Field Trip Fun

We went to a glass blowing factory back in October for a field trip.  My friend suggested it.  They had already been a couple of times, so I trusted her judgement.  I made sure the WHOLE family could go.  It was great!  The guy running it was very patient with the kids and adults.  ;)  There were cool things to see and do, AND I got pictures and videos.  Let's roll!

Uh, Marley?  Pay attention!

I didn't get a picture of the marble Kevin made.  :(  I'm not posting any pictures of me because a) I didn't take any and b) I made a Christmas present for someone that reads this.  We will definitely be going back to this place.  If it wasn't so far away, I'd get the kids classes here too.  Look it up if you're ever in the area...McFadden Art Glass.

School Times

School is going a bit slow, since I don't really do anything Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  I try to kick out math and reading NO MATTER WHAT.  That doesn't always happen.  I'm hoping once all this chemo is done, I'll get back on the wagon and reevaluate things.  I read another blog where a lady does a "what's working" post about their home schooling.  I think I need to sit down and figure that out.  Here are some things we've been doing.

These were necklaces made for our Iroquois study.  We dyed the pasta and glued aluminum to cardboard and indented the designs with a pencil.  :)

We studied artist, Louis Comfort Tiffany.  He specialized in stained glass windows.  The book suggested we paint stained glass windows.  We added black tempera paint to elmers glue.  We mixed it together and squirted out a picture.  We waited for it to dry and then mixed other colors to glue on a plate and filled in the black design.  This project was REALLY cool and turned out really cool too.  Here's what they designed.

 Can you tell that I let Marley do hers?  I struggled to just let her do it herself and not try to "fix" it.  I did end up finishing Logan's.  I think they're awesome.

This isn't really school, but Logan's in Boyscouts.  They had to make a cake about citizenship.  We were going to do a flag, but Kevin said that citizenship made him think about community.  I thought about the gingerbread people and putting them in a circle around the cake...like the edges or laying them on top of the cake in a circle.  When I came into the kitchen to see how the boys were doing with decorating, Kevin had put them standing up around the edges of the cake instead.  It looked like they were knee deep in snow because Kevin had to pile icing behind them, so they didn't fall over.  Hahahaha!  Logan won measuring spoons for "most creative."  Kevin said everyone else there had a flag on theirs.  

This doesn't really have anything to do with school.  The kids took red yarn and made their room into a "laser beam" room.  They pretended to be spies and crawled in, out, and through the lasers.  It was pretty cool.

They were playing in the creek and made fishing poles out of sticks.  I love this picture.  I wish I had gotten in closer.  Stay tuned.  I can't imagine what these school updates will look like when we're not taking so many breaks. 

 

 

Good News!

Anyone who knows me knows it's been a long time since I had some real good news.  I got some yesterday.  We talked to the finance department at the treatment center.  Apparently, I have been rewarded a grant.  This grant is going to cover all my treatments, AND there will be enough leftover to get some booster treatments too!  Guess where the grant came from.  The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!  The same people I just fundraised for the Light the Night Walk.  Maybe they looked me up and saw that I did some good fundraising for them and decided to help me.  I don't know what happened, but it's so great!  Thank you to all of you that helped with the fundraiser and walks this year and last.  We were seriously sweating the payments.  Thank God!

Wordless Wednesday

Cooking Class - Morocco

At least, I think it was Morocco.  I could be wrong.  On the menu were roasted chick peas, carrot and raisin salad, and brown rice pudding.  I went into it knowing that my kids weren't going to eat anything, but they still wanted to participate.

 They all look so happy.

I don't recall what they're smelling.  Some sort of spice.

Logan and his friend were trying to juice a lemon.  It looks pretty hard to do.

My kids love oranges...well, at least Logan and Marley do.

My kids have an unhealthy obsession with lemons.  

 Trying a different lemon juicer.

 Surprise!  Logan doesn't like it.

 Marley's carrot noodle.

 Rory actually liked the roasted chick peas.  I even tried one.  I just don't have a taste for chick peas.

We love these cooking classes.  The next one is going to be Thanksgiving theme...I think.  I'm going to try and talk Nana into taking them because I'll be receiving (hopefully) my last treatment!  Woot!

 

 

 

 

Halloween

Well, it's been a day.  Since Hurricane Sandy decided to blow through, Marley's Tuesday school Halloween party got pushed to today.  Again, I didn't know about treatments on Wednesdays when I signed up to be a Halloween party volunteer.  I could've canceled but have you seen Marley?  Could you let that little girl down?  

We went with Nana, Rory, and Logan in tow.  Marley's class was to parade around and then trick or treat at their classmates' homes.  To do this, parents were encouraged to make their "house" out of cereal boxes or paper bags.  I did this last night while Kevin took the kids trick or treating.  I did not get creative, but I hit the house color and green shutters.  

Some people got really creative...like Marley's best friend's mom.  Oh well, I did my best with what I had at the time considering everything, and that's all I have to say about that.

The kids paraded around and then we went back to the classroom for games.  There's a little kid in Marley's class who has had surgery upon surgery and chemo and radiation.  He's a spunky little 4yo, and my perspective got a little broadsided by it.  IT.COULD.BE.SO.MUCH.WORSE.

The rest of the day was shot, and I don't want to talk about.  I'm exhausted.  I'm trying to bust out this blog and head to bed.  I'm trying to really take it easy tomorrow, and I think I'm going to have to clear my schedules for Thursdays and Fridays because I really don't think I can take it.  It reminds me of that line in Finding Nemo,"You think you can do these things, but you just can't Nemo."  I feel like I can and then I'm sick and exhausted.  I need to rest, and this is probably going to be a VERY hard thing for me.  I'm a bit of a control freak in case you didn't know that.  ;)

Anywho, who wants to talk about all that nonsense?  Let's get to the pictures.  The kids trick or treated last night too, thanks to Kevin.  He even drove them down to Nana and Papa's to trick or treat there.  

At the last minute Logan decided to go as a ninja because Rory and his cousins were all ninjas.  He was going to be Darth Vadar.  All in all everything went well, and I'm thankful for such things.  Little blessings.