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It had already been a tough week for us - out of the house nearly every day for errands etc... besides my work schedule all week.  Then, I couldn't stop sneezing.. and sinus yuck kicked in.  With all of its additions, fever, hacking cough, not that hungry because my stomach can't take the vibrations, can't stay awake for more than a few hours at a time etc.. When I do drift off Mark said I was waking up saying funny things... I remember waking up a lot for water, with the cough medicine doing strange things to my dreams (mixing with my book topic)...

It's two to three days later and I'm still hacking a bit of it out - but my lungs are much clearer again.

There are so many books I'd like to read but I can't stay awake long to read even the one I have.. we did watch a few movies  though, with me drifting in and out yesterday and more present with them today.

Mark had the sinus issue a little, but seems to be getting better.  Esme has a bit of a cough and sniffle - chicken soup is doing pretty good for her.  She drank a small bowl of lemon tea with honey for me the other night before she went to bed.

The girl dogs are doing just fine after their surgery - they didn't chew at their stitches much and Mark hasn't seen any reason to be alarmed.  They're both active and following their usual routines.

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Took Lucy and Freckles to the vet this morning for spaying.  We bought three chickens yesterday morning at the flea market, but only two of them survived the night -- not sure what happened to the smallest one, but oh ... poor thing was dead this morning in the chicken house.  That puts us at four total.

Went out to the garden and planted all the rest of the seedlings - Hungarian wax peppers, roma tomatoes - not great seedlings but we'll see if any of them catch.  The three Roma seedlings I put out first have all done well, but the next two had died... put up a sunshade over this batch to see if that will help them for the first few days.  Also planted the cleome and borage seedlings - the comfrey had died.  Planted the painted lady runner beans and the morning glory (dwarf ensign).  I really like the cosmos have come up so well - they should be red, and pretty.

Have to work tonight, and friends due for fishing tomorrow if all goes well.

First Haircut

She got a trim a few months back, but now she really got it cut in preparation for school starting back in a few months.  We hope she'll be able to brush it out herself by the time August rolls around.

 The hairstylist was crying a little bit from something else - and this made her very emotional, too.  Esme cried just a little bit because of it, but it turned out very nice.

I saved a lock of it for her in her baby book.. it was over four inches long.

//and update : My dad was out of the hospital and seemed to be back in spirits... it sounded like a very scary time for them.  We talked to him on the phone for about an hour a few nights ago.

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I'm worried about my dad being in the hospital - haven't heard much from them.  I sent them a text but didn't get anything back so maybe it didn't go through.  Will try again on FB.

Esme had her pediatric dental exam at the big office in Jackson yesterday - it went better than I was thinking it would.  She is scheduled to go back in June for the actual treatment.  We bought a new easel at the store there, some more pastels and a sketchbook.  When we got home several boxes turned into a dollhouse for birds.

Esme with several of Minion's kittens.  They are exploring the world.  We watched National Treasure 2, a documentary about the Antiktherion mechanism and Cracking the Maya Code since school officially ended... and now Esme is reading a book from the library.  We've started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for night reading but it is slow going.  I'm trying to get over a sinus crud and the weather just keeps fluctuating.

We have a playdate set up for this weekend... not much else to report.

Family Photo board project

I came home with a spare piece of wood framing out of some packaging tonight  - and was wondering if I should stretch some fabric over it and make a painting.  But, I had this idea instead - something I could put family photos in, keep the dust out and change it once in a while.

I cut a piece of cardboard to size, stretched muslin craft fabric over it, stapled it with a staple gun around while pulling it tight, then painted it with gloss acrylic paint.  After it was dry we cut some old trim to length for top and bottom and cut a piece of vinyl tablecloth type material (remnant from Walmart) to size.  I stapled the top of it to the top edge and then pilot-drilled the outside-corner in three places, screwing it down over the top of the top edge.  After pinning each photo in place with tiny sewing pins, I pulled the vinyl down tight and used Jumbo binder clips to bind the bottom quarter round and vinyl to the bottom edge of the surface.

And, tada.  We have framed photos.  I don't think we really have any up in the house otherwise - just on computer and in books put away in drawers.  We have lots of family art up.. and now some photos.  I think Esme was saying she might want one for her room at some time...

Friday test week last day of second grade homeschool

8.45    - PE; stationary cycle
9a    - CC Math Workbook
9.15    - reading: Changes for Felicity ch 3 to end
10a    - cooking: scrambled egg sandwich
10.15    - video: Hidden Kingdoms ep 2
11.15    - PE: running laps
11.30    - writing two pages 74/100
2p    - done

We had a long discussion about public school and expectations when she returns tonight.  We told her to think about third vs. fourth  - in case we have a choice.  She doesn't have to decide just now, but there are a lot of things she does have to mull over.

Thursday test week

9.15    - CC Math workbook
9:30     - Felicity book : Changes for Felicity ch 1-3
10.30    - reading: A Good Day's Fishing, Too Many Tamales (she wanted to read it again)
11    - TCAP Science test (all)
    - 66/69, 96%
12.15    - break

1.15    - test review; writing 2 pages about School of Dragons 75/100 (68, +7)
4pm   - done

I discussed with her she will have to do more writing with me this summer to keep in practice.  We have still been discussing whether to try to get her to start fourth grade this next year (if that is even possible with this school system) or to simply accept they will put her into third grade if she returns this year.

Wednesday

She had an utter failure this morning to cooperate at her dental cleaning. She was bawling and screaming at every attempt to touch her, open her mouth, look inside or even spray water.  The lady couldn't even do one thing that she needed to get done.  I was really stressed out as well, nothing worked and the entire hour went by with no progress.  So, now we have an exam at the pediatric surgeon's office in Jackson for Monday.  And she is frightened to death of that, too... 

12.30    - TCAP MAth test (all)
    - 50/55, 90%
2p    - video: Life in the Undergrowth ep 3
3p    - break

3.45    - video: Lewis and Clark pt 4
4.45    - writing: two pages about School of Dragons - 68/100 on scoring +5 bonus points for spelling =73 (infested, gronckle, zippleback, explored, volcano)

(50 points for writing 2 full pages, using punctuation and capitalization in general throughout... then , 2 points off for each spelling error, missed capitalization and for incomplete or run-on sentences.  +1 point back for each difficult word attempted correctly, whether she asked for help spelling it, looked it up or spelled it herself.)

6p    - done

I sent out her writing from March and got back a critique that it wasn't passing for third grade, but that it was equivalent for the end of second grade.  We will have to keep working on it.

Tuesday test week (TCAP)

8.45    - reading: Minecraft wiki
9.30    - CC Math Workbook
    - reading: news articles
------------news articles about children's lives in rural India (they just got a school eight years ago and very few of their parents had the opportunity to go to school), about the price of books in Uganda making reading a luxury and people working to make libraries available for low income  children, rescuing discarded books to create makeshift libraries in  Colombia, and about Nepalese nomadic peoples and their lifestyle.  We had to explain what 'first world' and 'third world' meant to her for one of the Social Studies problems yesterday. 
10.15    - break

10.30    - TCAP Reading / Language test pt 2 (q. 28 - 75)
    - 66/75 88% overall, (pt2) 42/47, 89%; (pt1) 24/27, 88%
12    - break

2p    - TCAP Social Studies test pt 2, (q 38 - 69)
    - 60/69, 86% overall (pt2) 30/31, 96% ; (pt1) 30/37, 81%
3p    - PE: running laps
3.15    - done

Monday Test week (last week of homeschool)

7.45    - TCAP grade 3 /set1 Reading/ Language Test (pgs 1-27)
    - 24 of 27, 88%

8.45    - reading: finishing "Half Magic"
9.15    - reading: "Danielle the Daisy Fairy"
10a    - CC Math Workbook

10.15    - TCAP Social Studies Test, questions 1 - 37
    - 30/37, 81%

11.15    - Minecraft
12p    - done

When I came home from work I grabbed the camera right away to grab a few shots.  Esme, of course, found a rock.  I made some dinner and we watched The Day After Tomorrow, as part of discussing global warming with her again. (it was on the test, of course)

Let's Take School to the Park Friday

9:30 - packing snacks
9:45 - vocabulary words and dictionary work
10:00a - break
10:30a - park, reading, baseball, kids
12:30 - library
1:00p - break

3:00p - store
3:30 - break
3:45p - math workbook
4:00p - done

// We are going to see the Jungle Book tonight... hopefully.  I didn't prebuy tickets.  It is in 3D

We did get tickets, and Esme really enjoyed the movie.  The 3D almost worked right for me, too - (I have mismatched near sighted and far-sighted eyes) nothing was double vision but some of the distances didn't jive up with other things in the picture... nothing too annoying.  It was a pretty good adaptation, too.  After the movie Esme was starting to get cranky... it got worse after a vending machine ate her quarter... and the ice cream machine was being cleaned...and suddenly the entire world was dramatically against her, stomping, frowning  etc... we had some discussion about that and she turned herself around and started discussing the movie again on the way home, went to bed just fine etc...

It was her first 'box office' film.  I put the ticket stubs in tape to laminate them and put them in her second grade memory book.  Weekend off for her, on for me - I have to work.

Thursday

8:30a    - Science discussion : Plant, Animal (invertebrate/ vertebrate), Fungus, Protist (algae), viruses and symbiotic organisms like lichen and sea anemones.  Mineral and viruses as non-living things.  Discussion again of photosynthesis and breathing.
9:00a      - Science test : third grade, State of Virginia - she got most of them right, we talked about several of them.
9:30      - Vocabulary words
10:00     - Math workbook
10:15     - break

10.30     - Video: Life in the Undergrowth ep 2
11.30    - reading: Half Magic chp 7
12.30    - done

Wednesday

9.15a    - vocabulary words
9.45    - Half Magic chp 6
10.45    - CC Math Workbook
11a    - art: minecraft plans
11.30    - Minecraft (Homeplace Log Cabin project)
1.45    - done

Monday Tuesday

Monday

10a    - Library
10.30    - stores, comparison shopping etc
11a    - butcher shop: why you can't rebuild a cow
11.15    - break

12    - Half Magic chp 4
1.15    - CC Math Workbook
1.30    - Writing: 5 sentences about "Tangled" movie
2p    - Minecraft
4p    - done

Tuesday

9a    - Half Magic chp 5
10a    - CC Math Workbook
10.30    - Minecraft
11.30    - PE: stationary cycle
11.45    - break

4.15    - vocabulary words / writing definitions  ascend, coax, essential, distress  (reading 40 more words (4th grade list), 9 of which she mispronounced on first run.. not bad).
4.45    - PE: 3x 500ft laps
5    - cooking: Garlic Bread
5.15    - Video: Life in the Undergrowth ep 1
//Another good Attenborough special on insects and invertebrates... where they live, how they evolved, how they mate and rear young.
6p    - done

//Monday Daddy took Esme to the library while I went to work.  When they came to get me after work I had such a headache it was after midnight before I really recovered enough to think about anything other than pizza, shower and sleep.  Mark helped me make the pizza, as I was dropping things and generally unsafe in the kitchen.  (a pounding head does that).  But the pizza was really good, and I almost felt human afterwards... the bath helped some more, and finally sleep knocked it out.