Grasshopper Days

Grasshopper Days

For today, Monday, May 12, 2014.

Outside my window... clouds of dogwood blossoms - love this view :D

Hearing...  robins.  Gunnar and I agree - they always sound cheerful.

Pondering...  today was the day to "get back in the groove" (after Tate's surgery).  Go ahead, laugh at me.  Because, yah.  Today...

* Get up

* Prepare schoolwork (did not do this yesterday because Mother's Day = relax)

* Turn on sparkly new computer (more about this later)

* Resist temptation to play/surf

* Start schoolwork with Tate and Gunnar

* During spelling test Gunnar gets a bloody nose (frequent)

* Pause...

* Move on to math with Tate... what in the world is this?

* Remember that Wyatt and I didn't finish the last chapter because what-in-the-world-is-this? and he got an A next year in math at the high school

* Decide to skip last few lessons in the book

* Uncle P drops by with new products from his company (where he works, not owns) and we get to be product testers (this is educational - as in, vocational experience)

* We find a grammatical error on the packaging, reprogram the lock, and complain that the beeping noise it makes is 1. too high pitched and 2. anemic (sounds like the battery is dying, only it's not).  The product itself, however, (a lock box for a handgun) is cool.

* Gunnar and I load up my sparkly new computer along with my elderly and feeble computer and take them both to the computer store for the free data transfer that would've taken me hours

* Cash lawn-mowing check at the credit union

* Pick up doughnuts at favorite bakery

* Make lunch

* Watch Wyatt make funny faces while he eats and suddenly remember that he has orthodontist appointment at 1pm

* Send him upstairs to brush his teeth

* Brush faster

* Make it just on time

* Arrive home to find other boys playing on their new computer

* Contemplate asking them if their schoolwork is done (it's not)

* Remember I forgot to hang the laundry on the line

* Go do this

* Notice elderly next door neighbors in their yard

* Practice the "art of sitting" with my neighbors

* Gunnar joins us

* Tate brings Polly (the bunny) to visit as well

* Defer the rest of school until tomorrow because, of course.

So apparently we ARE back in the groove, because that IS our groove.

Praying...  still praying for our friend from church who is sick with cancer, praying for Tate's continued healing (going great), for good weather this weekend (Wyatt going sailing), and for a good finish to the school year.

Thankful...  Tate is doing fabulously.  The incision was glued this time, instead of stitched, and he no longer has to wear the big head-wrap/bandage during the day.  If you're not squeamish, take a look at how clean the incision looks.  (Anything shiny is the glue, not oozing.)

Reading...  enjoying A Year Down Yonder with the boys, and still reading through Age of Opportunity for me.

Looking forward to...  Wyatt is looking forward to a sailing trip this weekend with a group from his school.  Every year they charter the Zodiac (not my pic) and spend a weekend exploring.

Sweetening the deal, a local grocery store lets the kids make money by selling gift cards.  They get 10% of the value of each card they sell and it costs the buyer nothing (they pay fifty bucks, they get a fifty buck card, Wyatt gets five in his account).  Make sense?  Anyway, his trip will be FREE.

It's mostly for fun, but the kids each have to research and teach a 10-15 minute lesson about something.  Anything they can somehow relate to the experience (knot tying, navigation, whales, tides, geography, etc.)  Wyatt's doing the Pig War, a piece of little-known local history.

In the kitchen...  leftovers!  Salad and baked potatoes - yesterday's menu!

In the learning rooms...  *ahem*   We've already had enough confession for one day ;D  Only five more weeks, counting this one.  And maybe less.  They don't have five weeks of everything left, and as they finish subjects they start accelerating on the others.  Fine with me!

Around the house...  turning the focus outside, with the warmer weather.  Woo-hoo!

The Mother Load...  um, I have a bit of tidying and organizing to do!  (Constantly.)

Something to remember for later...  though I assured the boys (Gunnar, especially) that I had already been gifted VERY generously and didn't need anything else for Mother's Day, they still brought me a card and flowers and chocolate.  Good boys :D  (And - I think - maybe some prompting from Dad :D)

Something fun to share...  oh, truly, I have been VERY generously gifted.  You see, I had a problem.  Admittedly, a First World Problem.  My computer was old.  Elderly.  (2003?  2004?)  And though it was actually working fine (because it's a MAC), it had become too feeble to DO anything.  Anything online.

The poor old thing was overwhelmed by anything moving (videos? no way.)  I could no longer attach anything to an email.  Or make a link.  And some of my favorite blogs?  As soon as the page would load, they would disappear.  Blank screen. 

So Kerry bought me...

... a brand new, shiny, sparkly, iMac :D  And it runs like a dream.

Mother's Day.  Anniversary.  Birthday.  All covered.  Really.

One of my favorite things...  I got a present!  And look, my desk is clean.  For a moment.

A Bible verse...  Be strong and courageous and do the work.  1 Chronicles 28:20
Always good encouragement.

A few plans for the rest of the week...  we are - really, truly, and I mean it this time - going to get back in the groove.  You know, and finish each day's work.

Unless it's sunny and warm and we "need" to work outside.

Because, you know, SUNSHINE.

Later in the week, Wyatt and Tate have their jobs at Thursday motocross.  Wyatt's sailing this weekend.  Gunnar and Tate will probably volunteer at the Heritage Flight Museum on Saturday.

Also, it's our anniversary on Wednesday.

I haven't made any actual plans yet, because of Tate's surgery.  I mean, I really believed he'd do fine, but you know...  We may have to defer any celebration (like a getaway) for just a little while.  Until I can find something in our budget.  Something creative.

A peek into my world...  twenty years ago!