Sprinter (Spring and Winter)

Friday Grandma had surgery on her neck. Daddy went down to spend the day with his father at the hospital and to make sure he ate at least once. Grandma stayed overnight in the hospital and Daddy came home late in the evening after debating staying the night at her house. He came home only because Peanut had a retreat at the church for her first communion and it would be too cold in the morning for us to walk the two miles or so to get there. Saturday morning we got up relatively early and took Peanut to her retreat where she proceeded to make her banner that would hang on the end of the pew on the day she makes her first communion. It's a nice little touch that our parish has done for several years, though we've never seen it before since we haven't lived here that long and for the first several months we did live here we drove down to Grandma and Papa's church on Sundays. Grandma got to come home and we talked to Papa on the phone to check on her. Daddy and I ran several errands in the afternoon and the campers spent most of the day challenging each other on electronics ... they're allowed free time on them during the weekends because we've taken them away during the week.

On Sunday we went to church and then Daddy had an appointment a couple of towns over. When he got back he and I ran the rest of the errands that needed running before the week began. As soon as we were home Daddy placed three bolts into the front deck/porch where they were missing because we hadn't bought enough. I started to do the dishes only to have the faucet explode and put water everywhere. So, Daddy abandoned his project for the back steps and we went to Menards and bought a brand new faucet and drain things which Daddy spent about an hour installing. No more leaks! And I LOVE my new faucet! Later that night Daddy and I ended up in the emergency room because he'd hurt his right knee again. We were there until midnight and Daddy finally agreed to get the surgery to fix his knee after spending the last five years with a torn patella tendon and his kneecap in his thigh.

Monday morning I had an appointment which Daddy ran me to. By the time I got home at 12:30 I ate a quick lunch and we began our lessons at 1 PM. The temperatures were back in the 50's after a freezing cold weekend and light snow showers ... however, it was a rainy day so the campers only spent about an hour outside after lessons. YCJ struggled with getting her math done this day ... lots of major multiplication on a Monday will do that to you. Peanut learned about the life cycles of frogs and then independently looked up the life cycle of butterflies. I think we just may have a project for this summer above and beyond our gardening and maybe we'll grow ourselves some frogs from tadpoles. ECJ struggled a little with his Algebra this day but only because his brain was still asleep from the weekend ... or so he told me.


We picked up some herbs and tomato seeds in two kits during our errand running. It's too early to begin planting them even in the house (because of transplant to the outdoors timing) but I could not pass up the deal in how much they cost. Daddy will be building me a raised bed garden behind the house and I have some containers as well. Next month starts our seedlings off and the campers will be charting growth again this year to see if this year's garden is better than last year.

I also received our complementary materials from Notgrass History on Monday! I'll be doing a review of the curriculum sometime in late April early May so make sure you keep an eye out for it! I'm very impressed just looking at the material and plan on beginning to use it next week after the second student workbook (that I ordered on Monday) comes in the mail so that both girls can use it. Although America the Beautiful is meant for grades 5-8 I figure that Peanut should be able to go through the material with a little help now and I can always buy yet another student workbook for her to use as we go through the material again when she's older.

On Tuesday I had another appointment in the morning. I managed one cup of coffee before leaving and drank another two when I got home about an hour later. The campers took the opportunity to watch some cartoons before doing lessons. We began our lessons around 11:30 in the morning and were done (except for ECJ struggling with his algebra) before 1:30 in the afternoon. The girls turned Netflix cartoons back on, I love that they're not bombarded with commercials from regular TV or cable since we do not have cable. In our opinion it is an expense that is unnecessary and something that we would only use during the winter ... much cheaper just to pay for Netflix on two devices. We spent the afternoon relaxing while it drizzled rain in the 50 degree weather we were having. Cartoons for the campers, Bones for Daddy and I, and I kept working on the place mats that I'm making for our home and a friend's home. The girls had catechism at 5 PM so ECJ spent the time that the girls were gone to build a pyramid on Minecraft to go along with his Egyptian studies for the day. We stopped while we were out picking the girls up to get some tacos for supper, a bit of a splurge on our parts as we don't eat out more than once a month usually but with the girls being gone during the supper hour and not wanting to start something else in the crock pot this seemed like the best solution. I literally made no menu for this week whatsoever.

Wednesday was a busy day for us. We'd originally planned on doing lessons this day but woke up later than planned and shifted lessons around so that we'll do school one day this weekend instead. We got dressed and ready and then went to Grandma and Papa's house to help them out a bit while Grandma is recovering from her surgery. The temperature was in the low 50's but the winds were upwards of 60 miles an hour with gusts up to 80 miles an hour. The drive down to their house we were being blown all over the road in our big truck. While we were at Grandma's house Daddy climbed up on the roof to nail down some loose shingles for Papa that if they'd been left loose would have flown all over the neighborhood. ECJ even got up there after Daddy got down to nail the very last shingle down that was still blowing in the wind. Daddy also ran the vacuum while I cleaned off the stove, got Grandma her pain pills, and made her some cinnamon toast to go with her meds. We got a little lost on our way home thanks to traffic lights being out from power outages and ended up on an hour long ride through the country down some very windy dirt roads.


So, Thursday was pretty much relaxed. Daddy had an appointment in the morning that he had to go to so we did our lessons while he was gone. We got them all done in about two hours including the online lessons. ECJ joined us in the living room to do lessons again today instead of doing them in his room as usual. He also spent about half an hour extra after lessons strengthening his understanding of Spanish and Dutch on Duolingo. He's doing Dutch simply because he likes it. Spanish is the language that he's studying for credit this year. Daddy and I went to the grocery store when he got home to pick up a few things for ourselves for the next couple of days and some stuff to take to Grandma and Papa on Friday.


I'm leaving off here because we haven't decided yet if we'll be joining Daddy in going to Grandma and Papa's house on Friday. If not we'll only be doing lessons one day this weekend if we do go then we'll be schooling all weekend. Noni is coming next Tuesday so I did our lesson planning around that for another four day week next week. Perhaps we'll be going to the movie theater if I can find something that the campers would like to see. Also, I entitled this post Sprinter as a play on Spring and Winter because this week has been a mixture of both seasons and this mamma cannot wait until Spring!



Chicken Parmesan my way:
Chicken breasts or cooked chicken cubed up
Red sauce - jarred spaghetti sauce works
Mozzarella cheese
onion powder
garlic powder 
salt and pepper

Either cook chicken breasts in a skillet until fully cooked or cube up already cooked chicken. Add spaghetti sauce to the pan with seasonings and simmer for about ten minutes. If cooking the chicken breasts then top with mozzarella cheese and cook until melted. If using cubed precooked chicken scoop onto a plate and top with mozzarella then melt the cheese in the microwave. Serve with a side of rice or noodles and garlic bread.

Posts you may have missed this week -
Radiance - Book Review

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