HS week of the Persians

In my life this week...

If anyone is a 'regular' on my homeschooling blog, you will notice that this is not it.  As our school year is speeding ahead to the finish line and we are preparing to move to Alaska, I needed to streamline for a few months.  I hate to be confusing, please forgive the transition, but I will only attempt to keep up with this blog until we get settled in Alaska.  Also, I may have to place C2C on ice for a bit just because we have been warned that AK has a slower Internet than I am used to, so I may not be able to play with 2 blogs anyway.

We finally got our RFO (request for orders) and we had hoped that hubby could just walk that paper work over the personnel and they would print off their orders.  Hahaha, what were we thinking, this is the military!!  He called frantic: we had to get 3 of us annual physicals for our packet, we had to have a family appointment with the special doctor to state that no one has any developmental issues, and hubby has to be cleared by several doctors BEFORE he can apply, with packet in hand for the orders.  Oh, and did I mention that we have to actually have a set of orders before we schedule the moving people, the packing people, and to ship the small red car to Alaska.

 In our homeschool this week...
I did the math and we have to double up on our weeks of HS to be done and tested by the second week of May.  I didn't actually panic much since we have been using Friday as a goof off, go wherever, do whatever, make up day.  I dropped Zoology since we were already into our second book of the year (prying that away from the oldest was no easy feat!!)

In history we are studying the Greek and Persian Wars.  We read about the rise of Persia saw an fantastic video on the city that Darius built (free from Netflix), and we briefly discussed Israel's history integrated.  Did you know that Darius had a triumphal relief made of his rise to kingship that he protected from graffiti?  He had his stone masons climb a rock along the main road, chisel out his 'story' and then had them remove any way to get to the picture.  It worked so well that historians have had to rappel down to take pictures and interpret them.  Did you know that parts of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are all written in this time frame?  Did you know that the Persians were very tolerant of other religions and that is a key reason why the exiles were allowed to return and rebuild Jerusalem?  I just love the Tapestry of Grace interwoven history.  And my kids get it!!  How cool is that, right??

The Persians were also the first with a Pony Express.  The kinds wanted to get messages quickly from the farthest territories and so a road, change station, and rider force were employed.  The current PO motto comes from the Persian Express creed.

My least favorite thing this week...

We dropped our dog off with the lady who is taking him back to the breeders this summer as we move.  I just couldn't see him enjoying travelling for days in the van, being stuck in his kennel in hotels, and forcing him to do his business in the hull of the ferry.  So he will spend his summer on the cattle farm he was born on and I don't get my morning coffee companion.  Even though I knew it was coming, the actual parting was horrible :-(

Things I am working on...

I was inspired a couple weeks ago by "I Saw it on Vacation" and created a similar directory for History Hunting.  If you would like to include a blog post of your history hunting, please click over and place the link into whatever section of history and region you are studying :-)


I made a spiffy button using our visit from the Liberty Bell last summer.

I'm cooking...

I made homemade noodles this week.  It is actually my second attempt and it signifies a 'lost battle' for me.  We have a running joke in our home: "I bet you could make this better."  It began years ago when I made buttermilk biscuits and I have never been able to buy pre-made or store bought without comments from the crew.  But making things from scratch takes longer and I have resisted noodles for that reason.  Sometimes I have enough on my plate that I want something easy... but it always tastes 'fake' to the  crew.  But noodles they are and they taste great.  Not to mention that a box of noodles or pasta is almost a dollar and I can make them for maybe 30 cents.

1  3/4 cup AP flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend well
In separate bowl whisk:
2 beaten egg yokes (only the yokes, save the egg whites for that fabulous white cake!!)
1 beaten egg (whole thing)
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon cooking or olive oil
Mix well with stand mixer paddle or hook.  Use 1/4 cup flour to roll dough out.

For homemade chicken noodle soup noodles I rolled them to about 1/4 inch, rolled the dough jelly style, and cut thin rolls off.  Then my daughter helped me to cut them into sections for the soup.  These things puff up a bit, so keep that in mind.

I'm praying for...

Our pastor's wife who has a mass in her abdomen, she is getting it looked at next week.  Our move, housing decisions and wisdom.  A good end to our HS year.

Something worth sharing...

It may feel good to bite of more than we can chew, showing off how much we can handle.  However, others have to watch us chew with our 'mouths full', watch stuff fall out of our mouths... and that isn't pleasant.