What's Been Going On: Thursday, 29 April - Sunday, 1 May, 2022

Some weekends just deliver exactly the relaxation we need, and this was one of them. (Honestly, the bar was pretty low, though!) Last week was just so hectic, with so much to do, and I really needed some down time to do nothing but what I wanted (and not what I had to). I wish every weekend were like this!

Here’s what I was up to the past few days!

 

Thursday, 29 April, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, I finished writing and posted my Monday post. I loaded and ran the dishwasher, got dressed, and brought in a fruit and yogurt bowl from the garage freezer.

We started our school day with On This Day in History and geography (Moldova), then did a unit of math. While my daughter got started on some math problems, I chopped onions and zucchini, folded a load of laundry, and brought another load upstairs. We did spelling and language arts, and then we finished our book about food history.

After eating lunch, I sauteed the onions, garlic, zucchini, peppers, and some mushrooms I chopped, then emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I scooped the litterbox and took out the recycling and compost. I folded the second load of laundry, then put both loads away (some lunch break, right???). I also tidied the mess of clothing on my daughter’s floor.

I swept the kitchen floor, then it was time for an episode of Horrible Histories. We did two chapters of our history book, read a story by Hans Christian Andersen, read about evolution, then read fashion history. We did our 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading, and then I headed out to a local grocery story to pick up mandarin oranges and chickpeas. I also came home with some marked-down cheese ends and marked-down pears.

At home, I put everything away, grabbed a bag of tater tots from the garage freezer, then made a breakfast casserole. And finally, I sat down to read for a bit. Phew!

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, then biked for 30 minutes while listening to an episode of the Stark Raving Dad podcast, which seems pretty interesting. I showered, put dinner away, and put my daughter to bed. I read my book, and my husband and I watched an episode of Under the Banner of Heaven. I read the book years ago (I love anything Jon Krakauer writes); it’s a fascinating book, but it does describe some brutal murders, so it’s not exactly a light read.

 

Friday, 29 April, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, I wrote and posted Friday’s post, then got my daughter’s carseat back in the car (it had been in my husband’s car since Monday’s trip to the museum). I got dressed, and then it was time for school!

We started our day with On This Day in History and geography (Monaco). We did math, spelling, and language arts, and then it was time for an early lunch, because we had an appointment with the counselor at noon. It went well again, and I’m hopeful that we’ll eventually see some progress.

We stopped by Trader Joe’s for soyrizo and a frozen spanakopita (yum!), then headed home. I loaded the dishwasher and ran it, and we watched two episodes of Horrible Histories. We spent the rest of the afternoon finishing our book on evolution, which was super interesting! Dinner was spanakopita and fake chicken strips, because I cannot homeschool, take my child to the counselor in the middle of the day, and also cook from scratch. Not enough hours in the day!

After dinner, I did my Duolingo and showered, then picked up my knitting. I logged on to virtual Shabbat services at 7:30 and kept knitting afterwards. My husband and I watched another episode of Under the Banner of Heaven, and I knit through that as well. : )

 

Saturday, 30 April, 2022

THIS is the relaxing day I needed!

After coffee, I farted around doing various things on the computer, then got dressed. My daughter and I went off to the library in search of a book she wanted (which she read entirely on this day!) and a few extra books for school. I also grabbed a few cookbooks, because I’m sick to death of all the recipes I normally make and am in desperate need for some new ones.

At home, I went through a cookbook while my daughter read and we listened to relaxing piano music. Ahhhhhh. This was nice. I finished that cookbook after lunch, then I chopped a whoooooooooole lot of veggies for dinner.

 

My husband and daughter went out to yank out some of last year’s plants in the front yard, and I decided I’d better help (because otherwise he just leaves the huge heaps of dead plants piled in the front yard *cringe emoji*), so I made approximately 14892374032304 trips carrying them to the pile of dead plants and branches that have – I swear I am not joking here – been piling up for three years now (I am SO sorry, backyard neighbors…). My back was NOT happy with this activity, but I managed to get them all out of sight of the main road, so that’s good.

Inside, I was going to read, but I ended up dozing on the chair for a bit. When I got up, I made dinner – a pasta dish that was chock full o’veggies, but ended up not being all that great, and I won’t make it again. (Our tornado sirens went off while I was cooking, so I hung out in the basement for a few. A tornado touched down apparently like seven or eight miles away, something like that. Yikes!) After dinner, I did my Duolingo and showered. I put dinner away, put my daughter to bed (we finished reading Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield), and read my book. My husband and I looked for something new to watch and settled on – get this – a show about a podiatrist called Toe Bro. It’s the foot version of Dr. Pimple Popper, and it’s horrifying. SO many ingrown toenails and foot infections. It literally made my stomach turn and I horror-laughed through the entire thing. Don’t watch it while eating!

 

Sunday, 1 May, 2022

Cold and rainy on this first day of May, because of course!

After coffee, I finished writing and posted my monthly blog update on my book blog, then wrote and posted yesterday’s monthly goals update. I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, tidied the kitchen, and took out the compost, then I settled down to read my book. After lunch, I finished One People, Two Worlds: A Reform Rabbi and an Orthodox Rabbi Explore the Issues That Divide Them by Ammiel Hirsch and Yaakov Yosef Reinman.

I returned my stack of library books to the library a few towns over, then stopped by Aldi for milk. At home, I filled and ran the dishwasher, took out the recycling and compost, then swept and tidied the living room. And then I sat down to do some mending. I fixed my daughter’s squishy pillow and a skirt while watching a VICE documentary about people who have left the Jehovah’s Witnesses (warning: this documentary discusses the physical and sexual abuse of children that runs rampant among the Witnesses. It’s a very well-done documentary, but this is obviously a very difficult subject for many people), then darned a sock while starting to watch a documentary on Lou Perlman and the boy bands of the 90s. I haven’t finished the documentary yet, but I did finish the sock! The darn looks vaguely like a backwards South Carolina, which amuses me.

 

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, worked on this post for a few, then went upstairs and did a 24-minute Boho Beautiful Pilates workout. Ugggggggggggh, Pilates has NOT gotten any more fun, though I’m definitely better at it! I only had to modify the side plank exercises (in part because my wrists cause me some pain if I plank on them too long, and in part because I know my muscles needed in those exercises need work!).

I showered, then showered my daughter, and came downstairs to work a little more on this post. I started reading a review book from NetGalley, Chosen: A Memoir of Stolen Boyhood by Stephen Mills. My husband and I watched two stomach-turning episodes of Toe Bro before bed.

 

And that’s it! I’m hoping this week is a little less hectic than last. The technical last day of school is May 25^th; we may or may not go a little longer than that. It really depends on how much more math we need to get done (and if I’m being honest, the weather – why bother if it’s still cool and gross out? – and our moods at the time. We’ll see! Lots of projects to get to this summer as well, though… We’ll see.

Ooh, we can sign up for summer reading today, too! Field trip to the library after school!!!

Have a great week, everyone!