Weekly Recap: With the hard choices

We've had an exciting week! For starters, my new computer is finally complete. When we bought it we received enough "rewards" that we could purchase a new monitor. When I bought the new monitor, it came with a gift card that we put towards a second monitor. When I bought the second monitor, it came with a gift card that I used on a bluetooth speaker. It started to get a little monotonous remembering which reward went toward what, but now it's all done and the setup is working wonderfully.

Daddy got a shift change and a promotion. He's excited, I'm excited, but worried about his two jobs and sleep schedule. We've been trying to adjust for a few days and we've got some more changes we want to make yet. It will all work out, I'm sure of it! :)

School highlights:

Our history lesson was about the Pioneer Handcart Companies. When the Mormons left Nauvoo, the first bunches used wagons. But many more wanted to come, and wagons and oxen were expensive. It was found that handcarts were much more affordable, and some groups made the trek successfully. Then there were two who ran into trouble and bad weather - the Martin and Willie handcart companies. It's such a prominent story in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that we frequently talk about it, make movies about it, and we send our youth to reenact trek for a few days. There's a new movie coming out soon called "TREK - The Movie". If you need a suggested movie that will show you how Heavenly Father helped those two ill-fated companies, watch "17 Miracles" or "Ephraim's Rescue."

A post shared by As We Bloom (@aswebloom) on Jan 29, 2018 at 7:39am PST

For our history lesson the children had to choose what they'd take with them in the handcart, and they had to keep their items under 17 lbs. Including clothing and bedding but not food. E easily kept it under weight, and we had to tell her to add stuff three times! She ended up under weight still. J was under so he added some books... the entire 5 Kingdoms series. Then he was over, so he chose to leave his scriptures home. Hmmm... N had the hardest time. Everything she brought was practical, or quite reasonable for a first grader. But when she was five pounds over, she nearly cried as we discussed what wasn't necessary. She was planning ahead - plenty of clothes, a coat and boots, chapter books to read, scriptures, lotion, two church dresses and her nice shoes for when we arrive in the Salt Lake Valley, hairbrush, toothbrush, a coloring book and crayons, a warm blanket, her blessing blanket (but she wouldn't use it until we got there so it didn't get dirty), and her two favorite dolls. It was heart wrenching to watch, even though it was all just pretend!

Our literature lesson was about conflict in Amos Fortune. We learned that how we handle conflict shows what kind of character we have.

Science was about sight, geography about three of the native South American languages, and art was about Aztec, Maya, and Inca art. Including the buildings, walls, and terraces they built. I think everyone was fascinated with that art lesson!

Maya, Inca, and Aztec art lesson today. Then we tried some embossing (repujado) of our own. #familyschool @everyhomeahomeschool art5, lesson11

A post shared by As We Bloom (@aswebloom) on Feb 2, 2018 at 9:01am PST

Until next week!