Mapping and dissections and art, oh my!

Now that Queen Mom has returned, we're trying to get some semblance of order back.  It didn't help that Queen Mom's visit coincided with both Thanksgiving and a pre-Thanksgiving Gone With The Wind marathon, so we ended up behind in our studies.  Very behind.
So, today, we played catch-up.  And, catching up included not only reading missed history and literature chapters from last week, it also included an art project (line drawing for Thing 1, and a direct observation drawing of a panda for Thing 2) and a page in the Sefer Ha-Mitzvos (this ongoing scrapbook with projects about various mitzvot that we've been doing as a year-long project.  Usually I try to squeeze in about one project a week.)
We started our grand adventure in catching-up with a chapter on the Near Eastern nations in Mesopotamia, which included a map.  Thing 1 actually remembered that Mesopotamia is the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and that Mt. Ararat is the spot where Noah's Ark rested.  Then we read the second half of Chapter 6 and the first half of Chapter 7 in Winnie-the-Pooh.  After lunch, I learned that almonds should not be dissected with the scalpel (and have the cuts on my fingers to prove it.)  Thing 1 learned why Mommy does not let her use the scalpel (again, cut fingers).  After labeling the parts of an almond, I helped Thing 1 map out Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Chaldea, and Assyria.  Then we switched to art--a favorite subject for both kids.  While Thing 2 drew a stuffed panda bear with crayons (an exercise in observation), Thing 1 learned about the role of lines in art.
And, we continue our quest to catch-up.  Thing 1 still needs to label Princeton on her US map, and we're still a chapter behind in Jewish history.  But, as Katie Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler said, "Tomorrow...is another day!"