Go-To Tuesday

[CathyS]

Hi!

My in-house cleaning lady "Pinky" has come and gone. Had a bit of a hard time finding her uniform. It was in the pile of clean clothes that need to be put away.

I have an almost clean kitchen. Just need to finish putting away the stuff on this end of the island.

I was considering making a cauliflower soup for supper. That would mean leaving the house. Oh, look... Idonwanna just showed up.

[Nancy]

I picked up the trash and cleaned up after the dog in the back yard. Tues. Trash day Tues. Can is at the curb. S2s x now to get mojo to get on w the rest of my day.

[LadyMaverick]

Taking a break just because I can.

We were doing homeschool when the lawn mower mechanic showed up. DS8 begged to watch him troubleshoot the mower. I thought it was a good educational opportunity even though it isn't a part of our planned curriculum. DS8 has spent the past hour standing behind DH and the mechanic as are going through the mower parts and discussed possible things that could be causing problems. Excellent time spent. IMHO.

This gave me time to work on deep cleaning the bedrooms. I have 4 beds stripped and into the washer, 3 rooms swept and mopped, 3 bedroom furniture & fixtures washed down (using bucket method). I am holding off working on DS8 bedroom because I want him to work with me when it is cleaned.

Mower mechanic just left. Back to our normal routine.

[Harmony]

LadyM, the lawnmower work is great life experience education for DS8. Some kids never get that.

DSiL took oldest DGS to a program at some county office where they taught changing oil, tires, stuff like that. He asked his friends (boys) what they know and they all told him nothing, we take our cars to places that do that. I'd say his friends all come from higher than average income families, but I feel for them if they don't end up the same.

Of course here I'm used to fixing every. little. thing. It gets tiring. Presently DH took apart my water pik and ordered a new tube/handle part to tape up to the old which got brittle and broke off. My check engine is once again on in the SUV, our fix-and-repair vehicle, and we had a whole lot of fixing, rigging, the little water tank DH hooks up to the compressor and uses a pressure washing wand to get the solution up to the roof to clean shingles. I have a whole bag of parts with receipts ready to take back from just that alone...

I was at HD earlier to pick up of all things concrete blocks, the 8x8x16 heavy ones; he came up 16 short on his project and I was only able to get 12 and waited a long while for them to bring others in from their corral...which never happened.... so I may have to go out. And there was noone out in the loading zone to load but an older man came over and helped me (I felt really bad because he wasn't young and muscular)..

And I've been at my desk for a long while, and knee deep in that. But I slept an extra 1 1/2 hours soundly, never waking up and my goodness I feel so much better today.

My go-to is just to concentrate on getting my daily routines done, the morning and evening one the most important to keeping things running around here. When I don't do those, it gets really bad. Morning: get the kitchen tidied up, coffee & vitamins/meds, dress, bed, start laundry, start paperwork, what's for dinner. Evening, kitchen chores again (very important) recharge coffeepot, put out paperwork and checks and clipboards with permit stuff for DH's early morning start; S2S if I haven't done it earlier, finish whatever laundry is still in the machines; clear out family room of footprints, make sure all phones back on their chargers.

Middle of the day is when I fail. That's zone work, errands, pupa, all the dpcs and stuff I procrastinate on.

We had another bonfire last night, got rid of stuff DH dragged in yesterday. We had conversation about his retirement again. He agrees it is getting harder all the time to work. He has particularly hard job right now going, I think it is necessary that he struggle a bit before he agrees 100% on stopping; though he did say he thinks we'll need every cent this last 15 months of work will provide. He did ask how many months to go..so I know he's thinking; and he is right, but it is all just hard.

[Harriet]

We read 6 books. This means read one page of one, set it down, read one page of next, set it down, etc., then go through all second pages, then all third, until all pages (board books) have been turned with discussion of each, in that order. Some of this is words, some is conversational gibberish with much inflection and head turning, rolling of eyes. I decided at that point it was time to discover sunbeams.

An oddity of their new house is the sunbeams that come from a high front window above the front door, facing south. So we made hand shadows and held up recognizable shapes such as Minnie Mouse, to consider shadows.

Potty training issues are just a memory (a girl thing, I'm sure) - she only needs Grandma for the light switch any more, and can't imagine why I stay. Stepstool at sink, pretty hand towel belong to her, she says. She hugs the hand towel to convince me. They grow up so fast.

Dee, for what it's worth, I asked ddil, who says she's seen patients with numbness from that get their normal feeling back a week later or even a month later, and others say they can tell the feeling isn't exactly the same any more, but pretty close. The time it takes seems to be unpredictable - you know the nerves are repairing but no way to "see" how much was needed or how it's going.

((Ramblin')) Wish it would be sinus and quick.

[LadyMaverick]

Another break!

DS8 went with DH to track down mower part they "think" will fix the problem. I agreed with DS8 continuing troubleshooting the lawn mower problem. I sent a clipboard with DS8 that had 8 Math & Reading worksheets to be done while they are traveling. I don't expect DS8 to finish all 8 worksheets, but I didn't want him to run out of anything to do either.

I am 100% sure we do more hands-on schooling than the public school does. However, the public school spends less time on learning new things. If you get it fine, if you don't......the student now has a gap in their knowledge. The class doesn't stop but moves on with next item to learn. DS8 was behind when we started homeschooling and had many gaps that I was not aware of. It has been a challenge to get him caught up. I get so thrilled seeing him do well now on things that used to totally overwhelm him. Example : DS8 logically black/white mindset did not understand estimating and rounded numbers AT ALL. I tried multiple methods and curriculum, but it was beyond his ability to understand. So we stopped working on it and went on to other things. Last week I returned to the lessons dealing with estimating & rounding and he instantly got it! Yes, we spent probably twice as long as public school with learning new things but it is working for DS8.

Last week the public school quit doing their curriculum and are 100% focused on prepping for the state test. Over three weeks of preparing for the test! I understand why but using a month of school time seems CRAZY! If the students don't do well on the test, then the school will be on the chopping block to be closed. It is a matter of the school surviving. I am trying to not stress over this $%%^%$$*& test but it is hard to remember that when everyone else is totally focused on it. I am not prepping DS8 like they are so it feels like I am failing him to compete with his classmates. Over the past month, we have done several worksheets from previous years state test to give DS8 a feel for what it is like. I also had him take the CAT test which is somewhat similar. We have talked about and practiced very basic test taking rules....answer all the questions and then go back and check that you didn't skip anything & all the questions are answered. If you aren't sure of the answer, then go with your best guess. Don't second guess yourself. If DS8 fails the test, I have the right to overrule the state recommendation and have DS8 still continue on to the next grade. It should be no stress for students, but how can they think it doesn't matter when everything is stopped for weeks preparing for it?

I have an hour before getting DGD5 from school. I have finished everything on my list for today. I could start working on tomorrow's to-do's....or work on the stack of financial papers that I have been very successfully ignoring. Especially the tax stuff. >>>>holding my nose and diving into the paperwork<<<<<

[LadyMaverick]

I have already bailed on doing paperwork. I have a good excuse!

The weather people are becoming annoying with telling everyone to prepare. I have lost confidence in the weather people because they tend to go into drama mode and then nothing happens. However, when they put a bullseye over where you live it tends to get my attention even if I don't believe them. The weather they are predicting for us this afternoon/evening is ...Very large hail, destructive winds, isolated tornadoes, and heavy downpours. I will piddle around the house and watch the weather instead immersing myself in paperwork. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!

[CathyS]

Dh came home for lunch. He asked if the cleaning lady had been. He said the house smelled clean. LOL!! The house was swept and a wet Swiffer was used. Hmmm... check my signature line. (And to think, I almost deleted it not too long ago.)

Dh needed me to try something at the pharmacy, based on the fact that I go with him frequently to order or pick up his meds. So... I went and ordered some refills. No problem. I went and did some other things and when I came back, they were ready.

My friend gave me a pile of books over the weekend and she said to do whatever I wanted with them if I didn't want them. I took them to a book reseller and got close to a $100 store credit.

Cauliflower soup is simmering on the stove. I went to a "nice" store and it was $7.99 because of crop problems. I went to a big box store, and got a huge cauliflower for $3.99 on their "faded fruit" rack and cut out the tiny bad spot. This thing is almost the size of a small bowling ball and heavy.

[Harmony]

Cathy, I don't see a signature line? Cauliflower soup sounds wonderful. I love cauliflower, usually just steam it in my steamer. It's especially great with a little melted cheese on top. Need to see what a soup has in it.

Yesterday's fax never came. Today's never came. Frustrated beyond belief. I ran out and did some errands as quick as I came and got back to check the machine, nothing! And I needed to get groceries but did not take the time so I could get back.

Bank, gas station, post office. Big loop around. Passed 2 fender benders.

Man! if that paper would just come I could go to grocery store.

LadyM, hope the weather isn't bad. We have the f-cat test here in this state. There was a lot of talk last year about discontinuing it, also that dumb new curriculum they're pushing. Don't think that happened. 3 Grandkids were in private Christian school and didn't have to take it. But, 2 of them are going into public school next year and will have to begin. The criticism about the test was that there was no time to teach, just prep for the test. They base the $ the schools receive on test results.

[LadyMaverick]

I am imagining what Cathy clean home smells like.....especially with Cauliflower Soup simmering.

My plans for the evening are disappearing because of the weather people. It isn't raining or windy or ANYTHING but all the schools in this area have canceled all events/games for tonight. Yoga class is canceled. WW meeting is canceled but they will be there for a short time for those wanting to do a quick weigh-in.

DGD5 has several pages of homework to do. I'll get her started on them and DS8 started on redoing the problems he missed today.