Sliding towards the weekend

 I've done a lot on my to do list - and tomorrow is the postal route.  I've done Lithuanian, French, Greek and Japanese on my language lessons, with a good healthy dose of Kanji.  Esme was doing compound interest equations in her math, and that took a while, but she got done.  And then we went and compared her two choices for college, again, and looked at the program curriculum.  I wish my hours weren't quite as rigid - but she has a school break coming up and with the little car working (at the moment) maybe her dad can take her to do a few things that can only be done during regular business hours - driver's license test and visiting the nearby schools.

 

I did put on my list to retype my Amelia story - but I didn't get around to that.  I kick myself that I didn't send it to myself in an email instead of writing it out longhand on a piece of paper.  I have the paper, but I was using a small hand that day and now I have to get a good light to read it.

 

Can I use this to do list app to get myself to do more of my writing?  I've done several more of the 'outside' languages lately because of it.  They only take a few minutes each to keep me up to practice, but I often don't get around to them.  Czech and Romanian, especially, my spelling gets awful the longer I am away from it.  I didn't do any Welsh today.  I found a trial lesson of Lithuanian beyond the vocabulary lessons I've been doing - and tried that.  I don't know what algorithm I had fallen afoul of the past week - that had hundreds of 'people' (probably ai crawler visits) reading these notes and random, but have broken out of it now!

friday here we go

 Had a lot of things to do early this morning, and went and got them done - groceries, and so forth, and back home before 9 am.  Chopped up all the vegetables to go in the freezer.  Then I had an online meeting at 11.  I helped Mark take photographs and video of his project that he has been making on the 3D printer.  After a bit, Esme will be home and we'll decide what to do for dinner.

since I had that online thing I took a couple of pictures for my artist page to test the camera angles and so forth - but ended up going with the second one for the page

That is a little cat painting I was working on the other night - I still need to add some more black lines and go over a few places before I make the second one.

Last night I made dinner for Esme and I and used half of the weekly container of sushi rice I had made, some kielbasa and orange sweet peppers and a good selection of spices : oregano, paprika, onion powder, black pepper and salt - to make a very flavorful dish.  I definitely want to make that again.

Mark's pizza order:  I always switch up what he wanted to do with the order of the toppings in the pizza - but what makes sense (and he agreed today) is to put the pepperoni on first, then the cheese, then the spices (garlic, black pepper, and oregano).  He always used to put the pepperoni on last, and it would get so crispy that I didn't like it.  But because my instinct is to put it on first, and he didn't do that, it made me stall in the past that he would come out and it would be 'all backwards'.  I thought I'd write it down this time.

Did Japanese and Swedish again today.  The Swedish has went forward into a section that I know a little better.  I'll hear more about the little car hopefully soon, and about the meeting I had this morning.  I work the weekend.

Wayward Sparrows

When the world is loud
and spinning in your head
your heart is thumping
running one hundred miles a minute
now, but not before
when you kept up your smile
and tried your very best
as we do - when it is needed
now, when the curtains are closed
and the stage is empty
all should be calm
but continues fluttering
shaken with intensity
perhaps it is time
to take a walk
let the wind and sunshine
sweep over you
perhaps bringing a word
or a whisper
dropped from the feathers
of a wayward sparrow

friday bits

 

We had been out to the farmer's market last night, and then I had a small route to run this morning.  I woke up way too early for it *puff air up forehead*  So I would like to get myself to sleep earlier tonight for the larger route tomorrow, but so far I've gotten up and strung the warp (above) and haven't achieved laying down to try to sleep yet.  I haven't done anything on the blue weaving for a little while - and I didn't add anything else to this but the warp because I want to save my hands for tomorrow.

Last night at the farmer's market I had gotten some peppers that weren't quite 'sweet' and weren't entirely hot - but my fingers stung a little for three hours after chopping them up.  So I made sure to get some sweet peppers to cut up today to mix in with them in food to counteract. 

When I got home from that route, I chopped the vegetables and kielbasa I had bought and put them away in the freezer for quick dinner stuff.  I took care of the garden, then since it was way too early for Mark and Esme to have dinner - and they had just finished making cashew butter fudge, I made my own beans and rice dinner at 3 pm.  They made a larger dinner later, at 'regular' dinner time. 

Did finish the 'smurf blue' bag just a few minutes into starting the market yesterday, and started another one.  I've been thinking about other things to make to bring to the market - dishcloths and potholders and so forth...   I've been thinking of what to do with the cone of cotton yarn I bought and looking at ideas on Pinterest for different textures and designs.  I like some of the fancy things I see but they aren't practical things, wall hangings and such - and for sale as art is one thing, but for myself I like it to be something with a purpose and something that can be washed and used.  Most of what we are selling lately is plants - begonia and coleus, and a few 3D printed things Mark has made.

I did French, and Spanish, and Danish today, and played a bit more on the farming game to get it into the Winter months, and start being able to have cows, make cheese and so forth.  

Mark caught Loki sleeping in the downstairs bathroom sink - and asked me to sneak up on him with the camera.  But, he heard me coming!  I had posted that he is our 'Batman' because of the little double cloak shape that is on the back of his neck.

Friday week 3

8.30a    - writing

8.45a    - language worksheets
9a    - break

10a    - town
--They bought supplies for the 'skin layers' project for next week (marshmallows, graham crackers and cherry pie filling), and they also bought a good kite as she has been wanting to fly one again.
11a    - break

12p    - reading "Moving Heavy Things", w/ practical introduction
12.15p    - language and math worksheets
12.45p    - puppy wrangling outside
1.30    - PE, 5x 500ft laps

2p    - reading to puppies :Dinosaur Time
2.30    - posting pictures, editing and captioning
3p    - done

Notes:  We are going through the second grade writing prompts now, and will do several each week besides her language and reading comprehension workbooks.  I've ordered a physical copy of the PDF math book I've been supplementing with.  It is 'Progress in Mathematics, 2000 by Sadlier-Oxford grade 2'

Dinosaurs Got Fashion Friday

The dinosaurs had a fashion show, today - Esme made the purple vest and I made the fancy dress.

We also did an hour of math, with the tens worksheets and the number bonds.  She did the worksheets well, but her comment was that they were making simple math very complicated with all of this breaking down the numbers...  I introduced 'America the Beautiful', she read the words and then listened, although she really didn't want to.   She did some drawing, read the rest of her library books (which I had gotten all new ones on Tuesday!) and played more Snail Bob.  Daddy and her went grocery shopping and took care of puppies, then came and picked me up from work.  We made more for the dinosaurs and she is now planning a wedding for them.  The boy is 'Drago', and the girl is 'Celia'.

We are hoping to have a fun weekend.  I have the days off from work and if the weather is nice we will go to the park and maybe play at the lake.  We will refresh our library books tomorrow when we take Grandma to town.

Friday

Esme had the day off from 'official' homeschool today - but that doesn't stop the creativity.

She got Daddy to help her with the cutting and made a house out of her dryer box (which had previously been folded as an 'L' shape with shop counters taped to the back of it, and had also been a horse stable in the same condition.  Now she has a little rug I made her last year in there with her toy dog Gingia.  When I got home from work she was tying the door on through small holes she had made in both items and using broken hair ties to tie the knots.

 

This is a habitat for her plastic swan toy (which she has had for years, and used to carry around with her as a toddler) - It is a beautiful garden and a pond, and a nesting place.

I have a few little projects I know I want to make for her Easter basket... just have to get the time to sit down and work on them when she isn't looking....

Esme's drawing tonight of Rubles the rat in her new cage (not yet built) with an exercise wheel, toys and food.  I was impressed by the feet :)  they really do look like that.

We watched My Neighbor Totoro, and she really liked it.

I had to make this one black and white because she had folded it as a secret note.

She really liked catbus ;)

Friday Snowpocalypse snow construction (and more Minecraft)

All the knit things, and time to play in the snow.

Calvin, anyone?

I told her how I grew up in the frozen North and making igloo walls was an essential part of my education - we talked about using snow as 'glue' and also smoothing things out and looking through the snow to see where the weak points are - if you see light, it needs more snow there.

Take aim and fire!

Three snowmen, and she learned how to 

roll a huge snow ball, for the first time in her life.

Other than that, she had just seen it in books.

She was so amazed at how the snow stuck together - and even more so at how heavy it became so quickly!

Trek - or do we have gnomes?

Having a thoughtful moment after her snow wall was falling down.

And before all of this we did a lot more building in Minecraft for school today - as you can see on the map below it is getting quite crowded in our little world!  I've kind of spoiled her this week allowing Minecraft to be most of school for several days - but she is actually getting in and doing things..thinking, planning... and just when I think maybe I should be having her do something more traditional she has a really great idea or does a really good job with something I have asked her to try.  **Mark made a point that if she was in public school she wouldn't have had school at all this week - that we have covered this much ground is something to remark on...  Actually, since October, we have covered so much ground the only things I am worried about she might not be 'on par' with is her English 'parts of grammar' identification..which, considering her language issue, is difficult enough in itself for her in speech, much less in reading yet.  She is probably not getting what passed for history there either, but she does ask lots of questions, like the arch question from the other day, or the phoenix question from today.  **Mark points out we did all of Liberty's Kids this year, and she did learn from it.

We built two marketplaces, a new Indian village and places to harbor up boats today.  She also started doing requests and deliveries and we explored a few deep caverns.  She made 'the most beautiful place in the world' in a valley with a waterfall and flowers - part of what she had picked out of our Natural Wonders book (which was a Crimean peninsula photo full of green and mountains and water).  We made a money system in the marketplaces and did some trading with the villagers.  The money and market information kind of counts as a precursor to history or social studies.  We're laying the groundwork.  She also told me today she was 'an environmental Minecraft, a Steve that is part of Nature.'  She is a little bit worried about all of my tree clearing for making roads...lots to be said and learned there.  She had to clear trees to build her houses, too...but she is thinking on a pretty deep level there.

After doing all that horse riding in Minecraft she has found her old hobby horse I made again and been 'riding' it around the house from place to place.  It's really cute.

9a    - minecraft
12p    - Frozen Planet ep8 - on thin ice
1p    - minecraft
2.30p    - snowman construction
//phoenix discussion
//practicing making larges soap bubbles with bar soap - discussion about how the water swirls in the film of the bubble as it runs down towards the bottom
3.30p    - done

Friday art day (and skating, later)

  

 Interesting fashion today :)

We went to the lake and did Frisbee .. tried to do our photography there 

but the small camera was battery drained.  

This is the soda pop girl art project from early this morning.  

Also shown is the 'K'nex' feeling machine she built last night as I was getting home

I think she did a great job on the face, using techniques from her cartooning book Aunt Dot sent.

We did get to the photography later - and she took these photos on her own
to be printed out into an album book at the store for her later.

Our moving target shot - and learning how to crop a photo.

more photo cropping practice.

9a    - Crafting, soda bottle girl
10.30a    - math worksheet double digit subtraction and addition, contractions, adjectives worksheets

----small breakdown about this..not that she couldn't do them - but that the art project had been fun and involving and now we were doing worksheets.  She asked 'If I have trouble - will you help me?'  I said yes, if she would get started and actually DO them.  She wanted to do anything but that - and thought maybe the best way to get out of it was to pretend it was too hard, and cry, and slouch down in her chair and hide her face.  We had as serious discussion about this.  She finished her English worksheets (she said: 'But, where is the Spanish?' *roll eyes*) in less than five minutes flat.. grumbled and groused about the math worksheet - pretended to be dumb.. realized Daddy was getting up from his nap and after pretending a bit more with no response (I started reading a book, claimed if she continued, I'd go downstairs and leave her there to finish with Daddy instead) .. the pencil started clicking and she finished the rest with no errors and hardly any more interruptions.

10.45a    - break - walk to lake, Frisbee, fishing a bit, lunch

12p    - photography, editing and saving pics
12.30p    - reading reptiles book, looking at lima beans, butterflies and peppers in garden with me
1p    - break

1.45p    - reading aloud; reptiles book
2:15 p - done.
4:15-5p - Blue Planet, The Coasts.. she really enjoyed it and saw a lot of the reptiles from her book!

She has asked me more again about how many days until she goes back to regular school.  She said she already knew what the teacher was trying to teach - but she enjoyed the bus rides, which were mostly with older children.  We talked about how the teacher was still trying to teach other kids in her class to read small words,and she said 'and teach me to do math - but I could already do that.'  We talked about how that made her teacher a bit upset, 'because I wanted to play in class - because I knew those things.' Yes.  She understood...but still wanted to know when she would get a better teacher.  I told her we wouldn't know until August.. she didn't really like that but accepted it.

//We have planned for two weeks to go out rollerskating.  She is having a hard time waiting for it... keeps asking when the time is (although she knows)... I'm letting her have the afternoon off now to play video games (old Atari) and wind down until the time does get here.

 She met several kids from her school, and several others, too.

She did very well trying hard, and improved greatly after a few times around.

After she was very hard to get to leave we talked about having

responsibility to leave when she needed to - so we could go 

back again another day.  She cried a lot, over that - and also over having

her torn fingernail trimmed.  I think the moon echoed on one of those sobs.

tiny bits

We started Wind in the Willows on a reminder from Grandma that it is in the same set as the Wizard of Oz.. I'm reading it to her and explaining words she doesn't know, like 'predicament', 'delighted', 'fascinated'... see if she absorbs any of it.  Esme got two 'happy faces' for the week, which means no time out for those days, and about evened out the actual time from last week even so... but to celebrate we went out to the fast food with the playplace, and returned our books at the library.  The Jacqueline Kelly book 'Return to the Willows' was one that I picked up at the library, which led to finding the original in her set.  While at the library Esme actually went and picked a book out this time, instead of beelining for the blocks and computers.  That is something to note.  She picked out a Clifford book, and I found two more appropriate 'read it together/myself' variations.  She heard me tell Grandma that she needs more book than what they were giving her at school.. she made sure to lean forward in the car and say she heard that - she needs more books.  She has told me more about where things are at school, her cubbie, her pouch in her chair, her hook on the wall.  I like hearing her describe those clearly.  She is working on her letters and on following directions a bit better.

Need to start looking at counting by 10s.  After we got home, Esme was very sweet before we went to the lake she brought us both drinks again - she keeps bringing me the green ones because she knows they are my favorite - green things etc.. *ha*  but I poured up tea this time instead.  She ran laps at the lake, we rowed the boat a little, then home for an apple pie and cartoons.

I work the weekend, and have I think Tuesday and Wednesday off.  I should sew out of my fabric pile but it appears I'm still recuperating a little because I chose Minecraft instead today.  Also starting to have inklings of organizing a few things for birthday... but definitely not doing a child herding experiment.. might just have her give out cupcakes and light sticks at school and then get a few presents after school at her Grandma's house with a homemade cake again.

I dropped my ring downstairs and Esme helped me find it.  She asked me where the writing was in it - to say I was married to Daddy.  I told her there was no writing in it, it was something I remembered each time I looked at it...and Daddy had one that looked like it, and they matched.  I said maybe someday she would have a baby and a ring that said she was married to someone...when she was all grown up,  to which she stood up straight and said 'I will tell the baby 'no no you be good' and it will look at me, and the little child - that is mine - that child, will it be a boy, or a girl?  Which one Mama?'  I told her she will have to wait to find that out - a long time... and she seemed satisfied with the idea.