Happy Valentine's Day! Just a quick update before I forget, of what I have accomplished lately.
I worked today at the Bar W Guest Ranch. We cooked a dinner. Steak with peppers, red potatoes, a green salad, strawberry angel food cake with chocolate covered strawberries, garlic bread, green and yellow squash sauted with purple onions. (and I wish I could've eaten it all!)
I really need to go to bed, but a quick list:
I continued reading "Yukon Quest".
Finished Lesson 5 of Algebra 2, and started Lesson 6. Lesson 6 contains problems with decimals in word problems. Tomorrow I'll put an example up.
Took Elly to Montana Coffee Traders; every Wednesday at 10am they have Children's Music.
Sudoku!
Practiced piano and guitar.
Went to Youth Group at Assembly of God. Tim Bach was there and spoke.
Had a Mardi Gras party at church!
Nighty Night.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
Yukon Quest
I'm back after a wonderful weekend. I didn't post on Friday, because I was up Pinkham with Brina. We had a lovely time. To recap the weekend:
Thursday night I had piano lessons with Gail. I learned about blues chord progressions, the I, IV and V7 chords, and played a blues song. It was hard at first, but, like most things, got easier with practice. After piano, I went to dance. I take Irish dance classes in Kalispell from a lady named Sally Conrad. She teaches Celtic Cross Dance School, and also gives guitar lessons. She's an amazing teacher, really laid back, and quite entertaining. Dance is 45 minutes, but goes by incredibly fast. We do hardshoe and softshoe. I couldn't tell you which I liked better. In softshoe we get to do very lovely dances and pretty moves, and it seems to flow. But in hardshoe we get to make lots and lots of noise with our feet! which is always fun.
Then after dance I went to Erika's house where she was housesitting. We looked at pictures, ate cookies, and watched the movie "That Thing You Do". We started another movie, but didn't finish it. Anyway, on Friday Brina and I left for Pinkham. We drove up there and started a fire right away, and spent a good while bringing in firewood. After that we sat in front of the fire and talked for 8 hours. We got up to make dinner, which just consisted of burning hammukukko, and rapidly stuffing jalepeno poppers into our mouths.
Saturday morning we went up to Grandma's and ate lots of shaped hotcakes, and talked with her and Grandpa. Then we went to 4 Corners for beer battered fries and gravy, and came home. And Sunday being just the usual sunday it is, that was my weekend.
Today, Monday, I woke up and spent a good many hours reading "Yukon Quest: Treasure of the North" by Tracie Peterson. I felt silly wasting so many hours sitting there telling myself a story, but reading is so addicting. The book is the first in a series (of four, I think) about women who travel to Alaska. This one is mostly about Grace Hawkins and Karen Pierce. Karen is Grace's governess, and together they travel to Alaska to escape Grace from an arranged marriage to a man who beat and threatened her. While in Alaska they meet Bill Barringer and his two children, and Peter Colton. Both the Colton and Barringer famalies have a story of their own. The book takes the story on from the point all three parties meet.
I decided to get a few things accomplished today that have been needing attention for a while. Such as the mess that happens to occupy my room, and the matter of Erika's broken jacket I needed to send back to Arc'Teryx to be repaired. It had snowed all day today as well, so Elly and I went out to play with the dog and the new inches of white. Snow angels are definitely the best. Elly set up a dance studio in the kitchen, so we spent much time dancing together. We wrote out dance moves, and I showed her a few of my Irish moves, a bit slower, and she loved learning them.
Algebra continued to make me frustated, and then elated when I actually figured out how to do it. I didn't finish my entire lesson, but got a fair amount done, with lots and lots of help from Mom. We spend a bit of time talking and scribbling through our different learning styles before we actually get through a problem. But it's all for the better, we learn how to do it. It's kind of fun when you get the hang of it. (I never thought I'd say that)
Well, I think that's all for now. I might go watch part of the movie Riverdance. I'll tell you how it goes tomorrow.
Thursday night I had piano lessons with Gail. I learned about blues chord progressions, the I, IV and V7 chords, and played a blues song. It was hard at first, but, like most things, got easier with practice. After piano, I went to dance. I take Irish dance classes in Kalispell from a lady named Sally Conrad. She teaches Celtic Cross Dance School, and also gives guitar lessons. She's an amazing teacher, really laid back, and quite entertaining. Dance is 45 minutes, but goes by incredibly fast. We do hardshoe and softshoe. I couldn't tell you which I liked better. In softshoe we get to do very lovely dances and pretty moves, and it seems to flow. But in hardshoe we get to make lots and lots of noise with our feet! which is always fun.
Then after dance I went to Erika's house where she was housesitting. We looked at pictures, ate cookies, and watched the movie "That Thing You Do". We started another movie, but didn't finish it. Anyway, on Friday Brina and I left for Pinkham. We drove up there and started a fire right away, and spent a good while bringing in firewood. After that we sat in front of the fire and talked for 8 hours. We got up to make dinner, which just consisted of burning hammukukko, and rapidly stuffing jalepeno poppers into our mouths.
Saturday morning we went up to Grandma's and ate lots of shaped hotcakes, and talked with her and Grandpa. Then we went to 4 Corners for beer battered fries and gravy, and came home. And Sunday being just the usual sunday it is, that was my weekend.
Today, Monday, I woke up and spent a good many hours reading "Yukon Quest: Treasure of the North" by Tracie Peterson. I felt silly wasting so many hours sitting there telling myself a story, but reading is so addicting. The book is the first in a series (of four, I think) about women who travel to Alaska. This one is mostly about Grace Hawkins and Karen Pierce. Karen is Grace's governess, and together they travel to Alaska to escape Grace from an arranged marriage to a man who beat and threatened her. While in Alaska they meet Bill Barringer and his two children, and Peter Colton. Both the Colton and Barringer famalies have a story of their own. The book takes the story on from the point all three parties meet.
I decided to get a few things accomplished today that have been needing attention for a while. Such as the mess that happens to occupy my room, and the matter of Erika's broken jacket I needed to send back to Arc'Teryx to be repaired. It had snowed all day today as well, so Elly and I went out to play with the dog and the new inches of white. Snow angels are definitely the best. Elly set up a dance studio in the kitchen, so we spent much time dancing together. We wrote out dance moves, and I showed her a few of my Irish moves, a bit slower, and she loved learning them.
Algebra continued to make me frustated, and then elated when I actually figured out how to do it. I didn't finish my entire lesson, but got a fair amount done, with lots and lots of help from Mom. We spend a bit of time talking and scribbling through our different learning styles before we actually get through a problem. But it's all for the better, we learn how to do it. It's kind of fun when you get the hang of it. (I never thought I'd say that)
Well, I think that's all for now. I might go watch part of the movie Riverdance. I'll tell you how it goes tomorrow.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
fire, weather, and equations
This morning, after a wonderful breakfast of Momma's bread toasted with cinnamon and sugar, I finished reading "The Big Burn" by Jeanette Inglold. It is about the Idaho (and rest of the northwest) wildfires in 1910. It is written through the eyes of three different teenagers. Seth, a black soldier; Jarrett, a young man who leaves his home and his father to fight fire; and Lisbeth, falling in love with the land she helps her aunt homestead. The book tells the story of how these three different people come together while fighting the same fire.
I finished "The Big Burn" and read a few pages out of my "Basic Essentials: Weather Forecasting" book. It is a Falcon Guide, written by Michael Hodgson. I learned about coalescensce. Coalescence is the process by which water droplets inside a cloud become large enough that the pull of gravity is stronger than the lift of moving air. Then, they fall as rain or snow. The book also had a really good diagram and description of seasons, and the position of the earth and poles toward the sun. During the spring and fall equinox, the north and south poles are equidistant from the sun. During the summer, the north pole is tilted toward the sun. During the winter, the south pole is turned toward the sun. This goes on to help explain shorter vs. longer days, colder vs. warmer days, and many other things associated with weather.
My algebra lesson today is world problems and fractional parts of numbers. Here is an example of a world problem we did: The number of boxes was doubled when the new truck was unloaded. Then, 7 more boxes arrived. The resulting number of boxes is 13 less than 3 times the original number. How many boxes were there to begin with?
I learned how to set up the problem like this: 2b + 7 = 3n - 13.
To add fractional part of a number to this concept, we did this problem:
One-fifth of the rodeo cowboys rode black horses. If 30 cowboys rode black horses, how many cowboys were there in all?
I learned to set it up like this: 1/5 x C = 30
Well, that's all for now.
I finished "The Big Burn" and read a few pages out of my "Basic Essentials: Weather Forecasting" book. It is a Falcon Guide, written by Michael Hodgson. I learned about coalescensce. Coalescence is the process by which water droplets inside a cloud become large enough that the pull of gravity is stronger than the lift of moving air. Then, they fall as rain or snow. The book also had a really good diagram and description of seasons, and the position of the earth and poles toward the sun. During the spring and fall equinox, the north and south poles are equidistant from the sun. During the summer, the north pole is tilted toward the sun. During the winter, the south pole is turned toward the sun. This goes on to help explain shorter vs. longer days, colder vs. warmer days, and many other things associated with weather.
My algebra lesson today is world problems and fractional parts of numbers. Here is an example of a world problem we did: The number of boxes was doubled when the new truck was unloaded. Then, 7 more boxes arrived. The resulting number of boxes is 13 less than 3 times the original number. How many boxes were there to begin with?
I learned how to set up the problem like this: 2b + 7 = 3n - 13.
To add fractional part of a number to this concept, we did this problem:
One-fifth of the rodeo cowboys rode black horses. If 30 cowboys rode black horses, how many cowboys were there in all?
I learned to set it up like this: 1/5 x C = 30
Well, that's all for now.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Operation Blogger: Day 1
This is a blog, mostly made to keep records for myself. A fun way for me to remember what I've done and am doing with my life and education. I'll put up pictures and updates and journaling of what I do on a daily basis. Let's hope it works!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)