Tue., Aug. 26 - Thu., Aug. 28

Tuesday. piano lessons in the a.m. On the way home, on this relatively relaxed day, I noticed for the first time that a small lake (2 mi. from our house) has a lot of recreational options by/around it!! I decided to pull in and explore. A covered picnic area and grill is just across the paved walking/biking trail from some children's play equipment - shaded on the west. The trail goes all the way around the lake; a sign says it's 1.22 miles. No swimming is permitted in the lake, but boating and fishing are!! >>huh!!<< While the children played on the equipment for a while, I walked part of the trail, back and forth. Then while Justus played some more, N put her feet in the lake. When J joined her down by the lake side N was saying (before we read the sign) how she wished she could go swimming in it. Justus said, "I don't want to swim because of all that allergy." N: "It's not 'allergy!' it's algae, and I wouldn't go in the places where there's *algae*!" lol We probably didn't spend more than 25 minutes there, but it with the weather sssssssso gorgeous, it was a pleasant, unexpected blessing. :) For lunch we ate on the picnic table under the oak tree in the island of the street in front of our house.







Then we walked the dogs a little ways, but N tripped, ripped her pants, and bloodied up her leg, so we came home before we otherwise would have. J napped on this day, finally. He's doing GREAT with no naps these days ... basically Sundays only, except for this last (Adventureland) Sunday.

My head ached through the second half of this day, but I was able to learn an accompaniment for one of the children's assigned songs. Needless to say, that didn't *help* the headache because, as I explained to Amy, a fellow clarinet player, "Me playing any 'real' piano music feels like a third year clarinet player attempting to play sixth year clarinet music." ARGH! But, the payoff is HUGE for the children's and my enjoyment, so it's worth it. Plus, it's rrrreally good, mentally, to challenge oneself with music, I've read.

Wednesday was an ordinary Wednesday except that we got to share lunch w/ Travis, North, and Jayson (all from Omaha) at Arby's. Before we left Natasha drew a picture for Travis that was a dragon wearing the Arby's hat, and then it said, "I'm thinking Arby's." lol I did a bunch of laundry & house work -- finally. Uggh, it's been so neglected. I also completed a couple more move-in projects (gulp) (closets, storage situations, etc.). Bible class w/o Jeremy followed crafts at the Library.

Then, after the church meeting I was informed that I had a call, there at the building. I said, "Oh! Yay! It must be my husband!" Lew said, "No, actually, it's a voice I don't recognize." uuuuuuuuum.... okay? So it turned out to be Tony Lewis, an old friend from my college years/Jeremy's 'bad years'!! Tony was the campus minister in Bozeman during those years and he preaches in Ames now. He said, "Someone told me I wouldn't believe who Grandview's new preacher is, and they were right, I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!" lol I laughed til I was silly. Totally fun. Sadly, when we got home I didn't get to give the children much bedtime attention because Chewie had gotten sick!! I got to clean diarrhea out of his kennel, and clean the floor, and then I had to bathe him - in the dark outside, by flashlight (no outside light back there on ground level). That was only his third-ever-in-his-life bath and he did NOT enjoy it ... nor did I. Luckily for him the water from the hose wasn't freezing, but ... sad. And then when I let him back in he did it again, on the floor (the tile, thank goodness!!!!!)!! Poor pup. Then I gave him Pepto Bismol because he is too much a whining/barking baby to stay outside all night, but I wasn't going to go through all that again either!!!!! LOL It's official: Chewie doesn't like wintergreen flavor. But, he does seem better today, if sleepy.

Today Natasha decided to finally tell me about some kind of skin problem on her elbows, which I guess has been causing her some mild irritation for the past week. I Googled a few things which I'd hoped might bring up some dread disease, and all I got was (and this, again, will interest only a few readers) ... (drum roll please) ... keratosis pilaris. I laughed out loud so hard that Natasha had to ask me three times what was so funny before I could catch my breath and explain. (sigh) oh.man. (eye roll) We're going to treat it with Eden Salve and see what happens. It almost looks like warts, probably 20+ on each elbow. If they don't go away we'll have to have that checked out once the children's health insurance kicks in and we get to do a couple "well child" appointments. (What a concept.) Natasha said, "Maybe I have this because Dad's been gone. My elbows miss Dad. heehee"

We spent the day catching up on more neglected house work (feels SO GOOD!), and then went to pick up Jeremy at the airport!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our family is whole again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How wonderful it is!!!!!!!!!! MAN, I'm *really* ready to be through with separation for a while!

Here is a picture of a craft N did (100% self-motivated) following directions in a kids' crafting book she borrowed from the library a few weeks ago. It's all just paper, except the cotton ball tail.



Since some have asked about our homeschooling choices for this year, I'll include the answer here. We were thinking that with how much info about our homeschooling we are required to share with the state, that we were going to have to start doing a whole, 'complete curriculum'; we want to do Sonlight when that time comes, but it is far more expensive than we can fit into our budget this year. There was some talk about delaying the purchase 'til Nov/Dec and/or asking for their payment plan. blech When I was filling out the forms to turn in, it hit me that all the state requires us to teach/answer for at this age is "math", "reading", and "language arts". So instead of trying to buy many hundreds of dollars of curriculum this year, we are just going to get basic curriculum for those three topics. Readers: Pathway Readers and the Reading to Learn series. Total for both kids: $24 Language Arts: CQLA. I'm ABSOLUTELY EXCITED to begin using this!! Read about it yourself, if you're interested, here. Total for both kids: $78, + $19 for the spelling notebook and $24 for the teacher's manual. For math this is our year to test the 'better late than early' math philosophy!! We'll do with N, Lord willing, Miquon's first six books ... and then see where to go after that. (Miquon's books are: first 1/2 of first grade, second 1/2 of first grade, first 1/2 of second grade, etc.; their main manipulative is Cuinsenaire Rods, they teach all four basic math operations at the same time, and by third grade supposedly children are graphing algebraic equations!) J's math 'curriculum' will include a couple Kumon books and the remaining half of the beginner's Cuinsenaire Rods book we used with N at age 5.

A couple math surprises N, our as-yet mathematically-uninstructed daughter, has given me this week are as follows. First, she is accurately adding round hundreds to round hundreds. Two hundred plus three hundred equals five hundred. Second, in her piano lesson today she was working alone on the part where she was supposed to figure out how many beats, for example, a quarter note plus a half note are, together; three quarter notes, together; a whole note and a half note, together, etc. She did all five or six of the questions correctly with no help. Of course, the beautiful numeral 'six' she wrote for that "whole note plus a half note" question...? Perfectly backward. lol We keep erasers handy when she's got a pencil and paper. ;)