Week 7 ~ The Week with Lots of Sugar!

In My Life ~ Good news -- the echocardiogram that Goldilocks had on Monday came back normal! I haven't spoken to the doctor to see whether more testing is necessary, but it's great that her heart looks good. The nurse said, "There are no restrictions."  Also, I asked Goldilocks' math tutor whether she saw learning issues. She replied that, while she wasn't sure what the labels would be, Goldilocks had many challenges, and it was no wonder her schooling has been slow going. I am pleased with the progress we are seeing!! She is improving in math, little by little. We are also looking into getting her a full psychological educational evaluation. She hasn't had one since she was really young, so it is time for another. Hopefully, this will shed some light on exactly what her learning challenges are and where they are coming from.

Banana Split ~ We celebrated the invention of the banana split (1904) this week. The kids each picked a container of ice cream. The kids made whipped cream from scratch. I don't think we have had so much ice cream in our house in years. I am going to hide some of it in the basement freezer. Speaking of the freezer ~ I've been adding one or two things to it each shopping trip. It is starting to look like we actually have a small stockpile of food.  The goal is to eat from the freezer during December, so I will be able to use some of our grocery money for Christmas shopping. 

Yard Sale and Bake Sale ~ The kids spent the week searching the house for things to sell. They're trying to earn pocket money for the trip to Washington, D.C. that we will be taking soon. They spent today baking muffins and making signs. Tom Sawyer really got into sign making and included cartoons with all of his signs. They are hoping for big returns. We shall see how tomorrow goes. The weather is supposed to be lovely.

Our Architecture Unit Study ~ We studied the Grove Arcade this week. The building is of the Neo-Tudor style, with a paneled effect and Gothic detailing. It has numerous griffins, gargoyles, and grotesques (which are heads) inside and out. It is rumored that the clown-like faces on the outside depicts a local man's face who had not paid his debts to Mr. Grove. Consequently, Mr. Grove had that man's face plastered all over the building to remind everyone that he was a debtor! Tom Sawyer and Little Red Riding Hood built houses using sugar cubes and "mortar" (flour, water and arrowroot). They are having fun exploring The Ultimate Building Book by Steven Caney.

Books We Read This Week ~ 

• Young Teedie Roosevelt
• My Tour of Europe by Teddy Roosevelt, Age 10
• Life of Fred Farming
• You're on Your Way, Teddy Roosevelt
• How to Train a Dragon  Book 3
• Animal Ark Books
• Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (book on tape Goldilocks)
• What To Do About Alice
• The First Teddy Bear

Earrings for Girls ~ As you may have noticed in the pictures, the girls have earrings now. Goldilocks had her ears pierced in infancy (before we got her). I took the earrings out of her ears when she was a toddler, because she was trying to swallow them. Anyway, I really didn't like a toddler having earrings. But now she wanted to get them pierced again. I suggested she try to push earrings through the old holes. They went through easily, even though she hadn't worn any in about 10 years! Little Red Riding Hood has been gearing up to get earrings for a few months now. I told her she had to wait until she was almost 10, which is in October. The almost 10 part is because I wanted her ears to be healed before December's Nutcracker performance. I didn't want a backstage mom to take the starter earrings out (kids aren't allowed to wear jewelry while on stage). This happened to a little girl last year and her ears got infected. So she got them pierced last weekend, and was really brave. Little Red Riding Hood is being very good about cleaning her ears twice a day.

Blessings, Dawn