Alex the high-orange belt

Alex tested for his high-orange belt tonight. He was so nervous that he made me nervous sitting there watching him! In the end he did a great job and passed! His board breaking technique was the axe kick.

Chameleon

This week's preview

This week we are studying Ancient China. I would love to do some hands-on work, but we have so many good books to read. I doubt we'll get to hands-on work.

This week's meal schedule:

Mon - Corn Keilbasa Chowder (yum!)
Tue - Nachos
Wed - Masala Chicken w/ rice and naan bread
Thur - Piccata chicken
Fri - Pizza

*The Masala and Piccata sauces are simmering sauces from Trader Joes. When the creative juices run thin, it's nice to know there's a back up. By the way, I like to share recipes. If you have any great crock pot or easy to reheat recipes I'd like to see. I need ideas for the nights that I work.

Alex has his high-orange belt test this week. I was thinking that I would need to get him a private lesson, but he seems to know everything. His Taekwondo place is also collecting food to make Thanksgiving boxes. We'll be there on Friday to help pack and deliver.

It's colder outside and raining more. I'm ditching the 5k training. I'll try again in the spring. I'm just a wimp when it comes to the cold.

My second scarf is knitting much faster than the first scarf did. It's a bit inspiring.

I think that's about it. I'm sure something else will come up this week.

A friend brought over some of her old clothes for Brianna. She'll have a coat and some sweatshirts. Now I don't have to feel like a negligent mother who's just waiting for Christmas to come because I know my kids will get clothes then.

My friend also brought me her old pink Razor phone. I hope it will work with my sim card so I don't have to carry around my clunker phone. Too bad there wasn't a cash for clunkers phone exchange!

Friday night with the boy

Last night we did separate "date nights" with the kids. Brian had planned on taking Brianna to the art museum, but they were only open to members. They ended up walking around downtown Portland and then having Chinese for dinner.

Alex and I went to Baja Fresh for dinner and then we headed to downtown Portland to take the aerial tram up to OHSU. We were the only two on the way up. It was a little freaky to me. I'm not that afraid of heights, but there was one point where the tram swings a little. Alex thought it was pretty cool and the view of the city lights was amazing. We walked around OHSU for a little bit. The hospital has changed since I last worked there. Alex thought the sky bridges to the VA Hospital and Doernbecher were pretty cool.

On our way home we stopped at a pet store to get something for Owen and we passed Brian and Brianna. They came home with sundae fixins'. We ended the night with ice cream and a movie. This is a first of intentional date nights. I'm sure we'll be doing more.

Week 2 of crazy

This is my second week of my walk/run to train for a 5k and I still wonder what I'm doing. This week's schedule is a 5 minute warm up, 3 cycles of walk 5 minutes and run 2 minutes, and a cool down walk.

To sum it up so far....I have 6 minutes of agony each time I go out the door.

Seriously, my thighs are killing me. The last 2 minutes of the run are the worst as far as my lung capacity goes.

I just keep telling myself that it will get better the more I exercise. 'Cause I'm that crazy.

The end of our first unit

We finished up our first Tapestry of Grace unit this week! I can't believe that 9 weeks of school has already gone by. This unit focused on Ancient Egypt through the Exodus. We ended with the Israelites wandering through the desert for 40 years.

For our unit celebration we will be having a Seder meal with our church group. I know it's not the right time of year, but, we have been studying Jewish holidays and this is what the curriculum has you do to celebrate. The kids will set out their lapbooks and the other items that they worked on over the past 9 weeks for everyone to see.

This is our final project....a model of the tabernacle. It's not very professional, but, it works for us.


In our next unit we move on to Ancient China, India and South America. We also venture back to the Israelites and their anointing of a king. So far I am absolutely enjoying this curriculum. The kids will tell you that they aren't, but, it's school to them and deep down inside I think that they are. They certainly are learning more this year than I think they have in years past.

What am I thinking?

Sometimes I think I'm a little crazy at the things that I choose to do. Every year I try to think of something new to try. This year I was "inspired" to train for a 5K run after volunteering at a run.

I've never been a runner. I like to walk. I've always thought running was a little crazy. Only run if you need to - such as trying to get away from something or someone chasing you. But, after being at the finish line, I thought to myself, "If I can walk three miles, surely I can run them. It's not that far." The other crazy thing about all of this is that the race I helped at was in October. So, now I'm training as we're heading into winter. And, we don't have a treadmill at our house, so it's all outside.

I found a training schedule that slowly will work me up to a full run in 8 weeks. Yes, this will run into December. Crazy. This week I've been doing a 5 minute warm up walk, 3 cycles of walk 6 minutes and run 1 minute, and then a short cool down walk. The training schedule decreases the walking time and increases the running time each week. My plan is to do this at least 4 times a week.

If it gets too cold and starts snowing or anything crazy like that, then I can fall back on my EA Sports Active Wii game. That will at least keep me exercising.