Weekly Wrap-Up: Sick Mom Edition

There are more Weekly Wrap-Ups at Kris's blog.  Check them out!

I've been sick since last week Thursday.  Zero energy, ZERO.  I had a super sore throat which morphed into snottiness which morphed into no voice and coughing.

The rest of the family was sick with the same thing, but I seemed to get the worst of it.

THEN, to make things even MORE exciting, I apparently got a little virus of the digestive system and lost about 5 pounds in four days.  THAT'S healthy.  I'm super thankful I was not throw-up sick though.  We're bordering on TMI here, so I'll leave that topic alone now.

I seem to be on the upswing.  Yea!

THANKFULLY, we had only ONE extra activity in the last two weeks.  That is amazing.  I don't count piano as extra, so we still had that, but other than our nice, little art co-op with two other families this past Wednesday, we had no field trips, no classes we'd signed up for, no book clubs, no swimming lessons, nothing, nada, zilch.

And strangely enough, or maybe NOT so strange, we've had a really good two weeks of school!  We've been reading tons of books in preparation for the girls writing their own books.  We still do math, spelling, Lauren's Core books, science, etc.

At the homeschool convention, Lauren and I went to a workshop by Valerie Bendt called "Creating Books With Children."  This is TOTALLY up Lauren's alley, and she was so super excited about it!  So, I bought Valerie's book on how to do this project (if you click the link, scroll down to see the Creating Books With Children book). 

(and I just feel compelled to say that I didn't pay that price because it was cheaper at the convention....I love a good deal) 

Valerie recommended reading some of Bill Peet's books.  If you haven't read any books by Bill Peet to your children, get yourself to the library and check some out right now!  His illustrations are wonderful and the stories are fun.  We had read Capyboppy by Bill Peet for Sonlight's Core K, but we hadn't read any others by him.  We're also reading his autobiography which is more pictures than words, and it is very interesting!  He worked for Disney for many years on some of our favorite movies....Cinderella and 101 Dalmatians to name a couple. 

In order to do the six week book project, I have cut out some other things from our normal academic activities. (This is a big step for me.)  I also made sure we did art every day this week so that the girls could keep working on those drawing skills in anticipation of illustrating their books. 

Plus, they beg me all the time to "do art" and I put it off and put it off.  I know I will look back at our homeschooling years and wish I had done some things differently, but if I can consciously make a change now to do something differently, then I think I should better do it!  One less regret to worry about, I hope. 

And since we're doing just the drawing activities (from How Great Thou Art--I Can Do All Things), it hasn't been so bad.  We watch the brief DVD lesson together then the girls do the drawing part on their own as time allows during the course of the day.  It's on their daily check list, so they don't forget about it (like THAT would happen!) and more importantly, so I don't forget about it!

Here's to a happy, healthy week for everyone next week!