C5k: W1D1(again) and other misc notes

Posted on March 27th, 2011

My mom was up for a visit last week (yay!) so I didn’t exercise at all. Figured I’d better do day one again. My right IT band is a bit tight but other than that I’m feeling pretty good. Gotta remember to stretch and roll tomorrow…. hrm… maybe we’ll start studies off with some morning yoga tomorrow. ;)

It is so weird to not hurt when I run or stand but when I sit or walk a lot. OUCH! But I think this is good…. errr… “normal”. Weird. Taking advil in the evening makes the morning less painful. Weird too. But I’m feeling good in the evenings so another good… pretty sure.

On homeschooling: Have started gathering items for next school year. Love this part. Getting pretty excited! Found some neat resources for Jessie: Chinese games… Tiu-U or Chinese Domino Cards (lots of math involved there) and PiaJi and… and… and…

… and now I must get to bed. Got too side-tracked planning next year and didn’t plan tomorrow. Doh!

Posted in Homeschooling, Running

The Runner’s Road Back

Posted on March 19th, 2011

To health and hopefully to a more positive mental outlook… I took the first step today. I’m sure Steve will have something to say in the morning. So far, I’m not in any more pain than when I started.

60sec of running alternating with 90sec walking for 20min. At first the walking bits were frustrating but towards the end they were a welcome break. LOL!

Almost embarrassed to say that it was facilitated by a couch-to-5k iPhone app. ^_^; but if it gets me there it’s okay. Right?

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Posted in Running | Tagged as: ,

Solid Figures & Nets

Posted on February 24th, 2011

Started to write this about two weeks ago! Still worth a post…


Friday we had what I think was our first really combined lesson. Of course it really wasn’t supposed to be

Sam’s math lesson that day was 3D figures and “nets”. Thank goodness for teacher’s manuals! I had no idea what a “net” was. Mathematically speaking.

Found a website where you could download patterns to make various polyhedra. It helped a bit I think to define the vocab by pointing to the various parts of 3D models rather than flat images. But Sam still looked a little befuddled after but I let it go. We’ll revisit it again soon.

His sister however had this to say:


Look Mom! It’s the Great Polyhedra.

Oh yeah. She’s been studying Ancient Egypt.

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Posted in Homeschooling, Math | Tagged as: ,

Halloweeny Thoughts

Posted on February 9th, 2011

Yep. Already thinking about it…. since the end of January. We take our Halloween preparations very seriously here. If we don’t plan NOW, things just won’t get done in time.

The theme is still steampunk. If you’re wondering just what the heck that is, take a look at Wikipedia’s Steampunk page for starters.

Here’s what I’m thinking of making this year:

  1. Riding Habit Bodice with a bit ‘o tweaking
  2. Big Sky Riding Skirt could wear this one after too
  3. Ladies Victorian Underwear

Or something like those. I originally found the riding skirt at Steampunk Emporium. But I’m not one to pay that much for a skirt… ‘specially if’n I can make it. ;)

‘Course these are my grandiose plans and it is February. By October things could look a lot different!

I still need to make a good pair of goggles too. Mebbe some sorta hat. Earrings.

Posted in Halloween, Holidays, Sewing | Tagged as: , ,

Some Days are Good

Posted on February 2nd, 2011
Steampunkery fun

steampunk chamelions made from polyclay

Yesterday we had some awesome art time. Both kids and I sat down for about an hour-and-a-half and made polyclay figurines.  Do you know how rare it is for ALL THREE of us to be engrossed in the same activity for that long. Like so rare it has never happened kinda rare. LOL! I felt so energized by it. And the kids still want to do more! ME TOO! All kinds of ideas are flowing. And… after Monday’s science flop session it was a revitalizing!

The catalyst for all this was, Steampunkery by Christi Friesen. We each gave a try to making steampunk chameleons. Okay. Typing that just makes me wanna giggle. Never thought of putting those two things together. But hey! It works. So you can bet we’ll be buying lots of polyclay for a while. ;)

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Posted in Art, Homeschooling | Tagged as:

A Full Day

Posted on January 26th, 2011

Today I tried to get out and get as much done as I could. If I’m going to have to live with this pain for a while, I might as well live and get out there.

Took Sam to get his hair cut, stopped by Petco, took us out to lunch, took the kids skating. Afterwhich I was took-ered out. ;)

Came home and got the kids going on their lessons for the afternoon.

Sam is zooming through the first few assignments in Singapore Math 6a. This is his first open foray into Algebra. Though I pointed out to him that he’s really been doing algebra for a while. ;) it is only that no one called it that until now.

Jessie did another sight word lesson. We took time to review yesterday’s words by gluing the paper strips onto a sheet of paper. She remembered all of them. Then she continued drawing new words. Tomorrow I think we’ll do a word building exercise.

All their lessons and chores were finished I’m time for electronics hour. Yay!

By dinnertime I was completely wiped. Thank goodness for homemade soups in the freezer!

My upper back is now in a yelling match with the ruptured disc in my lower back. But meds are all onboard and I’m waiting for them to take effect.

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Posted in Homeschooling, Life | Tagged as: ,

Treat

Posted on January 26th, 2011

Taking care of my helpers today!


Lunch and laughter at Panera after a haircut for Sam.

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Posted in Life

Maybe This Way…

Posted on January 25th, 2011

Okay. Trying posting from my iPhone thru Posterous to my WordPress blog…

If the picture shows up, you’ll see a picture of Jess who was very proud of the words she spelled today.

We’ll do more tomorrow. By way of review I was thinking to have her glue the word strips to a paper.

Okay, here goes… Hrm… The app crashed when I hit send. Gonna try once more…

Posted via email from The Sinister Scribe

Posted in Life

Getting Back to It

Posted on January 24th, 2011

Trying to get back into the habit of blogging. I find it nearly impossible to find time normally. Now with a ruptured disc, I’ve been considering just giving up altogether. But I hate to give up… On anything. So I’m trying to find ways to do it from my iPhone. The WordPress admin has several things I can’t do from the iP so I dunno. If you have any suggestions, please!

Beyond that leme tell ya briefly about something I’m gonna try with J tomorrow for reading… Got the idea from a recent SCM newsletter (Simply Charlotte Mason).

So I’m gonna take the first paragraph of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” poem by Nancy Willard. It is a story that J and I both like. The inside flap has a shorter poem form of the story. Sort of a prelog.

I’ve printed it out using StartWrite. Two copes. One is cut into individual words. The other left complete. First activity will also use the Banamagram tiles too.

First I’m going to pull out a cut word and ask her to read it. I don’t expect her to have much trouble with this group. Assuming she can, I will then hide it and ask her to spell it with tiles. If she has trouble I’ll show her the card and have her spell it while looking. Third part of this exercise will be to find the word in the complete passage. We’ll go until she finishes or until 15 minutes is up.

I’d really like to add pictures and links but it isdifficult or impossible with the iPhone and this interface. And I am outta time.

Off to take the evenings pain meds and hope for a good night’s sleep. Tonight will hopefully be the third in a row. Tomorrow I meet with the orthopedic doc to see what the next step is now that I’ve had the MRI and epidural steroid injection.

Posted in Life

What week are we on? 6?

Posted on September 10th, 2010

I think it is 6. Hrm. Will check but wanted to get something up here before we got any further behind… err… along. ;)

This last week has been full of activities so there’s been less bookwork. But here’s a pictorial review of the highpoints:

the painted lady butterfly came out
of its cocoon one evening.

There was also the dragonfly study
that resulted in a half gallon jar “acquarium
Jess & Sam built propeller cars
to study equal and opposite forces
They went surprisingly fast
We went to the Japanese festival in STL
one by one our caterpillars have become pupas
and Jessie is riding a big bike now

A little side note:
I’ve been very bad about planning lately and it has shown in our daily progress but I’m going to get back on it next week. Trying to remember the “fall down 7 times get up 8″. It helps. Also remembering that downtime is good too. But sometimes it all feels like so much work and I feel worn down rather than polished up.

So if you ever wondered… yes, sometimes it all feels like too much.

Posted in Homeschooling, Weekly Review

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