Where have I been, you ask??? And what are we reading?

Well, not taking a holiday; that’s for sure!  We’ve been reading up a storm… here’s a selection of our current read-alouds…

We’re also slowly making our way through our “Winter Reading List,” based on the Second Five in a Row unit study curriculum.  You can get the printable wall chart for that reading list here.  As with the First FIAR reading list we did last year, some of the books are wonderful; others are just so-so.  Links to all the books we’re reading are over here in the Official MamaLand Amazon Homeschool Curriculum n’ More Store.

 

 

So here's the big fat excuse for why I haven't been posting: our stupid !#$^ computer has been failing for a while, and when that happens, I end up spending 95% of my “relaxing” computer time just trying to make the thing work.  Finally, 2 weeks ago, one of the hard drives quit entirely and I ordered a new computer – well, a $250 out-of-date refurbished computer that I could stick the working hard drive into.  Which seems to be turning out better than expected, except now that it’s up and running, every time I turn around, there’s  another program I rely on daily which needs to be “re”installed.  Argh.

… Anyway, I’m still here, I promise!

The last two weeks have actually been pretty productive in terms of getting schoolwork done, because the rest of the world is so quiet and peaceful and busy with all their holidays.  Though I suppose all of that will be ending pretty soon.

One of the big drawbacks of starting the computer up from scratch is that I’ve lost access to all my old posts, which means that (for the time being, until I retrieve them, somehow) I can’t easily update things like my Printables pages.  I have them, but they’re trapped on a hard drive which, for whatever reason, is upside-down on the mantel at the moment.  So I can’t tell you that I added a new Thomas Tapper composer biography last night – this one for Johann Sebastian Bach.  You can download it from my Printables page here (though I had to update the page manually, cuz I have no good way to edit it). 

(I was inspired to do the Bach book by this site, which offers free SQUILT (Super Quiet Uninterrupted Listening Time) lesson plans for classical music)

And now – well, I’m tired.  But I felt bad for not keeping in touch, AND I wanted to test the blog posting software, so now I have killed two delicious birdies with one big ouchie stone.  Told you I was tired!

p.s. While the computer was down, I was at least been breathing easy knowing that all our family photos and chinuch (education)-related stuff was stored in a folder (called chinuch, of course!) online, thanks to Dropbox. I must say again (and I’m not paid to do so, though if you click on the link and like what you see, I do get a small bonus of extra space in which to store even MORE family photos!) that I have been using computers for a LONG time, and using Windows for a LONG time, and I have never pretty much never seen a program that does a job this complicated remain as stable for so long – across both Windows and Ubuntu platforms – as the little Dropbox client. Even on my overloaded old computer, it just sat there in the System Tray, chugging along. I uploaded about 60Gb of junk and it just sat there smiling like it was nothing. So if you want a quick free painless backup solution that doesn’t require any special hardware, do check out Dropbox.

(p.s. We call them “family” photos, but I’m sure half of them are of crocheted stuffed animals, or challah, and mushroom soup like tonight’s exquisite beef-broth-based delight)