Raising Arrows
Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 8 of 2023
Sometimes you need to fit your homeschool day to your homeschool life! This week held lots of adjustments and some tasty food!
Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life!
NOTE: Thank you so much for all your kind words, thoughts, and prayers for our family! We so appreciate your love and support!
MONDAY
I am hoping I can use today as a recovery day – I have so much to do since the wedding of our second son was this past weekend! We are not doing Morning Time today because he and his new wife are on their honeymoon, and right now, Morning Time is focused on my 2 older kids and getting them finished with their 4 year cycle of history. So, we only did Independent School with everyone else. Both of the little girls finished their latest Phonics books.
Our dishwasher isn’t working right now. I tried everything I could think of, and finally decided I would just file a claim with the place we bought it from. We have one year left on the extra warranty we bought. With such a large family, it has been well worth it to buy extra warranties for appliances – particularly a dishwasher that gets used 3 times a day!
My 2nd oldest daughter (18) spent the morning hours cleaning a new client’s house. She is trying to add in a few more cleaning jobs to supplement her work at the apiary.
I worked on a menu and grocery list for this week. Then, I headed out to shop at Aldi. I spent $189. You can see everything I got in this video…
That afternoon, our friend came over to teach the 8 and 12 year old’s more guitar chords. They worked on C, G, and F chords, and even played a bit of a song with her!
Later, I picked Ty up at the mechanic and we headed to the Fort to walk the golf course. We also stopped at the store on post to see if they had size 14 running shoes for Ty. No such luck.
I planned on making Verenike and Ham Gravy tonight, but it was too late when I got back to start such a long process. so we cleaned out the refrigerator instead. Then, Ty and I took our 18 year old out to get a strawberry shake for her Special Night.
We hung out, talked, and watched Rosemary & Thyme on BritBox. It turned out to be a really fun mystery show!
TUESDAY
For Morning Time, we read in Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible. Then, we read about Carter’s presidency, learned about Earth Art, read in our Astronomy book, and our read-aloud – The Phantom Tollbooth.
I baked some whole wheat bread from a new recipe. It turned out really well!
That afternoon, I took a walk around the neighborhood, and then came home and the 18 year old and I worked on making Verenike. If you check out the end of the Aldi Grocery video above, you’ll see how we make it and you’ll find the recipe in the description!
I decided to do a batch of boiled for the ham gravy and a batch of fried for sprinkling with sugar as a dessert!
WEDNESDAY
The little girls had a dentist appointment this morning. The dentist believes Mercy’s mouth is too small to accomodate all her adult teeth because of the Pierre Robin Sequence she was born with. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, but for now, she’s doing great!
Because of the dentist appointment, we started Morning Time about an hour later than usual. We reviewed the States and Capitals and the Countries of the World. We also read about terrorism and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.
Lunch was leftover Verenike, and then I whipped up a batch of Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies. My 2nd oldest daughter baked them while I ran to Walmart with our youngest who wanted to buy a MiniFashion brand toy. They are on clearance at our Walmart for $3.
Later that afternoon, I put together new Table Chores (for March) and Home Blessing Chores (for Fridays). Our son and his wife won’t be doing any Table Chores because of their work schedules, but they are on the house cleaning schedule. I put them in charge of dusting and vacuuming the upstairs (which includes the room they live in) and cleaning the bathroom across the hall from their room. They also cook 1 night a week from the list of meals I have available.
I washed my hair and read in the D.L. Moody book we are studying for the Titus 2 group I’m a part of. I also uploaded to Dropbox some videos I recorded for my 17 year old son to edit.
For dinner, the 12 and 14 year old boys made Cuban sandwiches on the griddle and served them with chips and dip. I have our church’s women’s group tonight, so I’m glad they can help out!
At Women’s Group, we talked about worship and how some of the things the Lord has blessed us with may not be FOR us. We chatted until 9 pm and then I headed home to watch Rosemary & Thyme with Lia until I fell asleep.
THURSDAY
We delayed Morning Time (again!) because Dad is home this morning and our son and daughter-in-law went to a baby check-up. Ty and I had coffee in the living room and chatted while we waited on them to get back.
Morning Time was Hurlbut’s, Reagan’s 2 administrations, and a study of Earth. We finished up with The Phantom Tollbooth. Then, I helped the girls with their schoolwork and helped my 10 year old son with his Graphic Design project.
Then, I planned next week’s menu with a carryover from last week…
- Thai Chicken Curry (from last week’s menu)
- Haystacks (from Lynette Yoder on YouTube)
- Corn Chip Salad (also from Lynette Yoder!)
- Pepperoni Penne
- Hot Dogs & Dill Pickle Salad
- Potato Soup
I usually only plan 6 meals and have one day for leftovers, and I try to keep the meal plan flexible.
The rest of the afternoon, I worked on blog stuff – I recorded a podcast and edited it and got it sent to my oldest son. I edited the grocery haul video above and took care of a few other things until it was time for me to make Baked Scotch Eggs and hashbrowns.
This recipe became a family favorite after I watched a British show and someone was eating one on the show. I tried my hand at making them and we loved them! Ty and I also sometimes get these at a local Irish pub – so yummy!
After dinner, we watched a Star Trek episode and I worked on my Raising Arrows® brand colors and fonts. I needed to add in a couple of different colors to go along with the arrow in the logo and I wanted to clean up the fonts a bit. I want to do a better job with the graphics I use for all the different places I produce content and keep it all consistent.
FRIDAY
It rained a lovely spring rain last night. Ty left early for PT (physical training) with the cadets.
I took some time this morning to catch up on my Bible reading plan on the YouVersion app. I am so behind!
Then, we started Home Blessing with a house reset. Because of all the new chores, I had to take some time to walk several of the kids through how to do their work, and then check over their work once it was complete. Mercy (6) was so excited to get to clean the laundry room, I rewarded her with 3 peanut M&M’s. That made her even happier!
After lunch, Ty and I left to pick our oldest daughter up from college for Spring Break. We ate at a Cheddar’s on our way home. We haven’t eaten at one of these restaurants in years – it was so good!