Busy Monday, February 10

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Groceries
• Help Katherine study for her state capitals and division test
• Keep Brie on task for her report due Friday 
• Clean up around the house some.  
• Remind Peter of his Doctors appointment today - It's the first time he's had a general check up since he entered the military 18 years ago! 

Menu

• Pizza
• Hamburger Helper w/Green Beans
• Lasagna
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Steak w/Potatoes & Cauliflower w/cheese
• Pulled Pork 
• Chicken & Rice (Oh goodness! Which why does Rice-A-Roni have less carbs and a larger serving size (by twice!) than Minute Rice?) 

I have let the girls come up with the menu this week. I think 'moderation' is going to be the name of the game for me this week. I don't think they realize how many carbs are in their requests. 

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• STEM Club
• Community Campus - For Brielle 
• What is Community Campus? Well in our area it is linked up with the Community College. There is Life Science and Engineering and Brielle wants to go into Engineering. Community Campus will allow her to take Engineering classes while in High School for college credit. 
• I need to set up Brielle's application on Community Campus which means being able to contact the school but with school out of session there is no one I can call at the moment to get the application information. 
• I need to set up with the Community College for Brielle to take the Compass test so we can get her scoring information. This is the same test College applicants take for class placement. 
• Organize Coupons - They've gotten a little out of hand so I can't find what I need when I need it. I need to fix this so that we can save more money.   
• 4-H Project Club
• Katherine's After School Valentine's Day Party
• Brielle's Sock Hop after School

Last Week

So all of last week the kids were out of school. Monday the weather wasn't bad but we were having bad weather move in on us. I think all of the schools got a bit scared after seeing what happened in Atlanta. It has been a little difficult keeping the kids on task and we are all out of the swing of school time stuff. This last week I had the experiment of having my 13 year old watching my 9 year old at home while I was at work. I'm generally only gone for 6 hours a day because I'm blessed to be able to only need a part-time job. I still kept my cellphone near me and spent the whole time worried but the kids did well. I don't think they ever left their computers but the house didn't burn down so I think it was a successful trial. 

Other things that were done last week:

I made two magazine holders for Katherine so she could organize her Ranger Rick magazines and her Comic Books.

Zebra Magazine Holder

Friday I stayed home with Katherine as I had to take her down to the doctor and found out she had a ruptured eardrum and a double ear infection. 

We spent the day pretty lazily around the house and watched birds through the window. 

Even today the girls are watching the birds especially since I hung up a new Valentine's Day Bird Seed Heart, here is the blog from last year about this. 

Diggy the Mealworm is now a beetle so I pulled out an old Betta fish container I had stashed away and we gave Diggy a new home to fit his larger lifestyle. 

 I sat down with the girls and we finished up their infinity scarves they started at 4-H. There were some hiccups along the way and I had to sit down to seam rip apart of one, a sewing needle got snapped and I got my iron too hot and melted the fabric on part of Katherine's!!

Some definite hiccups but we got them done and the girls really like them.

 I would have to say the worst part about these scarves was how you join the two ends together. I have to think there was a better way than the way we were instructed to by the lady at 4-H.

Pretty poor videos on my part I was trying to take them with my phone. Please forgive me! I need to learn to stop doing that and pull out my actual camera for video.

The girls made some stuff. Brielle put together (after me having to describe the difference between a bolt and a screw to her) a little motorized brush. Really it just vibrates really loudly and spins around in places but hey maybe this is the start of her learning how to make me a roomba.

Katherine made a solar powered car. There's no battery on it so she chased it around with a lamp that had a 60 watt light bulb to make it work. I'm sure she will have a lot more luck with it outside when we discover what the sun is again.

I also did a cleaning project. That second shelf there is where my towels go! I don't think they are going there right now. My medicine cabinet kind of exploded!

Folks got into this bad habit of just randomly tossing things in. and then we'd have to go digging through it. Plus nothing was ever being gotten rid of.

It is still pretty full but it's more organized plus I fit 5 bottles of lotion that was crowding up under the bathroom sink into this shelf. I call that a success.


I think that pretty much sums things up. I guess I better get back to being the mean mommy and making them study for when school finally does go back in session!