It's dark and in the 50's. Fall is trying so hard, and summer will shut him out again this weekend. Ugh.
I am thinking...
Why am I trying to take on something else like couponing? It's enticing, but I can't figure it out. It's discouraging, frustrating, and yuck. I don't need any of that right now, but I'm giving myself a couple weeks, and if I find out that I've spent more than I've saved, I'll quit.
I am thankful...
For bill reductions. Who knew? I didn't even know there was such a thing until my chemo bills started rolling in. Now, we ask just about everywhere, which is mainly just the dentists that are after our blood. Every little bit helps!
Learning all the time...
I might have to break this up into my kids and then my kinder kids. My kids have had a great start to school. They have different teachers this year, the workload is a bit lighter, and they have a year under their belt of what to expect. I think all that has to do with our easement into it again. Rory is right now studying an Egyptian fashion craft book to make a bracelet for her upcoming project. Rory and Logan have different teachers for history this year, so we can't get away with making one project and having them both work on it again. Bummer.
Marley and the Kinders are doing well. I received a syllabus from the teacher who taught half day kinder last year. For some reason, I started looking up my own stuff to do. One night I discovered that not only were the old teacher and I coming up with some of the same projects, but the ones she had were fun too. Why am I trying to reinvent the wheel!?!? So, I've calmed down and resisted the urge to "improve" the plans. Since it's my first time out of the gate, I might as well stick to the plans and then maybe venture out a little on my own.
I'm surprised at how much I'm learning. We read Madeline and talked about appendicitis. We discussed our digestive system, and then came the experiment. I gave each kid a ziplock bag with green water and some vinegar poured into it. Then I put some saltine crackers in and made them squish it up. This represented our stomachs. Then I cut the toe off of a nylon knee high and wrapped it around a cup. I went around and collected all the bags, cut the tips off, and squirted the green mush into the nylon. Once I was done with all the bags, I started to work it through the nylon and pointed out how the liquid was seeping through the nylon like our intestines pulling out the nutrients and water. When we got to the end of our nylon, all the cracker fell down into the cup, which I told them was our poop. They loved it! I'm sure they all ran to their parents and told them we made poop!
From the kitchen...
Don't you like how we move straight from poop to the kitchen? Kevin and I are on the wagon. I've been enjoying our virus killing soup again, since we all have a little somethin' somethin'. Kevin made hamburger omelet the other night. I've got some pumpkin muffins (Paleo of course) on the mind, and Marley has informed me that she wants to go back to being gluten free. I don't know if that's going to stick, but for right now, she keeps asking me if this or that has gluten in it.
I am working on...
Feeling better to get back to the gym. I haven't been because of one reason or another. I have some home workouts that I want to try though for those times when it's inconvenient to get there. We are busy every evening from now until the end of October...except the weekends. We just have to make it to November. That's not so bad.
I am creating...
lesson plans. Even though I have the other teacher's plans, I still have to put it all together, and I'm making history up as I go. They didn't like the history last year, so I have free reign. They just told me what to study each week, but not how and not with any curriculum. For instance, these past two weeks we've been studying American Indians.
I am going...
to another retreat! This one isn't a sleepover unless I want it to be. Some of the ladies from school are going and since they live a half hour farther than I do, they want to get hotel rooms. It would be a 45 minute drive for me, but it's a busy weekend for Kevin and work, so I might not go at all. We'll have to see. Oh, and this one isn't silent. :( But it is free because someone from school is paying for all us ladies to go if we can!
I am hoping...
For a good fundraiser for my Lymphoma walk this year. I kicked it off last week. I don't like putting myself out there because I don't think people like me. So I read into everything when there's nothing. Anyone else have that problem?
I am praying...
For lots of tragedies right now. People I know are losing loved ones left and right. Please, Lord, protect us.
I am reading...
Letters of St. Theresa. It's for Carmel. They're interesting, but I don't understand some of them. She writes like a person with ADD talks. It's hard to follow the train of thought and they forget their point to begin with.
Pondering these words...
"Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - St. Francis of Assisi
I am listening...
to the kids' sound machines. They're all still awake in spite of Kevin sitting in there. I don't know what they insist on doing this on school nights.
A few plans for the week...
We have company coming on Saturday for dinner. A family from our school. The dad is Filipino. Kevin said to make something Filipino, but there's no way! I don't know what we're making yet, so this should be interesting. Logan has a game on Sunday, fire drill at school, a birthday party of a new friend from school, and the regular extracurricular activities.
A picture thought for you...
Our home school table expanded to include miss KinderMar.
The dentists for the kids are the almost as bad as Nora's Chemo. We've put well over 15K into the kids teeth and they are all going to fall out in a couple years. I wish they had better teeth.
ReplyDeleteWhen Nora told me about the experiment I hesitated a little. I thought about Marley coming home from school and telling me about it. I thought it would be too old for her somehow. Then I remember the stuff we talk about all the time and how most of it is probably in the older-than-her category. Nora is an awesome teacher though. Kaelyn is living proof. Nora took her out of school in fourth grade and then Kaelyn went to High School and on honor roll just about every semester and was taking AP classes.
Marley is a little Nora through and through. When Nora says she is going to do something Marley wants to do it as well. It doesn't surprise me in the least that Marley is asking about Gluten in stuff.
This is one of our many downfalls. The kids are all in several things, Gymnastics, Co-Op, Horseback Riding, Football, etc. It keeps us busy most all the time. We used to have Sundays free but even that is being invaded now. I really need to get back on the wagon though and get back to gym like we used to. It's really starting to get to me.
Nora does A LOT with the lesson planning. We go through about 1/3 of the Amazon trees on Monday and Thursday night, along with most of Japan's Ink supply. We've had to replace all the cartridges in the printer a couple of times so far it's only the second week of school. :)
I tried to move the DR test we have for my client at work but it got denied. I just hope that Saturday won't be too bad and we can get the test done quickly and it all works like it should.
I saw the email Nora sent out to the group. I've never known Nora to be that "out there" before. Like she said, I hope it goes well. It's not like her at all.
I am praying for the DR test to go well, amongst other very obvious things of course.
I read Nora's blogs ... does that count?