Snow, Books, Birds

We had so much snow this weekend that our Monday book group meeting was cancelled due to uncertainty over whether people could make it to the library or, if they got there, if the library would be open.  Actually, we could have gotten there just fine.  There is one (and, I think, only one) advantage to living on a main road, which is that the snow plows get to you first.  Wouldn't want to slow those chickens down on their trip to the Tyson factory.  And, sharing a driveway with the fire chief, even our drive gets plowed for us promptly.  However, it worked out pretty well for Travis, anyway, since he found Calico Bush a completely uninspiring read and was Not on track to have it done by today.  So we stayed home and did our usual thing (and I did not point out to the children that school was not in session across the street).

I think it is going to be a pretty good week!

We are doing explorers and Renaissance artists, plus literature and some fun drawing stuff for Tapestry of Grace.  Math is going along as usual.  Travis continues to make careless mistakes in Singapore and enjoy Fred.

Katie is working on the multiplication tables.  We are working with the flash cards, but I want to find a fun (free) computer game for drilling math facts too.  Neither of my kids like doing flash cards on their own, even though I keep pointing out that that is the whole beauty of flash cards.  I guess misery loves company.

No misery here, though!  I got a Christmas present in the mail!  Well, UPS, really.  Anyway...

So, technically we are up to the Renaissance, but we are still in Yr. 2.  And we'll come around to the middle ages again in a few years, and I'll really know my stuff!  I haven't had a chance to do more than page through it yet, but it looks delicious!  Short chapters -- just the length to read while sitting at the school table cracking the whip (whip in one hand, book in the other) -- with plenty of maps.

And my freezer is now completely emptied of stale ends of bread loaves.  What with the snow and cold, I've been a little more generous than usual with the birds.  The crows are so darned cute, the way they are so big and jump around so cautiously, that I've even been putting peanut butter on the bread.  Turns out they are very enthusiastic about pinto beans, too!  Tomorrow they will be getting the mostly-but-not-completely-stale hot dog buns.

(The crows are much too paranoid to let me take their pictures.  They fly off the second they see movement at the windows, silly things.)