-H club.  The kids played flashlight tag (too dark for pictures, unfortunately), painted pumpkins, enjoyed pizza and played bingo.  It was a fun evening for all.

And here is what I have for this past week, Kiddos 3 and 4 tested for their brown belts in Taekwondo.  We are SO proud of them!  

Kiddo #2 is enjoying French this year.  He had taken ASL up to this point, but the teacher, due to other commitments, was not teaching the class this year, so he decided on French instead.

To culminate our studies on ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, the kiddos made their own cuneiform tablets.  The boys did their initials.  Kiddo #4 made the symbols for fish.  :-)

My posts the past two weeks:

Try a New Recipe Tuesday- October 6th (always good recipes!)

Hungarian Butter Cookies

Eastern European Flag Matching Game

Frugal Mommas Friday Linkup #7 (always great posts to read!)

Bad Accident

Try a New Recipe Tuesday- October 13th (almost 4 dozen recipes to check out!)

TOS Review- Progeny Press

Frugal Mommas Friday Linkup #8 (some good Fall themed ideas!)

TOS Review- Faith of our Fathers

Hope you have had a wonderful weekend!  God bless!  :-)

Linking up today with My Week in Review, Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weekly Wrap Up, 

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My Week in Review/THMJ/Weekly Wrap-Up- October 3

Fall has definitely arrived!  The temperatures dropped and a Nor'Easter and remnants of Joaquin came to visit, as well.

We are studying the Ancients this year and this week, the Kiddos made a replica of the Great Pyramid at Giza as well as the Step Pyramid of Djoser.

We also learned about the Code of Hammurabi and the Hyksos in Egypt.

We are also studying European geography and found a wonderful series from PBS online called Rick Steve's Europe.  He has 30-minute segments on many European nations.  This week, we watched ones on Poland and Hungary, as well as working on our maps and studying the history and geography of each nation.

You can tell fall has arrived by the way these two are watching the video.  :-)

Kiddo #4 invented her own cookie recipe (I am not kidding!) and will feature it this week in a recipe post.  Be sure to check back, for they were SO good!  She got a thumbs up from her brother-testers!  :-)

The storms knocked out our power for a while on Friday evening.  We made the best of it!  :-)

At our 4-H meeting on Saturday, the ice-breaker game was wrapping a volunteer like a mummy.  Look at Kiddo #1!  They also worked on a 'Wildlife Detective' project.

My posts this week:  

Frugal Mommas Friday Linkup

Try a New Recipe Tuesday

Keep safe and dry!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  God bless!

Linking up today with My Week in Review, Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weekly Wrap Up, 


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My Week in Review/ Weekly Wrap-Up/ THMJ

Last weekend, our family attended retreat with our church.  The kiddos look forward to family retreat every year.  It is a wonderful time for faith, friends and fellowship.

On Friday, the kiddos painted (and Kiddo #1 carved) their pumpkins.  It is always a fun activity to do together.  :-)

After pumpkins, Kiddo #4 made all of us pumpkin shaped cookies.  I roasted some pumpkin seeds (recipe coming up soon!) and the kids got dressed to go out.

On Saturday, we had a 4-H meeting that was quite busy.  The kids did a first-aid project as well as the beginning of an apple project that included taste-testing apples and enjoying caramel apple dip.  The kids also made Christmas cards for soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and collected food and goodies for a care package.  It is wonderful to see the kids enthusiastically participating in service projects like that!  :-)

On my blog this past week:

My Week in Review (still plenty of time to link up about your week!)

TOS Review- Clued in Kids (fun scavenger hunts for kids)

TOS Review- Anthem for a Nation (great patriotic and informative film)

Try a New Recipe Tuesday

Hope you have had a great weekend!  God bless!  :-)

Linking up today with:  My Week in Review,  Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weekly Wrap-Up, Show-Off Friday, Learn and Link and It's a Wrap, Friendship Friday and Friday Connection and Family Fun Friday and T.G.I.F. Linky Party and Let's Homeschool High School and This Week and Collage Friday

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Homeschool Mother's Journal/Weekly Wrap-Up November 9

Friday is upon us again.  :-)

In my life/homeschool this week: Mondays are always our crazy days: chemistry class for Kiddo #1, Sewing class for Kiddo #4, music lessons for 3 of the kiddos, writing class and then a meeting at church in the evening for Kiddo #4.....Glad that's only once a week!  :-)  I also posted about the kiddos trick or treating.  You can see them and their costumes here.

Tuesday was the first day back for our homeschool bowling league.  What an awesome turnout.  The kiddos had a lot of fun and got right back into the swing of things.  We also had our Italian class that they (and I) are really enjoying.  I also hosted my weekly recipe linkup and shared my sugar cookie recipe (yummy!).  You can see it and all of the other recipes here.

Wednesday was a pretty subdued day, with the older kiddos having their online class.  Kiddo #4 always likes to include her dolls in our lessons.  :-)  We also got some snow and they just loved being out in it.  Is there anything better than seeing your children's faces for the first snow?  I posted more pics here.

Thursday was a to the grind kind of day, getting all of their work done, but of course, there has to be something to lighten it all up.  What fun would homeschool be if you couldn't do it in your slippers?  ;-)

I'm planning some fun for the kiddos on Friday.  Stay tuned....  :-)

A photo or quote to share:

this very large hawk visited us for several hours last week.  He was so incredibly large.  When he spread his (or her?) wings, it was breathtaking.  He did have a squirrel that he was feasting on (see under his claws?), so the kids got a real and up-close lesson in animal survival in the wild.  Kiddo #1 got better photos than me.  I will have to upload one of his to share, too.

What I'm praying for: healing in our nation, our military, those who are unemployed, ill or suffering, my family.....

P.S.  Kiddo #4 will be doing the drawing tonight for my first giveaway!  If you haven't already entered and would like to, you can do so here.

P.P.S.  My blog was nominated in 2 categories in the 2012 Homeschool blog awards.  I would much appreciate your vote and support.  Here are the links:

For best homeschool mom blog and best photos.  Thank you SO much!  :-)

Linking up today with:  Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weekly Wrap-Up, NOBH, Show-Off Friday, Learn and Link and It's a Wrap and Friendship Friday

Homeschool Mother's Journal/Weekly Wrap-Up- November 2

Here it is Friday again and what a week this has been.  We are very blessed, as we remained unscathed from the horrible storm.  All around us is devastation and many are still without power.  The New Jersey coastline is no longer as we all remember it.  Our prayers and thoughts are with all of them who have lost their homes.

Monday while the storm was raging, we didn't do much schoolwork.  We watched, waited, prayed and just were thankful for being safe.

I did publish my "Make Life Meaningful Monday" post about our amazing family retreat last weekend.  It was an extraordinary experience.

On Tuesday, the kiddos and I did some baking for Halloween.  We made Kiddo #1's Cocoa Fudge Cake and some sugar cookies.  The Cocoa cake was also my recipe that I shared in Tuesday's post.  You can see it here.

You can see more pics of our cookies and cake baking here, in my Wordless Wednesday/Thankful Thursday post.  I also reflect upon the devastation that is all around us and how grateful I am to be safe with my family.

Wednesday was Halloween, but with the storm damage of much of the neighborhood without power, the townships all requested that trick or treating be postponed until Saturday.  My husband had the wonderful idea to take the kids to Chuck E Cheese.  We were all able to eat and play together.  It was a fun night.

Thursday had us back at our work and classes at Church.  There was no Civil Air Patrol for Kiddo #1 due to power outages.

On Friday, we worked on our various lessons, Kiddo #4 continued on her Colonial tradesmen project and Kiddo #2 started on his state studies.  This is definitely my favorite resource this week.  I was lucky to be able to get it for free from the Notebooking Nook.  There are numerous sheets for every state and include geography, state symbols, state quarters, history and so much more.  He started with the first state alphabetically, Alabama, and will work his way to Wyoming.  :-)

What I'm reading: I purchased "Whispers from the Cross: Reclaiming the Church through Personal Holiness" on retreat and am looking forward to starting it this weekend.

What I'm praying for: all of those who lost their homes during the storm, our military, our nation, those who are unemployed, ill, or suffering....

A quote or photo to share:

Here is Kiddo #4 with candy legos that were in a gift basket from her aunt and uncle for Halloween.  She got a real kick out of the fact that she could actually build with them!  :-)

Thank you to everyone who has already entered my little giveaway.  I am so excited to have been given an autographed copy of a work of Christian fiction to be read with your families for Advent.  If you still haven't entered, there are a few more days left.  You can see the post here.  Thanks!  :-)

Hope everyone had a good week and for those of you with us on the East Coast, keeping you in my thoughts and prayers!  God bless!

Linking up today with:  Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weekly Wrap-Up, NOBH, Show-Off Friday, Learn and Link and It's a Wrap and Friendship Friday. Favorite Resource and Look What We Did

Thankful Thursday- October 25

Another Thursday has come and it is time to focus again on the many things for which I have to be thankful.

The world seems to be getting worse everyday.  Just in the past few days, in the county where my husband grew up, 2 teenagers were just arrested for beating and strangling a 12 year old girl to death.  She was on her way to her friend's house.  My prayers are with her family.  I cannot imagine.  I also am praying for the mom of the boys arrested.  It was she who had the courage to turn her own sons over to the authorities.  I cannot imagine that, either.

So, again my Thankful Thursday post is about a local tragedy resulting in the death of a child and just how grateful I am for my children.  I have made a real concerted effort to cherish every single moment I have with them.  They truly go by in an instant.  God gave us our children as precious gifts, whom we are to nurture, protect, teach and guide.  I pray everyday for the grace to do that to the best of my ability.

So, when the opportunity presented itself yesterday (Wednesday), we spent the afternoon picking out and painting pumpkins.  Well, I watched and took pictures.  :-)  The kids said it was the best "art class" they had had in a long time.  Mission accomplished.

Smokey the cat is checking out his likeness on Kiddo #1's pumpkin.  :-)

 This shirt gets pulled out twice a year-- once for pumpkins and once on Halloween.  I just love Snoopy!  :-)

Kiddo #4's masterpiece.

What are you thankful for today?

Linking up with Lisa at The Army Chap's Wife, NOBH , A Thankful Woman's Book of Blessings, Spilled Milkshake, Miscellany Monday, Women Living Well Wednesday and Raising Homemakers.

P.S.  I am hosting a giveaway for an amazing book to be read with your children during Advent.  It is called "Destination: Bethlehem A Family Advent Adventure."  Please click here to see the post and to enter!  :-)  Thanks!