Spring Is Here! Spring Is Here!

Shout it from the roof tops!!  Spring is here!  OK, maybe I'm being a little over dramatic, but anyone who lives in Minnesota would agree that this was the longest Winter!  It feels so SO great to have some warmth.  It's the little things that are so awesome when the weather changes, like feeling air on your arms.  So great :)

We had a full week.  Monday was Earth Day.  We watched a documentary about Jane Goodall.  She is such an amazing woman.  Millie is now inspired to join Roots and Shoots.  Luckily we have on in our area, so hopefully she can connect with them.  We were going to do a park clean-up, but they were all delayed, then cancelled because of the snow.

Millie just did her normal work this week; cursive, spelling, math, learning about creating new life in science, and that's about it.  She had a lot of outings later in the week.  In fact, the outings overtook our week a bit, and we somehow managed to skip preschool altogether. Eeek!

Wednesday we went to a playdate at a playground.  It was the first nice day (although still really windy and cold.  I did NOT dress appropriately.  I must have just been too excited about the forecast of 50*).  The girls had a blast playing with friends, and meeting new friends.

Thursday was Bring Your Daughter To Work Day.  Millie went with Bud to work for half the day.  She had a great time photocopying her hand, playing on the Kindle, and coloring.  She didn't do any of the school work I sent with her.  I guess I can't blame her!  Afterwards, we all went out to lunch together at Buffalo Wild Wings (Millie's choice).

Friday we were supposed to go to book club then go to the horse expo, but Millie was too excited, so we decided to go directly to the horse expo.  It was much busier this year then in the years past, so the girls didn't get to ride horses all day long like they're used to doing.  It was really fun walking around, seeing all the different breeds, watching a show, petting lots of horses, etc.  There were quite a few foals, which was beyond adorable.

That about sums up our week!  We officially have 11 days left of school, and we have outings planned for 7 of them, and a standardized test on one of them.  Wowza, I need to use my super-organizational-woman skills to pull through the next few weeks!  Wish me luck!

The Never Ending Winter...

I read a great post about the winter doldrums yesterday.  I can safely say that I'm in the midst of the winter doldrums.  A few weeks ago we were able to walk to the History Museum without coats on, and it felt so good!  Since then, it's been cold, snowy, and wintery.  In fact, we even had Christmas dinner tonight (chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberries...the works) in an attempt to embrace this never ending Narnia winter.

Well, despite my extreme lack of motivation, and extreme desire to stay in bed with a cup of coffee, notebook, sharp pencil, and laptop, I have kids to educate.  Here's what we did this week:

We started out the day with a regular Monday.  I love Mondays!  We always get everything done that day, we're well rested, and everyone is usually in a great mood.  Millie learned about classifying animals in science, started to learn about the civil war, plus did the usual line up of math, spelling, reading, etc.

Wednesday we went out with out Jr. Rangers group to learn about bird migration.  The National Park Ranger took us on a hike along the Mississippi to check out a Great Blue Heron rookerie.  I had never seen a rookerie, and was not expecting to see what I saw.  It was pretty amazing! Can you imagine those huge birds (we're talking HUGE 6 foot wingspan birds), living high up in these trees?  It was pretty spectacular.  Along our hike, the kids found a tree that had been struck by lightening and was still smoldering, attempted to build a lean-to, found a cool animal carcass, and best of all, got to soak up some of the "heat" (it was in the 30's, but not raining or snowing!  We'll take what we can get these days!).

Thursday and Friday were really bad, weather wise.  Roads were horrible, so we stayed home.  We were supposed to go to the Minnesota State Orphanage Museum, but that was cancelled because of the weather. While I was glad I didn't have to drive in the ick, I was super bummed to miss that field trip.  I had been looking forward to it for months!!  It'll be rescheduled.  I just need to be patient.  ;)

For preschool this week, we talked about how gardens grow.  We read a couple good books, practiced counting with beans, cooked 15 bean soup, and started growing some beans (black, white, and kidney) in a clear plastic cup.  The girls hypothesized that the black bean would grow roots first.  They were right, but were surprised when the other two beans kept on growing like crazy, while the black bean stopped with just a couple little roots.

Millie had her 4-H Share the Fun skit competition on Friday night.  She had a blast!  She has made some great friends in 4-H, it's honestly one of the best things she's got going on.  Her skit came in 3rd place!!  Congrats to the St. Croix Clovers!!

See my little peanut, right in the middle?

Millie is "Pinkie the Ghost"

Back to my winter doldrums...my goal for next week is to break free from the doldrums.  I'm calling it "willpower week".  Here are my goals for the upcoming week:

• Drink 5 glasses of water per day
• If the temp hits 40*, I will go jogging
• If the temp is too cold, or it's raining (or heaven forbid...snowing!!), I'll do a Turbo Jam video
• I will purchase supplies to create a household management binder
• Teach Millie how to make breakfast so I don't have to buy cereal anymore
• No sweets, unless I make them myself.

Check out what other homeschoolers did this week, here!

Did You Miss Them? River Room Popovers!

Long, long ago, pre-kids, pre-ever-going-to-River-Room, the Pioneer Press posted this recipe, and for some reason I clipped it out.

See how old it is?  It's yellow.

Anyway, whether or not this is the "official" popover recipe from the River Room, it tastes exactly the same.

Here's the recipe:


Popovers - Makes 12-18

5 Eggs
1 2/3 c. Whole milk
5 T Melted butter
1 2/3 c Flour
1/2 T Salt

To prepare oven, baking pans:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly coat popover pans or deep muffin tins with nonstick spray.  Heat pans in oven for at least 15 minutes.

To prepare batter:
In large bowl, use electric mixer on medium speed to beat eggs until frothy.  Add milk and melted butter.  Mix well.  Add flour and salt.  Mix just to combine.

To bake popovers:
Divide batter among preheated pans, filling each cup less than half full.  Bake for 30-40 minutes or until puffy and well browned and popover pull away from pan easily and feel light to the touch.  Remove from pan.  Serve warm.

Enjoy!