The End-of-the-Week Wrap-Up {snow, routine, & V-Day}

Well, here it is the middle of February already! These past couple of weeks have flown by so quickly. I know I mentioned earlier in the week about how busy we were with last week's trips (you can read more about that here), but this week seemed to go by almost as fast just playing "catch-up" around here. You know, the laundry piles, the house cleaning (especially since it was our week to host our church small group), just the usual.

I did let the kids take a "snow day" on Monday simply because we weren't at home on the weekend to let them play in it and they were just dying to get out and play in the snow. It worked well since it also gave me a day to just focus on some house work.

We stayed pretty much on track the rest of the week. There weren't any spectacular highs or lows this week, educationally speaking, but it was one of those weeks where we just stayed the course.

You probably noticed that Valentine's Day came this week, too ;) So we were a little busy with that, preparing for our annual party with our homeschool group. The kiddos made their boxes (ideas found via Pinterest). The Princess made a Rubix cube and Mr. B made Perry the Platypus--they turned out so cute!

I made red velvet pancakes for breakfast (from The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook) and also bacon hearts to go with them--which is way trickier to make than Pinterest posts imply, by the way. But it was all definitely yummy!!

It's been a good month so far, but I really am hoping and praying that next week I get to breathe a little more. That would be so nice! :)

Do you feel like your new year is flying by too quickly as well?

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Fun With 4th of July Crafts: Part 3

I love my new patriotic front door wreath!! I had fun putting this together, although I must admit this is more of an adult craft than one for kiddos. I was inspired by this article in Family Fun magazine. I didn't have quite everything I needed for this one, but all I had to purchase was a few sheets of scrapbook paper and some double-sided tape. Then all I had to gather up were some scissors, regular Scotch tape, a ruler and some cardboard. First I cut four (5"x 6") pieces of each paper. Then by placing a piece of double-sided tape on one of the short ends of the papers, I rolled them into cones, pressing the seams together well. Then I cut a 10" circle out of cardboard and began to stick the cones on it. I used another piece of double-sided tape to stick the cones on, arranging them in a circular pattern. Next I used regular Scotch tape to attach them on the back to the back of the cardboard. After getting all the cones on, I was ready for my centerpiece. He...

my blessed life

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