Friday Wrap-Up ~ Week 29

I knew walking into this week that we were going to need some extra grace and organization. We had some really difficult and emotional meetings to get through in regards to our daughter, Goldilocks. Her psychiatric placement is falling apart and she is going to need to be moved soon. Hopefully, she will be able to stay in her current placement until the school year is complete since she is safe and three school changes in one year would be a pity. I just keep praying that what is best for Goldilocks will come to pass.

In addition to all of that drama, the "crud" descended on our family this week. Half of us have a bit of a stomach bug and half of us have a severe soar throat. Lastly, a teacher at our homeschool co-op passed away this week from a very sudden illness. She was very young, so it is an extra shock to the kids. We did not know her well but some of Little Red Riding Hood's friends knew her very well. We have been working on how to support a friend through loss. That is a lot of LIFE to deal with this week. However, the week ended up being much smoother than it could have, and for that I am grateful.

Poetry Tea ~ We reviewed Psalm 23 for our poetry tea this week. It was the focus of the sermon in church on Sunday and, considering the week we were facing, seemed appropriate. I just love YouTube! There are so many useful videos on that site. This week we used these two videos about Psalm 23. You can find them here and here.

Our tea consisted of fruit, toast with jam and homemade hot chocolate.

A Field Trip ~ Last Saturday we went on a wonderful field trip to Charlotte, North Carolina. I wrote about it in this post. Go check it out.

Chopped! ~ Have you seen the show Chopped on the Food Network? It is my kids' favorite show. They love it. I decided to set up a mini Chopped experience for them in our home this week. They were presented with four items that they had to use in the making of dinner. They had full use of the kitchen and used many of the appliances. I loved watching them work. They were both diligent and creative. They shared the kitchen appliances well and the food came out great. They both insisted I pick a winner which was really hard. Little Red Riding Hood won for presentation,and Tom Sawyer won for taste but by just a hair. His noodles were perfect and he even marinated his bacon in salsa. We told him we would have preferred more on the plate. The kids can't wait to do it again.

They had to use bacon, strawberries, spinach and large shell noodles.

Cutting up the bacon

Making smoothies

Plating!

Little Red Riding Hood made a spinach and bacon salad with salsa noodles and whip cream stuffed strawberries. 

She also served ice cream and a spinach shake. It all tasted good, although the spinach shake was a bit strong. 

Don't you think she did a nice job on presentation?

Tom Sawyer made strawberry orange juice swirl smoothies, spinach-stuffed noodles, spinach salad, 

and marinated bacon. It was delicious!

Acts of Kindness ~ Our acts are still going a bit more slowly than I wish. We managed to give flowers to a special teacher this week, put out birdseed for the birds, pay a few compliments to people who were serving us in stores, and left money on a vending machine.

All the Rest ~ We did lots of other school this week. We accomplished all of the basics and made loads of progress on our unit study about Neil Armstrong. I will be sharing a complete post about his life next week. The kids are loving that we are getting more science done this unit. 

The kids also both received really nice compliments this week. Little Red Riding Hood was chosen for an extra dance in the Spring Showcase, and Tom Sawyer's writing teacher said she is very impressed with the improvement in his writing this semester. I am really impressed, too. They are great kids.

Blessings, Dawn