The Rundown: Week in Review

Anyone else out there feeling less than productive this week?  I feel lucky that we got anything accomplished this week.  Here’s what we were able to mark off our list:

Homeschool
week in review rundown letter f preschool homeschool letter of the week f animal classification

The Boy’s week was fairly normal.  Luckily, my craziness doesn’t affect him too much when it comes to his homeschooling.  He can handle most of his subjects without me; he was able to move along nicely with his new math unit, language arts, and history. 

He also finished up our animal classification focus this week.  This showed up in our biology book recently, but we decided to dig a little deeper.   For this, he’s been watching some Magic School Bus episodes, using this Animals of the World freebie from Confessions of a Homeschooler, and this Animal Kingdom freebie from This Reading Mama.  The Animal Kingdom pack is primarily for kids a little younger than him, but we were able to use parts of it along with our Animals of the World.

Bless my sweet Prissy, her school week didn’t start until Wednesday.  Monday and Tuesday were just jam packed with distractions and I just couldn’t get anything going for her.  We were able to finish strong though.  We read several books to help us keep Letter F in the spotlight:  The Foot Book; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; The Very Lonely Firefly, and Ff: See It Say It Hear It.  We also read My Two Book since our number focus for the month is #2. 

Also worth noting, since these kiddos love to drive me nuts, they took advantage of Letter F week and have been singing that dreadful “What Does the Fox Say” song way more than necessary. 

Yummy Stuff
rundown week in review peas mint chicken casserole monkey bread cake batter pops

In all honesty, we didn’t eat around our table nearly as often as we should have this week.  Here’s what’s worth mentioning: 

  • This recipe for Green Peas with Mint is one of my favorite sides from The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook.  I’m not sure I had ever cooked frozen peas in a skillet before this recipe and now it’s my favorite way to eat them.  This recipe is definitely a budget-friendly and kid-friendly side dish. 
  • This Herb Chicken Casserole with Mushrooms wasn’t in my meal plans for the week, but turned out to be a nice surprise.  I didn’t have the exact ingredients, but my substitutions didn’t hurt anything at all.  I ended up using cream of celery, muscadine wine, and green onions in place of the cream of chicken, white wine, and green peppers.  It’s not your standard chicken casserole, but it was a good find. 
  • I made this Marmalade Monkey Bread in the place of our usual Saturday breakfast this week because I thought everyone was getting bored with our normal fare.  Hubby and I were perfectly happy with this monkey bread.  The orange marmalade is a nice touch, but it wasn’t enough to win over the kids.  They want their orange rolls back.   
  • I’ve always hated making cake pops.  I’ve tried two or three times before and it’s always been disastrous.  I’m happy to say that I’ve finally found a recipe that works for me.  It turns out that these no-bake Cake Batter Truffles make great cake pops.  I’m not ready to say that I want to make cake pops all the time, but the flavor was divine and they turned out great.  I might, might, just be willing to make them again should the opportunity present itself.   
The Rest of It

Thank goodness for some calm before the crazy, right?  I’m so happy we made it to the beach again before our week got so busy.  Sunday afternoon was beautiful and the beach was the place to be.  We needed some time to be still and know.  That’s exactly what we did and it was perfect. 

rundown week in review collage
 
I’m especially thankful for our beach time because we found ourselves house hunting when Monday rolled around. We’ve been in whirlwind mode ever since then.  The Boy, Prissy, and her Baby Una were happy to join the hunt and give their seals of approval.  Baby Una even felt so at home that we almost left her in one of the bedrooms! 
 
Due to the house hunt, art co-op and Valentine’s Day exchange with our homeschool group snuck up on us this week.  We pulled it together just in time.  The Boy enjoyed the soft pastels cake project and Prissy enjoyed all the Valentine’s goodies.  They were both happy campers.   
 
Between homeschool, church, house hunting, and everything in between, I’m happy to usher in this weekend.  These are the times that I’m especially grateful for the command to rest.    
 
Rundown week in review margaret feinberg wonderstruck quote
 
 
Be still.  Break bread with those you love.  Laugh, be silly, and savor the time around your table.  Those are the moments that count the most.