Friday, September 16, 2011

Busy, Busy Week


In School this week
We started Tutoring Center and Co-op last week. It was a lot to handle with the house in dissarray from working on the floors- we had to move our office down to the front porch and cram all the stuff we'd store'd on the 2nd fllor onto the porch and other small places. Anyhoo, besides the lack of organization and 2much2do we started.
Good stuff: Lego League, during which I'm teaching writing (IEW's Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales) to the younger siblings. Very fun. Other definite wins: First Form Latin, History (of course), Literature, and pre-Chem. I'm also teaching Creative Writing to high schoolers.
We tried to get math, thinking skills, read-alouds and poetry in during the rest of the week but it was a stretch. We had a freeze warning and ended up clean picking a lot of the garden with lots of produce to figure out what to do with. It wasn't the best year for gardening, that's for certain, but it wasn't a complete wash either.



Things we're working on
Floors. The 4th coat of polyurethane was weird. It came out high gloss in some areas and no gloss in others, even though the 2 gallons we used were from the same shipment. We are going to have to sand, again, and put another coat on. I played slip-n-slide last week during our 4th coat and ended up kissing the floor. How does one explain floor induced whip-lash?  Needless to say, this project is getting a little old.

Things we're thinking about
The too early freeze warnings. We clean picked most of the garden and covered the rest.
In retaliation to cold weather we made this:

Pumpkin Spice Latte  
2 cups milk
1 cup very strong coffee (4 tablespoons coffee grounds to 1 cup of hot water)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2-4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon (plus extra for dusting)
2 heaping spoonfuls of pumpkin

Pour all of the ingredients into a pot and heat over medium-high heat until the coffee is steaming hot. Pour into mugs and top with whipped cream & cinnamon. Enjoy!

Prep Time: 5 minutes, serving Size: 2

We used the rest of the can of pumpkin to make pumpkin muffins, topped with walnuts. Very yummy.

We've also made some great garden stir-frys and soups.

Move over horse whisperer


Cub always trains our current crop of kittens to ride on his shoulders. It is tres endearing (or else heart stopping if you are weeding, lost in thought and they jump on your shoulders). This year he took it a step farther. Penelope is his "Attack cat." (we name our kittens by theme every year. This year we went with a Muppets theme- you know, Penelope, Rizzo's chicken girlfriend?).
Places we're going
KB is counting the days till her program is over and she can move on to other things. She is loving the actual cosmetology part of the program. The social aspect, not so much. In the mean-time she is doing lots of very cool art work and planning what's next.

"We live at home, quiet, confined with nothing but our feelings to prey upon us."
Feeche is field tripping in D.C. this week. So far he's been to Arlington Cemetery and Capital Mall. He's heard great speakers and is getting worn out already. I'm praying that he doesn't get too tired cause it's just day #3 of the 10 day adventure. Shipping his soldier of fortune gear today for part 2. 


A picture to share
Just cause I thought it was so darn cute


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your vegetables look lovely, I just took a similar photo. I adore the Penelope the Attack Cat, too funny! Have a great weekend.

Unknown said...

Oh that kitten is adorable! KB's art is so cool and creative. Hope you're feeling better after your floor-included whiplash. Ouch!

Anonymous said...

You were busy. I'm going to share your pumpkin spice recipe with dh. Have a good weekend.

G said...

Looks like a good week! I've eyeballed that IEW you mentioned (the fairy tales one) off and on for years. And the pumpkin spice latte sounds amazing!

Mary said...

Yum- the pumpkin spice latte looks delish!

Angela said...

I showed my husband your recipe...Guess what I'm having with breakfast?! Thank you!

Daisy said...

I'm jealous of freezing weather. You had some great stuff out of your garden. I still need to get out and plant my winter garden (ahh, the joys of zone 9 gardening). LOL.

What a bummer having to sand and redo the 4th layer of the floor! Here's hoping it gets done soon.

the striped rose said...

The veggies look great! Congratulations on your week1

Regena said...

I think your garden leavings look terrific! Glad you saved all those things in time.

I am always amazed at how much all your children are doing - each going in their own separate direction. I'm not sure how you manage it all (especially with home improvements in progress)!

I'm not a coffee drinker, but your latte looks terrific. We sat and drank our first chai tea lattes yesterday in cool fall weather. I adore fall, probably more than any other season, and look forward to more tea sipping days....

Regena

Anonymous said...

OK, I just put a can of pumpkin on my shopping list!

Faith said...

Look at all those gorgeous veggies!

Your week sounds very busy. What program is your son attending for the D.C. fieldtrip (I live right outside DC on the VA side). I'm curious.

laughinglioness.lisa@gmail.com said...

Feeche is attending "Back to DC." It is an alumni class for kids who have gone through a TeenPact state class. Next week he'll go to "Challenge" which is now under Timothy Group instead of TeenPact but used to be a TP alumni event. Thier alumni events are fantastic!! We love the state classes. Every TeenPact event we've participated in has been superb!

Sydni said...

Pumpkin latte and muffins! Sounds wonderful--will have to try that recipe.