One of the things we did while studying India was to make "beautiful jewel inlaid boxes." We used air dry clay and some "jewels" we purchased at Walmart.
I think I mentioned that we have been watching the Olympics. I love how Daniel and Leah are recognizing the flags from the other countries we studied. Daniel liked the snowboarding half pipe competitions. He would so love to have a snowboard or a pair of skis. Leah and I liked the figure skating.
In science we studied mountains and their ecosystems. We did some volcano experiments that Daniel absolutely loved!
Tomorrow we are off to China. Leah has been waiting for China. For some reason she is very interested in it. I've got a whole new basket of books from the library that we have already been delving into.
Now I will tell you a bit about the weekend. Brandon called me Thursday night to say that he was planning to come home and bring his friend, Riley, who shares his apartment. They were planning on doing some snowmobiling and shooting. Riley is a very nice young man so I didn't mind at all.
Riley came to church with Brandon yesterday. Since it was fourth Sabbath we had potluck and an afternoon program with specials and readings. I think it was a good informal time for him to visit our church.
After church Brandon had another friend come over. Dan lives in Valley City. Brandon had met him in his first year of college though we had never met him. Alex, our cousin, came, too. Of course Daniel was outside with the big boys while they shot guns and rode the snowmobile. It looked like they enjoyed themselves. After we enjoyed some frozen pizzas and root beer floats the young people all went to town for some bowling.
This morning I cleaned the ashes out of the wood stove. I've discovered if I use the ash pan under the stove it doesn't create the dust in my house like it does when we use the scoop it into a big pan method. I do have to clean the ashes out either every day or every other day. I take the ash pan outside on the back steps and dump it into the big pan we use for ashes. Once the ashes cool Tim dumps that somewhere outside. I have to make 3-4 trips to get the stove cleaned out. I leave most of the live coals in the stove to start a new fire.
Now I am getting geared to start getting my house cleaned for spring. I didn't want to start the cleaning until we were done using the wood stove for the season which could be awhile yet. Now that I won't have all that dust to dirty things up again I can start doing some things now.
A few weeks ago I cleaned out a bunch of books from my back room which is beside the wood stove area. It is so cluttered back here I can't stand it anymore. I decided we only needed one set of encyclopedias. I had a lot of books I had got free at the library. Tim hauled five boxes of books to the Salvation Army. Before I put things back I washed the shelves. Already it looks better back here.
I want to go through the boxes I have on the top shelves. Most of them hold knick knacks that I can probably give away. I hope I can do it. I want to get rid of some of my things so my children won't have to do it some day.
Leah is up and dressed but all the men folk are still sleeping. She is playing nicely with her little house and Littlest Pet Shop animals. But I should get something out of the freezer to make for lunch.
