Old Time Summer

Category: Family

  • August 2012 Educational Preview

    A new “school year” is beginning. We have a new family computer to use for education. It’s a nice HP TouchSmart AIO Core i5 23″ beauty, though it doesn’t have any of the features I wanted to add on, in store we had no options, only this one. HDMI input, Bluetooth, Blu-ray … none of them exist on this model. It wasn’t super important, but I did want at least a Blu-ray player. Really want a Blu-ray burner and have thought for awhile that maybe I should just get a stand-alone version, so … the other thing is a Bluetooth module … I can get a dongle, but that’s not as nice as built-in on an AIO.

    My laptop doesn’t have Bluetooth nor Blu-ray. I hated that back when I got it. Guess what I feel now? I really hate that I STILL don’t have those features on a machine. I have a dongle on my laptop for bluetooth. It doesn’t work right unless I put it on the e-Sata port. It’s a special combo port, anyhow, it provides better power, and it’s the only port on my laptop that will run it correctly, troublesome, since my keyboard and mouse use it and I have an external sata device …

    So I have a job I need to finish and that is archiving all my photos and making something out of all my video footage. I need Blu-ray disc burning for that. I refuse to use DVD’s nowadays, so I do nothing at all. I have a lot of video that I need to process and this new computer can handle it better. Which means I need to put my Sony video programs on here (the machine I’m typing on is the HP AIO.)

    As for the educational things: I have LEGO We Do software which will work with this desktop, finally a desktop! Our other things never worked with it, only my laptop. I am actually missing one of the discs, I hope I can figure out which one and find it. I have Artes Latinae installed. I’m having them ‘start over’ again, for the 2nd or 3rd time. It’s been that long since I bought it and we’ve had so many computer issues … augh! Hopefully that ends here.

    I need to get them all started on more stuff, so the main topic is how to REALLY use a computer, use programs, and create things. Also they need to learn to use their cameras better, and how to really make the photos nicer, delete when necessary, organize like crazy.

    They will have a better time on this computer writing blog posts and other documents. We have OFfice 2010 Home and Student. I’ll upgrade this computer to Win 8 and have plans to upgrade to the new Office programs.

    Years ago I had Office 95 (actually still have it, just isn’t installed). I loved it, I loved Access. I really wish they had that in H & S … but they don’t. It’s just not possible for us to buy 2 or 3 licenses for Office Pro, but I wish I could. In the old days it was easier to deal with these things, You could put it on a laptop and a desktop both. No real life restrictions. So we have H & S since it’s affordable for family use, even though it’s a lesser product, but not so bad.

    I need to get more things going than ever, and it’s hard with limited funds. I’m hoping I can get some packages of somethings for my oldest two to rip through soon … it’s a high possibility. So we need to get on point and finish the Math-U-See levels they are on and go through more than one more before the end of the year.

    Well, that’s just starting peek into what we are planning and getting done, or need to.

  • End of

    The year marches on. Soon November will be over and the last month of the year will commence. I need my children to really get the pedal pressed all the way to the floor and go, go, go! It’s been slow, and it’s always, “I will later” and then not. Also I still need funds to get more stuff. It’s always birthdays and gadgets and never getting ahead and never quite catching up on pure educational stuff.

    Oh well, there’s always next year. (roll eyes)

    It’s gonna get tough for them. I will need to get another computer here (old laptops are on their way out, one dead now and one nearly so.) I have blogs for them to record lots of data, things they learn, ideas they have, reviews of books, research … and it’s like leading a horse to water, you can do that, but you can’t make him drink.

    My children love using the computer to look at things, learn things by searching and reading, but getting them to save stuff into a post, even a private password protected post, nope. Blank Slate Disorder. But I have helped them with it, and still it persists. Like I said, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

    Somehow I have to figure out why they won’t, and what will induce them to do so. Nothing, so far, has worked. Oh well.

  • The year progresses with less progress

    I’ve been working with my two oldest to get them using blogs to write things about their schooling. It’s not always easy to get them doing things, and I figured this would help them. Well, it did and didn’t.

    One thing it did that is BAD is makes them think they can be on the computer all the time, or whenever they want. We have two older laptops that aren’t “owned” by an adult, so in the a.m. they open them up and search for stuff, look on their kid’s forum I let them go to sometimes before, and for my daughter, 12, she’s claiming the computer that is a tablet laptop, and draws most of the time anymore. My 14 year old loves to search for all sorts of information, but doesn’t write much of anything. He has written several things about LBP2 though. What is that? Oh, a game, Little Big Planet 2.

    My daughter will write something if I get on her case, she’s not so bad, but given her own way, she rarely writes much of anything, may write a post, give it a title but no body, and save it. Or write such a nothing summary of something, that’s it.

    My daughter used to be the one ahead in Math-U-See, but my son is now quite a few chapters ahead. They gave themselves a haiatus on it for a few months, for some reason, but I’ve gotten the whip out lately about it. So they are both forging ahead again. My other son, the 10 year old, is reticent to do any Math-U-See, he’s on the older level all by himself and just isn’t wanting much of anything to do with it, or with reading or writing or anything that isn’t a cartoon, video game, outdoor something or other. He can read now, but it’s so difficult to get him to do it “I already read that” is his answer when I ask him to read something aloud, or to read it by himself and tell me about it afterward. “Yes, but I want you to read it again, it’s not a bad thing to re-read something.” is my response sometimes. Of course there are a myriad of responses I could give him. He’s different, I know. He’s not into books as much as electronic usage. Thankfully he’s not into the computer much yet.

    A major thing that I’m including in their education is chores (Home Economics for ALL!)  More fun than “chores” is actual helping with cooking, and it’s a great help for me. My daughter can make a few things for dinner by herself, aide me in other things, is learning along the way. Right now she’s learning why drop biscuits are better when I make the exact same recipe as she does.Mine are light and fluffy … good really good, her’s less good, more dense, much less good.

    My 14 year old helps more than cooks. Helps with prep and taking care of some things that I’m cooking, breaking up ground meat as it browns, for example. Also gets pre-cracked spelt or kamut into a dish with the right stuff to soak it overnight for hot cereal in the morning, I pre-crack the grain and keep it in the freezer. He gets it prepped and cooks it the next day.

    The examples above are not all they do, they are becoming very capable about the kitchen, and will both be able to feed themselves and others when they are adults. That’s something that everyone, no matter what their sex is, needs to be able to do. Gender Roles aren’t so great all the time. In my case it’s exactly that. I can cook. I love to cook. I don’t love to cook all the time though. I get weary of it fast when I feel I’ve been cooking a lot. No set amount, it just is part of who I am, I enjoy it to a point, then need some time off. I would LOVE to do Dinner’s in the Freezer, but I haven’t been able to get it planned out and get the help I need to make it work at the right time to do it. It’s exactly the kind of thing I need, but I also do have lower energy than a lot of people and it is OVERWHELMING to do even three meals in a weekend to put away in the freezer.

    Sometimes I get all into it and make double of what I would for just a meal (to put half away for another day) and then it doesn’t work out, like part of it gets ruined, or my bigger guys eat more than usual, or … I’m so tired by the end and don’t get it put into the freezer, then ….

    Then I can’t cook for a couple of days and … it’s just frustrating.

    So, Spring is here. Trees are blooming early, way early, it’s been hot, chilly, warm, chilly, hot, nice, hot, chilly … just not COLD anymore. Hot and warm I could do away with. Our A/C isn’t working (not the first time) and it’s bad on the hot days. I don’t function at all when it’s hot.

    I need to function more to get more educational things done. I’m awaiting building a new desktop computer for me to use, and once that is in place I can sit at a desk with a keyboard and do much more than I can manage to do with my laptop. It’s a matter of many things, my laptop is capable of much, just not as much as my desktop will, and with a desk and desktop I’m more functional. My laptop could be on a desk, but it still doesn’t go as well for me as a desktop computer on a desk.

    I’m guessing this is the same thing as the children. The old desktop is monitorless now. I have it connected to the TV and it’s nowhere near a place to sit with a mouse and keyboard, have to stand and weirdo do stuff, so the laptops … well they need to do their Latin on the desktop, math-u-see videos … and maybe they’d be better with writing more …

     

     

     

     

  • Autumn Session begins

    Today begins a more full start of our home schooling. Having two eldest write a lot on computer. Need to get them at the kitchen table with paper, pencils, pens and have them work on a more artistic rendering of their handwriting, and get them more comfortable with a cursive version of writing.

    My middle child is finally reading. He started to be more interested in it at 9 1/2 but struggled mightily with reading anything. He’s very smart, intelligent, had the tools he needed, just wouldn’t go all the way. I got him a few more books, pointed things out to him, he started being more receptive and before he turned 10 just a week ago he “cracked the code” and is now a bit more than an early reader. He’s fastly growing up. Now he can get into more schooling that’s for him to do (less instruction from me.)

    My two eldest finished their Beta Math U See before summer was over.  They’ll be starting the next level this week. They have a tendancy to race through it, which is fine, just that I want them doing more than just Math U See, there are other subjects, also, they can half-race through as long as I can afford the next pkg when they are done … we aren’t always fluid with fund to buy materials. There are other things I need to buy still as well. I have to go through what I have and what I need with my Simply Charlotte Mason planning materials. I have been toying with the idea of some other things, not sure what to do.

    First off though, I need money. So right now it’s what we have is what we have.

    I have an art program online for them. I need to get them using it. (I started last year but they balked and things from other subjects and family life covered over it. So it languishes.)

    There is Bible, History/Geography, Catechism, Latin, Nature, Technology, etc.

    I need to get some science pkg for my eldest.

    I need to get some books and maps to go with Bible, History, Geography. I can do with what I have for now, but it’ll be better with more stuff.

    My toddler is the monkey wrench in all of this. He’s more mobile and gets into trouble easier than ever now, he’s 3. With 3 older ones that’s tougher than when my eldest was 6 and the other two younger … they’ve grown, and having a baby later is great, but it’s all the toddler stuff all over again. I’m pretty good at getting pre-school at home oriented. But my older children need more than that. I need to divide and conquer.

  • Getting things going better

    Spring and the coming summer ALWAYS make me feel more into “schooling” for some reason, as does the Christmas Season, which is kind of strange when I think about it. Anyhow, I do know somewhat where we live has to do with it, the weather and seasons, Spring & Summer very hot and sunny, or rainy, but humid and miserable. Good for inside living, doing educational things. Christmas coming is after Thanksgiving, so I get into the stuff of Christmas, the weather may or maynot be winter-like, but the sun goes to bed early, comes up late, and that gets me feeling that education is needed to be more formal, and crafty … so when others are off, I like doing stuff. Also, I prefer weekend educational more than weekday, not that hubby has to be around, I just have a hard time motivating things along and getting anything else done at all.

    So to bring this post to a point, it’s mid-Spring, first birthday of the year is over, Mother’s Day is over, now we have a month before Father’s Day, Summer Solstice and another birthday. So now is the time to get head over heals into everything that we can educationally minded.

    One thing will be Math-U-See, I’m pushing my two oldest to complete their terribly low level (Beta) to get to the new package we are picking up today (Gamma) level & get going seriously to get up to par.

    No more messing around not getting the right stuff into our home when it’s needed. $ is needed, doing it on purpose instead of looking for extra $ when it sometimes comes around.

    There are other things I need too, literature, geography & history kinds of things to go with my Bible, History, Geography Charlotte Mason sort of program. I have some of it, need some more to really make it fly.

    I also want more literature for the sake of literature. (I mean good books, not pamphlets from some company.)

    So it’s tough too then when I have 4 children that get up at different times in the morning. Eldest sleeps too long, teen already. Second oldest doesn’t get up early, but sometimes gets up early, or too late, or something. Mostly they both are sluggish in the morning and so nothing gets done fully enough until afternoon, that doesn’t include schooling.

    My 9 year old boy is struggling to read still. He CAN do it, just hasn’t gotten to the successful stage of “I can do it!” so we are going to get him Brain Safari software, see it it can motivate and progress him.

    Right now things are between pay times, so I can’t get the program through my online co-op, hope it’ll be around when I can safely order the product.

    I don’t look at the homeschool co-op site often enough, so I miss good deals, don’t know what some of them mean since I didn’t see when it started to understand what they are doing with it near the end of it’s run “extended a month” with no dates on the page at all. FWIW

    I think I write on this blog more about trying to get going, rather than what we are doing, have done, etc. I need to change that.

  • Life is busy with learning without formalness

    I realized today that I haven’t written here since December 2009. Whoops!

    Things have been busy, trying to keep the house clean, updating some things in the still not finished kitchen. Getting some things for scrapbooking area for me setup (still a work in progress.) A visit from Papa (hubby’s father) which coincided with some of the kitchen stuff.

    “Schooling” hasn’t gone so well all of the time, but sometimes it’s been ‘chores, OK. Schooling, alright, back on track, for a few days here and there.’ It’s not a pretty picture, it’s been more un-schooling than anything, but they are learning.

    My Asa is still not really reading, but getting closer, able to read SOME things, just not confident to read most things, thinking it’s supposed to be magic or something super easy, he just isn’t into putting in the “hard work” to get there. He’s 9, it’s time. By the time he’s 11 I want him to catch up to where his siblings were at 8/9 years of age. Read LoTR at least.

    The feral cat that hangs around our house was pregnant again in early 2010. She birthed 6 kittens in our basement on March 9, 2010, which was a nice experience for my Victoria, 11 years old. Previous feral litters were born in our crawlspace. We’d tamed the mama cat enough to have her let us get her in the basement for a few days before the kittens were born. We have kept her in since then, going to get her spayed in the next few weeks.

    Of her kittens one had a birth defect and while I pondered what to do about it mama cat took it somewhere in my basement, we’ve never found it, nor smelled anything weird. Strange. Five kittens left after the first day then, A very cute bunch. Three black and one a black & white tuxedo, and one a classic tabby tuxedo sort.

    Mama kitty has only had black kittens previously, minus one DM/LH mackerel spotted tabby. Some have had smoke-like look in some places, a few white patches on throat or lower belly on many as well, but overall mostly all were black. One litter she brought to the house with her late 2008, the first time we saw her was with three older kittens, all short haired, but her, feral mama, is long haired (with a straight nose, tall round ears, muzzle a small square.)

    Of those kittens one was super friendly, one super scared and ran away eventually, the other not scared but a rover who eventually must have gotten killed. The super friendly one lived most in our backyard for a long time, but we found him dead on the road down a few houses in the past couple of months. Very sad.

    Spring of 2009 that mama feral had gotten into our crawlspace and had a litter of 5 kittens. We couldn’t get in there close enough, she was scary, crawlspace scarier. Eventually we were able to see the kittens when she left to eat, get rest away from them, etc. She moved them a few times, one time to the concrete structure that is under our “porch” a horrid space that no human can get into but stick a camera or mirror in to see what’s there. Thankfully she got them out and put them elsewhere. We did get to the kittens as often as we could, to make sure they were socialized. All 5 of them lived and I was going to keep two of them as my cats, but they became so awful, overly friendly, the one, TOO friendly, or just plain weird. Too many of them, we had them in a room in the house, but 5 teenage kitten/cats is just too much. We finally got them spayed/neutered when they were 8 months old or so. All the time we had them we had contact with adoption groups and no one would take them, we asked anyone we knew if they wanted a cat(s) but no one did. So we put flea collars & their rabies tags on them and put them in the backyard. It was our only choice. Anyhow those are different sorts of long haired DLH’s with large square muzzles that have a broad straight nose, and large ears. (Think black Maine Coons or something similar)

    In August 2009 that feral mama had another litter of kittens. This time she had them in the crawlspace again, but we brought them into the basement and persuaded her to come in and take care of them there instead. She tamed a lot by then and more-so during that time. Unfortunately the beautiful litter of 6 long black newborn kittens became 5 by a couple of days, one died. Those next 5 went one at a time up to 6 weeks of age. It was the saddest thing for us. I loved one of those kittens, named him Claude, and really liked another, named Spooky. At the end there was one that seemed to be dragging, though she had progressed to using the litter and eating dry food happily, she just got so obviously downhill looking. Spooky & Claude looked fine at that point, 5 weeks old and cute as buttons. One day though we found her dead behind a bookcase. Then the other female died. Then at 6 weeks Claude was fine, ran across my bed to me, leaps and bounds, then later was weird, like had a stroke or something, and never regained consciousness and was dead before sunrise.

    So, obvious to me, those kittens were not going to live to adulthood, they had something wrong inside, though they grew up, most of them, to the running around stage of 4 weeks, looking healthy.

    We wanted to get mama feral cat spayed, but didn’t after that, and as fall and winter set in I knew she’d not be pregnant until closer to Spring. Winter was fairly Mild and indeed she did wait, but not quite as long as I’d hoped, she gave birth on March 9th as I detailed earlier in this post. These kittens are now 8 weeks old. We have two of them, three others were given to an adoption organization, pronounced healthy. The two I’m keeping are King Arthur and Red Queen. King Arthur is a beaut and Red Queen is very pretty. Of every litter mama cat ever had she never had any like these two. Both long haired, with doll-faced-persian-like faces. King is the B&W Tuxedo. Queen is a black/smoke mixture. They are gorgeous.

    I’ve looked at the other cats we have and the cats outside and pictures of cats and none have the faces that these two have, not smooshed noses, but shorter a bit and pushed up, not straight like all the others. Their three other litter mates, the DSH classic tabby tux one had a general straight nose. The two others were black, one DSH one DLH. Both the DSH kittens were boys, and had super thick with a tinge of maybe some long fridges of hair growing out from their coats, but overall their coats were super thick and spongy like good quality velvet. (I speak in past tense since I will probably never see them again since they are in the adoption system.) Those two black kittens had a somewhat modified nose, half straight/half-smooshed like King/Queen, if that makes any sense.

    Also my King & Queen kittens have cute ears that are really pointed, like a leaf, curved up on the sides to that point, spaced out further on the sides of their heads than the other kittens (who also mostly all had more round tip ears) yes, as if they are melting into their heads. So very cute they are, not full breed of anything, but somewhere in mama’s past must be some persian, and she must have met a very nice persian/persian-mix gentleman cat (father) that fathered these or some of them. The mother cat is DLH but hints at Maine Coon or something similar, but she has much less of a Maine Coon look than her April 2009 litter does (They are big and hairy and very outdoorsy, they NEEDED to be outside, the one of them that is male is HUGE, the other females are different sizes, one bigger but not as big as the male, and all are still growing, smaller females growing more getting bigger than a lot of cats.)

    All in all this cat thing has been a great education for the children, never before had we had a non-neutered cat … I’m an adoption rescue kind of cat owner/fanatic, but love having kittens born in my house (I grew up with that, prevalent in the 1970’s) has always been something I love, and missed for many years. The thing is, something my daughter and I have pondered of late, is that if we had that Mama Kitty spayed in 2009 we’d have missed out on the prettiest kitties born to anyone from regular domestic cats, that includes anything I’ve had since … ever, ever seen in adoption places, ever. That’s something to think about. Good things coming when birth ability would have been stopped through surgery but then wasn’t. Implication of that thought process for cats and humans alike. What if we’d never had King & Queen, we’d never know what we’d have missed. I had a baby at the age of 40, when most people would have turned off their birthing ability by then. Life without our Quentin is unimaginable (especially now at his toddler nearly-3 horrible stage [read: anything can be thrown])

    As that goes, Quentin is progressing, processing language better, repeats anything that anyone says, often so very funny, the way he does it, and also shows he “gets it” a lot in the process. His new one in the morning for the last week is ‘I’m hungry’ … vast improvement to previous ways of letting us know he wants food. 🙂

    Russell just turned 14. He’s got much to work on, still plays like he’s a lot younger most of the time, but is sleeping like a teenager for the last year. I need to get him into more formality for his own sake … getting too old to be the playmate all the time, 9 & 2 year old brothers … a difficulty for me organizing him to get chores done and sit down to do anything on paper or computer that isn’t a game or involving some toy’s website or book website with a forum, or researching about Toys histories … so along those lines I’ve decided to let both Russell & Victoria have blogs to use, invoked July 2009 but never did I get them to use them. This past week I decided to finally show Victoria how to use it and set it up with categories for making it their homeschooling work place. Book Reviews, Audio Book Reviews, Creative Writing, Copy work of sorts that I want them to remember … Research of topics into reports, etc. A blog is a CMS, great for homeschooling this generation. Why not just get it going, truly work it as a tool for an all in one place organizational place for well formatted document storage, printable too. Available anywhere there is a computer. It’s online, on my hosted sites.

    Then at that point I can monitor their work since I have them setup to write, but not fully administer their posts. I publish when I see they have something done enough. Other than all that, I still want them to hand write and learn better writing on paper. The other things are Math and all the stuff that isn’t a report of some kind. It’s makes me feel better to see it this way in my head, all those book reports and research of things and writing of thing will be much easier as a separate one source with multiple ways of using it, totally separate & user friendly since it’s a monitor and keyboard that will connect them to it, more likely that all will get done now instead of NOT get done. 🙂

  • High Museum Family Membership

    We just purchased a Family Membership at Atlanta’s High Museum. I’ve wanted to do this over the past several years to enjoy myself, and also to show art to my children as part of their education and also to learn to enjoy it fully in their lives.

    What made me do it finally and fully is that the other day I saw a billboard with a Monet background of “Water Lilies” for the High Museum and I knew I had to go see whatever it was, but forgot to check it out online by the time we got home. I fleetingly thought of it but never a full enough thought to go to their website at any time. Not until last night.

    My husband was planning what to do on our Anniversary (which is this coming Saturday, August 22) and had decided on dinner and a movie. I liked the dinner idea, but wasn’t thrilled with what movies are out there. So during the night I thought it through in my dreams and recalled the Monet billboard and looked it up this morning.

    I saw that this is the last weekend of the Monet Water Lilies exhibition and knew that had to be what we did … and I knew we’d enjoy it more than a movie, especially since there aren’t any movies out we really want to see that much.

    I’d like to go back with the whole family on Sunday afternoon, so that we can share the Monet exhibit with them (he’s one of my absolute favorite artists) thus we can go and enjoy it as adults on Saturday, and also know what’s what before taking the children the next day. Not our usual MO.

    [dual posted: oldtimesummer blog & pastoralfarms blog]

  • Wisdom and Chores

    Education isn’t only book learning, and also isn’t just stuff that is in a book that says must be taught. It’s all of life and that’s my focus this week, getting stuff DONE, and getting the children to see that it can be done as a team, each doing their part makes it all go … where it is supposed to go.

    We have issues with our house, it’s too small, little place for putting things. There are finishes that need to be applied to the walls, the floors, and other places. Some we have things to do with that, some we need money to get things done. Some of it (“cleaning and organizing”) needs to happen to make these other things happen. Make it more likely to happen, at the least.

    A lot of it is day in and day out stuff. It takes work and thinking of it to make it get done, and no one wishes to dwell there, which makes it hard on me since I hate living like this, being the one saying what needs done all the time, pushing, pushing, pushing, while all along I’ve tried to motivate each one to do something on their own, to be “in charge” and do it without being told every day/week or whatever it happens to be. It’s partly that on the whole none of us are very keen on cleaning. We like things clean, but find it hard to make it happen. I make a mess when I cook or do craft stuff. To limit one self to not making a mess or stopping the event and cleaning up is beyond my desire or wish to force on myself or children. Making a mess is OK, somebody else can help to clean it up. It’s the “your room doesn’t have to be spotless but I do want our living areas to be more clean than dirty, I need help from everyone to keep the kitty litter clean, keep the floors swept, the steps too, dishes done, table in order, couch clean, baby toys picked up now and then …

    Certain people have particular chores, and starting this week I am fully implementing earning blocks of computer time/game time for getting chores done ISC, which is the deal that was supposed to be how they acted at home and out & about. ISC stands for Instant, Sweet, Complete.

    They understand it, but are too lazy to make it happen, and bank on that being what will get me to stop bugging them, just go with the flow, as crazy as it is.

    So the other thing that goes with this is a lesson I have on Manners, and also getting the Westminster Catechism going full force. These things are simple yet take time and forethought. Can be thought of as ‘complex’ but that’s just the wrong view. Simple things are picking up toys. Putting dirty clothing in baskets. Putting things in the hall closet in order not chaos. Animal chores are for us and them, not just a chore. We like the animals, so keep their areas cleaner. Makes us all happier. So do it ISC. Learning one or more Catechism Q&A a week isn’t hard. Some are easier and some are harder. Just like most things. They better us to understand them.

    Which brings me to all of life, lessons are for this: to come to wisdom in full age.

    First is Knowledge.

    Then comes Understanding.

    Lastly comes Wisdom.

    Wisdom in many areas, how to know the right way, thing, common sense that is smarter than plain on common sense. Wisdom’s way, wise sense.

    One reason for things being as they are here in our house is because my husband travels for business a lot, and is fairly busy with work on phone/computer at home otherwise. In a small house that needs work done on it besides the normal daily needs of keeping a house up, it’s difficult to get much of anything done like needs done. It is hard.

    So the push for “schooling” is not going to happen now. It’s gonna be the earning of block of time for computer/games when chores and things are done ISC, and getting manners and Catechism going fully. Getting things clean and ready for moving, painting, installing, etc.

  • Catching Up

    We haven’t done any super official schooling this week, trying to catch up from last week’s sadness still, and getting paid, going out for errands over the weekend. Couple all that with my glasses breaking and getting a new eye exam to get contacts/glasses (since my prescription was overly old) suddenly … and things are in disorder more than usual. Additionally add to that the regular out-of-town stuff with my husband, and also that there are new kittens under our crawlspace (which just turned 4-weeks old) and are too much for words to describe in cuteness how they look and act now … things are just a bit too “whatever it is” to get anything done enough to sit and do much schooling.

    I’m not opposed to summer schooling at home, it’s not like it’s SCHOOL, where a summer off is so very important. 😉

  • Mourning

    On Saturday it was noticed that our eldest cat, Princess Sonia, 16-years old, wasn’t doing so well, and then seemed to do a bit better and then on Sunday morning was the same and progressed then to worse and eventually died.

    We all had heavy hearts, with Victoria and me being outwardly emotive and overwrought over her leaving us. She was my dear cat for over 16 years, and Victoria is an emotive sort of person. I am not. But things that are deep with me do cause me to emote. So I wasn’t able to get any schooling done this week, and am only now trying to catch up with thinking about what to do, get the house back on track and such.

    I have more motivation now than I did a couple of days ago, but still it’s far from the norm for me, which isn’t too very high in the first place most days in and of itself. FWIW.