Assorted things (7QT)

I

Baby has not made an appearance yet; figured I'd better get that one out there first! :-) It's a good thing, because we don't necessarily have a name nailed down yet... or the newborn clothes or other baby things ready. I'm 37.5 weeks now, so that should probably go on the *really does need to be done* list for this weekend.

II

I started seeing a new chiropractor last week, and she's been so helpful: I can actually walk again! I'm definitely still having a hard time, but being physically capable of walking and getting some things done has been good. The kids have also been getting lots of practice helping; with me literally unable to pick things up off the floor, they've learned that they actually can clean up quickly without me doing it with/for them. Two of my sisters have been coming over regularly as well, and their help has been invaluable. I'm so thankful for all of the ways they've helped and let me sit/lay down!

III

School is going really well. We just finished our 27th week today, which doesn't actually mean much since we aren't required to do school for a specific number of days/weeks each year per Alaska homeschooling regulations, but it's nice to have a measure of how long we've been working. We are starting to see the end coming: there are only a few pages left in the handwriting book, three or so chapters in religion, I think five weeks of math... Our grammar/language arts program I expect to carry through the summer, since we started it in January and he's enjoying it so much.

IV

We spent this week in science learning about cheese, and yesterday we made cream cheese out of whole milk and vinegar! It's really closer to ricotta, I think, but it tastes good. And as initially horrifying as it was to see four cups of milk shrink down to just one cup of cheese, when I did the math, making homemade ricotta is still less than half the price of buying ricotta or cream cheese at the store!

And to go with our cheese, my sister and I made our first-ever batch of homemade bagels! We used the recipe from King Arthur Flour, making some plain and some cinnamon raisin, and they came out so well. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but they are exactly the texture and flavor I want from a bagel! And they really weren't that much work; we will definitely be making them again.

V

It's beginning to look and feel a little more spring-like outside, despite the slightly ridiculous amount of snow on the ground right now: 

That would be our deck. The snow is almost up to the top of Kit's head! But it really is feeling springish anyway, because we have so much sunlight—more than 11 hours today! 

VI

Of course they're taking away our lovely morning sunlight this weekend... I'm always so disappointed when we have to change the clocks and suddenly it's dark in the mornings again. I know it won't take long before the sun is up before we are again, but it has been so nice to open the shades in the morning and not have to use the lights! At least our parish doesn't have religious ed this week (the public schools have spring break), so we don't have to get up at feels-like-5:15 for the early Mass on Sunday!

VII

Kit, wearing Matt's ear protection: "You don't hear me, Mama, 'cause I have hearing protections on!"

She is so funny, chattering all the time and telling us stories about what she is doing. Lately she's been pretending that Matt's office area is Nome, because we've been talking about the Iditarod a lot with the kids; she keeps telling me about what she's going to go do in Nome today, or how her baby dolls are waiting in Nome to watch for the sled dogs.

Little Bear signed up for the IditaREAD this year: he picked a musher to race, and then tried to read 998 pages before his musher's team completed the 998-mile race. The race started on Saturday, and he had already passed 1,000 pages by yesterday afternoon... I now understand why my mom never bothered having us sign up for the program! :-) I love that he loves reading so much, but he definitely didn't get as much out of the program as he would have if it had actually been a challenge. He had a lot of fun, though, and we got to practice mental addition of two- and three-digit numbers keeping track of how many pages he had read!

That's seven! And hopefully a somewhat adequate catch-up on what we are up to. For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't The Lyceum!