Friday, January 5, 2018

Dandelion Wine


Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury
Doubleday Publishing


We are finishing up this book this week.  We are behind and that is making me cranky, but I think we are getting some good stuff done.  We will probably be working through my list of books through the summer.  My daughter is enjoying the books we have read. That may change with the upcoming books.

I had heard good things about Dandelion Wine and wanted to add it into our lineup for the year.  It has not disappointed!  I am really enjoying it and can't wait to find out how it ends.

For this book, I decided to have the main activity be Annotating.  I thought I had never done this before, but I realized that I do some version of it all the time in my Bible. 

First, I had my daughter read a couple of articles on it...

How to Mark a Book

Annotation for Smarties 


We also found this video, which I thought was helpful

I think we are going to do more annotating with future books.

We also worked on this study guide

That is it for Dandelion Wine!  We will be onto Little Women!


Monday, January 1, 2018

18 Goals in 2018

2018...I cannot believe we are here already!  Happy New Year to you and yours!

Last time, I shared some of my favorite things from 2017...this time, I think I will share a few goals I have.  I am not saying resolutions, because it seems so strong of a word and I often forget about mine about mid March.  I have noticed though, if I don't have a plan for what's ahead, I will not have a way of measuring where I am in regard to what I hope to do in life.  Some of these are very specific...some, much more general...but I hope to see progress toward achieving what I am laying out in this coming year.

1} Become healthier- this includes eating right, exercising and seeing the doctor about a few concerns.  I have put this off for too long and need to make this a focus area.  I did get this started in 2017 and made some good progress...hoping to get back on track and move forward.  I will not list specific markers, mostly because I haven't laid that all out yet.

2} Read- I have a shelf that I set aside for the books I am hoping to work through next.  This stack of books has been shoved aside by reading I am doing for school assignments for the kids.  I am still hoping to work through this stack.

3} Blog- I am hoping to move my blog and be more intentional about how/when I post.

4} The Big Math Catch-up- We are already about halfway to this goal...this was a HUGE school focus for us this year.  The kids are doing a great job on this!

5} Craft a Month- You know all those projects many of us have laying around and all the ideas we want to come to?  Well, it is my goal to create something each month.  This has been shoved aside for too long and bags of supplies need to be used.  Here is the first thing I want to make.

6} Cookies- Have you seen all the cool decorated cookies people have been making?  I have had a few sets made and let me tell you...I want to learn how to do this...
Here are some sets that I ordered through Diane.  If you get some from her, tell her I sent you!



7} Build up our Christmas movie collection- This might seem silly...but I am hoping to get at least 24 Christmas movies collected this year.  We enjoy watching a movie a night in December...but we are mostly dependent upon whatever we can find at the library.  We have seen some good movies, but some pretty corny ones too.

8} Build up our Emergency Fund- this has been used quite a bit in the last year or so and is sadly lacking.

9} Budget Buckets- Along with the emergency fund, I would like to get these full...the budget buckets are categories in our budget that only come along once or twice a year...Christmas, birthdays, school fees and such all fall in this category.

10} Get ovens fixed/new ovens- we are without ovens right now...which is interesting.  Thankfully, we live in a time when there are many ways to cook food!  While I am thankful for all those other ways to cook, I am looking forward to getting working ovens again.

11} Lead the children to more independent school work- This has come a long way so far this year...we are probably about halfway on this goal too...Mostly my younger guy needs work on this.  Since I am working a little bit now, ,I need them to be able to be productive when I am not here.

12} Re-read The House That Cleans Itself and implement a plan for staying on top of cleaning projects.

13} Weekly De-Clutter Day- I AM THE WORST at this!  Pray for me!  I need all the help I can get here...both because I have no time AND because I am an infamous pile stacker.

14} Regular Meal Planning- Life runs so much more smoothly when I actually sit down and do this.  It will help with my first goal too!

15} Get a new computer- Mine has been acting up.  I need to see my IT lady and see what she thinks.

16} Go on more hikes- NICER WEATHER- I am a fair weather hiker...so more in late spring, through early fall for this one.

17} Finish a one year history book in one year! I did this for the first time EVER last year!  I was so happy and I know I can do it again this year!!!  We are on track to meet this goal too!

18} Get a new camera- My camera was stolen several years ago...along with it, 8 years of photos I can never get back, including the flag ceremony at my dad's memorial service.  When it was stolen, I lost all motivation for taking pictures and scrapbooking.  I miss that and would like to get that back.  In the grand scheme of life, this is pretty low on my list...but I needed an 18...so there you go.

I think that is it for now!  Once again, Happy New Year!

With much love!

Carrie