Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with all the Activities

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weekly wrap-up

It has been a fun, crazy, busy, incredible week.  I didn’t get home from Relevant until almost midnight Sunday night, thanks to two traffic jams on my way home.  Other than being late, though, the trip was an easy, uneventful, and – most importantly – safe one.

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Relevant was a God thing, from start to finish.  I seriously thought about posting about it here, but I tend to get wordy because of the way that God took care of every single detail, so I think I’ll save that for its own post one day next week.  For now, I’ll stick with the highlights of our school week, which was crazy in and of itself.

Monday, I hadn’t planned to do much since I got in so late Sunday night, but Brianna does have her Spanish class on Mondays, which goes on whether we take off or not.  Brian was off, so we went to – where else? – Chick-fil-A for lunch since there was no food in the house, then, we went grocery shopping during Brianna’s class.  The rest of the evening, thankfully, was empty, so we got to enjoy some relaxing family time.

Tuesday, Josh and Brianna were able to take part in a gun safety class with some homeschool friends.  They both thoroughly enjoyed the class, but Josh has talked of little else since.  If we lived closer to my mom and step-dad, Charlie (my step-dad) would probably have an extremely willing hunting partner whether he would want one or not.  I will say, it’s fun to watch Josh target shoot; he’s a very good shot.  What’s not fun is hearing my ten-year-old baby talking about wanting to pursue a career in the military.  *sigh*

While the older kids were hanging out with their friends, Megan and I enjoyed some one-on-one time at a nearby McDonald’s.  You’ve gotta love their $1 menu, what with its sweet tea for me and sundaes for the kids.

Wednesday was Megan’s music class and our first day back to a more regular-looking school day.  Of course, there wasn’t much time to get used to that because we had a field trip on Thursday.  It was actually our second time to see replicas of Columbus’ ships, the Nina and the Pinta.

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Each time I’ve seen them, I’ve been amazed at how small the ships actually are.  There is no way I’d have crossed an uncharted ocean in one of those things!  Oh, and the one pictured below, the Nina, is actually 50% larger than scale, while the Pinta is an exact, to-scale replica.

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Ever heard the expression “cut and run”?  Our tour guide told us the origin of the expression.  First, he demonstrated the windlass, which is something of a lever device used to pull up the anchor.  The whole process was done by hand, however, and it could take 5-7 hours to reel in the anchor.  If  ship was caught in a storm, there might not be time to pull the anchor up, so the crew would just cut the anchor and sail away.

Columbus left port with 18 anchors and returned with two.  Many anchors were just left at the bottom of the ocean around the coast of Africa.  The anchor pictured below, circa 1600’s, was recovered by a diving crew and donated to the Nina and Pinta restoration crew for their ship.

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You’ve probably noticed that the Weekly Wrap-Up is posted really early today.  That’s because we’re taking today pretty easy and regrouping after a crazy week.  The kids will be covering the basics and I’ll be doing lesson plans so that we’re ready to hit the ground running next week.  It’s hard to believe that planning for three weeks will put us right at Thanksgiving.  Where has the school year gone?

How was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with MckLinky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines. You can also follow the guidelines link to grab the banner code.

**Remember, be sure to link directly to your Weekly Wrap-Up post so that others can find it easily when they visit your blog and be sure to post a link back here so that your readers can find the Wrap-Up and join us.**

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

16 Comments

  1. I love your pictures of the ship replicas. That would be such a fun field trip! You are right, the school year is flying by!

    Thanks for hosting Weekly Wrap-Up. Hope your upcoming week is a great one!

  2. Kris,

    I always feel like I'm running behind all week when we're at a swim meet all week-end. Hopefully, today will be a bit quieter for you and you can get a head-start on the weeks ahead. I too find myself wondering where the school year has gone. On the one hand, we've accomplished a ton already but on the other hand, it seems like it's just flying by so fast! I have to admit I'm looking very much forward to our week off at Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas and just have some down-time for a few days!

    I can't wait to read more about your experiences at Relevant.

    Samantha

  3. I love the pictures! I have given you a Versatile Blogger Award because I really enjoy your blog. Just go to my most recent blog post to see your mention.
    Mary 🙂

  4. We saw the Nina when it was here a couple of years ago. Very neat! Hard to imagine traveling all the way across the ocean in such a tiny ship. Glad you had a good time at Relevant! It sounds so wonderful from all the reports I'm hearing!

  5. We got to see one of those ships, too, a few years ago, and I was also amazed at how tiny they were. I was actually looking for my pictures because we did a Christopher Columbus lesson recently…I'll just show my kids your pics!

  6. WOW…That looked like a lot of fun! I linked up for the first time. I have two preschoolers that I am Home Schooling. I have been a follower for quite a while now. I love all the great printables you offer….THANK YOU!

    Forest Rose:}

  7. My son talks about wanting to be in the Marines. He is obsessed with The Military Channel and his favorite past-times are playing military xbox 360 games or having Airsoft wars with his friends. I've started praying now.

  8. I'll be looking forward to your Relevant update! What a great opportunity. Looks like you had a great week, and I love your focus on history. The cut-and-run story is quite something to imagine. Thanks for hosting for us!

  9. The Nina and Pinta will be docking here in a couple of weeks. We're looking forward to seeing them!

  10. We were able to see the Nina and Pinta the end of September and really enjoyed it. I was also amazed at the size of the ships. No way you'd get me sailing across the ocean on one of those puppies. UH HUH!

    I also have a son that dreams of the military. In fact, since he was four he's spoken of nothing else, talk about determination. Scares me to death.

  11. Aren't those tall ship amazing! We got a chance to board the HMS Bounty, AKA the Black Pearl of Pirates of the Caribbean fame this summer, and it was amazing. I'm with you: those suckers are *tiny.* We learned that the whole "don't put your elbows on the table" thing dates from then: you don't want to act like an uncouth sailor or get pressed into service on a ship not of your choosing! Sadly, I never got around to blogging it, probably because we went about a week after the baby was born, and I was beat by the time we got home.

  12. Such great photos! I would love to have seen those!!
    And my ds (11) talks of an army career…He might grow out of it…maybe.

  13. Great pictures and fun!! I wanted to thank you for hosting Weekly Wrap Up. Last week was the first week we joined in. It's such a great way to bring homeschoolers together.

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