Weekly Happenings: Blurred, Wet, Silvery Days

Last week's weather was autumn glorious; this week it rained. But that's okay. We need the rain. And there's something lovely about being cozy inside on rainy days. When my mother was a child, one of her teachers called rainy days "blurred, wet, silvery days," and I think that is a perfect description.

A few highlights:

R. E. Francillon's Gods and Heroes continues to be a favorite with the girls. I schedule two readings per week, but they both tend to read two at a time! Their narrations are quite good, so I don't deter them. Most of the stories are quite short. They've read Rick Riordan's novels, so they enjoy comparing what they recall from those novels with the more traditional myths they read in Gods and Heroes.

We're also reading a biography of Isaac Newton excerpted from Great Astronomers by Sir Robert S. Ball. This is a well-written selection, despite the author's hero worship of Newton, and we're enjoying it. I knew very little of Newton prior to this, so I'm finding it fascinating.

The girls are relieved that we've left Wordsworth behind for the moment and moved on to Kipling. His poetry is more accessible for their ages, so they appreciate it much more. I'd hoped to find online a recording of Kipling reading some of his work; however, I learned that very few of his recordings survive. Apparently, the most accessible is the CD The Spoken Word: Poets, produced by The British Library Sound Archive. Many other famous poets are included. Here's a link if you're interested.

A hit with the girls is a new one for us, The Book of Think, by Marilyn Burns. One of the Brown Paper School books from the 1970s, this is a fantastic and fun book about critical thinking. The children enjoy the activities, and they want to read more than what's scheduled. Since I want them to absorb the material, I have them stick to the plan. But it's a joy to see them so engaged!

On a culinary note, I made homemade crescent rolls! I found this wonderful, super-easy recipe online. I mixed the dough up after supper and let it sit overnight. In the morning, I divided the dough in half, rolled each half into a circle (okay, it wasn't perfect), smeared it with butter, cut it into eight triangles using a pizza cutter, rolled them up, and let rise before baking. One half of the dough I merely rolled into crescents and then froze to bake later. They were delectable with honey butter.

Right now, we're getting packed up for an overnight trip. We're headed for a UKC dog show, our second. Tiny Girl is showing Jasper in the altered class with hopes of winning his second championship point; and Miss Priss is showing Georgette in the puppy fun match. We'll be seeing the dogs' breeder and our good friend, Leslie Reed from KeelMtn, at the show, too. We're excited!

I read a wonderful quote this week I'll share with you:

The value of life, to me, is that it is so big, and we are so small, that we can never get hold of all of it: there is forever something more, still unknown.
--Rose Wilder Lane

I'm linking up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and The Homeschool Mother's Journal. Have a great October weekend!