Journey to Excellence

This week I thought I would update you on some things that you might, or might not, have wondered about  ... 1. Brynne is feeling much better. After 8 straight days of fever between 101 and 103 degrees, it finally broke on Sunday. Then she started a raucous cough that had her throwing up a couple of mornings. But it was good and productive and now it's just an annoyance. The last couple of days she has developed a clogged nose and ears so is on some decongestants now. Hopefully she will be all cleared up in a couple of days. 2. Collin recovered physically from his wreck and is now putting in about 70 hours a week at his latest job. The job site is over 3 hours from his and Kyndal's home so he is staying with an uncle who lives closer to the site. Since he no longer has a vehicle he is driving Kyndal's car so we are getting her to and from her job every day. She doesn't like to stay at home alone so she is back to staying with us the majority of the time. Collin...

My breakfast Brynne's medicine (the medicine), Rick's medicine (Dr. Pepper), my medicine (the obvious)  Poor baby girl ran a fever for 8 straight days. When she wasn't in her sick bed, Crusoe was. And my king-size bed is home. Yay!!! Browsing Pinterest for some new soup recipes. Buck is wherever anybody is sitting still. Rick was in the mood for some blueberry muffins. A game of Yahtzee. Comfort food: Chicken and dumplings, dressing and corn. Again, poor baby girl .... and Buck. Join Nicole @ Journey to Josie for her First Day linkup.

1. Pay attention as I tell you everything we did for school this week ........ Okay, I'm done. Brynne has been sick for a full week now. She has run at fever up to 103.5 and now has a nasty cough. Her flu and strep tests both came back negative but I will likely be taking her back to the doctor Monday unless she has a miraculous recovery. We just can't get rid of her fever. 2. Don't comment about what a bad mom I am, but I did let her go trick-or-treating for a bit last night. This was the first year since we have moved to Missouri that Rick has been here for Halloween, and she begged to go. We didn't stay out long. She was Katniss from The Hunger Games and Eli was Casey Jones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . We had a nice time collecting loads and loads of candy. Then we came home and cuddled up in the living room to watch Catching Fire  and eat 50 cent corn dogs from Sonic. 3. God has asked me not to post some nasty things about a person and situa...

My kids have always been big fans of scavenger hunts. And they are fun! But the work that goes into them, coming up with clever and age-appropriate clues, is just too much work! Clued in Kids has come up with a solution to that problem. We were asked to review the Halloween Treasure Hunt (pdf printable) and Princess Clue Pad (physical treasure hunt) from Clued in Kids. The great thing about reviewing this product is that it required absolutely no work on my part. All I had to do was tear out the clues, put them where I was told to put them, put a prize at the end, and send my kids off on their hunt. The company motto of Clued in Kids is "Treasure the Journey". This definitely fits in with our homeschooling philosophy that we are on a Journey to Excellence. And what better way to travel the journey than to have fun, to enjoy it, to treasure it! The creator of Clued in Kids followed a childhood dream of professionally creating treasure hunts for children. It w...

This one is a day late. But I always love answering all of these questions so your Wednesday Hodgpodge is really on Thursday. I did ponder the majority of these questions yesterday. Are there hunters in your family? If so, what do they hunt? Which of the following have you tasted - pheasant, rabbit, venison, duck, goose? Which of those would you most like to taste, or be most willing to taste? Vegetarians .. keep calm and Hodgepodge on! My dad used to go deer hunting for a week on opening season every year. And I kind of remember my brother bow hunting deer when he was a teenager. Other than that we have not been a big hunting family, until Collin. Collin lives and breathes hunting and fishing. He shoots a bow and a gun. He hunts deer and turkey. Kyndal is a hunting widow from early fall until late spring. Then he is at the lake fishing every chance he gets. I have eaten venison and do not care for it. I guess I would like to taste an elegantly prepared duck or goose. Othe...

.... Fever , that is. But we'll get to that in a minute. Let's talk about the other extreme highs of our weekend! Because there were many. Rick showed up on Friday with our king sized bed! Thankfully our bedroom suite fit in our tiny bedroom, although it's cramped. But I don't care because we are now sleeping comfortably. On Saturday morning Eli and Brynne started their new bowling season. Their team, the Cobras, won first in state last spring so they were presented with their plaques. Eli also received a plaque for placing 4th in singles. Then the kids bowled three games. We are so proud of them and excited for another season! Rick took Brynne to play golf and after Eli got a haircut from Kyndal (and a massage in the pedi chair), she and I went "to town" to get groceries and Halloween costume props. We might have stopped for a little snack because THE McRIB IS BACK! It's my favorite time of the year! We got home at dinner time and Co...

All things with school went as planned last week, with the exception of a slower day on Wednesday because I had a really bad sinus headache that I couldn't shake. On that day the kids still got the basics done, worked on their current art project, and watched an episode of Little House on the Prairie . We have been without a Bible curriculum for the past few weeks waiting for our new one to come in, and it did over the weekend. So we were back at Stick Figuring Through the Bible on Monday, this time from the New Testament. We have used Grapevine Studies Level 3-4 for the past two years and it is a highlight of our morning. My kids have learned so much by using it and were excited to start drawing about Jesus! We also moved on ahead in Math U See Delta with two-digit division with remainders. The kids have already learned this with the CTC math curriculum they used over the summer. But it's nice to be building on division from the ground up again. Even though our review...