2012 - Looking Back over Our Year

There are many ways I could highlight the events of 2012 in my family. Here are fun events from our year.

January:

Winter Weather Walk (Outdoor Hour Challenge) 
 

and Chickadee Study part 1

Composer Study: Mendelsohn

The Pentagon and the Capitol Building

February:
Chickadee Study, part 2


Twig Study (Outdoor Hour Challenge)
 

Mullien (Outdoor Hour Challenge)


 Artist Study: Caspar David Friedrich
 

March

Nature Study: Moon


Field Trips: Nasa Goddard, Greenbelt, MD

and an exhausting ice skating trip...

Warm weather has arrived early; home schooling at its best:


Nature Study: Cherry blossoms and crab apples:

Nature Study: the turtles are hatching in the creek! A baby snapping turtle and a baby red slider (sorry about the blurry photo)


April:
Needs no explanation... 

Field Trips: Mt. Vernon
 
 and Baltimore Zoo:
 
 
May:
My 2nd homeschooled student graduates college! 

 Nature Study: Stink Bug:

 

 June:
 Nature Study: 2nd Snapping Turtle! We didn't get too close to this one...

 
 My son likes to hang out at the creek a lot... I guess that's why we have so many studies there...

My son begins to make things to enter in the County Fair in 4-H.

  
 July:
 Independence Day:


The ribbons are from a previous year. And the projects pile up...

And we learned that Aunt Debbi has Stage V Breast Cancer... :(  ...and she begins to fight it...

August:
Last minute projects for the Fair...

 And then the awards are given... here are a few examples of his awards. Oops! Wrong year! Where are my photos of this years projects? I have no clue.

 

September:
First day of School

October:

 Nature Study, in which we find a "Wheel Bug". Experiment result - they do not eat worms.



Field Trip: C&O Canal

Homeschooling in flannel jammies -- that's part of why we homeschool, right?


November:

Boy Scouts extended hike and sleepover on the C&O Canal.

Thanksgiving of course.

December:

Boy Scouts work at Antietam Battle field, putting out illuminarios for the annual lights to remember the fallen in our nation's deadliest-ever battle. And a cold night's campout.

 Nature Study: Birds

 Christmas.

There are so many more things we did. I had blogged it once, but blogger ate it. This one turned out different, but nice. Also check my pages above for more things related to this year. Thanks for reading.

To read more Crew Blogs where we look back over our year go to the Schoolhouse Crew Review Blog.
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Menu Monday #1, 2013

Well, Monday actually falls in 2012, but I thought since most of the week is 2013... Anyway, today I get back to the strict work of controlling my blood pressure and cholesterol through diet. So, even going back a few days, here is the menu plan for this week:

Saturday:
Macaroni and Not Cheese, Green Beans, leftover ham for the carnivores

Sunday (my birthday):
Steak (for the carnivores), baked potatoes (I loaded mine with vegetarian chili), broccoli (followed by very NOT-vegan carrot cake!)

Monday:
Home made pizza, one vegan, one Pepperoni; salad

Tuesday:
Savory Lentils and Greens, Salad, whole grain rolls from Whole Foods

Wednesday:
Burgers and Fries, cooked carrots (black bean burgers and sweet potato fries for the vegan)

Thursday:
E2 Black Beans & Rice

Friday:
Vegan Pad Thai

Saturday:
Sweet Potato Bowls

This blog entry linked to:

 

 

Of Christmas Past

I wanted to start by posting a Christmas photo of my mom and Gram (Esther Holien, 1905-2003) from about 1960.

I don't know why some are color, but most of my 1960s photos are B/W. This photo below is my other Gram (Dora Hall, 1906-1999)

Next comes a photo in which I am either 13 or 14, so that would be either 1973 or 1974. On the Left is my dad (Herbert W. Hall - 1925 to 2006) and his mom, my Gram (Dora Hall), and I am between them. My sister (Lois) is in fron, left.

Next is a photo of my dad's brother, Robert Hall (1927-2007) with his 2nd wife Melba, and this photo looks like it is from sometime around 1988.


Then we get to less "ancient" photos. Sadly, none of the Christmas photos on my computer include my oldest daughter. She moved out in 2005. The first photo is about 2006 - it shows us doing what has become a tradition for my son. He doesn't even like gingerbread houses anymore, but still likes to make one every year.
 

Family Christmas photo says it is the same year, but to me JD looks a year older in the family photo.  
 
Then we have a succession of family Christmases.
  2007:

2008, on the annual trek to find and cut down the perfect tree:
 
2009:
 
2010 - Photos like this in 10 and 11, and I've now decided I want to get up and shower at 0'dark-hundred every Christmas and always be dressed with styled hair when we open presents:


2011 - family photo taken at Thanksgiving (to distribute in our Christmas cards), and a fast forward to another gingerbread house:

Visit Debbie's Digest  to join in with Think Back Thursday, and to see what other bloggers are sharing for this week's theme.  Nex for Jan. 3, 2013 we will do photos of Snow (with or without people is fine)

Think Back Thursday is a photo meme that encourages sharing something from the past.  It is hosted by Debbie's Digest.  You can find out more about it, and how you can participate, by clicking the link or the button below. 

2013 Bible Memory Challenge

I invite you to join me as I work on a challenge to memorize 100 Bible verses in 2013. Another blogger and TOS Schoolhouse Review Crew member challenged me to join and welcomed me to invite others to join as well.

She has started a FB group page for anyone who would like to join in. We will be working through the verses from the book, '100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know By Heart' by Robert J. Morgan, memorizing 2 verses a week for a total of 50 weeks. We will start the first week of January. You do not need to buy the book to participate.

Find more details at her blog here:
http://www.learningathisfeet.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

Request to join our FB group here:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/368804409878169/

Let me know by comment below if you are joining us as a result of my post. Thanks!
 

Getting More Done

I have joined some other bloggers, in the month of December, in a concentrated effort to get more projects done. This is an update on my progress.

Before Christmas I worked on decluttering a particular chair that had a pile of stuff on it -- the pile included a pile of flannel fabric that I had purchased on Black Friday to use for projects for my favorite charity, Online Angels.

Sheesh! I can't even see the fabric in that photo. Maybe it was under stuff. But I folded it and cut out fabric for diaper shirts and receiving blankets. So here is what I made:

)

I shipped them all off to Online Angels today (36 B Pine Drive, Pottsville, PA 17901). But there was more that I made. These diaper shirts are for the babies in Guinnea, Africa, where our church missionaries, Dan and Ginny Bryant, are:

They are currently stateside for a year of training and recuperation, but when they go back they will be armed with hats, blankets, shirts, bottles, spoons, and anything else we can round up for them.

So that's what I've gotten done lately. To see other bloggers who are getting things done, visit Homeschooling Hearts and Minds blog to see more.