Throwback Thursdays

Is it just me, or is my blog super-boring lately?  I keep seeing "Throwback Thursday" pictures on facebook, and I'm thinking of doing that on here, except I would post old stories instead of pictures.  I have lots of stories from my pre-blog days.  Anyone interested?

Juggling

I have a lot of balls in the air at all times. 
Cooking
Shopping

Homeschooling (that's a big bowling ball)
Driving kids to various activities
Cleaning
Keeping track of everyone's schedules
Making sure the bills are paid on time

The one I drop most often is that pesky cleaning one.  It ranks pretty low on my priority list, and I also dislike doing it.  I  must discipline myself (and kids) to clean a little bit every day. 

Goodbye

Today I wore a turtleneck and a wool sweater for probably the last time till fall.  I got so hot while I was getting ready for church that I had to open the window in the bathroom.  I'm always sad to say goodbye to warm clothes, soup, fleece sheets, footie pajamas, using the garage as an extra refrigerator, getting dark early, baking, snow, and all the other things I love about winter.  I'm putting on my warm weather sheets today and packing up the fleece.  I'm not giving up my electric blanket yet though.  I do like spring, but the problem with spring is that it always turns into summer, which I would happily skip altogether.

Whiter than snow

This is the continuation of this post.  Having made a trial gallon of laundry detergent and proving that it works, I was ready to mass produce. 

 Some friends and I gathered in the church kitchen and set up an assembly line.  We added dry ingredients, and hot water, shook till dissolved, added cold water, Dawn, and more cold water.

Then I passed them off to my handsome assistant, who shook, dried,

 and wrote "soap" on them so nobody would mistake them for a beverage.

Noah hauled them on pallets,

and Sarah and friends stuck labels on them.

It took us all afternoon last Saturday, and we made 146 gallons.  So this morning, Mike and Noah worked in the warehouse at the food pantry,

while Sarah and I gave away the detergent, along with the recipe, and explained how people can make their own for about 50 cents a gallon.  I was surprised at how excited and happy people were to get laundry detergent.  One lady said she was wearing her pajamas because she didn't have any clean clothes, because she had run out of laundry soap.  Last Sunday during church, the Lord showed me a more efficient system for mass producing it, so I'm excited to try that next time. 

Signs of spring

It's been an extremely cold, snowy winter (the snowiest on record!), but today I see signs that it's coming to an end. 

 The creek is flowing.

Buds on the trees

 A robin in the backyard

A full-grown fly?!  Where did he come from?

 Noah playing basketball with the neighbor.

Sarah on the trampoline.

School at the library

I took the kids to the library this morning with no agenda, just to browse.  They both picked out books.  We had a conversation about history and classical music with one of the library workers.   Noah used the computer to look up a book and then found it on the shelves.  Sarah had a nice, friendly chat with a woman from Indonesia who said she couldn't read very well.  Sarah gave her some book recommendations and helped her find them on the shelves.  I noticed later that the lady checked out those books.  We checked out some books about ancient Egypt to supplement what we've been learning in history.  There was total silence on the way home as the kids were reading their new books.  It was a great trip!

The peaks and valleys of homeschool

Yesterday was a horribly, unbloggably bad day at school.  There were sutdent AND teacher meltdowns.  Enough about that.  Thank God that His mercies are new every morning!  We started fresh today.

I was quizzing the students on the continents, and Noah asked what continent the North Pole is on.  I love how he makes me think about things I've never considered before.  I looked it up and told him that the North Pole isn't on a continent; it's just a floating sheet of ice in the Arctic Ocean.  He asked if anyone lived there.  I said, "Just Santa and the elves and reindeer."  He rolled his eyes and smiled.