Weekly Wrap Up 1/28/22 -- Birthday, School, stain glass and first snow storm

Firedrake turned 20 years old this week!  She was back at college so we had to settle for just a phone call to sing Happy Birthday.  Then we order pizza for her and her roommates to enjoy for dinner.  

I had sent her back to school with a wrapped box of the best cookies - Berger cookies that are only found in the Baltimore area and are out of this world good.  They had those for dessert.  Early that week there roommates made her Chicken Katsu for a birthday dinner which is one on her favorite meals.

 We are plugging along with school, nothing too exciting happening.  We just began reading a new book for Social Justice class 

I have seen the movie but the book is so much better.  It is absolutely horrifying to read what the justice system is like for some people.   Both MarioFan and I find ourselves very upset after reading each chapter.  

We had our first snow storm, only got about 2 inches but it gave me a chance to used up all my firewood stored outside.  My new house will not have a wood burning fireplace but it will have a gas fireplace!  

No neighborhood kids knocked no the door, so MarioFan had to shovel the driveway.  He did manage to talk his Dad into paying him $40 for completing the job.  :)

I finally had some free time to quickly work on my last stain glass project before we move.  I already had all the pieces cut out so I have been slowly working on getting it foiled.

Foil and ready to solder

I got it soldered and was excited to see light behind it.  I just love the colors I picked.  My husband wanted a Yggdrasil tree so I modified "An old Oak tree" pattern by Justin Behnke and added three glass faces to the roots section. 

The panel has been cleaned up and framed!  Now to box it up .  Can't wait to find the perfect window in our new house to hang it up in

1/21/22 Weekly Wrap Up -- family update

 We had to say goodbye to our Guinea Pig, Millie, in Dec.  Millie outlasted her sister by about a year.  Recently, we noticed that she just wasn't eating and was very lethargic.  We took her to the vet and he checked her over and said there was nothing that he could see that was wrong with her.  Since she was over 8 years old he felt her little body was just shutting down.  After some discussion of whether to bring her home and letting her die naturally (but we worried she would starve herself to death) or putting her down peacefully, we decided to let her go at the Vet's.  We brought her home and buried her near her sister in the garden.  

She was such a sweet piggie

We have gone from 7 pets to just 3 in 10 years.  We do know our pets have had a good life and lived their full life.  Now that the kids are getting older we are not replacing any pets!  Our Cat, Elvis  is nearly 16 years old and has many health issues, Luna the dog is 8 years old and has back issues and Lizzy the gecko is at least 10 years old and appears to be healthy, I think she will out last them all!

Moving is progressing but the house is a mess!  So many decisions what to keep what to give away and what to just toss.  When you live in a house for over 10 years you do accumulate a lot of stuff.

I made the very hard decision to get rid of my dining room furniture.  My parents bought this set in Taiwan over 40 years ago.  When they downsized they gave it to me and I have had it about 20 years!  It is  solid teak and it was a beautiful set.  

I re- upholstered the chairs over 10 years ago with a friend when we lived in England

It was a huge set with amazing carvings on it.

Our new house (we are downsizing) will not have an official dining room and this set was just too big to put in our new house.  I called around to see if there were any organizations willing to take a donation but with covid no one would come to the house to get it.  I just didn't have it in me to call the junk man. So I posted it on a local give away site and was lucky enough to find someone who would treasure this set like I did.  To be honest since it is an Asian set I really didn't think anyone in my area would be interested in it.  My mother was shocked I just gave it away as it is probably worth several thousands of dollars.  Anyhoo, the nice couple who took it, sent me a picture of how it was set up in their house!

I am so glad this furniture will continue to be loved as they don't make them like this anymore!!

We have our reconstruction meeting next week, woohoo!!!  They can start building our new house!  Ground b reading to happen next Friday!  It is so exciting!  We have one more month to get the current house ready for it to be listed.  We still have a lot to get done!

Weekly Wrap up 1/14/22-- 12th grade update

 12th grade started back up this week after about 10 days of holiday break.  Poor MarioFan had a little bit of school work over his break for a couple of his classes and a test that needed to be completed:(.  But he had plenty of time to rest and relax with his sibling who came home from College for Christmas break!  It is pretty quiet around here now that my Mother and oldest kiddo have left.  I so enjoyed having everyone home.  Although I have to say our oldest is definitely wanting to spread her wings and be more independednt and is enjoying her freedom at school.  I guess I must be prepared to be without her very soon.  

We are nearing the 100 day mark of his last year of high school.  I usually do a post at that point to summarized what he has accomplished and if we are behind or on schedule for things.  That post will probably be in February 

Literature and Composition -  He is reading "The Great Gatsby"

I remember reading this book in high school and not liking it.  I am enjoying it so much better this time around.  

For Social Justice we are reading the book "Broke in America" and discussing how poverty works in America.  Again we are also looking at this book very critically and making sure the authors are backing up their arguments with good data.  

For Human Geography we finished up the topic of agriculture and moving on to learn about Diseases and how they spread.  

The boys were reading agricultural different vignettes and deciding whether it was a type of subsistence or commercial farming was being done around the world.  

We are really enjoying the video series form Great courses that supplement our learning.  I highly recommend this video series.

I use these videos to introduce our topics and then we spend a week or two delving a little further into them using other resources that I find.  

Physics (which is an online class): recently had a lab on Newtons 2nd law of motion.  They are using the homeschool science physics lab which includes all the supplies. 

Directions

looking how fast a cart moves when weight is added

keeping time

recording his results.

Driving:  His driving instructor has begun teaching parallel parking and is already talking about Mariofan being ready to take the driving test.  I am so not ready for that yet!  Every time we need to go anywhere, MarioFan is wanting to do the driving!

He is well past his 60 hours of driving which includes at least 10 hours of night driving. 

We are plugging along in all other subjects: spanish, Pre Calculus, Personal finance, Cyber Security and Piano (still no piano Christmas recitals due to the virus--never thought I would miss those, lol)

Weekly Wrap Up 1/7/22 -- We are Moving!!

 Well this has been a bit of a secret for a couple of months but we have officially decided to move!  My husband has put in his retirement paperwork and we have bought our retirement home!  We are building a new home and it will be ready in June!  Yikes!  So over the Christmas holidays we have been talking to Realtors and have begun packing up a few rooms.  Usually when we move the Government has paid for it, but this time we have to pay for it and do all the packing.  I am slightly overwhelmed but if we tackle one room at a time it will all get done.  We have a March deadline to get our current house on the Market in order to hopefully sell it before our new home is finished.  

This is the pile of school work that I have saved from MarioFan's 12 years of school. Yes it looks a mess but it is actually quite organized and over the holiday I sorted through it and whittled it down to fit into one boxed!  I did the same for Firedrake when she graduated.  

I am slowly sorting through all the stuff we have in boxes and donating or throwing it out.    This was the pile of Christmas stuff we no long used so I put it on free cycle and it was gone in just a couple of hours.

 The first purchase of packing supplies and it is all used up already.  Need to get some more.

I have put the call out to several groups that I am letting them know that I am in desperate need of moving boxes and have picked up quite a selection so far.  I know I will need even more.  Picture boxes are hard to find and unbelievably expensive.  I have no idea how I am going to pack my stain glass windows!

This is my current stash of boxes and I am still looking for more.  The more I can get free the less I have to spend on boxes

While my Mom was here she helped me packed up the dining room.  We emptied the China cabinet  and made good progress.  My house is starting to fill up with moving boxes.  

Mom is excited that we will be moving closer to her, only 2.5 hours away!!  There are a lot of puzzle pieces that need to connect over the next several months so send positive vibes our way please,  We are going to need them!