work weekend over, now for the week

Well, as far as I know, I don't have to work tomorrow.  Did mostly French the past few days, and played the game (Stardew Valley) in French, as well.  Have been trying out some of the new things there, meadowlands ranch etc.  Hoping for a more quiet and restful week before school starts.  

I was enjoying using the new soap I had bought at the farmer's market and a cleanser sample I picked up at the store.  I haven't finished the bag, but am still working on the dishcloths.  I'd like to put the bags and new windspinners up on some sort of clothesline thing at the market, but I haven't figured it out yet.  Last night I dreamt I worked at a store again, but it was a cross between the craft store and the hardware store again -- they both had red aprons --  but the merchandise was definitely much more the craft store this time, the layout of the store was a cross though, between the Michael's Store in Fargo (before it got moved to West Fargo) and the Lowes store.  It is quite weird how much my brain retains in details and then builds out while I sleep - it's 'real' -feeling all through the aisles, the signs, the products in the shelves, all the way down to the price tags, but the UPC numbers and the paperwork and the computer systems always seem off enough that it breaks the 'mirror'.  I woke myself up trying to log into the computer on time with the proper password that is always so annoying.  

I was scared a bit by a large cow that jumped up out of a ditch in the twilight of dawn - I thought it was a garbage can but then it got up on the road and looked at me - but I got around it and hoped it got back in it's fence okay.  It's not the first time I've seen a cow there - but it definitely was one of the larger ones. 

I was also faintly dizzy yesterday morning- like a water compass in the back of my head wasn't pointing correctly, or taking a very very long time to point correctly compared to what it should - walking back and forth across the office while I sorted mail I could feel the 'tilt a bit sideways, and then you stay upright' response kicking in.   I stopped on my way out to the route and bought an extra drink and some peanut butter cookies and took it easier than I normally would for a time, and by about 10 am I was feeling much more manageable.  I had already eaten a breakfast and drank coffee before I left in the morning - sometimes you just don't know what the issue is, possibly barometric pressure this time overall, but I thought having the extra things with me was a better idea than not.  POTS is not fun - and still sometimes, as I have mentioned recently, it lets me know it isn't gone.  But I'm glad I have a better idea what is going on than I did when I was younger.

c'est la vie du poulet

We had a chicken in the yard that needed some assistance, one of our four Sapphire Gem hens, and Esme came in from feeding and watering them to tell me she saw the hen having trouble walking.  So we went out and were lucky enough to be able to catch her up easily - she really was having some trouble for us to catch her without a fight.  We gave her a warm bath on her rear and made her a separate cage in the garage and are trying to do what we read she needs for a clogged vent.  It still might not work, but it's better than not trying anything.  She already took some antibiotic water from the hanging water bottle, which is a good sign.  Will try to check on her again through the night and if the treatment works, it says it could be up to a week of keeping her separate and clean before she is ready to go back with the others. We've been needing to make up some sort of isolation system for a good long time but never had a full need to do so until right now.  It is still something we do need to do more permanently so we can pull one or two out.

 

après des,  après des ça: after this, after that - something I usually say in place of 'oh boy' or 'here we go'... we're gonna get this done, and think again whatever was annoying or worrying me after this gets done

 

Made the jasmine brown rice and used some in fried rice for dinner tonight (before we heard about the chicken from Esme).  I made the rice the same way as my regular natural long grain brown rice - washed twice, then put with a bit of salt, a bit of olive oil and a bit of rice wine vinegar in the water, and 2.5 cups water to the 1 cup of washed rice.  After it had been boiling, I turned it down to low I let it go thirty minutes, then turned off the heat, and let it sit for nearly another twenty cooling down, and put it up in a glass container in the fridge until I was ready to use a little bit in this fried rice. I'll try frying some up with the garam masala another night - just used peppers and onions and porkchop seasoning and soy sauce in this for Esme and I tonight.  The week looks pretty clear - except for possibly the farmer's markets, working on the budget and I've got something planned to do on Tuesday.

French : I am in Section 5 : Unit 14 on Duolingo on my main account, and Section 3 : Unit 6, on my phone.  The phone has speaking exercises and a few other things that the PC account does not have, plus I use it to fill time often when I'm doing other things, like sitting with the chicken while the washing machine spins to make sure she didn't take offense to that (she didn't).  In Spanish, I am at Section 4 : Unit 19 and Section 3 : Unit 10.  I was thinking a little earlier that I wondered what the French lessons would be like once I reached section 5 - because I was looking at someone talking about something on their phone that I had never seen yet - and realized I was in section 5 already, just not on the phone.

First week of homeschool done

Esme read several books to the puppies for her reading today - I've had a discussion with her on getting the ems and uhs out of her reading...she reads very well but she puts a lot of these in to the sentences as I can see her eyes darting ahead to read the entire sentence before she says it.  She hates that I mentioned it - but maybe we can help her break the habit this year as I know it will bring her down in any tests they will want to give her next year.  Speed-reading tests was one of the most anxiety-causing things for her when she was in public school.

She did P.E with Daddy (including weight lifting) and reviewed her math and vocabulary concepts from the week.  She then finished her rock kit from the first day of school.  After I got home from work today we did a few lessons online in Spanish.

Now she is playing in her room with the radio on.  She gets the weekend off while Mama has to work early each day. 

Late breaking news:  We made these puppets for next week.  We are going to make a puppet theatre box (she likes those a lot) and put on a play to be recorded on the tablet.

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.

End of a long week!

We started out very early this morning with post office trip, allowance spending at a store, grocery store (discussions about refrigeration, how to wear a belt, how to weigh food to tell how much it costs etc..- the scale use was her initiative)  She bailed a little on the actual figuring out of how much the bananas cost, but was with me up until then,and I found the actual figuring of the cost was sixth grade math - so okay. Mark did some triple number addition with her later in the afternoon... she said she was scared everyone would laugh at her if she was wrong.. but he reminded her that the other kids weren't there to even see, and she then started to ask questions and ended up doing every one of them well.

Mark read the local newspaper with her, she wasn't that interested in the articles. However, she unexpectedly zeroed in on the sports section and they discussed the figures and the recordings of the games some.  Lots of rollerskating and some weight-lifting with 5 lb weights she helped pick out at the store and assemble.  She played Starfall on the computer, and they made a caterpillar model with a balloon and pipecleaners, and potato stamps on kraft paper with paint. I will try to get her to make a journal entry for the art, at least.. but she has had a long day and it is nearing 9 pm...

And we've had a long week!  Our first week of homeschooling.. and it was quite tiring, but we realize now just how much we have been missing on both sides of the equation.

I have promised her 'regular kid' weekend.. she can go to the art project at my work, get a pumpkin and decorate it, sleepover at Grandma's house, and maybe play at a park or go fishing again with her friend if the weather cooperates.  She said she really liked the week - it was 'great', but she is a little uncertain still.  She really wants to go to a rollerskating rink ;)

Speech services:  We were offered a chance to look into getting her speech services at the school while homeschooling.  However, we are using the pragmatic speech activity suggestions (real life town tasks, meeting coworkers, friends, elderly adults etc.), audio playback for self-recognition (has helped with the gasping in between words while reading) and perhaps in the near future sign her up for a voice lesson to see how that is received.  She needed 'different' than articulation speech, which was what was offered - and this is a better road for her homeschool course.

remember to do this...

more often: Pick up Esme first thing I get home and drive her up the road to see the beautiful pink sunset before it goes away :)

I want to call the speech lady tomorrow morning before I need to go to work, and find out if she has any results. On Tuesday after 11:30 one of the girls at work will call us to come play with her little ones.. we hope. I haven't told Esme about this yet because last time we set it up Esme got her last cold the day before and I had to withdraw. Wednesday, we go to Jackson with Grandma and Grandpa.