Flooded Grassland

Weekly Wrap up: Mostly Back to Normal

In my life this week…

Philip’s ER trip last week has had us going to a clinic daily for dressing changes. The wound has been healing nicely and we now have to soak it daily and go in every third day. The trips have been pleasantly and surprisingly fast. I think the longest total time was 20 minutes. It takes me longer for the round trip drive of 30 minutes.

Beyond that it has been our regular slew of activities. I’m not sure when the last time I listed them all so I might as well. Philip does Jr volunteers at the Y, swimming, catechism and Irish Dance. Margaret does swimming, cub scouts, catechism and a water color course. Ian does swimming and karate. Next year is going to be a lot different but we have yet to discuss that. The other two also want to do scouts of some sort or other so things will have to change.

I’m Cleaning…

My side of the bedroom before
My side of the bedroom before

I tackled my side of our bedroom. Danielle has promised to work on her side this weekend so it was important to have my side up to snuff. I ended up with three photos because I decided that I could do better than the first after photo. I knew that I need to sort all the disks and the homeschooling stuff. The homeschooling stuff was mostly preschool that Ian has out grown. The rest fit on the shelves in the homeschool room. The disks were a mix of old computer programs, music and DVDs. The old programs got garbaged. The music I need to rip and a lot of the DVD were Thomas, Dora or others of that age group. Those will get donated.

My side of the bedroom part way through
My side of the bedroom part way through
My side of the bedroom after
My side of the bedroom after

In our homeschool this week…

Spectrum
Spectrum

On Saturday we attend a workshop put on by the local observatory group. They gave a nice talk but then we built a sundial and a solar viewer. The sundial was the coolest and works very well as long as you knew where north was. That left most of us figuring out exactly where north was by knowing what time it was. The best part for me was that they handed out spectrum glasses and allowed us to keep them. They are cardboard with plastic diffraction grating lens. They work great and I confiscated them from the kids and added them to our science supplies. We did look at a lot of examples first but I have wanted something like this for a while so I didn’t want them disappearing. I took the picture above through the glasses. That is a first try in an uncontrolled environment so it will work better with one light in the dark.

Flooded Grassland
Flooded Grassland

Margaret has been continuing her study of habitats. The book this week had her flooding the grasslands. There are no animal present in that habitat. It had her fill the habitat to a depth of one centimetre. We are still waiting to see the results. The only change so far is that the water level has decreased due to evaporation.

Philip is continuing to grind away at his list. He has finished listing renewable and non renewable resources and the positives and negatives of each. Just as an example of how he follows the rabbit hole in his learning. He started reading the Wikipedia article on nuclear power from there he read about: Nuclear fission, fusion, Chernobyl, Fukushima, Tsunami, Earthquakes, Richter scale… And I wonder why he never writes anything.

I’m Cooking…

Stuffed Tilapia
Stuffed Tilapia

It has been a while since I included this section as we had fallen back to our tried and true recipes particularly those that were quick. A while back I came across a pin for Stuffed Tilapia. It looked good and I happened to remember it this week. It turn out that the link in the pin didn’t go anywhere but fortunately the ingredients were in the pin so I winged it. It is going in the repeat pile but next time I need to make a double batch.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share (silly, serious or both!)…

Global Warming is something that I have been following for quite sometime. Years ago I wrote for a blog on environmental issues. They are no longer around. This week I found the following video which is the first episode in a series being shown on Showcase. There is some big name talent in it but what caught my attention and made we feel the need to share it was the religious angle. This could quickly turn into its own post but it boils down to while I don’t want to offend anyone and I don’t think the video will offend I do want people to watch it. It is very well done.

Linking up at:

Summer-Edition photo newboardblogbutton_zps5c91eaf8.png

5 thoughts on “Weekly Wrap up: Mostly Back to Normal”

  1. Glad that Phillip is better and you aren’t spending huge amounts of time at the doc. You all sound so busy. I am so busy with just one child that I can’t imagine having more than that! The bookcase looks amazing Chris!! Good job. The workshop sounds really cool and the kids seem to be staying busy. We LOVE rabbit holes! 🙂

  2. Thanks for sharing the video. I’m going to see if I can get access to the whole series. I studied chemical engineering and environmental science. I wish they would have shown more of the climate scientist’s presentation giving practical tips for everyone. It is so frustrating to me when parents leave their cars idling needlessly and other small things that are so easily changed.

  3. So glad Philip is healing! Poor guy. You really did a great job purging the shelves! I will get to that video just as soon as Bethany will let me! It sounds interesting. Just might make it a required viewing assignment for Jeremiah!

  4. So glad that he is healing! And awesome job on cleaning up your side of the room! I’m not sure I could have gotten it that organized! Hrm…that video has peaked my interest … perhaps another lesson for the boy and a good bit of new learning for me 🙂

  5. I’m happy that Philip’s recovery is going well and not requiring too long at th dr each day. I hope he is fully healed very soon. The pic through the glasses is very cool! Sounds like it was a fun workshop. We live pretty far from the planetarium and it is always crowded on during special events like that. We also live in the suburbs of a pretty big city. Still, I wish we could do a few things like that.
    Great job decluttering the bookshelves. No matter how often undo that job it seems they are always in need of decluttering. 🙂
    Happy Mother’s Day to Danielle!

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