Orientation Week

We've done something this year that has worked out great for us.

We called it....

Back to School Orientation Week.

This year will mark year #7 of homeschooling for our family. We love it, and at this point I don't think I would have it any other way. I do feel like this year has the potential to be somewhat stressful, so I tried to think of some ways to ease that stress a little bit. We have a very high maintainance 15 month old, a very busy 4 year old, a rather emotional 3rd grader, and an adolescent 7th grader this year, not to mention a MOVE! Wow! Do you harbor any hope for me? Just a small ray? Please tell me I can do this? More than once, I have been labeled OCD and that only adds to the confusion.

Anyway, in thinking of ways to make the year a little smoother, I came up with this whole 'Orientation' idea. Our official start date is Oct 24th, and we have a camping trip planned for the week before that, so we chose tuesday-friday of this week for orientation week. Here are a few of the things we did this week.

1. Got up a little earlier, and in turn went to bed a little earlier. It always takes about a week each fall to start getting used to that. We are now turning in at 9pm with relative ease, instead of the 10-10:30 that it was all summer.

2. We worked together to decorate our classroom which in our case is one corner of the girls' bedroom.

3. We looked a lesson plans, books, ect and began to get a feel for what we will be learning this year.

4. We then progressed to doing as much seat-work as was comfortable for us. Goal setting was not allowed. This way, I was able to get an idea what goals will be acheiveable. Nothing 'bums' you worse than not being able to reach your goals.

5. Took inventory of our supplies. Even though our shopping is supposed to be done, this helped us to see if there was anything I had overlooked.

6. Over the summer the little ones have gotten used to being played with all day. This helped them to realize that things will be changing and they began to re-learn the art of entertaining themselves.

7. Perhaps the most important thing orientation did was help this mom to realize that we CAN do this! I don't know if any other HSM's feel a bit of panic this time of year or not, but I sure do! You can know you are doing the right thing by your kids and still feel inadequate for the task.

8. Over all this week just helped us ease back in the groove without the pressure associated with the first official week.

I'd love to hear what you do to make your homeschool smooth and effective.

Chicken Crunch

Not only do I decorate with chickens, I also cook with them. Among the chicken dishes at our house, this is a favorite...in fact, it is Kalli's very favorite! I like it because it is so easy to prepare. On days like today -- with school orientation week, a pounding headache, and a 15 month-old who refuses to nap....I appreciate easy! I usually serve it with a potato casserole and a vegetable or salad.

Ingredients:

8 boneless skinless chicken breasts

8 ounces sour cream

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce

1 box stuffing mix (flavor of your choice)

1 stick butter

sprinkling of paprika

sprinkling of celery salt.

Instructions:

Wash and pat dry chicken breasts. Set aside.

Mix together: sour cream, lemon juice, worchestershire, and celery salt.

Dip chicken in sour cream mixture and place in 9X13 baking pan.

Pour any leftover mixture over the top of chicken.

Pour dry stuffing on top of chicken.

Melt butter and pour over stuffing.

Bake at 350* for about 35 minutes.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Some of you know about the extreme love that little Kaite has for Campbells chicken noodle. She will even go get her own can from the pantry and gets so excited over it! Here she is helping daddy pour the can straight into a bowl. For those of you who might worry about nutrition, I really DO make balanced meals. For some reason, she prefers the can (although she doesn't always get it) and her doctor says not to worry.She has also learned that doggie says, "Arf!" We are having a lot of fun around here with that one!

Kammy is spending a few days getting spoiled over at Grampapa's house this week. She was 'helping' them clean in their basement and said, "Sigh...you have sooo much stuff! I am going to pray to Jesus that he doesn't give you any more stuff!" No, this is not really their basement. I just grabbed this photo off the net. Their's isn't quite this bad. :)
We had a birthday in our house this past week and my two oldest compiled a list of 35 reasons why they love daddy. It's really pretty funny. You can read it here, or here.

See more adorable Tiny Talk here.

A Window of Opportunity

I have been wanting an old window for a very long time, but if you hadn't noticed, what some people were so happy to get rid of a few years ago, has become a very hot item...with a price tag to match! I'm not one to justify spending 3 times the original value for an item just because it is ancient, so I kept waiting. The other day, my dream came true and my good friend Heather came to see me bringing with her a very old, dirty, ugly window. I immediately saw a window of opportunity. :) I actually think it has a beauty all it's own just the way it is pictured here.
I couldn't leave it quite so wretched looking, so I took it to the garage and washed, sanded, primed, painted and then sanded some more. (Oops! better give the hubster credit for the first hose washing and some of the sanding...just in case he reads this). He receives no credit for any of the painting, and he did not make the little window valance where the broken glass came out.
He did help me hang it though, and yes...I know I am mixing styles a bit here, but we are moving soon and I really didn't want to go to too much trouble re-decorating. Besides, I rather like it...and I hear that 'matchy-matchy' is not all so 'in' right now anyway. :)
I love the character of the old, chippy, peeling paint look.