Crazy Week

Somehow I managed to get school done for C this week. We did Math every day, including Test 5, and an hour long investigation yesterday delving into area, squares, and sqare roots. She's finally into something a bit challenging. We've spent a LOT of time on her new chapter on "The Writing Process" in LA. Yesterday we spent almost 3 hours writing, editing, rewriting descriptive paragraphs. Writing is definitly her weak area. She hadn't had any writing instruction in ps, so we had to start from scratch last spring when I brought her home. We will take an easy day today after such a long lesson yesterday. She's doing fine in Vocab, and Ancient History. We began U.S. History Wednesday, and for the first time I heard a complaint of, "This is boring!" Maybe because I brought out a textbook instead of living books, and the internet. We've also managed to get Science in 3 days this week. (This is in addition to the year of Astronomy she is doing "for fun" with Dad.) Now that, to me, is boring! LOL We're in the first Unit of Abeka grade 5, and I have read more about bees, wasps, and other insects than I ever cared to or feel is necessary. She seems to like it, though, and is really remembering it. The book is very detailed and technical. I don't remember having so many things to learn and remember when I was a kid. It's actually a pretty tough class. Good thing I have planned for it to be a 2 year course, since she does the other science, too.

Ok, sounds like I did good, right? Well, that is about ALL I accomplished this week. Lots done for C, but poor little E (5) has done nothing. Well, she does her calander and weather graph each morning, she does 2-3 pages of phonics, one day we even did spelling and math. And one evening she read to me for an hour. And we began her geography books, where she colored a globe, and found and labeled N. and S. America. I feel as if I've abandoned the little one. She is so good, too. I spend hours reading, and talking with C, and poor E just quietly goes off on her own this week. : (

Part of the reason for this is because she is so far ahead, so I excuse myself on busy days by thinking she is over half a year ahead; she can miss a day. Part of it is because some days I have to choose....should I finally vaccuum, and get laundry done, or should I get some school in, and hope one of the 3 other able-bodied teens or hubby not only sees and complains about the dog-hair covered carpet, but actually does something about it?

Yesterday we started out great! I had vaccuuming done, dishes mainly done, a laundry started (just one for once), and was having the girls take early baths in the morning. (It was forecast to be thunderstormy in the afternoon, and they had not had baths the night before due to swimming) Just when I had E's bath done, and C was getting in tub, the high school called yet again about B(14). What a surprise.....her blood sugar was over 500 again, she had Moderate Ketones, and was puking in the halls. Clearly, ketoacidocis. For the second time in 7 days of school she was sent home. It's amazing she goes 3 months of summer with normal sugars, same schedule, no ketones.....perfectly fine, and as always, once she is out from under our thumb, and back in school this happens. I said point blank I could not get her immediately, at least until C was able to finish her bath. So hubby had to take off work to go get her, and missed 7 hours of pay. (He can leave, but once he does he is done for the day.)So, by the time B's sugar leveled out, we rid her of Ketones, and finished our daily lecture of "If you're going to eat, fine, but give yourself the insulin for it" it was 12:30. I ran to pay the sewer bill before the city shut off our water, bought 2 loaves of bread, came home and fixed late lunch for the girls. C finally began her school day at 1p.m., which is usually when we take out break, and are done with the exception of history and science. We finished at 8p.m.due to the lengthy writing assignment I mentioned above.

We finished yesterday with nothing done for E, and Mom had the worst headache I've had in months. Hubby was in a grouchy mood...probably because he hadn't seen much of me all day, and I was grouchy thinking, he was home 7 extra hours, and all he did was finally hang a map on the wall I'd been asking him to hang since the order came in a month ago. Oh...and play a total of 8 hours of Zelda on the Wii. Just when I thought I was done B wanted help with her Health, and A came home and said I'd told her I'd review her A&P vocab with her. Finally (this was at 9, 2 seconds after I got the younger 2 to bed, and was hoping for some quiet and dim lighting for my headache) hubby noticed I was having stress issues and reviewed the vocab with her. I thought I'd get right to sleep, but my head was throbbing, and it took quite a lot of tossing and turning before I finally fell asleep.

So, here I am....thankfully I DID get tons done yesterday, so basically only have dishes and school today. C has a much easier lesson plan today, 3 subjects I can just give her the assignments to work on, and hopefully have plenty of time to work with E for once this week. C has done 4 days of science, so if we don't get to it, fine. And right now they are both asleep, and will be for at least another 1/2 hour. Gives me time for another cup of coffee...

Labor Day Weekend

What a long weekend. Friday we attended a rally to save our State Park. Our lovely governor has decided our budget is so in debt that he is closing 11 State parks, over 30 Historical sites, and 300 positions in our states Dept. of Children and Families. This park is the ONLY local place we have to go to enjoy fishing, hiking, trails, wildlife, camping, canoeing, a National scenic river, and just general natural beauty and peace. Our local state representative was there, and is introducing new legislature to have the land deeded back to our county. Our county is the one who donated the land to the state in the first place! I'm sure with all the red tape, it will be years before we can enjoy this beautiful area again. They plan to gate every road, and anyone "trespassing" on the soon-to-be-vacant, unused land will be subject to arrest.

Sunday we all went to a fair and festival about 30 miles from here. It featured free sweetcorn, which our family was happy to partake of. Even C ate 2 whole ears...that's more than her normal vegetable allotment for a year. : ) It was very hot, but we all had fun. The prices for rides was ridiculous. $1.25 for one ticket, and each ride cost either 3 or 4 tickets, so we could only afford to let the girls choose 2 rides each. The food was ridiculous too, but it always is in those places. Good thing we filled up on free corn first.

Yesterday the schools were all closed, but not here. C did 2 math lessons, some vocab, and then asked for history, so we did that too. Last night she asked Dad to do some Astronomy, so they worked on that while E read to me for an hour. She read so well, and so fast that I wanted to record it. She got shy when anyone else came to listen, so I decided not to. It would be neat to have a video I could post on here. C is a great reader now, but she sure wasn't reading that well on her own till 1st grade. I can't believe I've successfully taught a child to read.

The rest of our weekend was spent arguing with our oldest dd17 and her fiance. They insist on getting married the week after she graduates high school, and no amount of talking will change their mind. His parents are very encouraging, and see nothing wrong with it. They took A shopping Saturday to try on and choose her wedding gown. We don't have a problem with the boy. he is a great, responsible, hard working, kid. The problem is they are both just children! We would like A to be able to make it on her own...get a job, a car, pay bills, take some classes at college, get an apartment and find out how hard it is to just take care of yourself, let alone another person. If she can prove herself for a year at least, we might be more open to a wedding. However, as they will both be over 18 next June, legally we can't stop them. I informed them both that we simply do not have money for a wedding, so if they persist in this she had better get a job (we've been working on THAT lost cause for 2 years) to help pay for the wedding, the reception, and the honeymoon. And that's only the first week of marriage.

All in all it was a good weekend. Even the hours of trying to talk sense into 2 teenagers heads....maybe they will think about it a little.