Raising Arrows
Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 7 of 2022
Valentine’s Day, a Snow Day, and a very busy Friday in this Large Family Homeschool week!
Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts HERE!
MONDAY
Today is Valentine’s Day. It is always bittersweet for me. Not only is it the day we buried our little Emily, but it is also the last day my dad had as a “good day” before his passing on February 17 the year before Emily died. Needless to say, that was a tough season for our family, and February is always tinged with a bit of melancholy.
This morning, I pulled out leftover oatmeal for breakfast and made German Chocolate coffee for my sweetheart husband. He has the day off due to the training exercise he was at over the weekend.
The little kids started in on making valentine crowns and Melia (17) started on Granny’s Peanut Butter Cup Hearts – a treat she made every Valentine’s Day. We have carried on that tradition.
My mom had bought the kids a heart centerpiece that played music and some candy hearts, so they got into those before school. My mom is always good about celebrating holidays. She always did things like this for me when I was at home too. And the year I started dating Ty, she helped me put together a Valentine’s Day present and delivered it to his high school for me!
For Morning Time, we did a lesson on Valentine’s music from Music in Our Homeschool. They have an entire class on Holiday and Seasonal music!
We read in A New Nation about the industrial revolution and the Erie Canal. I also played the Erie Canal song for the kids and read in Justin Morgan Had a Horse.
After lunch, I made grape jelly from grape juice I purchased quite some time ago. Our 17 year old really likes grape jelly, so I wanted to try my hand at making it for her. I already had the canner out for the huge batch of BBQ sauce I made from the failed batches of sandhill plum jelly, so it seemed like a good time to finally make Lia’s grape jelly. She said it is delicious, so I’m glad I took the time.
For dinner, I helped the kids prepare a nice Valentine’s Dinner for Ty and I. They also got to eat it, but Ty and I had ours in the living room.
We made pork chops, potato salad, lettuce salad, and garlic toast from the scraps of bread I put in the freezer. It was a lovely dinner!
TUESDAY
For Morning Time, we did our last lesson in the Obey Bible Study and I passed out our new study – Developing a Quiet Time. The kids will start on this today, and then we’ll go over the first lesson tomorrow during Morning Time.
We read more about the Industrial Revolution – this time from Story of the World.
We also did map work with our United Kingdom map. My kids are going to have a much better grasp of where things are in the world than I had at their age!
We ended Morning Time with Justin Morgan Had a Horse and I helped the younger kids with their workbooks.
After lunch, I did Ocean Guide with the 3 youngest kids – ages 9, 7, and 5. We read a book about the ocean and made Beach Cups (kind of like Dirt Cups). Later, Mercy got out the water play accessories we have from when we did A Year of Playing Skillfully. She played for hours with it!
READ >> Review of A Year of Playing Skillfully {so much more than I expected!}
After that, I tidied the house and washed the guest bedroom sheets. Blake and his fiancee are coming for a short visit and I wanted her to have fresh sheets. We met them for dinner at a steakhouse in the city, and then came home to enjoy a lovely evening together. We are certainly blessed to have such a wonderful soon-to-be daughter-in-law!
WEDNESDAY
I got up early and made a cherry crisp with some dark cherries I bought from Aldi quite some time ago. I thought I would make cherry moos (a German Mennonite soup) with them, but never got around to it and they really needed to be used up. I also scrambled some eggs to go with the cherry crisp.
During the morning hours, Blake’s fiancee and the kids worked on wedding invitations – layering the different pieces, adding ribbon and embossed sealing wax. They got 130 out of the 150 completed!
Ty had a University function for ROTC and then came home to see Blake and Paden off. They have a dinner date with her grandmother, so they left in time to make the 3 hour drive to her grandmother’s house.
We did a short school day so the kids can have a semi-Snow Day with Daddy tomorrow. He found out that college would be canceled tomorrow due to weather, so he’ll be home! We’ll only do Morning Time tomorrow. On a special note – Creed finished Math 3 in Teaching Textbooks today!
READ >> Teaching Textbooks 4.0 Review
The kids spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside and riding their Green Machines around the neighborhood. We also took the trash to the curb, which seems kind of crazy considering all the snow we are supposed to get tomorrow!
For dinner, we had venison we grilled in the Ninja Foodi Grill (so delicious!). I also made Cauliflower Potato Salad from the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook to go along with the leftover real potato salad we made yesterday. It was really good!
Later that night, when I picked the big kids up from Youth Group, I decided to grab my library holds and a few groceries since I’m not sure how long this weather will sock us in.
THURSDAY
Woke up to snow! And it kept snowing all morning long, which made for a lovely backdrop to our morning activities. I think we ended up with about 7″ of snow in total.
For breakfast, I made pancakes on our new Lodge griddle from Lehman’s. We have one just like this out at the mountain cabin that we use for omelets and pancakes. We’ve had trouble finding one, but Lehman’s had it! I love this thing!
For Morning Time, we started our Quiet Time study from Not Consumed.
The kids enjoyed the last study, but we did adjust how we do the lessons. I’ll have a review up soon so you can see exactly how we’re using it.
Next, we read about Jefferson in A New Nation, and made a President card using the President Bookmarks from NotebookingPages.com (yes, they changed their name BACK to what it had been for years!). We also added the Louisiana Purchase to our Tapestry of Grace maps and colored in Ohio on our large wall map from Cherry Creek Lane.
Most of the kids had their schoolwork done yesterday, so we tidied up and the kids had a video game day together by the fire. Ty read in his Louis L’Amour books and I read in For the Love of Christian Homemaking.
I also did some laundry, including my new flour sack towels (also from Lehman’s). I use these to dry dishes and cover bread and cakes while they cool. This is another item that is hard to come by, so I’m glad I found them at Lehman’s.
That evening, we had popcorn for dinner, and I boiled some chicken breast to make dinner easier tomorrow night.
I also purchased Easter Guide from Brighter Days Press. I’ve had my eye on several of their resources, so I jumped on this one!
FRIDAY
This morning while the kids worked on their usual Friday house cleaning chores, I washed walls in my bedroom and the hallway, scrubbed the kitchen floor by hand to get along the edges that don’t get as clean with the mop, and also wiped down the cupboards and the oven, and refrigerator.
Then, I played in the snow with the kids! They were so happy to have me out there making snow angels, and building forts, and throwing snowballs! Micah and I worked together on a snow squirrel too, but I must confess, he’s the creative genius behind the design!
Later that afternoon, I recorded a couple of podcasts and got them sent to my son to edit. Then, I ordered Frontier from a friend who was making an order soon. We are able to get wholesale prices since she has a wholesale account.
Then I baked some Sprouted Wheat Bread because I had some sprouted wheat flour in the freezer that needed to be used up.
For dinner, I made Creamy Tuscan Chicken – a favorite Trim Healthy Mama recipe – using the chicken breast I cooked up yesterday. We also air fried some green beans and carrots in the Ninja Foodi Grill.
Then, I made a grocery list, cut the boys’ hair (including Ty’s!), and watched an episode of The Chosen.
I can’t believe how much I accomplished today! Praise the Lord!