Tour 1 Week 17

 

Thanks to a random and somewhat lengthy power outage over the weekend, I failed to accomplish some of my routine Saturday tasks. Like writing a blog post. 

I spent a few hours at Birthright on Saturday morning, came home, ate some lunch then - boom. Power went out. We all assumed it would come back on in a timely fashion, but alas, this was not the case. The time estimates from the energy company kept moving farther back (something about an equipment failure) until it became clear that we would not have power until well after bedtime. While the boys played games on their Kindles until their batteries ran out, I took the opportunity to finally sit down and design a stitching project I've had in my head for some time now. 

I mean, it's not like I could be expected to do any laundry or other housework without power, right?

I am definitely the person in the family who could go the longest without power and screen time. Assuming I have access to crafting materials and/or a good book. It's good to be reminded of things we take for granted, though. Like electricity. 

Saturday night is our Family Game Night, so we ordered pizza and played games by candlelight. 

The power came back on sometime around midnight. Fortunately, I had the forethought to go around turning things into their "off" positions on my way to bed so we weren't all woken up by bright lights and noises. 

We started our week with a rainy day of crafting (apparently I'll take any excuse to spend time on creative pursuits). I worked on several projects and the younger boys broke out the Perler beads to make some Saint Patrick's Day decorations for the fridge. 

I finished labeling Holy Water bottles for a friend, sewing masks for our Birthright office (we're opening our office to clients in-person again) and framing a recent stitching project. Inspired by all of the recent fox sightings around our house lately, I decided to stitch one. One of the boys stained the embroidery hoop for me and I love how it turned out.  

Some members of the family who don't really do craft projects, enjoyed rainy day video game playing instead.

 One of our favorite dog guests, Bruce Wayne, came to stay with us for the week. He often demanded (by way of adorable, pitiful whining noises) to be in a lap and therefore joined us during school time.

Our History Timeline included The Roaring Twenties, Charles Lindbergh's Trans-Atlantic Flight, The Great Depression, The Dust Bowl and Fulton Sheen. We recently discovered a series of Interactive History Adventures that fit well with our American History studies this year. They're basically Choose Your Own Adventure books and we've been doing the first chapter aloud with the seven and ten year-olds taking turns making choices. Then the ten year-old enjoys reading the book a few more times on his own while making different choices with different outcomes. 

We also added the Rocky Mountain States and Capitals to our Geography notebooks. 

Our Zoology Adventures continued in the Arctic habitat while learning about Polar Bears and Mountain Goats. 

Our art project this week was learning about different techniques for shading and practicing them with some three-dimensional shapes.  A definite challenge for my subpar drawing abilities.  

And of course we spent some time learning about Saint Patrick for Saint Patrick's Day! 

That was our week! 

~ Dori