Friday, April 5, 2013

Weekly Happenings: Ready for a Break


It's been a productive week -- a good note to end on, since we're taking next week off for our spring break. The girls and the dogs and I are headed to the beach for several days, and, boy are we excited! Sadly, Himself will be occupied with work activities involving golf, both playing and watching (at The Masters, no less), so he can't accompany us.

In math and science this week, Tiny Girl worked on the area and circumference of circles, and Miss Priss tackled percents. They read and notebooked about mixtures and solutions. WE entered our last two days' worth of data for Project FeederWatch. And of course, a few species who'd been conspiculously absent those two counting days decided to show up later in the week!


 Hermit thrush


 Male yellow-rumped warbler


We read from Plutarch's PericlesThe Story of the GreeksAugustus Caesar's WorldArchimedes and the Door of ScienceTales from Ancient EgyptThe Story of David Livingstone; and Beautiful Girlhood. Miss Priss is reading The Golden Goblet, Eloise Jarvis McGraw, and Tiny Girl is reading Outcast, by Rosemary Sutcliff. The both also read at least two Nancies. We also began the poetry of Alfred Noyes, and we all are enjoying his work.

Also on our schedule: adverbs from Daily Grammar; composition from Writing with Skill; inductive study of the Psalms, and piano practice.


We often see these little guys gleaning seed around the base of the feeders:

Chipmunk 


Here is this week's culinary disaster:



It was going to be a lemon cream cheese pound cake. I also made homemade raspberry sauce to go alongside. The cake batter was scrumptious; all signs pointed to a magnificent dessert for the dinner party Himself and I are attending this evening.

Five minutes into the baking time, I wondered about the burning smell. I flung open the oven door and wailed, "My cake!" The oven was furnace hot, and the thermometer inside read 500+ degrees. At first I thought maybe I'd put it on broil instead of bake, but no, all seemed as it should be. Except it was NOT as it should be.

So Himself is stopping by a local bakery on his drive home to pick up a raspberry white chocolate mousse cake. It's on hold for him. Thank heavens for local bakeries.



6 comments:

  1. Such lovely company you have around your house :) We have squirrels that bound across the yard. I'm loving that it's warmer and more birds are showing up.
    Have fun at the beach!
    (and I'd still eat that cake you made- the burnt might give it a bit of extra flavor lol *wink*)

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  2. I've noticed our chipmunks back out lately, too!
    And we had an oven that never stopped heating; the thermostat didn't know when to cut off. I didn't get to do much baking then! Hope there's no major problem with yours and it's something easily fixed!

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  3. I'm sorry - I shouldn't be laughing about your cake, but thank heavens for bakeries is right. :-)

    What do you think of Writing With Skill??

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  4. Hi! I found you over at Homeschool Mother's Journal. Oh my, the joys of baking! I once had a cake for my mom's birthday turn out as a complete disaster. Thankfully we called our friend who had a cheesecake business and she pulled one from her stash in the freezer so it could thaw before our guests arrived! If you get the chance, come see how our homeschool week went at http://fearfultofearlessblog.com/homeschool-journal-2/

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  5. Oh my...that would be frustrating to put the work into a cake and have it turn out like that! But raspberry white chocolate mousse cake sounds super yummy too. :-)

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  6. Sorry about your cake:(

    Love the pic of the chipmunk! And you have inspired us to do Project Feeder Watch next year:) Thanks!

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