Christmas Break Steelhead

Ok--so this is the best gift for my husband for Christmas--but it wasn't a gift anyone could really give him, because no one could have planned for him to go out and catch his biggest steelhead...but that's what he did on 12-27-07 when he went out on the Siletz with my Dad and brother. This fish made seven packages for our freezer, and I'm going to cook some for dinner in a little bit. In the picture, you can see it is about as big as Catherine. But she still wasn't satisfied. She told Daddy she wanted him to get two fishies. Anyway, Merry Christmas Jac! Glad you had a great day!

Merry Christmas

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Saint Nicholas Day

I love the story of St. Nicholas. It is a message that conveys the true spirit of Christmas and the true story of Santa Claus. October 6th is St. Nicholas Day each year, and we celebrated the occasion yesterday in the co-op class I teach--1st & 2nd grade History of the Holidays Unit Study (3 weeks on Thanksgiving, and 3 weeks on Christmas). In today's class, we began with the kids leaving their shoes outside the classroom after filling them with hay and carrots for St. Nicholas' white horse, just as kids did hundreds of years ago on St. Nicholas' Day. The teachers then secretly swapped out the horse feed for treats during the class, and the kids got a surprise when they went to get their shoes after class. They watched a short animated video of St. Nicholas, then we sat in a circle with the celebration tray (see photo) and candle lit in the center. There were tiny wrapped gifts placed around the center, as well. We talked about how St. Nicholas gave in secret, and then we did an activity to demonstrate giving in secret. With every child closing their eyes, and in anticipation, they waited until they were tapped on the head at which time it was their turn to select one of the gifts and secretly place it in another child's open hands. The game was done when everyone had a chance to give and each child received a gift. Then they opened the gifts. We discussed how it felt to give in secret, and how that is what Christmas giving is supposed to be about. We talked about how our own church and our families give in secret this time of year (like Operation Christmas Blessing, Shoeboxes, etc.), as well, carrying on the true spirit of Christmas. Finally, students played a game in groups where they decorated a red balloon with cotton balls to look like Santa and then the team to keep the balloon in the air the longest was the winning team.

Here is a website that is a lot of help in finding out more and teaching this on this topic to kids: http://www.saintnicholascenter.org/. The site has several printable activities, historical art, recipes, and stories, as well as a place where your children can send in their drawings of Saint Nick to be posted on the site, alongside the drawings of children from other countries around the world.

The following photo is a tray similar to what was traditionally made for a St. Nicholas Day celebration, and also includes Jessica's St. Nick coloring project from last week's class that introduced St. Nicholas, which shows the traditional clothing of a bishop.

Tackle It Tuesday--Impulsive Creativity

Ok, so I had been so into homeschooling thus far this school year, that I had kind of just let things clutter up. But now, suddenly, I am back on the home-making bandwagon and being just a little crazy about it. I always get a little obsessive about cleaning and organizing before I bring out the Christmas decorations and put up the tree, but this is a bit more than usual. I had a million ideas pop into my head all at once, and, so, I just went for it. I was impulsively tearing everything down from my walls and piling it in the middle of the floor, still unsure if I really should do it, but not caring because I just wanted a change. Jac cleaned our carpets on Friday, and so that also aided in the change-over--all the furniture was moved out already. I completely swapped the style, furniture, and colors of the family and living rooms, and moved all our big pieces to new places or new rooms. I am happy with the change so far--can't believe I didn't think to do this sooner. I am also getting rid of a lot of stuff--our garage is full right now, and I have a lot of sorting to do to get it all done, but it's a good start.

Anyway, here are a few photos from some of the projects I did today.

Here's the PB Conrad table that was Jac's gift to me last Christmas. I picked out the rustic ladderback chairs at a builder's supply store unfinished and Jac finished them to match the table. This picture shows the start of some Christmas decorating--the centerpiece is a large vase filled with layers of river rocks, faux cranberries from PB, and cedar boughs I collected outside. The runner and ribbon are also from PB sales after Thanksgiving, and I plan to hang something from the ribbon on the chairbacks, but haven't decided--mistletoe and cedar sprigs, handmade ornaments, treat cones, etc.

These photos also show that I moved our big armoire (aka 'school cabinet') from the corner and replaced it with the china cabinet that belonged to Jac's grandmother.

So, most people who come over comment on 'the flower couch' which is a sectional my mom reupholstered for us about 8 years ago. I was getting really tired of the floral pattern, but have fallen in love with it all over again by just moving it into our family room. The darker, brown walls really tame down the bright floral colors and it looks so much better! Not to mention it is comfortable and we can all sit together to watch tv now.

Our couch and loveseat are now in the living/great room awaiting the chocolate-brown slipcovers I got to put over them. These couches are getting old and worn, but the slipcovers may get us by without purchasing a new set of furniture for awhile longer.

I painted the chipboard monograms and black matte, and framed it over patterned scrapbooking paper in vintage-style frames. F for family, C for our last name, and 'est. 1998' in the oval frame for the year our family began--fun project!

The school cabinet is now in the living room, and replaces our large white cubicle cabinet which is now in the entryway nook to be useful in holding baskets and bins to collect all the stuff that accumulates from the entry, upstairs and the family room.

I'll try to share the full pictures when the makeover is complete, so you can see more what I am talking about.

Homeschool Open House & Weekly Report--Week 9

Homeschool Idea Share of the Week:

This is how we display all our artwork--on a string (using small colored bull clips or pretty paper clips) that hangs across an empty wall in our hall/great room area. I use the 3M Command Strips that allow me to easily remove it when I want a change.

For Christmas, we put up our numbered string of socks that is our Advent Calendar here. The socks are store-bought (I collected most from Gap and Old Navy outlets), Christmas-themed, multi-colored/patterned, and in mostly toddler and children's sizes. They are numbered 1-24 with red and white scrapbooking stickers, and I spelled out C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s on the 25th sock. In each sock, I put a rolled up slip of paper with a mini-lesson or activity related to Christmas typed out on each slip, and a small treat. These lessons/activities include all the traditions we have for Christmas, like cutting and trimming the tree while listening to Christmas music, baking Christmas cookies, and making and wrapping homemade gifts. They also include acitvities appealing to the different ages of our children, as we read through our variety of Christmas books and do extensions. For example, a simple preschool activity is reading our Christmas board book about the manger scene, then making a birthday cake out of whip cream, adding sprinkles and a candle, and singing 'Happy Birthday to Jesus'. They are easy to switch around if we change our minds about when we want to do a certain activity. We open one sock and do the activity each night to countdown the 25 days of Christmas.

Homeschool Humor of the Week:
Someone needs a puppy bad...this is Jessica dressing up and pretending with my old Cabbage Patch horse. She is walking it like a dog in a winter outfit. She was so pleased with herself, that she wanted me to share these photos on my blog...


Co-op Class Photos of the week:
I got a few pictures in these classes because they are the classes I'm teaching/assisting in. Jessica's other class is a Science class studying animals. Andrew is studying the human body in the pre/k class, and Cate is learning a new letter each week.

1st/2nd Grade Holiday Unit Study Class

Fall trees art with Thanksgiving poem--(the tree trunk is the child's arm traced and colored in)

Sorting/classifying buttons in small groups

Class discussion during snack time

Thanksgiving BINGO with buttons as markers

1st/2nd Grade Game and Craft Club Class

Making homemade Christmas gifts

The fun is in getting messy, right?

Photos at Home this Week:

Coloring a picture for Daddy

Lunch-time Reading

A tea-party with Mommy



A turkey craft Andrew made in a class.

Homeschool Open House & Weekly Report--Week 8

Sunday--Church, went to a family gathering with Jac's family--Hayride to Grandpa's Pumpkin Patch--and dinner/fall birthdays' party at Uncle Jeff & Aunt Heidi's following--beautiful day and lots of fun!


Grandpa has a Christmas tree farm, but also grows pumpkins, berries, apples, corn, and raises beef on a pretty large scale--supplies all of us with these products!

the cousins

loading the giant pumpkins



the 3 in the family with fall birthdays--Jess-8, Andrew-6, Emma-7--
(September, October, & November)

Monday--Dinner made from last night's party leftovers--roast beef/cheddar sandwiches on toasted french rolls, orzo-butternut-asparagus salad, caramel apple slices--yum!

Tuesday--Jessica's 1st Girls' Basketball Practice with Daddy coaching, U-bake pizza/salad dinner, hot apple cider and pumpkin carving

Wednesday--Halloween (trick-or-treating w/ friends--dinner out)--made a 'Pumpkin' lapbook

Thursday--Co-op Classes/Awana (Andrew out sick)--Jessica began her new session classes--Game & Craft Club, History of the Holidays Unit Study, and a Science class (studied dinosaurs)--Andrew's class started a unit on the human body--and Catie's class did the letter 'A'.

Jessica's art project this week--a still life drawing of a leaf w/ oil pastels

Friday--Daddy home from work (sick day)--fun to have him home with us for a school day--Jess caught up on her spelling lessons, and will have the a comprehensive first quarter test from all 9 word lists next week--worked on phonics cards with Andrew.

Saturday--organizing projects, & a shopping trip (while everyone stayed home lying low from colds)