A productive weekend!!

I wish I were blogging about all the school stuff I've accomplished this weekend, but sadly that is not the case.  I do have my lesson plans for this week already done and some fun Thanksgiving things for the two days after that, but I haven't touched the 64 writing projects sitting on my table waiting to be graded.  We used some books from our school library to research a state from the Southeast region.  The students then practiced using the table of contents, headlines, captions, and scanning pages to complete an outline,

used the books table of contents to locate the almanac and  filled out a fact page,

and finally, used their outline to write a 4-5 sentence paragraph about the history, environment, industry, and sites to see of their state.

They did an amazing job, and they were so impressed with their ability to write more than 16 sentences that they were beaming!!!

But, the real worked occurred at my house this weekend!!  I used the laundry soap recipe I found on Pinterest to make another batch of laundry soap.  You can read the original post here.  I love this stuff and it's costs about $4 to make 5 months worth of laundry soap.....BARGAIN!!!

I cleaned my washing machine following these easy instructions.  Ummmm, my washer was beyond nasty in the fabric softener dispenser and a few other areas. It is so squeaky clean right now that I can't wait to wash something in it!

I painted the little ugly, stained wall between my washer and dryer a bright, sunny yellow color and created a cute little sign to brighten it all up.  The sign says "Wash, Dry, repeat, repeat, repeat...."  I'm planning to make a fabric curtain to hide the paint and things that are stored down there and adding a few other touches to make that dark, basement laundry room a happier place to be.


I made the yummiest chicken with cornbread dumplings in the crockpot on Saturday.  You can find the recipe here.

I snagged this photo from the website....mine wasn't nearly this pretty in my old chipped bowls.

Since it was almost 80 degrees outside yesterday I cleared the leaves off the deck, and the porch, threw out the pumpkins that were starting to rot, and put all the chair cushions and flower pots in the shed.  Today it is 35 degrees with the windchill and the deck is bare.....waiting for winter.....and then the fun of putting it all out again next spring!

Finally I made these too cute Christmas trees for my dresser.  Since my bedroom has a beachy sorta feel I think these look darling against my giant piece of drift wood and my shutters.  I got the inspiration from Shauna Mailloux: Make Life Beautiful.  I took her advice and made my tree forms from cereal boxes we had in the recycling bin.

This is Shauna's lovely picture, my camera would not cooperate!  I can assure you mine are super cute, but her's are magnificent!!

I'm feeling so good about all the things I accomplished this weekend that I'm already making a list for next weekend.....that is if I can manage to use my time wisely this week and get those writing projects graded!!