Our unit study for this past four weeks has been the Victorian Era.
Queen Victoria reigned in England from 1837 - 1901 so our focus was on
any event in the world (excluding America) during these years.
Monday, October 21 - our kick-off for the Victorian Era: art in the form of Degas, wearing an Indian sarong, and reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Tuesday, October 22 - Jared's last soccer game for the season
Wednesday, October 23 - our Young Women in Excellence program (Hannah and Helena both attended, plus Beryl, Cailin, and Mikayla!)
Thursday, October 24 - Grandma Mattson's birthday and we studied A is for animals for "Skittles School"
Friday, October 25
- Trunk or Treat! Clarissa and Jerikka are Sister Missionaries, Krystal
and Amber are Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast Princesses, and
Seth and Jared are from NASA. Also, it was Luke's (Jared's friend from
China) birthday so Jared skyped with him after the party while at the
Morgan's house. Jared and Clarissa spent the night at the Morgans and we
had the young women spend the night at our house.
Saturday, October 26
- Stake Youth Temple Trip in Washington D.C. The kids stayed with
Christine and she took Seth and the girls to the Walker's house for a
Halloween party.
Sunday, October 27 - I attended Ward Council and was emotional over being called "Molly Mormon" and told I had control issues.
Monday, October 28 - We had our group activity for history group at the Walker's house and carved our pumpkins for Family Home Evening.
Tuesday, October 29 - We dressed up yet again, this time for a Halloween party at Clarissa's school.
Wednesday, October 30
- While picking up all the youth for mutual, my Dad called and informed
me that my Grandma Hansen passed away. For young men's they did a
service project installing insulation in a dirt basement and Jared got
filthy dirty, he did invite Jessie to go with him and he came!
Thursday, October 31
- HALLOWEEN! We had a Halloween party at our house with the homeschool
kids. We decorated cookies, played games, and explored a dissected cow
embryo! We had dinner and went trick-or-treating at the Turpin's house.
Friday, November 1
- We dressed up again! This time it was for a Halloween party at Dublin
Presbyterian with one of Jared's friends from soccer. I also found out
on the way there that my mom was in the hospital with blood clots and
decided to go to California to be with her while my dad went to his
mom's funeral.
Saturday, November 2 - It was difficult to
decide to leave Seth here with Chris, but we thought that it would be
best for him to stay with his siblings as he would be bored on the plane
and at my parent's house. We drove to Roanoke to take me to the airport
only to find that the flights to Charlotte were cancelled so we turned
around and drove down to Charlotte. On the way we dropped Jared off
with the Smiths so that he could go to Garrett's Halloween party,
unfortunately he had no costume, but he still had fun.
Sunday, November 3 - I went to church with my mom and Desi and Gabe. I missed Chris conducting Sacrament for the first time.
Monday, November 4
- My mom and I went to Simi Valley to visit with my Grandma Beth and
Aunt Kathy while the kids were at school. Jolene and Teresa and Nathan
came up to Tehachapi to visit and brought us dinner. The kids did their
presentations at the Brame's house, I helped them get ready for them on
Saturday, but I didn't get to see them on Monday.
Tuesday, November 5
- My mom and I looked through some family history journals and
documents then went to lunch. Tuesday evening when my dad and brothers
and sister came back from the funeral we had fun looking through the old
pictures from my grandparents. I spent the night at Jolene and
Jonathan's house and Jolene drove me to the airport on Wednesday. It was
an all day trip back home and I was so happy to see Chris and the kids
again that night.
Wednesday, November 6 - I spent the night at Jolene and Jonathan's house and Jolene drove me to
the airport on Wednesday. It was an all day trip back home and I was so
happy to see Chris and the kids again that night.
Thursday, November 7 - Liam didn't come for "skittles school" but Marshall came over to play with Amber.
Friday, November 8
- Krystal made cupcakes for our dessert and Jared watched the kids
while Chris and I went on a date to see "Ender's Game." I started
feeling sick with a cold that ended up lasting 3 weeks!
Saturday, November 9 - I shampooed the carpets and then in the evening took the youth to a Tri-Stake Activity in Roanoke.
Sunday, November 10 - My counselor, April, attended ward council for me. I taught the lesson on Work.
Monday, November 11 - We had book group for "The Good Master." We did activities about Hungary and their traditions for Easter and Christmas.
Wednesday, November 13 - We had a Career Night for mutual. We had 6 different presenters and it was great!
Thursday, November 14
- For Skittles school we learned about water, did some experiments with
water and did some watercolor painting. I was really impressed with
Amber's paintings.
Friday, November 15 - We had an "end of
the unit" Victorian Etiquette Dinner at the Brames house. So, of course,
we dressed up again. We had a 4 course turkey dinner and then
afterwards watched The Muppets Christmas Carol.
Saturday, November 16
- Chris was gone helping with a wood-cutting service project, I cleaned
the house and then in the evening we took family pictures for our
Christmas cards. After that we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant
and then went to Walmart to buy some garlic pills for me and some orange
juice for Seth because we were both still sick and I was pretty sure we
had sinus infections.
Sunday, November 17 - April taught the young women's lesson on gratitude.
A
couple other things to mention this month, but there aren't specific
dates for: Chris and I talked about buying a bigger house, we looked at
some houses online and even went to the bank, but we quickly decided
that we didn't want to spend more money on a house payment and I set my
mind to take better care of the house we have now which is why I spent
most of my Saturday's this month deep cleaning the house and carpets,
etc.
Also, at 17 months Seth still isn't talking, but I
borrowed some Signing Time videos from my mom and he loves them so we
have been teaching him sign language and he has caught on very quickly.
He has been using many of the signs and has even started attempting
some real words like "No" (of course), cracker, thank you, and of course
mama and dada. For eat he makes an eating sound and drink he makes a
drinking sound while signing the words. So cute!