Fashionable Fridays - January 2020

Latest thrift finds for myself top photo (T1S4) I think I might have found a good thrift store finally! Or maybe I should always remember to go in January 

But my main focus at the thrift store was helping my T3 friend get new clothes. (Bottom Photo)

She figured out her energy type, and we figured out some style words. I created a Pinterest board of inspiration and shopping we went. She hates shopping normally, but she just followed me around while I put everything that fit her style words in a cart, and then we sorted through those and held things up and got more items than she thought she would get. She went home and tried everything more and loved everything (though the floral dress was out of her comfort zone). Her husband was glad to see no black (we think he's T1) and loved everything as well. Best shopping trip she's ever had!

Dressing your Truth for the Win!

It was a lot of fun for me shopping for someone else! 

Top photo of me is what I wore out shopping: Lularoe striped shirt, Old Navy mask, and DYT store plaid top and star necklace with Zenni eyeglasses. I need to get more contacts. 

Since we went to a thrift store, they didn't allow any trying on of clothes. We did the best we could with some items, but at least you can exchange them if needed. I quickly tried them all on at home and loved them! I'm figuring out my style better and better and I love sweaters for winter. I want to have a vest in every color! Now I have white, navy, red, green, and purple! 

The orange top I didn't take a picture since it was see through and I actually got stuck in it trying to get it off. The armpit area is pretty tight. =D

Which sweater do you love the most?

Geography & Brain Teaser

MONDAY

Half Day so we focused on our morning routine.

TUESDAY

They really like the puzzles with this Marble Circuit. 

WEDNESDAY

The kids had their cooking class. This month was easy to using chocolate! They shared about our zucchini chocolate cupcakes.
Next month, they have to use Kale so we'll probably just share about our copycat Zuppa Toscana soup.

THURSDAY

The kids worked on their Exact Path. I helped my daughter with several step problems and beginning algebra problems. 

After school and work, we dropped off a gift to their uncle for his birthday and a card to their grandma for her birthday.
They got some energy out by playing in the grass by the driveway.

Then we grabbed groceries. The kids are always good at bringing them in. 
We finally got new batteries for our old remote control fire truck. My youngest loved it. It belonged to my oldest. I think he got it when he was 4.

FRIDAY

The kids worked on making some silly videos and playing with filters.

Then the played more with the brain teaser puzzle game, Marble Circuit that we got from the library. Luckily our library has no late fees, lol.

Then we played the geography matching game again and my oldest since he was paying attention this time and crushed us all with over 30 matches! Possible matches is 52!

My son's share this week: 
We got a game from the library that is part of a STEM kit called Marble Circuit. You have these challenge cards where it shows you the guaranteed pieces. It's like a maze. At the bottom of the card, there's a number that you have to match the marbles into the hole and figure out how the marbles get through the maze to the right holes. It's really challenging.

My daughter's share:
We played a geography matching game. Every time you got a match, you read a fun fact about the state you matched on. If you get the most matches, you win. My brother crushed it with 31 matches when we played because he was paying attention this time.

Measuring Moments

MONDAY

We started off strong with our morning routine. Then the kids worked on Osmo and Smart Links. 

My daughter learned more about using a different kind of measuring cup, a measuring moments lesson. She did 1 1/3 C of oil instead of 1/3 C in her brownie mix. I instantly new it wasn't correct by feeling the mix so I asked about her ingredients and explained how the glass 2 C measuring worked. She only saw the 1/3 top line. This also happened last week with our blender. She looked at the top lines not the bottom. 

I had to run to the store so I bought some more brownie mix, and we quadrupled the recipe. I individually wrapped a pan and a half of brownies and put them in a freezer bag. Now we have about 90 cupcakes and about 30 brownies in our freezer =D

Have you had any fun Measuring Moments that you were able to save?

Fun Fact - my friends would have me cut their birthday cakes at their parties because I cut quite evenly =)

My daughter drew this on her "Boogie Board" today, well technically my free one I received from ordering the kids theirs. 

In the evening, this one had fun with me playing baseball with his giant red ball and then doing some boxing to get some energy out before bed. 

TUESDAY

After our morning routine, we worked on some family history and the kids answered and recorded a question. They did this at our local family history center a couple years ago so it was fun to hear the change in their voices. It worked well to record with just our computer camera. 

Then the kids worked on their Beast Academy and Brain Quest workbooks. Then my oldest did Tangrams with Osmo and my daughter worked on something to help get to know some neighbor kids.

In the afternoon, I had them follow a book with instructions for a Minecraft city! It will take a bit of time, but they thought it was fun so far.

We played Werewords as a family too. 

WEDNESDAY

We started reading Tennis Shoes among the Nephites and have a goal to finish it by the end of the school year. 

We played a geography game. You matched the states and then could read a fact about the state.

With both activities, I discussed words they might not have know and popular phrases. 

THURSDAY

Minecraft - my daughter worked on making a daycare. More information about that at the end in her own words. Isn't she so creative!?!

We then focused on cleaning because we had Pest Control coming in. After that, my daughter built this fort which was much easier now that we have so many chairs. 

Then they begged to try my new dōTERRA Nutrition line. We just tried the protein ones first.

My son liked the vanilla one best, and my daughter the chocolate one. There's lots of recipes on the website. 

FRIDAY

My kids worked on their Exact Path and then we all tried our best snack box yet. I was pleasantly surprised. 

My son's share about the week.
We are making a Minecraft city using a map from a book to build it. Right now, we're still stuck on the digging part  because it has an area of 48,242 blocks. When we start making the city, my sister and I are thinking of adding a pet shop to buy pigs, rabbits, dogs and cats.

My daughter's share:
I was in Minecraft. I built a daycare. It had a napping room with rainbow beds, a playroom with bookshelf stairs, and the kitchen also had bookshelf stairs. The walls were strawberries in the kitchen with apple floors. On the second floor, there were banana walls and banana floors. The napping room had a black star roof.

New Year 2021, Same Homeschool

We have pretty much the same routine for Homeschool in 2021.

For January, our affirmation is "I'm Amazing and a Success!" and we've started our new book for scriptures, Doctrine & Covenants Family Reader. I love this because it has it narrowed down to a specific set of scriptures to focus on along with several questions to ask pertain to that set of scriptures. Each page of scriptures and questions can take 5 minutes which is great to expose the kids to the words and language of the scriptures and then check comprehension with simple questions. 

You can always go further with activities or videos from the Come Follow Me manual, many other blogs like my favorite Home-Centered Learning that sends weekly PDFs of activity ideas to enrich the reading, and videos.

Of course with our first week back, we're keeping it low key and simple.

MONDAY

After our Morning Routine, the kids wrote a 1 page paper on their Winter Break. Since my oldest skipped lines, his was double sides. 

Then while I did a ton of errands today, they worked on 2 Exact Path lessons.

TUESDAY

Exact Path or Beast Academy Pages

Art - I have a box of miscellaneous kids' craft supplies and my daughter just made whatever inspired her.

Lego - My oldest received a Lego Classic set for Christmas and enjoyed trying out some of the ideas in the book. 

In the afternoon, we tried out a new game my brother sent me for Christmas, Taco vs Burrito....another game created by a 7 year old kid. It was pretty fun, but I kept getting crushed by the Health Inspector card. I will have to check out the expansion to see if I have a better chance at winning! Super creative!

WEDNESDAY

To enrich our scripture study today, I had the kids watch the Joseph Smith Story Living Scriptures video.

They then got to work on their Tinker and Doodle Crates that got behind in shipping with the holidays. 

My son is working on the Motorcycle Tinker Crate.

Can you spot the smiley face she made in the paint below?

Thursday

We made Chocolate Zucchini cupcakes with Peanut Butter frosting, a favorite between my daughter and I. Hers without the frosting. We have our neighbor who doubts its goodness because of the zucchini so we made it for her family. The kids made it all by themselves. My daughter just had to be reminded to not cancel the cooking and just the timer so our first batch wasn't cooked through. The next batches were great. We doubled the recipe and ended up with over 90 cupcakes. We'll freeze most of them for later. 

The kids also had to do the dishes before and after we started along with clean the table. They also had to take out all the ingredients. I just sit at the computer reading off the recipe for them =D

Friday

We finished up the week with some Night Zookeeper and lots more cleaning of the basement and finished putting the Christmas decor away.

Books read in 2020

Books read in 2020 - only about 50 so at least I met my minimum goal.

Lowering my expectations for 2021 just in case

My MTO Goal for reading in 2021 is M: 35, T: 50 and O: 75

Follow me on Goodreads =)

My favorite book from the year was probably Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer. I loved the perspective and hope she continues and does more in this perspective. It was super detailed since it dealt with all of Edward's thoughts along with everything going on.

Resolutions - Single Word Mantra

It’s no secret that the majority of New Year’s Resolutions fail, but instead of discouraging you with those dreary statistic, we want to suggest an alternative that has proven worthy of trying! Try choosing a single word to sum up your resolution(s) (i.e. wellness, fitness, simplify, prioritize, etc.). This single word will guide your year and serve as a mantra to help shape your choices for the next 365 days, so put some thought into it! Once you’ve got it, share it with us below!

My family does something similar for our year. Here are our past years.

2015 is going to be Legend (wait for it) dary
2016 is Astounding
2017 is Triumphant
2018 is Joyful
2019 is Dynamic
2020 is Balanced

It's amazing to see how each word comes to pass and we can see the word come to play with different experiences.

2021 we have decided on 2021 is Exploration which my husband thought of. Most likely travel will still be limited this year, but we are hoping to explore new foods, new local places, our new neighborhood, new friendships and more.

I shared this idea with a friend and her family has chosen Adventure so we're hoping to do some wonderful things this year with them.

Christmas Break 2020

Our Christmas break started off pretty simple. They decorated a gingerbread house which we try to make a yearly tradition even before the kids were born =D

We went outside on the 21st to see Jupiter and Saturn with my camera super zoom lens. They look like hearts. I'm hoping we can invest in a telescope next year.

Finally figured out a recipe for not dry Rice Krispy Treats!

*6 TBSP butter instead of 3
*12-14 oz. marshmallows instead of 10
*normal 6 cups Rice Krispies

Christmas Eve 

We have several traditions for Christmas Eve.

My husband's parents came and brought Sugar Cookies for the kids to decorate for Santa. They got to eat one and then give one to Santa. This was nice that I didn't have to make any this year =D Though my MIL just made stars where I make all the Christmas shapes haha. I love variety.

After we read from Luke 2 while they colored nativity scenes. Usually they play with our Fisher Price Little People Nativity. We always have this out all December to play with as well.

On Christmas Eve, their elves  brought them their gifts of new pajamas!

Then our tradition is to watch The Polar Express.

Then we read The Night Before Christmas, actually my grandma does with a recordable storybook.

Christmas Gifts

They received lots of games for Christmas for homeschool. Thankfully all games, MagnaTiles were reimbursed through our online charter, My Tech High. More info on them on my first post about homeschool plans.

My oldest's favorite gift was his Ping Pong Travel set which can be used on pretty much any kind of table.

My husband received Werewords for Christmas since we love One Night Werewolf. The kids quickly loved this game too. We can't wait to play with a bigger group. 

This fun balancing game was Suspend; even the 3 year old was able to give it a try. 

They also received the Osmo Genius Kit which they all like to play. We got the Kindle edition, but found out later some of our Kindles are little old to support the apps so next Christmas they'll be getting a new Kindle to share and fit more of the games/apps unless of course a Kindle breaks before then.
I love how many different games are offered with this. 

We received new Expansion Packs for our Exploding Kittens game. Barking Kittens and Streaking Kittens! This game has been a family favorite for several years now.

More MagnaTiles, always a favorite. They youngest two even received some glow in the dark MagnaTiles.

Sleeping Queens is a new easy favorite game in our family. Kids got it from my parents for Christmas  

My youngest's favorite gift was this Tornado Toy that he received from his grandparents. He has loved tornados for a long time and can see tornados in every day things.

My oldest's words about this week.

"A gift I got was a Portable Ping Pong set to use for my PE. I played Ping Pong with my sister and my mom. My mom destroyed me, and I beat my sister quite a bit. It was really fun because we can play on almost any table. One fitness goal I have is to be able to do 2 pull-ups. We have a pull up bar to practice on."

My daughter's words about this week.

"We played a new game called Sleeping Queens. To get a Queen, you need to play a King or steal a queen from someone with a Knight. You can play to win by getting the most points or the most Queens. You can also play a Sleeping Potion to put someone's Queen back to Sleep. The Wand can counteract the Sleeping Potion and the Dragon can counteract the Knight."