The Week We "Did it All!" - Weekly Wrap-Up

We made it through all the scheduled assignments I put in my assignment book!!! ** Mommy doing happy dance! **

In just under six weeks into the official start of the "new" school year we actually managed to finish every assignment I'd scheduled for this week by Friday! This makes me very happy and it makes my OCD not flair up for the first time in weeks and that is a good thing.

This week I'm linking up to both the Weekly Wrap-Up and the Friday Collage !



I have almost 30 photos for this week's wrap up! And that's not even half of what I took this week! Don't worry, you'll see the other pictures in future posts about our outside time this week and our Fall Bucket List.

Yes, that is a dashboard in my bedroom. No, the bedroom isn't finished yet.

I mentioned on our Facbook page ( Homeschool Camper ) on Sunday that dear husband would be working on our Durango this week ... Well, it began on Monday and sort of looked like this...

Anyone else find this scary?

Old heater core.

It took nearly all week to replace the heater core, which is seriously needed during Michigan winters, in our driveway. For the first time in just about ever I did not end up with car parts (or house parts for that matter) being worked on on top of the dining room table. He had to walk away several times either due to frustration, cold drizzly weather, or illness but finally was able to finish the truck earlier today! This made us all very very happy. Hubby does say that he will NEVER do this at home again and would rather save the $800 to have it fixed in the shop.

Dashboard re-installed!

Random discussion on place value not initiated by Mom.

In the "classroom" this week we were actually able to get all of our assignments done! I know that I mentioned this right at the top of this post but it has made me so very happy! Every one of the kiddos worked very hard this week! Most of the work this week, and every other week, is done out of books. And as you can see Younger Cracker Jack uses her tongue to help her figure out those pesky math problems! 

Technology that we used this week included Mommy's computer, Elder Cracker Jack's laptop, Younger Cracker Jack's net-book, and Peanut's LeapPad Ultra. This means that my computer doesn't end up being taken over by children for the whole day and that the elder two who work on the same subjects at the same time almost on the computers are able to bounce information off of each other. 

That LeapPad Ultra turned out to be one of the best ideas ever! The apps for it are very affordable as are the "plug-in" games/books. She's able to do it all by herself and it engages her attention for hours at a time each day. I can hand it to her after her regular school work is finished and can get at least a solid hour of time to work with the elder two kiddos while she fiddles with it. She'll often ask to use it again later while I'm making dinner or otherwise engaged, like while I'm blogging! She's not only entertained and learning at the same time but also working on some smaller motor skills which is a big plus in our home. I also just found our that it is listed as one of K-Mart's top 15 gifts for this Christmas! Which just about made my day.


A few chores this week were finally caught on camera by yours truly. Normally I end up forgetting to catch a picture of these moments or I'm so busy doing some of my own "chores" that I miss the opportunity. The Cracker Jack's split up part of the laundry duty with me. YCJ empties the dryer and ECJ switches loads (no, he's not in pain just tired of pictures being taken lol). I load the washer myself, or the hubby does, because I don't like when too much soap is used or it's not loaded correctly so that you get the resounding thump thump thump noise during the unbalanced load.

Some of our outside time this week was spent walking to our church Tuesday afternoon for catechism class. Our church is a little under three miles from our home which is about a five minute ride in a car from our home. I'd over estimated the time it would take for us to walk to the church by over an hour! So... we wandered down through the water-front parks and down the to beach exploring and having fun along the way. A quick lesson in science was done when we found some tunnel type spider webs all up and down the water front.

By the time we began walking back from catechism it was already dark and ECJ really really didn't want another picture taken of him. Of course after looking later I HAD taken around twenty pictures of our walk up to the church, along the water, and on our way back home.


There's a picture of YCJ crashed out that night after the walk. And no wonder! After adding up our miles for that day we'd walked over 9 miles in total! And were on our feet for more than five hours! I also found out the next day that I am not nearly as fit as I had originally thought when muscles I had forgotten that I had were screaming in pain.

I also finally was able to get our Fall/Halloween decorations placed strategically around the home. These are just a few pictures of what was spread through the home because most of what was left were just a few signs hung and a couple of towels. Although we've owned our little ghost and pumpkin guy for a couple of years this is the first year that they've been out of their boxes since we bought them at that garage sale.

My little witch basket is usually placed on our front porch with candy on Halloween night. This year, I pinned up the brim of her hat to make her look more silly than spooky and placed her on our dining room table. She's got our school supplies in her basket and is adding a cute little touch of the holiday while we're working on our assignments.



Thursday we made it to the library for the first time this school year which not only checked an item off of our Fall Bucket List but also got us some new reading material! While we were there Peanut "discovered" a few games in the children's section and the one she liked the most prompted another quick science lesson.

This is not a position we like
those chairs are almost 100 years old.

Poor ECJ had a pretty difficult week dealing with his ADHD. His assignments took him about twice as long as he was used to them taking because he just could not sit still! This is really nothing new for him, and I'm pretty used to it by now, it just seemed to be a bit more wiggly this week. By Friday afternoon he was at his school desk in his room finishing up because he was distracted by everything else in the house. I just noticed that he wore that shirt on Monday (the first two pictures) and today ... he must have taken it straight out of the dryer and put it on it's one of his favorites and he's almost grown out of it. 

I was able to get things a little organized this week by finishing YCJ's dresser! I also did Peanut's and ECJ will be doing his own this evening for the first time ever all by himself. All those summer clothes put away and the fall and winter ones in place. Those aren't shirts stacked on top of her dresser, they're her lighter jackets that still fit and that I do not have enough hangers for at the moment. There's enough there that she could wear a different one each day of the week and not repeat a single one of them once.

What we've been cooking has been pretty simple this week. Monday we had "steak" and cheese subs, Tuesday was marinated bbq pork loin, Wednesday was chicken quesadillas, Thursday was hot dogs and eggs, and tonight we'll be having garlic-butter oven poached fish and fried potatoes. Hot dogs and eggs has been a long time standing favorite in my husband's family since he was a child and we still eat it here at home about once a month.

What we're reading: ECJ is currently working on The Lord of the Rings. Peanut's favorite this week is still Chicka-chicka Boom-boom. YCJ is re-reading Green Eggs and Ham because she really liked reading it last week. As for me I have three books that I'm working on currently all of which are non-fiction: Meet the Amish, Homeschooling Handbook, and a book on rediscovering Catholicism (I've been working on this last one for almost four weeks now).

This weekend we're planning on making some bird feeders and caramel filled apples. We'll be doing a "small" version of the bird feeders to hang in our parakeet's cage as a new distraction for him and will be making larger ones for outside in the next week or two. We might do some leaf rubbings as well or just do those next week. Other than that we're going to attempt to relax and possibly watch some movies as a family or perhaps a game night.

Tip of the week: Eventually it will all fall into place and you'll look back on all your worries and those moments you stressed over and wonder "why?".

How was your week? Tell me about it in the comments below or join up on one or both of the link ups! I promise to attempt to answer all comments you leave me and if you join the link up I will more than likely read it as it's part of my Friday and Saturday routine.

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We noticed that when ECJ stands against this wall just right it looks like he has angel wings!