{2014} In Review

I thought I would share some of our favorite pictures, memories, and blog posts from each month of 2014. 

Many bloggers are doing this at the moment and it's been fun to read and reread their posts. I'm amazed at the beautiful writing and reflections they have of their year! Unfortunately you won't find that here! ; )

Anyway . . . some things I did noticed is that I had a ton of Quick Takes and Daybooks and not many subject specfic post. This is something I want to work on for next year. I want to take a topic and write about it. Of course, I enjoy doing Daybooks and I get good response to those (who doesn't when you spill your heart!) and will continue those. I'm hoping a few less checking in sort of posts.

Well, here is a quick glance at the year on the blog!

January~
January's most popular post, 7 Quick Takes Friday~Homeschool Edition~1/3/2014. We celebrated a new teenager in the house. Caleb turned 13 and we got a nice day to go outside and take some pictures.

February~
February's most popular post, The Homeschool Path {Planning Eighth Grade and Preparing For High School}. It looks like we got snowed in and Scott made some coon skin hats. I enjoyed seeing pictures of our hamster (he passed away early December). 

March~
March's most popular post, Just Checking In {March 31, 2014}
It seems we were really longing for spring weather in March! Caleb finally saved enough money to purchase his bow. We also went out for our first nature study of the year. 

April~
April's most popular post, A Spring Daybook in April. We celebrated a long awaited Easter and looking at the pictures, spring must have finally came! A stray cat adopted us and stole our hearts (which were broken come December)! The First Nature Study of Spring was much loved!

May~
May's most popular post, Evaluating the School Year {2013-2014}.
May was really busy! My blog posts are of full of pictures of Zebra and that was the best part of looking through them all. May turned out to be beautiful spring weather (which can be rare in Missouri). I think this post was my favorite from May either because of the pictures of the iris or cat! 

  

June~
June's most popular post, 7 Quick Takes Friday {June 27, 2014}. We enjoyed some carefree days in June! Tyler celebrated his 10th birthday and I was deep into school planning.

July~
July's most popular post, Our Plans {2014-2015 Term 1}. July: fishing, outdoor play, garden veggies, sweet kitty, and a new school year!

 

August~
August's most popular post, Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real {August 21, 2014}. We enjoyed some summer nature study, a trip to Kansas, evaluated our first month of school, and tried hard to get into a new school schedule. 

 


September~
September's most popular post (and only post), Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real {September 11, 2014}.  September was our busiest month of the year. Too much to do but the good news is since Tyler will be a Boy Scout come March, this should be our last crazy September due to Cub Scouts!

October~
October's most popular post, A Tuesday Daybook {October 28, 2014}. October brought nature study, the Feast of St. Michael, This Week in Learning, Term 2 of the school year, more nature study, Halloween, and our first cross country season came to an end.

 


November~
November's most popular post, 7 Quick Takes Friday {November 21, 2014}. Things settled down after a hectic fall season. Because of that I was able to work on recording our school days. The boys had a successful deer hunting season. We had family pictures taken too.

December~
December's most popular post, This Week in Learning {Week 17}.  Advent came and went. We grieved the lost of our cat and the hamster. We welcomed a puppy into our family. Christmas celebrations were much welcomed and enjoyed (and continue). 

Happy Feast of the Holy Family!

We are certainly enjoying our Christmas celebrations! Happy Feast of the Holy Family! Looking forward to Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on Thursday. (And happy that our parish has Mass at 10 am and not first thing in the morning!)

The boys have been enjoying their daily opening of the 12 Days of Christmas gifts. These are small gifts (some shared) and mostly books. I'll share titles when it's all over as I can't remember what I've wrapped.

 

I thought I would share some pictures from Christmas Day.

Family Pictures {2014}

My wonderful Sister-in-law took some family pictures for us while they came to visit at Thanksgiving. I'm just now getting them posted!

Family, if you would like a copy, let me know which one and I will email it to you. 

Caleb and Tyler Cross Country pic (because I was too cheap to purchase team ones!)

Family pic #1

Family pic #2

Family pic #3

Family pic #4

Family pic #5

Merry Christmas!

As Advent Comes to an End . . . .

Life has been slightly out of the ordinary here at the pumpkin patch. 

Our world was completely changed when we welcomed a new puppy, Lucy (she arrived at our house on the feast of St. Lucy.

We finished decorating the house on Gaudete Sunday.

Our most wonderful cat, Zebra, had a run in with a car and the car won. We had very sad boys (and mom) last week! Our hamster, Hammy, past away too earlier in December. It's been a tough month for pets around here. I had to put this picture of Zee Bee on my laptop desktop to be able to see him throughout the day. He is much missed!

Most Advent activities did not happen last week due to the death in the family. Finally, by Friday we were ready to get out and go ice skating with friends. We did read some books and watched a few Christmas movies. I think our favorite was A Muppet Christmas Carol (Netflix).

We typically celebrate Christmas with my parents and brother and his family the weekend before Christmas but that has been delayed until next weekend as my brother's family were all sick. 

I'm running behind on my project to-do list while on Christmas break. It seems like the everyday chores are over taking my day. I need to work on this!

 

Yes, thank you very much and I did! I certainly enjoyed the box my Land's End order arrived in. I was really happy with everything I purchased too! Nothing had to be returned. My closet is slowly being filled. I haven't done any major clothes shopping for myself in years and I came to a point that I was washing twice a week because I didn't have enough clothes to make it through the week. The only thing still on my list is dress pants.

We are certainly ready for some Christmas celebrations here and are counting down the hours!

Our Second Week of Advent {2014}

We started the week off by putting out some outdoor decorations . . . . very simple seems to be our style.

The boys decorated their rooms with Christmas trees and other decoration.

We keep adding to the Jesse Tree and reading bible stories to go with the ornaments. We had to double up two days as it was forgotten the day before.

I finalized the Christmas menu and Christmas celebrations. My parents have Christmas the weekend before Christmas. We celebrate with Scott's family on Christmas Eve and sneak in Mass that evening too. We spend Christmas Day at home. I don't enjoy cooking so I planned a simple day at home. For breakfast we will have cinnamon rolls, eggs, and bacon. I planned simple snack food to have throughout the day (taco dip, veggie tray, meat and cheese, and something sweet). Dinner will be an easy taco soup that will just be thrown into the slow cooker to let it take care of itself. I will do all the prep work on Christmas Eve.

Gifts are almost done. I just have a few last minute things to pick up at Target next week and one more order at Amazon to get the last couple of books needed for the 12 days of Christmas gifts. It looks like Amazon has a 25% off coupon so I will probably do that order today before it expires.

Advent is about preparing and material wise we are about done. Mentally there is still more work to be done!

Books we read this week:
-continued in A Christmas Carol and Letters From Father Christmas

-Saint Frances and the Christmas Donkey by Byrd
-Christmas at Long Pond by William George
-The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston
-Our Lady of Guadalupe by Carmen Bernier-Grand
-Lucia Saint of Light by Katherine Bolger Hyde
-Listened to Glory Stories Fresh Flowers in Winter: The Story of St. Juan Diego 

This week's school adventures can be found here.

We started our annual Christmas puzzle this week. I chose this nativity one after seeing it mentioned by Jessica at Shower of Roses. It's been a while since I had to purchase one new. We usually find them at garage sales. (I didn't get out garage selling much this year.) I admit that this puzzle is a little difficult due to the fact that their is so much color. Looking into the box for pieces overwhelms the brain.

The boys finished off the second week of Advent with a 5K run (fundraiser for the local FFA chapter at the high school) and our town Christmas parade. Tyler rode in a float with his cub scout pack and Caleb marched with his boy scout troop. Tyler got to rest at home afterwards but Caleb went to help a fellow scout with his Eagle project. Both boys had to serve at a wedding in the afternoon. We also had a family birthday party to attend. 

We also welcomed a new member to the family. Her name is Lucy, since we got her on St. Lucy's day. 

   

This Week in Learning {Week 18}

It has been a good school week but we are so very glad for a long Christmas break!

We went to half days which really made the week much enjoyable. Our afternoons were filled with activities I can count as school hours, but not a normal work load. We got some extra chores done, extra reading, movies, and games.

We started our day off with Morning Basket. I would then do math with Caleb while Tyler did his independent work. We would have a break and then start back with math with Tyler while Caleb did his independent work. We had our lunch break next and then did Afternoon Basket after lunch. We did all Advent readings and one chapter in the Faith and Life book since it was the Christmas story.

Our number one goal for the week was math. That goal was meet. Each of the boys had a "test" in their Saxon math this week and I wasn't pleased with their work. This was a reminder for me to make sure we are getting enough of the mixed practice problems done. 

Silly Boys! Caleb and Tyler with their cousin. Photo taken by my sister in law during our family photo shoot.

Caleb is still struggling with fractions. I'm struggling with this because most of the fraction work that is in the math book is not the type of fractions he will encounter outside his math book. We encounter fractions daily but they are normally pretty basic (1/2, 1/4, 3/4, and thirds and converting back and forth between fractions and decimals). This is not what he is practicing in the math book. I feel bad making him do them! Dang you math for being so easy to test that we are forced to make you more important than you truly are in real life! This is hard to avoid in homeschool too!

The boys did mostly literature reading during their independent work. I believe Tyler did some keyboarding practice and read in Life of Fred. Times Attack was completely during independent time too.

On Friday we just did Morning Basket and got some PE time in at the ice rink with some other homeschool friends.

We do have some school goals during Christmas break! Caleb will be forced to do some math lessons. We have a list of books I want to read aloud. And I will be making sure free reading happens during the day. This will be easy during the 12 days of Christmas since they boys are getting some books that were on their wishlist. Next week the boys will enjoy a week long class in Life Skills as we prepare the house for Christmas!  ; )

This Week in Learning will be back in four weeks!