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.
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