Weekly Wrap-Up: Starting up again

This is my first Weekly Wrap-Up, hosted by Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. I've been reading hers and Cheryl's (Adventures of a Somewhat Crunchy Mama) for quite some time and always think how I'd really like to participate, but don't necessarily want to show everyone just how forgetful I am. After all, in order to give a highlight of our week, I'd have to remember what we did during the week, right? Gosh, I'll give it a go and maybe even participate now and then. So, thanks for hangin' in there with me and seeing how we spent our week...

We spent Labor Day weekend at my in-law's, about 5 hours away. We wouldn't head home until Tuesday, so Monday was spent at my sister-in-law's house. She has a huge garden and a very giving heart. My husband is so very blessed to have such a loving and accepting family and I am blessed to be a part of it. So, on Monday, we picked green and wax beans and a few eggplants. I sorted through 2 tables of tomatoes, filling our cooler with 5 layers of tomatoes to bring home. Stephanie also gave us some squash, as well as some already canned goodies like pickles, jams, and salsa. Yum. She is amazing. Can you believe she works outside of her home and tends to this garden, picking and canning and freezing?

Tuesday we headed home. We didn't get on the road until about noon, so with 2 stops along the way for little bladders to empty and a brief scanning of available fruit at Fruit Acres in Coloma, MI, we made it home a little before dinner. I'm going to back up a minute and talk about Fruit Acres. I haven't been to their u-pick farm, but have stopped by their roadside stand a number of times. Depending on season and availability, they have a nice variety of apples, large selection of peaches, and plums. I always glance at the vegetables, but this time I didn't spend too much time because the van was already bursting with goodness from Stephanie. My family absolutely loves the various jams (blueberry, cherry, and jalapeno) from Fruit Acres. And did I mention they have boxes of fruit for sampling? My girls got to try an apple, pear, and plum. After selecting some delicious honey-crisp apples, sweet plums, and cherry & blueberry jams, we were back on the road. That was our last stop.

We made it home, unpacked, and got hubby packed and ready to head to Toronto for work on Wednesday morning. I wasn't really ready to see him go and be on my own with the girls for the rest of the week. I had planned on us starting school this week and look at all this produce in my kitchen!

Wednesday morning I woke up praying for the girls to be good and for God to be gracious to me and help the next few days be easy. Don't get me wrong. I love my girls. But they can be a handful. They are sweet to each other one minute and ripping each other's skin off the next. Well, not really. OK, sometimes they have. But that's what I'm talking about. And sometimes I just need a few minutes of quiet and I have girls, so that never happens. Are you following me here? Let's just say that God is so good to me. He knows exactly what I need and what I can and cannot handle with Him.

The girls woke up and wanted to help take the ends off the wax beans. They also wanted to get started on some school work. Admittedly, I wasn't ready for a full day of school and had planned to ease into it, so I excitedly gave them a verse to write (because if I show enthusiasm, they are more likely to want to do it), Child A in cursive (yes, despite some schools ditching cursive, I teach my girls a complete education, including cursive) and Child B in print. What was Child C doing during this time? I'm not quite sure, but it involved a couple Slinkies, emptying her purse all over the floor, and leaving a trail of clothes from one end of the house to the other. When they went out to play, I blanched the wax beans and froze them in dinner-size portions.

Thursday would be a close repeat of Wednesday, but more. The kids all worked together to take the ends off the green beans, then they wrote a new verse. While A and B were working on math and language, C was repeating scripture and stretching and exercising to Praise Moves. What a wonderful morning! I started blanching the green beans and some tomatoes. Twelve cups of tomatoes in the freezer, a whole pot in the fridge for spaghetti sauce to be canned... And 60% still to be canned or frozen on Friday or over the weekend.

Friday we went to the kickoff for one of our homeschool groups. It's a fun day that involves a park, picnic, and bounce house. We started reading from The Book of Virtues and getting ready for hubby to come home in the evening. Nothing special, but excitement brewed just because we aren't used to him being gone for days.

In the upcoming weeks we will have a little adjusting to do as we start our full schedule. We are doing things much differently this year than we have in the past, with more group reading and learning rather than each girl working independently and one-on-one with me. I can only do so much, y'know. So I think this will be better. Monday evening used to include gymnastics, which we aren't doing for the first time in 9 years. I can't believe it, but with finances being tight, something else had to be given up. And Awana will be starting up in a week. So, lots of changes, hopefully lots of fun, and lots more time in prayer for all of us.

This concludes my weekly wrap-up. I doubt future ones will be as long, but this week wasn't just about homeschooling. Hop on over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see how others wrapped up their week.