Dreaming of Yorkshire

Today we read about Sojourner Truth and discussed whether or not you should always follow the law (probably not), and pondered more about Carol Moseley Braun's quote about working to perfect this democracy. We also talked about changing your name and if that would help you feel more powerful if you had to do very hard work, or if it could make people take you more seriously. Do you lose a part of yourself if you change your name? 

Laurel and I watched some how-to cross country ski videos because we are going on a Girl Scout outing tomorrow. Supposedly the snow conditions are perfect.

Marko did the wrong math page, and then paid Max to do the page he skipped. Max is great at skip counting but he can't really write too well yet, so I think Laurel actually did the writing but I'm going to call it collaboration and not cheating. Laurel finally finished the chapter on decimals, thank goodness, and will be moving back into fractions next week. 

My sister sent Laurel her old flute and we're basically just at the how to clean, assemble and position your mouth stage, but if I recall, it took me my entire fourth grade year to learn a simple song on the clarinet, so I think this is normal pace. I really want to encourage music in our house but the flute is loud. The piano is loud. The accordion is really loud. 

Laurel sewed a little bag with her new sewing machine. She also went to the Walgreens to shop for a Valentine's supplies.

Marko and Max worked on Scratch for a long time. 

Friday is pizza day and M outdid himself with a bacon-mushroom-swiss chard pizza that might possibly be the best thing I have ever eaten. We watched 2 episodes of the new James Herriot, which left all of us feeling cozy and sleepy and dreaming of Yorkshire.