A Spring Daybook in April

Outside my window

Lots of birds! Which is good since we are studying birds in science, but bad since we have a missing piece of soffit and the birds are going into my attic! A spring storm blew the piece out and we had to order a replacement piece. This happened a few years ago and the birds built a nest in the attic and several days after we fixed it we had the smell of death (rotten bird eggs) in our house! Poor Scott will be searching the attic high and low for birds and nest after we get it fixed this time. We tried cardboard as a temporary fix but it didn't last long.

I’m thankful for

Warm weather since our propane tank (used to heat the house) is down to single digit of percent filled and we are mostly running on fumes. It hasn't ran in the last few days!

I'm also thankful for a little peace and quiet this morning as it is well needed!

I’m thinking about

This terrible short hair I have now. I'm completely devastated! I know I will get use to it, but I won't like it. I woke up this morning to exactly what my fears predicted it would look like slept on. Please, no one tell me that you like it as it makes it worse! Poor Scott! He was the first one to tell me that he liked it. He certainly wasn't expecting the tears that his words brought on.  ; )

In the schoolroom

It was a mixed week. I got up late Friday and we had errands to run Wednesday which got us off schedule. I also completely forgot an activity I had planned for Thursday afternoon. If we forget about all of that, the week went great, lol! I'm planning on an easy Holy Week. I have lots of books I want us to read and mix in some math and that will be our focus next week. Oh, and maybe their history reading too as I really want to stay on schedule with that. 

I ordered some books for next year and those arrived yesterday. I opened the boxes and that is about as far as I got. Looking forward to digging into the boxes today!

I am working on

More than I want to talk about! It's really nothing exciting but just the daily grind. But, I'll talk about the following. I keep putting off rearranging Tyler's room. It's going to be painful for both of us. It must be done before our garage sale (which is April 25th for those local) as I'm planning on selling his dresser. Tyler is devastated over this! So, this I'm trying to work on!

I'm also HELPING (key word here!) to organize a homeschool group book sale in May (May 8th for those local) and our Cub Scout family camp-out in May.

I am reading

Even though we have this on MP3 recording (which is a pain because it will only play on our laptop!) and I went ahead and bought a paper version of Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome. I highly recommend this series (I think I've mentioned many times before)! I can't read it aloud though. I'm going to put it on the shelf and encourage the boys to read it on their own. I'm hoping to have a few bookmarks in it at once. I'm enjoying it! For those local, our library has the first book on CD which I recommend instead of trying it as a read aloud.

I treated myself to Beatrix Potter: A Journal which is a biography of Beatrix Potter using her journal entries in what looks like a scrapbook. It's very lovely! It's short and now I want more, lol! I had more and checked out Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature from the library and it was very thick and I didn't get very far because it went into great detail of lives other than Beatrix Potter (insert icon of shrugging shoulders and scratching head). I got bored and confused. I'm hoping to find something else to read about her.

I also recently bought Strengthening Your Family: A Catholic Approach to Holiness at Home, but I only read a chapter so far. I'll let you know.

I still have this pile of other books that I started and never finished. I'm craving some fiction too!

I am hearing

peace and quiet!

Clicking around

I'm enjoying a few lovely blog series lately!

Sarah @ Amongst Lovely Things has Teaching From a State of Rest, which is wonderful!

Pam @ Everyday Snapshots has a series on homeschool planning and she has many other wonderful post that you should check out if you haven't yet.

Meredith @ Sweetness and Light has a homeschooling high school series that she has just started and I'm quite excited about! 

Jen @ Wildflowers and Marbles is having a book discussion on The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason which I recommend for all your CM fans! I finished the book and can't wait to start some new notebooks.

Divina @ Beauty of the Picture Book has a monthly series that includes picture book recommendations. I always look forward to these and immediately make a list to take to our next library visit.

Around the house

The basement needs a major overhaul so that we can set up for a garage sale. There are a few repair jobs on the list too, but those are mostly for Scott to do. My carpets really need to be cleaned and that is on the to-do list at the top (under Tyler's room), but it's not done. I re-did the boys chore list last month and that has been going well. I added a load of laundry for each of the them during the week and they have picked that up easily. We are still working on others though.

A picture
of my little turkey hunter home from the woods (no turkey this time).