What's Been Going On: Thursday, 7 July - Sunday, 10 July, 2022

 Good morning! Back at Monday again. The weekend was less relaxing than I would’ve liked (especially yesterday, oy), but we don’t have anything pressing on the schedule this week other than my daughter’s weekly counseling appointment, so I’m hoping this week will be chill.

Not in temperature, though! Summer is in full swing and the temps are going back into the nineties, so we’ll be doing our best to stay cool. I’m not a huge water drinker (or drinker of anything), so I really have to push myself to always have an insulated cup of ice water going when it gets that hot. I’m just not a thirsty person, but I know how important it is to stay hydrated, so I keep trying! What about you? Do you drink water all day, or is it something you really have to focus on?

Here's what I got up to the second half of last week!

 

Thursday, 7 July, 2022

After coffee, I wrote and posted Thursday’s post, then I posted my review for Library Lin’s Curated Collection of Superlative Nonfiction on my book blog and Goodreads. I got dressed, took out the compost and recycling, and my daughter and I did a unit of math. I worked on some homeschool prep, and then it was lunch time!

After lunch, we visited the library; my daughter is flying through books this summer, which is awesome. The library is only two miles away (we’re getting a new library sometime this winter – yay!!! It’s so necessary; the current building has SO many problems – and the new one will be just a little further up the road from there, maybe another half or three-quarters of a mile more), so it’s not a big deal to run over there.

Back at home, I loaded and ran the dishwasher, chopped a bunch of broccoli, got the rice in the rice cooker, and made a batch of sauce for Sheet Pan Crispy Teriyaki Tofu and Broccoli. Then I read my daughter two books we’d grabbed from the library before heading out to read on the porch for the afternoon.

I got dinner in the oven, and after we ate, I did my Duolingo, then went on a 2.5 mile walk with my son. I showered and put dinner away, read (I finished Empty the Pews by Chrissy Stroop and Lauren O’Neal and started Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby), and my husband and I watched one episode of Stranger Things.

 

Friday, 8 July, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I wrote and posted my Friday post. My daughter and I did a unit of math, then I posted my review of White Bird by R.J. Palacio on my book blog. I got dressed and ready, emptied and filled the dishwasher, and snapped some green beans while listening to Nefesh Mountain. I took out the compost and read a PJ Library book to my daughter, and then it was off to the counselor. She’s making good progress and we’re having a lot of good conversations stemming from her appointments. This was definitely the right choice.

At home, we had lunch, then I was planning on reading, but I had a headache, so I dozed in the chair for a while. I made ravioli and sauteed green beans for dinner, and I attended an early virtual Shabbat service with Central Synagogue in New York City (I love my local synagogue, but a virtual field trip is always fun!). I did some knitting, showered, and put dinner away, then I put my daughter to bed (we’re reading Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park). I read my book, and my husband and I watched part of the last episode of Stranger Things.

 

Saturday, 9 July, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I filled and ran the dishwasher, then cleaned the kitchen (including the stovetop. Someone needs to invent a self-cleaning stovetop…). I got dressed and cleaned the living room, mowed the front and side part of the lawn (and sweat like an NBA player within minutes of starting it! PHEW!), then curled up in the chair to read.

After lunch, I took out the recycling and compost, then took my daughter back to the library for some more books. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon reading on the porch. At one point, I came inside and made a batch of Tightwad Gazette food processor pizza dough, then went back out to read more.

I emptied and refilled the dishwasher and took out the compost, then decorated and baked the pizza (mushrooms and peppers!). I finished reading Sisters in Hate, we had dinner, and I did my Duolingo. My son and I walked four miles, I showered, and I started reading Meet Me in Outer Space by Melinda Grace. My husband and I finished watching Stranger Things- so good! I’m so sad we’re going to have to wait two years for the next season!

 

Sunday, 10 July, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I got dressed and ready, and my son and I walked 3.5 miles and did a little geocaching along the way. Check out this super clever cache we found:

 

We also discovered some wild grapes! Not sure exactly what kind they are; I’m not skilled enough in plant identification to pick out the genus and/or species, but I recognized the leaves right away, and my plant identification app confirmed that they are indeed some sort of grapes. Super cool!

 

 

At home, I noticed one of the tabs I had open on my computer had a different icon on it, and when I opened that tab, I was shocked: the New York State Department of Education is no longer hosting the EngageNY curriculum on its website. This is the curriculum that my daughter’s school uses and thus what I have been using with her. It’s still available for free elsewhere, and they provided a link, but when I tried starting to download the zip files, it was failure after failure after failure. Invalid files, files that were missing most of the contents… I have NO idea what was going on, if it was a bad connection or what, but… I read their ‘we’re not hosting this anymore and teachers should download what they want to use’ message and immediately kind of freaked out and started trying to download everything, from third grade through senior year of high school. Do I expect to be homeschooling her through high school? Absolutely not. Do I want the option and to have a source of curriculum available to me? ABSOLUTELY.

But with the issues I was having, it was easily one of the most frustrating experiences I’ve had in a long time. I started trying to download the last bits of third grade and then fourth through senior year at a little bit before noon. Do you know when I finished?

SIX-THIRTY PM.

That’s how long it took me.

My living room window is lucky I didn’t send the computer sailing through it. SO FRUSTRATING.

I did finish Meet Me In Outer Space during this time, however, and I made a pot of tortilla soup with some leftover crunchy tortillas. I filled and ran the dishwasher, ate dinner, and did my Duolingo. I showered, then showered my daughter (talking with her actually helped me calm down and feel less frustrated, which was really nice!). I put her to bed, started reading Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata (one of the saddest middle-grade books I’ve read in a while), and my husband and I started watching a documentary on Hulu called Mormon No More, about people that have left the Mormon church. (Disclaimer: I am 1000% for people being whatever religion they feel at home in. I’m obviously not a fan of doctrine of any religion that hurts or excludes people for who they are, but I fully understand it’s possible to be a part of a certain religion and disagree with some of its tenets. I’m fascinated by documentaries and books that center people leaving groups like churches or cults or even certain ideologies more for the discovery factor. They have to figure out who they are without this all-encompassing framework and rebuild their lives without it, and I’m so intrigued by that process, because it’s different for everyone. I’ve known some absolutely lovely Mormons; I used to feed the missionaries dinner all the time and sent them home with homemade cookies when we lived in Tennessee – let’s just say the area wasn’t super-friendly to anyone who wasn’t their particular brand of evangelical Christianity, and I knew how that felt, plus I knew how it felt to be young and away from home for the first time. We had them over for dinner quite often and truly enjoyed doing that. So please don’t think I watch things like this, or read books about people leaving religious groups because I’m against their religion. I’m actually really interested in religion of all kinds and would LOVE to be able to go back to school and major in comparative religions! My husband has often come in to find me reading some sort of book that’s about a religion that’s not mine, squinted, and been like, “…why are you reading that???” :D Because it’s fascinating and I enjoy learning more about the people who adhere to these beliefs and practices!!!)

 

And that’s it! My son requested a trip to Ikea, which we haven’t visited since before the pandemic, so we’re masking up and heading over there in a little bit. We figured Monday morning would be the least-crowded time to go, so I’m crossing my fingers that it’s as quiet as I’m hoping. It’ll be nice to get out of the house for a bit to a place we haven’t been in years! Other than that, nothing much scheduled this week, so hopefully I’ll get plenty of reading and homeschool prep squared away.

 

Wishing you all a lovely start to your week!