Beginning of the end... of the first week

 School, day 5.
My mornings have been starting with laughter.
As soon as Sam is out the door, Aurora wants my attention. Never mind that Tom is still here, some days. She comes in and chatters at me in doggy words. I swear, she can almost say her name!
"Au rooo rah" will be part of the string of little yips, barks, and whines. She nibbles at me, paws me, and "talks". It doesn't matter if I am in bed or out. (It also doesn't matter what TIME it is. So far as I can tell, what matters is that Sam has driven away.)

We have quite a curriculum this year. Mostly Sonlight, with Saxon Math, and Pace Spelling. Grammar Ace; Duo Lingo Japanese; a basic sign language course, and on-line Mandolin lessons.  We have American Heritage Girls starting weekly in September. I had thought I could come out less expensive on Sonlight's heavily literatured History curriculum- which is the backbone of their program- by purchasing the readers second hand. This didn't work out so well for the teacher's manual! The copy I got was 20 years old. The readers I had already purchased from the current book list didn't match up. So I now have the brand new teacher's guide on its way. I also discovered that the Sonlight Language Arts course had its OWN list of readers, in addition to the History readers. Our school days look to be VERY full.

My friend Lori and I are already working on a Homeschool group. It has fallen together more by accident than design. Our first gathering will be at Lori's on Sept. 8th. We look to have a diverse age group, so hope all the personalities will mesh well. Lori and I met at our library's summer reading program about three years ago, and were both on the library's original Homeschool group planning panel.

Aside from learning I was NOT completely prepared for our first week back to school, things have gone fairly well. No outright tantrums on either part. I was having a personal meltdown yesterday when trying to deal with the USPS website to file a damage claim... and Nickole wisely decided it was a good time for her to go outside and save her questions for later. (Seriously?... you have < TWO minutes before the USPS claims page decides you are dormant and logs you off? I was scanning documents to upload to their site. It logged me off, NOT saving any of the information I had already entered! I had to start over THREE times before I found the SAVE button, which does save your work, but puts you back to the log in page every time. At least I wasn't starting from scratch every time afterwards!)

I am mixing up what subject we start with each day. We don't do every subject every day. But we will probably do SOME subjects every day.
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Still having to can tomatoes at least every other day. I began drying peppers yesterday- four full trays.
Today will be tomatoes again.
Lori and I hope to get together next week and make tamales. I have a huge pork roast that needs to be used.
This day to day dull routine of dealing with school, garden, and home are what I have been missing.

First Day of School 2021 Style. (Par for the Year)

 Yesterday was our first day back to school. We hadn't actually intended to take the summer off.
But we start the new year with high hopes.
Nickole and Tom had eye doctor appointments. After last year's fiasco, my appointment is well after theirs (though I did go in last month for a medical related eye issue). They took Nickole's height (63.5 inches) and weight (101.2 lbs)... so we have those measurements on our first day of school!
(She is officially taller than me, as is Tyrel).

Monday is our Errand Day. After the eye Doc (Nickole got good reports), we got groceries. Came home, put things away.
Nickole started the day with mandolin practice. We are staring with just 20 minutes per day to build her fingers back up... she's not opened the mandolin case  since April or May.
She worked on Life of Fred (Fractions). Handwriting... and then we opened the Sonlight Language Arts program.
I thought I was prepared. I have ordered and picked up all of the Sonlight's readers in the curriculum. Some were still on their way, but all the ones we needed were here.
Or not.
I couldn't find the first book we were to start with. I scanned the list from the LA program.
I don't have a single one of the books on this list. Not a single one! I had ordered from the HISTORY list. My History teacher's manual hasn't yet arrived.
Back to the computer... and fresh orders to Once Upon A Time Bookstore over in Tontitown, then Amazon for the ones OUaT didn't have. (OUaT's order can be picked up this afternoon!)
All the books are now ordered. The core Sonlight LA program may be a few days behind the rest of our subjects. My small bookshelf is completely loaded up with readers.
I ordered the "Four Day per Week" program, knowing how hectic Monday's are around here. This is giving us leeway to stay on track, as I intend to school five days a week... but I know we have extracurricular activities that cut into the curriculum time. As long as we can complete the four days a week during any seven day period at a time... we are on track!
Yesterday had me busy, busy, busy. I had tomatoes and other garden produce to deal with, as well as school and errands. I decided on lasagna for supper... using slices of zucchini as lasagna noodles. I peeled the zucchini, sliced them with the mandoline (the tool, not the instrument!) and... where the heck do you put squash to weep when your kitchen is the size of a match box, and every available counter/ table is covered in stacked boxes of tomatoes or appliances for dealing with produce? I opened the oven and covered the oven racks with clean kitchen towels. I spread the squash slices on the towels, salted them down, and left them to cry about their fate.
On to the tomatoes. Sort the ripest from the boxes... cut out stems and bad spots. Into the Vitamix to chop/ puree. I poured part into my stainless steel pot, and part into one of my antique glass kitchen bowls. The pot was turning to spaghetti sauce, the bowl into salsa.
I made a beautiful bowl of salsa.
"Someone" put it away in the fridge when asked to. Unfortunately, the 10" across the top bowl was shoved onto a 4" open space on the fridge shelf, pushing in against several cartons of milks. The door of the fridge was closed, to hold the bowl on the shelf. As anyone might reasonably expect... the  moment the door was opened, the milk cartons had opportunity to regain their shape, and gave the precariously balanced bowl of salsa a good shove.
You know, Gravity works.
EVERY TIME!
The bowl toppled off the shelf, did a flip (of COURSE it DID!) and showered me from kneecaps to sneakers in fresh salsa... which spread rapidly across the narrow band of floor and into the AC vent... and back beneath the fridge. (Thankfully, my bowl did not break.)
Bad words, ugly works came from somewhere. Most likely me.
(In the wide world of words, I doubt most people would consider anything I uttered as more than a mild almost bad word. I believe I shouted "FECAL MATTER!")
Dear Mr C came to investigate... and help with the clean up. The salsa was scooped into a dustpan and then into the trash. (Hindsight, it OUGHT to have gone to the compost). The vent cover was removed and scrubbed. The salsa in the vent and under the fridge wiped up. This led to the horrors of accumulated dust bunnies on the refrigerator coils, and deep into the floor vents.  The fridge coil cover had to be scrubbed. The area was vacuumed, mopped, scrubbed.... the newly generated load of laundry started; and THEN I got to go back to working on the produce.
Once the spaghetti sauce was cooked, I browned ground beef and added enough sauce to it for the lasagna. The rest, I canned... using my reusable canning lids! (Only three quarts worth).
The lasagna was good, though I wasn't really happy with how it cooked in the air fryer. (I was trying not to heat the kitchen up too much).

Today is a fresh day. I will try to report on a more frequent basis.

Sometimes I just have to write

 I have opened the Blog any number of times this summer, and just sat here.
Here's to another try.
Since Stephen was killed in May, I have posted once.
I can't say any of us have come to any sort of handle on his death. Just stumbling along, day by day as more and more Feces goes on. I have described it as not so much waiting for another shoe to drop, as it has been being underfoot a platoon of combat boots on the feet of Irish River Dancers in a competition.

Basic recap of the last 10 months:

6 deaths in the immediate family circle
4 cancers (Two are terminal)
3 with heart issues (defibrillator, pacemaker, bypasses & congestive heart failure)
3 with liver issues (counted one in death, one in terminal cancer already)
6 broken bones
2 severe lacerations
2 car accidents
Beloved House sold

We also had a joyful wedding... but the bride has been unable to immigrate due to Covid closures. I don't even know which list to put this on... the Happiness List, or Not Happy list!

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I have spent so much time away from 'home' this year, it takes me a bit to figure out where I am when I awaken in the night.
Mr C has held down the fort while I have tried to help out with the grandkids in Texas; first in the aftermath of Stephen's death, and second; so that Paula could go with Ben for cancer treatments.

Becky and Stephen had planned to take their kids to the ocean this summer. I went with her instead, as the kids (including Nickole) got a first look at the ocean in the Gulf.

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I've got our homeschool plans laid out for Nickole. This year, I am trying the Sonlight curriculum. I figure I am playing to her strengths... she loves to read, and Sonlight has a strong focus of learning through literature. She needs repetitive math, so we will use Saxon Math. She tested into level 7/6, which I am very pleased with. She's been working hard on Math. Saxon is very repetitive.

My friend Lori and I are discussing various field trips, and I may join her in another homeschool group nearby.
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Meanwhile... I'm coming late into the garden. After today's harvest, we MIGHT have enough Okra to eat some as a side dish to a meal. Tom canned green beans and made pickles while I was gone in July. He froze tomatoes, which I am just almost caught up with canning. (The frozen ones, NOT the forty or so lbs. ripening on the table from the past couple of days.
Something has been chewing into and ruining the ripening tomatoes, so we have been forced to pick the moment a tomato starts to show any color at all. They sit in boxes on the table to be used as they ripen. The trouble with picking 15 lbs of tomatoes every day is 1) running out of room for them to ripen, and 2) having more ripe tomatoes than one can use in a day.
So I will be canning the fresh ones as they ripen.... just not today.
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The house has been getting the best of me. Looking at what I admire about other people's homes... lack of clutter. I must divest our house of clutter. THAT will take awhile. It took years to get this way, it will take time to get to where it should be.
That's all for now.
May your day be blessed, and you find Good Things to think on.