Resolution #8 is to post a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.

I am trying to choose one picture of each of them that hopefully shows what their week was like

He has been very driven and motivated lately, he’s going to three extra lessons a week.

This little one isn’t feeling so awesome this week.

Little Miss loooooves to help bake!

Here we go, week seven! This is only my second time posting this on a Friday which is what I had originally intended to do! Thinking about my resolutions every week it’s crazy how fast the weeks fly by! Seven weeks already?!

1. stay at least one week ahead of our homeschool schedule
We are about 3 or 4 days ahead of schedule right now. There are some other long term projects (like my 8th grader’s research paper and my 3rd grader’s science project) that they have been working on overtime since they were assigned, they’re not due for weeks and they’re both almost finished. This is really helpful for both freeing up days for field trips or other outings and for covering sick days throughout the year.

2. celebrate everyone’s birthday (local and long distance) with a card in the mail.
I have been horrible at this! Usually I’m really on top of this until March or so, and then I sputter off into oblivion. This year, I’m so caught up in other things, I have been late with every card I’ve sent and I’ve even missed sending notes as well! I hate the idea of scrapping this, but doing something poorly is worse than not doing it at all. :/

3. keep our family photo site updated (in the 10 years we’ve had that site, we’ve always been about 3-5 months behind)
Making progress!!

4. start a ‘what we did today’ journal (index card version is cute)
I’m so glad we are doing this, it’s so sweet!

5. quit social media that’s not blog related basically I just wanted to quit Facebook
While I am still fielding ‘why would anyone ever leave Facebook?’ emails and messages from well meaning family and friends, I am still happily not on Facebook and I only use social media as So Very Domestic.

6. blog 3-5 times a week
I only blogged twice this week. Boo!

7. make a lightbox and get better at food photography
I finally know what I need! Right now optimum photo taking happens between 11am and 2pm by my kitchen window. With a lightbox, I can take lovely pictures whenever, like you know, at 1 am when I am most likely to be finishing up some crazy kitchen creation. I’m also looking for large tiles as backgrounds!

8. a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Week Six
Week Seven coming tomorrow!

9. bake a cake every weekend
Week One – Nutella Icebox Cake
Week Two – Orange Creamsicle cake
Week Three – White Chocolate Strawberry cupcakes
Week Four – Pink Lemonade cupcakes
Week Five – Red Velvet cupcakes (with cream cheese icing)
Week Six – Dark Chocolate cake with Strawberry Filling
Week Seven – Pink Strawberry cake with Strawberry Frosting

10. participate in sockdown 2014
I’ve been pretty terrible at this as well so far but there is more than enough time to recover. I casted on for January’s lace socks and life got in the way and I haven’t touched them much at all, but technically I have until the end of February to finish them and as long as I cast on for February’s socks before the end of February and finish them before the end of March they count!

11. finally finish my knitted beekeeper quilt
Ugh. So many puffs to knit still! I have almost 400 hexipuffs but it looks more and more likely that I will need 500 before I can sew it together and actually use it.

I’m replacing alcohol with coffee this year! That means late night coffee drinking with girlfriends instead of wine fueled knitting and so far, so good. Even just a couple glasses of wine with a full meal can make the next morning not so fun for me. This life is way too busy for me to spend Sunday morning nursing myself back to health. Also, I think I get more knitting done this way, even if I have yet to prove that this year!

Oh. My. Goodness. I remember when we told our two oldest kids (12 and 7 at the time) that they could each choose one physical activity to do. We had decided to continue homeschooling and they needed some kind of organized physical fitness a few times a week. Each of them chose things that they not only came to love, but they came to be very dedicated to as well! Now we homeschool every week day, our oldest has classes 5-6 days a week with 3 private lessons on top of that, our tiny dancer has classes 5 days a week with 1-2 private lessons on top of that and we try to take a few afternoons a week for our littlest one to spend time with her buddies. Non stop action. This is why I stay up so late, so I can knit and talk to my husband and do nothing for a minute.

For now, though? For now, let’s forget about everything else and just make an Oreo pie.

I have made this entirely from scratch with homemade pudding and whipping cream and guess what? It doesn’t work! I KNOW!

via Kraft

1 1/2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs
6 tablespoons melted butter
2 pkgs instant vanilla pudding
2 1/2 cups milk
8 oz thawed whipped topping
10-15 Oreos, chopped up or broken

Super simple. Just mix the cookie crumbs and butter in your pie plate and, once combined, smoosh the crust into the pie plate. Make sure it’s all over the bottom and up the side to form a good looking crust.

Mix the milk with half of the whipped topping and then mix that with the pudding mixes. Fold in Oreo cookie chunks.

Pour the filling into the crust and top with the rest of the whipped topping. Sprinkle more Oreo cookie chunks and crumbs on top. Freeze for at least 4 hours.

Resolution #8 is to post a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.

I am trying to choose one picture of each of them that hopefully shows what their week was like

Competing in the IBJJF Pan Kids Jiu Jitsu Championship was no joke. He did well!

Wearing her new NRG shirt from last week’s competition to her rehearsal and stretching class today.

Out to breakfast with the whole crew at Coco’s Bakery.

Yet again, a day late. 😉

Every week, I’m looking at my goals for the year and going over my progress one at a time in an attempt to help me achieve them. I intend to do these on Fridays, but I’ve only managed to get it out on a Friday once. This weekend marks the end of the 6th week, the year started on a Wednesday so for this purpose and for counting cake weeks, I’m totally ignoring that week. 😉

I skipped last week because the transition from homeschooling through the local school board to doing it through California Virtual Academy has been more challenging than we had anticipated, but I think we are ironed out the issues in our schedule.

1. stay at least one week ahead of our homeschool schedule
This was my original resolution related to school and then we started a new program (which we love, hooray for California Virtual Academy) and our goal became to stay on top of the new schedule. After two full weeks of this program, we’re finding a groove and we are able to get a little ahead of schedule to allow for some wiggle room and we have found time for review to make sure the new concepts are really sinking in. Today we were working on some assignments due on Tuesday (we don’t have classes or assignments this Monday), so we are barely one day ahead, but given how challenging the move from standard to advanced curriculum has been I think a day is pretty good. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we’ll be an entire week ahead. 😉

2. celebrate everyone’s birthday (local and long distance) with a card in the mail and a little letter an email.
I hate to admit that I can’t follow through with something but it’s so much worse to do too many things half way. I’m learning my limits and I’m changing this resolution to sending everyone an email on their birthday. The idea behind the resolution in the first place was to stay in touch with long distance family and friends outside of holidays.

3. keep our family photo site updated (in the 10 years we’ve had that site, we’ve always been about 3-5 months behind)
I went to start working on this last week and I came across a whole lot of messy code I had left for myself. My husband made it easy to include php files for me (because he is the raddest) making updating so, so, so much easier, but I am going through my folders of pictures to untangle the mess. It should be another few days of sorting through it all before I can actually start adding new photos and videos.

4. start a ‘what we did today’ journal (index card version is cute)
Still doing it, it’s so cute!

5. quit social media that’s not blog related basically I just wanted to quit Facebook
Still not on Facebook! It’s funny though how many people are almost personally offended and ask how we’ll be able to stay in touch without out it! You can just email or text or even use Instagram or Twitter or Tumblr! I have also been asked what triggered the decision to quit, like it had to be some big event and my solution to it is quitting. Really, it all boils down to a pretty simple concept that we all already know. Without Facebook, the shelf life of some friendships (and most acquaintanceships?) would be a lot shorter. It is such a cultural norm to add acquaintances on Facebook from your neighbors to people you haven’t seen in 10 years to randos from the gym and on and on. I had quite a collection of acquaintances that I really didn’t want to have, but every time I deleted someone, I’d get a message from them asking why I deleted them. As if knowing that we haven’t spoken, even online, in years isn’t reason enough.

6. blog 3-5 times a week
Yikes, I only blogged once this week!

7. make a lightbox and get better at food photography
I have been looking online at Home Depot to find some plain tiles to use as backgrounds in food photography. Still need to research more.

8. a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four

9. bake a cake every weekend
Week One – Nutella Icebox Cake
Week Two – Orange Creamsicle cake
Week Three – White Chocolate Strawberry cupcakes
Week Four – Pink Lemonade cupcakes
Week Five – Red Velvet cupcakes (with cream cheese icing)
Week Six – Dark Chocolate cake with Strawberry Filling

10. participate in sockdown 2014
I mentioned last update that January’s techniques were lace and intarsia, and that I went with lace since I’m still fighting with epic intarsia socks. I have hardly knitted at all in February – I haven’t even finished January’s socks! Tonight is a marathon knitting fest, if I finish January’s socks this week, I’ll cast on and try to finish February’s socks.

11. finally finish my knitted beekeeper quilt
I have knitted about 10 more puffs for this blanket, maybe another 90 or so to go? I laid out my 360 puffs to see how big the finished blanket would be with just that many and decided I’d need about 100 more. I’ll check again when I have another 100 to add.

Resolution #8 is to post a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.

I am trying to choose one picture of each of them that hopefully shows what their week was like

Out for a Chipotle date after meeting his new online learning advisor.

4th place & the pink award at the NRG Golden State Championship!

Weekly library haul, fresh bedtime stories every week.

Yet again, a day late. 😉

Resolution #8 is to post a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.

I am trying to choose one picture of each of them that hopefully shows what their week was like

On the lawn of our local library, middle school is so much reading!

This was taken on the way to her first photo shoot. Super fun!

Sometimes, just sometimes, she sleeps.

Ha! A day late again. 😉

Every week, I’m looking at my goals for the year and going over my progress one at a time in an attempt to help me achieve them. I intend to do these on Fridays, but you know…

1. stay at least one week ahead of our homeschool schedule stay on top of our new homeschool schedule and attend social events
We have been struggling with wanting to send our kids to school so they have a ‘normal childhood experience’ and with wanting to keep them home because we have seen the benefits (both academically and socially believe it or not) that have come from homeschooling. We have finally found a hybrid alternative with an online virtual school. We finished up our last day with the LAUSD’s ISP program on Friday and we start the new program today! We have chosen this both because while the kids are still at home and have our full support, they are lead by teachers online which is especially helpful for our oldest who is in his last year of middle school and will soon be tackling subjects I’m a little rusty with. Trigonometry, anyone? And also because this program has field trips and social events with the whole group which is really the only thing lacking in the program we are were using. There is a high school graduation ceremony and even proms, sporting events and dances. Who knows if they will want to do any of that, but having the option is what matters. I’m changing this resolution because as far as I can tell, you can’t get ahead of schedule with this program. If one of the kids understands a concept already or catches on right away, they are able to move on to the next concept. Once we start I will be better able to know how to word this goal!

2. celebrate everyone’s birthday (local and long distance) with a card in the mail and a little letter
I think I will make a little page to keep track of the birthdays and the cards we send out to see it coming together. Last week we sent out cards to my dad and Melissa. This week we sent out cards to my husband’s long time friend Jon and the first friend I made online (waaay back in 2001) Nichole. I should note that these four always get birthday cards. I am usually really good about this until sometime in March or April. Then I tend to totally forget about it. I know, terrible! So far, so good!

3. keep our family photo site updated (in the 10 years we’ve had that site, we’ve always been about 3-5 months behind)
It is so embarrassingly behind! I haven’t touched it at all this year. :/

4. start a ‘what we did today’ journal (index card version is cute)
I’ve been keeping up with just writing a line about what we did each day! This will be especially cute next year so we can look back and see what we were doing a year ago. Cute! I got index cards and a date stamp, and have been pretty good about making notes every day.

5. quit social media that’s not blog related basically I just wanted to quit Facebook
I currently only use social media as ‘soverydomestic’ and so most of what I post and do is blog related (though really, since this blog is mostly about what I make and do, it’s kind of the same thing).

6. blog 3-5 times a week
I blogged 4 times last week!

7. make a lightbox and get better at food photography
Next week? I didn’t even think of this much this week.

8. a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014
Week One
Week Two
Week Three

9. bake a cake every weekend
Week Three – Neapolitan Cake

10. participate in sockdown 2014
This month’s techniques are lace and intarsia – and since I’m still working on my Ravenclaw Pride socks, I went with lace. The pattern, Anna, is a 10 row repeat with something a little different on the first row! You knit two stitches together, leave them on the left hand needle and then knit just the first stitch and slip both new stitches off. What? Really simple and looks good. It has a 33 row cuff which is something that would probably dissuade me from wanting to knit these socks, but once I saw the cuff coming together I loved it!

11. finally finish my knitted beekeeper quilt
I have knitted about 10 more puffs for this blanket

I also planned to replace alcohol with coffee, I thought it was a great idea and then my husband who drinks alcohol only once every few years, suggested we start having a drink with dinner. We had both recently read about a slew of health benefits to having one drink a day. So maybe we’ll alter that to having one a day and try to make it fun? I should note that 27 days into the new year and neither of us has had any alcohol so who knows which way we’ll go with that.

Resolution #8 is to post a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.

I am trying to choose one picture of each of them that hopefully shows what their week was like

Caught having fun with his sisters in the backyard! Hazah!

We could all learn about life balancing from this one! Busy dance and school schedules and she makes time for fun.

She ‘invented’ a game where she throws a ball through a hula hoop held up by a sibling. So cute!

Only a day late on this project this week! Progress!!

When we first started homeschooling through the LAUSD, it took a little while to get into the swing of things. The way that I ended up finding it best to organize our work was binder style. Once a week, we meet with our check in teachers and hand in the work from the week before.

Since the work is organized by week, I organized the binder the same way. The start of each section had a sheet protector with that week’s assignment sheet in it. Then, all the work for each subject is hole punched and put in the binder – and each subject is paper clipped together to make handing it in easier. When I’m setting up each week, if I am missing something I remind myself to print it later or order missing items by putting a sticky note on the sheet protector so it’s the first thing I see for that week. For assignments that don’t fit in a binder, I write down the assignment on a sheet of paper and put it with the other assignments. I do that honestly so we don’t forget to do it, or come back to it if we have started it and set it aside to work on something else. Generally, we were easily able to finish what was assigned for each day long before it’s time to call an end to the school day.

That was a good thing and a bad thing. It was a good thing because we supplemented with other curriculum to both fill in some holes and to reinforce concepts we were working on, and it allowed a lot of free time to work on things that are important to us but not part of standard curriculum, like programming and their physical pursuits like competitive dance and jiu jitsu. It was a bad thing also because while the free time was good in a way, I feel like there was too much free time because the kids were not being challenged enough, also because there is not a lot of opportunity for social interaction.

Socialization with homeschool kids is for sure the biggest issue, both to us personally, and it seems to other homeschoolers as well (and to all the randos who want to weigh in on this kind of thing). I have met a lot of homeschooled kids at meetups when we first started doing it and were searching for ways for the kids to make friends. Some of them were great kids – and some of them were the version of weird that is the stereotype of homeschooled kids. I mean obviously there are weird kids in public school, Catholic school, and private school too – but we’re not talking about them. 😉

It’s been almost two years now that we have been doing this and I absolutely feel that I am way more focused on my kid’s social lives than I was when they were in school. Between dance, jiu jitsu and playgroups, all three of them have found great friendships here and unlike friendships cultivated at school with kids I don’t know from families I don’t know, I have a much better understanding of what they are up to. I understand that when they are older they need to be able to judge for themselves who they should be spending time with, but I really believe that they need more time than just elementary school and honestly even middle school to be able to make those judgments. I’m a big fan of The Mommy Mess, and back in September she posted this about her kids not having formed their social circles yet – and I totally agree that it is a good thing!

Next week, we are starting a different homeschooling program, based mostly online. There are two big reasons we decided to switch programs, the first was the community days in this program where we will have the opportunity to meet other kids doing the same program, in a social instead of academic environment (knowing that there is a traditional graduation ceremony for high school was a pretty big bonus too). The second reason was the curriculum, this program has great curriculum that I am looking forward to starting. The more I looked into the program and the more research I did, the more excited I got about it. As soon as I was officially able to log in and check out the interface this week, I was impressed. Every morning the kids will check in online and they have a list of tasks to do and a list of materials they need for those tasks. I have already sat in on a few workshops that were full of great ideas.

This program being mostly online with some offline schoolwork to be done each day fits well with us as a family. We’ll update as we get into it!