What's Been Going On: Thursday, 31 March - Sunday, 3 April, 2022

 Back to the old grind! It’s Monday, and our spring break is over. Boy, did we need that. It was a really fun week of not doing all that much, and it was awesome. I enjoy homeschooling, but it definitely has been a bit of a culture shock to be dropped back into it so quickly. I’ve come to the realization that I can relax a little, though; we have no plans to send her back to school anytime soon, and at this point, she doesn’t want to go back. She does miss her friends, but she’s enjoying the more relaxed pace, the one-on-one attention, and the Mama snuggles. She told me at bedtime the other night that she doesn’t want to go back (which is so sweet, but also kind of sad). She’s eventually going to need some sort of activities with other kids, so we’ll see what things look like as the weather warms up. I have a few ideas of some safe-ish things we may be able to plan. : )

Here's what the second half of our so-very-relaxing spring break looked like!

 

Thursday, 31 March, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, I wrote and posted my Thursday post, then edited and posted my review for Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash by Edward Humes over on my book blog.

I pulled out my guitar and messed around with it for a bit. I’m not very good, but I can play enough to sing along, so I did that until it was lunchtime. My daughter was amusing herself with various toys, so I curled up with my book and finished reading Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson. I ran to the library to pick up a book from Interlibrary Loan and a functioning DVD copy of Matilda (the last one didn’t work, so we had to wait to watch it until this one came in). I began reading Self-Reg: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle and Successfully Engage with Life by Stuart Shanker. My online secular homeschool group sang the praises of this book and it sounded like exactly what my daughter needs, so I’m crossing my fingers that this helps me help her. So far, I’m *really* liking it!

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, then did a 20-minute low-imact HASFit workout, showered, and did about 15 more minutes of volunteer work to kill time before putting my daughter to bed. She and I are reading What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. It’s a little old-fashioned and I don’t know how well it’s held up, but if there are parts that haven’t, that’ll just provide things for us to discuss. I continued reading my book after she went to bed, and my husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Friday, 1 April, 2022

Slept ‘til noon, ordered take-out for every meal, and hired a housecleaner.

APRIL FOOL! After having coffee, I posted my monthly roundup post over at my book blog, wrote and posted my Friday post, got dressed and ready, and headed off the tantrum my daughter was brewing up (she has a *really* hard time coping when things don’t go her way. This morning, it was because her doll’s hair didn’t curl the way she thought it ought to, and she was to the point where she was starting to throw things and saying she never wanted to play with dolls EVER AGAIN. See why I thought that Self-Reg book might help??? It already helped me talk her down out of this one).

We headed to the library to pick up another Interlibrary Loan book that had come in, and then headed out of town to a second library, who had in stock the book the nonprofit I volunteer with is featuring for their first book club selection; the meeting is in ten days. SO, if you’re counting, I’m currently reading a chapter per day of Self-Reg; as much as I can fit in of The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer; Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women, and Queer Christians Are Reclaiming Evangelicalism by Deborah Jian Lee for the nonprofit (this is actually really fascinating!); I have a copy of Wild Edibles: A Practical Guide to Foraging, with Easy Identification of 60 Edible Plants and 67 Recipes by Sergei Boutenko waiting for me. And, since we start back with school today, I’ll be reading Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History again every day for 30 minutes. Plus there’s What Katy Did on those nights it’s my turn to do bedtime!

I need about thirty extra hours in the day.

At home, I filled and ran the dishwasher, took out the recycling and compost, and tidied the living room. We had lunch and I dozed for a little bit, then read until we went out for a three-mile walk. I made a one-pot pasta for dinner (this is when we watched Matilda), then showered, and put dinner away. I knit while watching YouTube, until it was time to virtually attend Shabbat services. When that was finished, I read, and my husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Saturday, 2 April, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, I wrote a book review, cleaned the kitchen, took out the compost, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, took a few things out to the garage that had been waiting for someone to take them out, and chopped and froze a bunch of bananas. I tossed the peels in the compost and put a batch of chickpeas on to cook in the Instant Pot. I sautéed up a batch of onions, garlic, ginger, and spinach to go into dinner later, then got dressed and started a load of laundry.

I wrote two more book reviews, and it was time for lunch. I switched the laundry, then folded and put away two loads of laundry from, uh, last week sometime? Maybe? We all get behind; it happens. I loaded and ran the dishwasher, then made a coconut milk, chickpea & spinach curry with the mixture from earlier. I got the rice going in the rice cooker, and then settled down to knit while watching YouTube.

I switched the laundry, folded and put away another load, emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and knit some more. After dinner, I did my Duolingo, biked 30 minutes while reading Rescuing Jesus, showered, put my daughter to bed, and read my other books. My husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Sunday, 3 April, 2022

Busy day! After coffee, I wrote and posted my monthly goal update here, then got dressed. I stripped the bedding and threw that in the wash, got the dishes in the dishwasher, and took out the recycling. My daughter and I went over to Five Below so I could pick up some 4lb weights for the workouts I’ve been doing (heavy hardcover books and jars of salsa- no, I’m not kidding!- work okay, but they’re not optimal, and I was living in fear of breaking a jar of salsa!). We stopped by Michael’s, which is nearby, but they didn’t have what I needed, so we drove a little down the road to JoAnn’s for the sock yarn needles I needed.

At home, I switched the laundry, and it was time for lunch. I filled and ran the dishwasher, pressed a block of tofu, chopped potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and took the compost out. I worked on my knitting while watching YouTube, then got the potatoes in the Instant Pot as soon as the dishwasher stopped running. 

I knit for about an hour, then I unloaded the dishes and put the sheets back on the bed, and it was time to prepare the rest of dinner. I mashed the potatoes, heated the corn, roasted the Brussels sprouts, air-fried the tofu, and made a batch of vegan gravy, all for Vegan Mashed Potato Bowls. This was SUPER good. It definitely won’t be a weeknight meal, that’s for sure; there were just too many moving parts and things to get ready for this to be a regular thing, but this definitely won’t be the last time I make this! YUM!!!

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, put dinner away, filled and ran the dishwasher, switched the laundry, and did a 22-minute HASFit workout focused on…the butt. There’s just no nice way to say that, haha! Since so much of my chronic pain is in my hips and glute muscles, anything that focuses on this area is good for me, and who can’t use a good butt workout now and then? I was SO sweaty and gross when this was done, but it felt good (and painful, but let’s face it, I’m going to be in pain no matter what I do, so I might as well also be in shape!).

I showered, showered my daughter, switched the laundry and put the comforter back on the bed. I worked on this post, then went upstairs to read in bed. My husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

And that’s it! We’re about to get our day started (if I can convince my daughter get dressed, that is!). Plenty of things to do today, but we’re going to start off slow. I want to make sure she has coins and their values down pat before we move on to anything else.

Wishing you all a wonderful start to this new week! : )

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 17 March - Sunday, 20 March, 2022

 Bonjour, mes amis, and happy Monday! Such beautiful weather yesterday – today too! After that, the weather becomes more seasonal, with cool days, and some colder ones, but these little breaks help us remember that warmer days are coming, and things don’t seem quite so hard when we can remember that. : )

It was a mostly lazy weekend around here, something I *very* much needed. I don’t know if it was my hormones that were throttling me or what last week, but I was exhausted and the whole week felt as though it lasted twelve years long. I’m crossing everything that this week has a little more energy to it! I hope you’re raring to go this week as well.

Here’s what I've been up the past few days.

 

Thursday, 17 March, 2022

After having coffee, I wrote my Thursday post, posted it, and got dressed.

We started our day with On This Day in History and geography (Lebanon), then dove into math. We read about birds, read our science book, and read part of a book about slowing down and noticing the small things in nature (it’s part art, part science, and it’s lovely).

We took a break for lunch, and I emptied and reloaded the dishwasher. We got back to work with spelling and Language Arts, read more from our book about Congress (for someone who doesn’t like history, my daughter absolutely loved this book and thought it was super interesting), then got settled with our Read Harder/silent reading books for 30 minutes (I’m reading Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History; my daughter is reading Matilda). We read a little bit of a book on outdoor science, and then, since it was so nice, we took science outdoors and my daughter cracked open some rocks on the back porch. She found a few with some sparkles inside, nothing crazy, but it was a fun experience for her!

I went upstairs to lie down and passed out almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. Dinner was reheated leftover soup, and I made some grilled cheese to go along with it. I did my Duolingo, and we all went on a two-mile walk to get some exercise. I showered, read, and went to bed, no TV watching this day.

 

Friday, 18 March, 2022

After coffee, I got dressed and scooped the litterbox, then loaded up the dishwasher. I wrote and posted my Friday post, then we got started with On This Day in History and geography (Lesotho). We did math, finished our book about birds, read from our two different nature books, then took a break to clean up the living room. We had lunch, and I got a batch of beans in the Instant Pot.

We did spelling and finished our book about the history of Congress, and my daughter did her extra math and spelling practice, and then we called it a week. I was exhausted.

I napped for a bit and then worked on some knitting. I made One Pot Southwest Pasta for dinner (cheap, tasty, low-effort!), then ran the dishwasher. I did my Duolingo and showered, worked on my Log Cabin blanket, then logged in for virtual Shabbat services at my synagogue (lovely as always!). I put dinner away and read for a bit, and my husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed.

Saturday, 19 March, 2022

Lazy Shabbat! After coffee, I wrote a book review (I’m SO behind!), got dressed, and my daughter and I went off to the library for school books, coming home with two bags full. After lunch, I took an EPIC nap – oh my goodness, it was awesome. I even woke up and fell back asleep at some point, which hardly ever happens! I read for a bit after I woke up, then knit while watching YouTube videos.

We had dinner, I biked for 20 minutes (my hip hurt too much for more), and I showered. I showered my daughter and put her to bed, I read Garbology by Edward Humes for a bit, and my husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Sunday, 20 March, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, I unloaded and refilled the dishwasher and cleaned the very messy kitchen. I wrote another book review, got dressed, and organized my pile of clothing at the end of the bed. I cleaned the bathroom, took out the recycling, and we had a whole-family video chat with my mother-in-law.

After lunch, I started a load of laundry, and we took a three-mile walk. I was absolutely delighted to be able to catch a glimpse of some sort of animal, possibly a muskrat, swimming in the pond! I’m a terrible photographer and it was moving too quickly for me to even try to snap a photo, but what a thrill to know it’s there! 

At home, I took out the compost, then cleaned my daughter’s room (which *really* killed my back), switched the laundry and started another load, then loaded and ran the dishwasher. I sat down to knit while watching more YouTube (and was thrilled to find several updates from someone I follow who hadn’t updated in ten years! Super nice surprise).

After dinner, I worked on this post and switched more laundry around (lots of house laundry today too, ugh), then showered and did my Duolingo. I read my book, and my husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before going to bed. 

And that's it! Quiet wrap-up to the week, but I very much needed that. Little bit of something special on the docket for today; my mom is coming over! We're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. Today will be the first time we've seen here since last year. We wouldn't be *quite* so cautious, but her husband isn't vaccinated *eyeroll* (I could list all the medical conditions he has that put him at much, much higher risk for a severe case of COVID, including a history of blood clots, but I'm sure you have other things to do and don't have the twelve hours this would take...), so we've had to really limit our contact with her. Which is unfortunately. But since case numbers are so low, we're going to take advantage (especially in case they go up again!). My daughter is *so* excited, she misses Grandma so much!

I hope you have a wonderful week full of sunshine and happiness! : )

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 10 March - Sunday, 13 March, 2022

 

It’s Monday! Happy Pi Day, friends. We have a lemon meringue pie (store-bought, from the bakery discount rack, of course) that we’ll be enjoying later on in the day. I also have to bake my hamantaschen later on. I swear, Purim sneaks up on me every year!

This was a fairly relaxing weekend; there wasn’t much going on, and I spent a lot of time knitting, which felt pretty good for the soul, especially after how busy last weekend was. We’re having an early, possible false, spring right now, and the weather gets into the 60’s this week, which will be absolutely delightful- but here in Illinois, we all know not to depend on it to stay this warm quite yet. My daughter’s birthday is at the end of April; one year, it snowed ten inches the day before her birthday! You never know around here.

Here's what I was up to the past few days. : )


Thursday, 10 March, 2022

After coffee, I edited and posted my Thursday post, then posted my review for The Cold Vanish by Jon Billman over on my book blog. I got dressed, filled and ran the dishwasher, tidied the living room, swept the living room and kitchen, and took out the recycling.

We started our day as usual, with On This Day in History and geography (South Korea), and then it was time for math. We read from our pond and river book, our book about museum artifacts, and read more about voting history. And then we read the story Raphaela’s Seder, this month’s selection from PJ Library. We both get super excited when a new PJ Library book arrives in the mail!

We had lunch, and I put a block of tofu out to press. We did spelling and language arts, finished reading our book about voting history, and did our 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading (I’m reading Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History; my daughter is reading Matilda). We read more of the book about slow things, and I helped my daughter with some spelling work.

I had to run to Walgreens to pick up a prescription, so I returned some library books while I was out (since the library is just a few blocks away), and then I ran over to another local grocery store to pick up more on-sale lentils. $1/lb is as low as they go here, so I figured we needed to stock up while we could (I bought ten pounds here, adding it to the ten pounds I bought from another store on Wednesday. We’re good for a bit!). I also picked up some cauliflower and potatoes from the discount produce rack.

At home, I unloaded the dishwasher and made Pan-friend Sesame Tofu and got the rice in the rice cooker. I took out the compost and recycling, spent a little time on the computer, and then it was time for dinner. I did my Duolingo, and then, of course, I got the email letting me know that I had a library book in! Back to the library I went, grabbing some extra books for the weekend, because why not. : )

At home, I showered and put dinner away and cleaned up, loaded and ran the dishwasher, spent a little more time on the computer, and put my daughter to bed. I began reading Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang, and my husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Friday, 11 March, 2022

After coffee, I wrote and posted my Friday post, got dressed, and got some black beans in the Instant Pot. We started our school day with On This Day in History and geography (Kuwait).

We did math, read more of the pond and river book, more of the museum artifacts book, and more of the book about slow things. And then it was time for lunch!

I knew I had a doctor appointment this day, but I thought it was at 2. At 1:05, my phone buzzed, and when I glanced at the screen, it said, “Dr appt in 10 minutes.” I was like, WHAT?!?!!?!? I quickly went to the office website and found that indeed, my appointment was at 1:15. I looked at my daughter and said, “GET YOUR SHOES ON, NOW.”

We flew across town and made it in time, out of breath and with my blood pressure likely higher than it would have been if I had not discovered my appointment time ten minutes before it was scheduled to take place, but it was all good! My doctor listened to me describe my constant cough (I’ve gone in to see her in the past for a constant cough, pre-pandemic, and was diagnosed with post-viral cough syndrome, since at that point, the cough had started when I was sick and went on for like six months) and was horrified by the amount I’ve been using my rescue inhaler to stop the cough, so I came home with a new type of inhaler, one with steroids, and a diagnosis of cough variant asthma (zero surprise there, this is something I’ve long suspected). I have to go do bloodwork at sometime in the future, possibly this weekend. I have to fast before, so weekdays are out!

At home, I was really tired, but instead of napping, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and prepared the black bean scramble part of dinner. I chose some yarn to start a knitting project, scooped the litterbox, and made the polenta.

We had dinner, I did my Duolingo and put dinner away. I showered, then started knitting a log cabin blanket. I’ve never tried this technique before, so it’s going to be a learning process, but I’m enjoying it so far! 

I logged in to my synagogue’s Shabbat services, and when that was over,  I continued reading my book. My husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Saturday, 12 March, 2022

Lazy Shabbat! I had coffee and ran the dishwasher, then I got dressed and ready. My husband and daughter and I went out to the Dollar Tree. I needed a pair of kitchen shears (mine have been missing for months now), but that was the only thing I bought. At home, I read my book, and after lunch, I made a batch of Vegan Cabbage Roll Soup.

I had a nap, read more of my book, and did more knitting. After dinner, I did my Duolingo, then biked 25 minutes. I showered, showered my daughter, put her to bed, and finished reading Beautiful Country. My husband and I watched an episode of 20/20 called ‘The Cult Next Door,’ about the Heaven’s Gate cult. Super bizarre.

 

Sunday, 13 March, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I got dressed and ready. I ran to Whole Foods, trying to find nutritional yeast, but it was a no go; we’re going to have to Amazon it. I did get a pack of vegan sausage patties, though! I ran to Aldi, where they had no cream cheese or strawberry jelly, which was fine, since I was headed to Walmart next. I also picked up cat food while I was at Walmart, and that lemon meringue pie. : )

At home, I overhauled the messy kitchen, and then we all went to the used bookstore and Five Below. My husband and daughter got some books, but there was nothing I needed at either place. We had lunch at home, and then I spent most of the afternoon knitting. I did clean up a few things in the backyard (mostly toys, and some garbage that had blown in), and I tidied a few things in the kitchen.

I did my Duolingo after our dinner of leftovers, ran the dishwasher, showered, started a load of laundry, and then knit some more. 

I began reading Attainable Sustainable: The Lost Art of Self-Reliant Living by Kris Bordessa, and my husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

And that’s it! It’s supposed to be a beautiful week here, so I’m hoping to be able to go for a walk or two while we still can. Purim begins Wednesday night, so I’ll attend virtual services, but that’s the only thing on the schedule. It’d be nice to sneak more knitting in during the week, but we’ll see…

Have a great week, friends!

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 3 March - Sunday, 7 March, 2022

Whew! Another busy weekend. Constant motion, my perpetual state these days. The good part about that is that I’ve been sleeping pretty well, because I fall into bed exhausted most days! There’s just so much to do, but it’s good work, for the most part – or at least, I try to see it as good work. Naps are good, too.

We had our first super-gorgeous day of the year! Saturday was absolutely beautiful, and we were able to have the windows open Friday and Saturday afternoon. I hate having the house all closed up; it always raises my spirits to have fresh air flowing through open windows, so this was a lovely early March treat. It’ll be weeks, possibly months before this is a regular occurrence (and then it’ll get hot enough to turn the air conditioning on!), so I definitely appreciated every moment of it now.

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

 

Thursday, 3 March, 2022

I got our muffins in the oven (from the batter I’d made the night before and put in the fridge), and edited and posted Thursday’s post. After breakfast and coffee, I got a batch of refried beans in the Instant Pot. My beans are kind of old, so they took multiple long rounds in the IP, but they made it, which thrilled me. Less waste!

My daughter and I did her math lesson, and while she started in on the problem set, I threw a load of laundry in the wash. We paused to look for the glasses she had taken off and set down in a mystery place (on top of her circuit board set, of course…), and then we finished her book on volcanoes and earthquakes. We read more about fashion history, read the first section of a book about museum artifacts, and then it was time for lunch.

I switched/hung the laundry (I do a combo), and then we tackled spelling and language arts. We read three chapters of history (the history book contained a photograph of an item from the museum artifacts book!), and did our thirty minutes of Read Harder/silent reading (I’m reading  Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History; my daughter is reading Matilda by Roald Dahl), then read more on the history of voting in the US. My daughter did some more math and spelling work, and I blended the beans up

I loaded the dishwasher and took out the compost, then worked a little on a crocheted blanket I’d started this summer. I made a batch of tortas, read two chapters of Le Petit Prince, put the tortas in the oven to warm, and then it was time for dinner.

I did my Duolingo, put dinner away, and showered. I read my book, and my husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Friday, 4 March, 2022

I had breakfast and coffee, wrote out my Friday post, and got dressed. We started our day with On This Day in History and geography (Kazakhstan), did a math lesson, and my daughter did her worksheet while I emptied and refilled the dishwasher and cleaned off the stovetop. Her elementary school didn’t have school today, so I let her take an easy day, and we watched the documentary Dive!, about dumpster diving and food waste. Definitely a lot of food for thought there!

We had lunch, I took out the recycling and compost, and sliced and prepared a batch of Brussels sprouts. I took out another batch of compost and cooked a batch of soyrizo, then herded my daughter through spelling. We did our 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading, and school was done for the day.

I ran to Walgreens to pick up a prescription, then got a batch of Spanish rice in the rice cooker. I read two chapters of Le Petit Prince, read my book, and threw the Brussels sprouts in the oven. I swept the living room and the kitchen, then finished reading The Cold Vanish by Jon Billman. I warmed the leftover tortas in the oven, stirred the soyrizo into the cooked Spanish rice, ran the dishwasher, and it was time for dinner, a mishmash of leftovers and Spanish rice and Brussels sprouts. : )

I did my Duolingo and showered, put dinner away, then sat down with my cross-stitching. I logged on to my synagogue’s virtual services, and afterwards, I began reading How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith (already loving this book, it’s incredible!). My husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

Saturday, 5 March, 2022

Breakfast and coffee, and then I blasted out three book reviews that I needed to get written! I got dressed and unloaded and refilled the dishwasher, and then I sliced the five pounds of strawberries I’d bought this week (we’ll eat these over the course of the week; if they start getting too soft, they’ll go into the freezer for smoothies). I then got the tops into a bowl to turn into a batch of strawberry syrup. Waste not, want not!

I filled and ran the dishwasher, took out the cycling, folded the load of laundry I’d washed yesterday, and put away my half of it. I spent a little bit of time on the computer, we had lunch, and then I did a Freecycle pickup just a mile or two from my house (socks and headbands for my daughter). We went on a three-mile walk, since the weather was so nice, and then I settled down to cross-stitch away the afternoon while watching YouTube documentaries – one about young nuns, and a few about the Amish.

After dinner (more leftovers!), I did my Duolingo and showered. I stitched some more, put my daughter to bed, read my book, and my husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Sunday, 6 March, 2022

Breakfast and coffee! I put dishes in the dishwasher, got dressed, and cleaned my daughter’s room. And then I was finally able to put away her laundry!

I made a crockpot full of what we call orange soup – butternut squash, sweet potato, carrots, sautéed onion and garlic, rosemary, sage, and thyme, and vegetable broth, with a can of coconut milk stirred in at the end, after you puree everything. Total comfort food. I scooped the litterbox, took out the recycling and compost, then cleaned up and swept the kitchen.

I made out a menu for the week and worked on more cross-stitching. I had some time to write out part of a future blog post, and then it was time to pick up my son! He and I drove to pick up some pizza, and then drove back home to have lunch together. He’s still thinking about moving back in; I still hope he decides to. : )

I drove him back after lunch and cleaned up the kitchen. I filled and ran the dishwasher, and made my batch of strawberry syrup (dumping the leftover bits in the compost. Enjoy, birds and squirrels!).

 

I did some ironing, swept the living room, and sat down to work on this post. I dozed for a bit, then finished crocheting the blanket I’d started this summer in order to use up yarn (that didn’t seem to be good for anything else!). This will get wrapped up and given to my mom as a gift.

 

I blended the soup and added the can of coconut milk, emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, and continued working on this post. And then I picked up a triangle scarf I’d started knitting at the beginning of the winter and began to work on that.

We had dinner, I did my Duolingo, showered, and showered my daughter, and then it was back to work on my scarf (which I wear as a hat – I made one of these last year and they’re great. They allow me to keep my head warm even when I have my hair up, and they don’t mess up my hair!). And I finished it! The pattern can be found here.

 

I read my book, and my husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Phew! It was a good weekend. I feel like I got a lot done, so hopefully this week will run smoothly. I have two doctor appointments (just checkups!), scheduled in the days before my daughter was homeschooled, so my husband is coming home early today, and I’ll take my daughter with me on Friday. Not a big deal, we’ll take school on the road. That’s the beauty of homeschool!

And we woke up today to snow. Because of course! ; )

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 10 February - Sunday, 13 February, 2022

 Monday, Monday! How are you, friends?

I had a really productive weekend and am feeling, in general, a little more optimistic about things. I managed to get all the things done that I needed to, in order for the upcoming week to run smoothly- AND I even got a nap in there!

I struggle a bit when major life changes come around; it takes a little time for me to adapt, and that’s how it’s been with being thrown into homeschooling. My daughter is doing really, really well with academics; she’s able to focus well and pay attention and stay on task (and I make sure to notice when she’s getting antsy and take a five or ten minute break so she can get the wigglies out). She’s feeling pretty betrayed that the schools were forced by the lawsuit to drop COVID protections; she’s hurt and confused as to why the adults in charge aren’t willing to keep the kids safe, and I completely understand, because I feel the same way. I think this is why she’s been such an eager participant in our homeschool activities. She doesn’t want to go back, which is sad.

But we’re doing okay, and things have been going well around here! Here’s what I did during the second half of last week.


Thursday, 10 February, 2022

I got dressed, had breakfast and coffee, then scooped the litterbox, and then we were off to the doctor! It was an appointment with my physiatrist, whom I see about my back. Just a follow-up after my last set of injections, which really helped. She did prescribe me a new medication for the neuropathy I get in my feet (I think I also have Raynaud’s in my feet, which doesn’t help; my feet are a mess…). While we waited, my daughter and I read a book about chemistry. (The doctor agreed with me that it was nuts for the schools to remove COVID mitigations right now.)

At home, I threw a cup of black beans into the Instant Pot, and then we started on math. We took a break for lunch, did more math (in order to catch up with where my daughter’s class is right now), and then we did our 30 minutes of Read Harder (for me, reading American Literary Almanac, edited by Karen L. Rood)/silent reading (for my daughter; she’s reading a Geronimo Stilton novel). And then I dozed, because I was really, really tired. School was shorter today because of my doctor’s appointment, which I had scheduled pre-homeschooling. I have a few other appointments coming up like that; we’ll just take school with us, like we did. :)

I filled and ran the dishwasher, then prepared a batch of beans and rice, and visited my favorite homemaking blogs. I tidied and swept the living room before dinner, then did my Duolingo afterwards. I biked for thirty minutes, showered, threw a batch of white beans in the Instant Pot for the next day’s dinner, wrote my Friday post, put my daughter to bed, and read. My husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women.

 

Friday, 11 February, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, I edited and posted my Friday post and got dressed. I emptied the dishwasher, then it was time to sit down and start on math with my daughter. She. Did. AWESOME.

Her school uses the Eureka curriculum and I love it so much. It makes math so much more intuitive than the way I learned it at her age; she’s already able to add two sets of three-digit numbers in her head, and she doesn’t sit and cry over math like I did. (That’s not to say that math always goes smoothly, but she very much knows what she’s doing and understands the processes in a way that I never did in school.) I actually enjoy doing these lessons with her. We took a short break afterwards so I could load and run the dishwasher.

We worked on grammar next, a lesson on possessive pronouns, and then we read more about plants, and finished our book about garbage (which gave us some really good ideas for projects. Stay tuned!). After lunch, I made a batch of Cauliflower Potato Soup with the white beans I’d cooked the night before. I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the kitchen, and took out the compost and recycling (my daughter was still eating her lunch during all of this). I tidied and swept the living room and swept the kitchen, then we headed upstairs to tidy up my daughter’s room, and I put away a load of laundry.

We settled down for our 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading. I threw a load of laundry in the wash, folded a set of clean sheets from the laundry room, and then we snuggled up for art class. My daughter LOVES art, and I’d given her the choice of activities earlier in the week. She had really enjoyed a fiber art project earlier in the year, so she chose to start learning how to cross-stitch with one of the kits she got as a holiday gift this year. She’s only seven, so it’s going to be a while before she’s ready to do this independently, but I’m happy to help her learn. Lots of good memories to be made together here. Here’s what she accomplished today:

 

We did two chapters of Making Thirteen Colonies (The Story of US) by Joy Hakim, and then we were off for a very cold, windy, sloppy two mile walk (shorter because the path around the pond would’ve been a wet melty mess!). At home, I switched the laundry and folded one load.

I did my second hour of volunteer work for the week, blended the soup, and folded another load of laundry. After dinner, I did my Duolingo, put away a load of laundry. and switched the wet load into the dryer. I showered, put dinner away, and put the dishes in the dishwasher. I worked on my knitting, and virtually attended my synagogue’s Shabbat services.

My husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Saturday, 12 February, 2022

Uh, so, the night before, I’d forgotten to take my new medication, and my feet bothered me all night long. TERRIBLE sleep. HMPH.

I had breakfast and coffee, and then, despite being exhausted and having massive bags under my eyes, it was time to dive into the day’s projects so that the upcoming week could go smoothly. I took my dried mushrooms out of the dehydrator, then chopped and put the remaining mushrooms in. I put away a load of laundry, then folded and put away two more loads. I showered my daughter, and then we did another math lesson.

This one didn’t go quite as smoothly as the day before, but I think that’s because she was hungry and getting easily frustrated, so we took a break in the middle for lunch. We finished up afterwards, when she had a full tummy and a better attitude, and then I lay down for a nap.

When I got up, I felt sluggish and gross, so I did a 20 minute yoga video (no walking outside, since I think the high was something stupid like 15 degrees F), and then I caught up on some things on the computer. Dinner was leftover soup. I did my Duolingo and biked for thirty minutes, then showered and put my daughter to bed (we finished reading Anne Frank: Behind the Diary by Ruud van der Rol and Rian Verhoeven. I didn’t read the last few pages to her, though I read them myself. She knows Anne didn’t survive, but she’s too young to know any of the more grisly details at this point. I read those pages myself when she went to bed so that I could complete the book). I read my book- still slowly reading Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott- and my husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women. I remembered to take my new medication and slept well this night!

 

Sunday, February 13, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, I did a few things on the computer, and then it was time to get to work! I emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, then collected yesterday’s dehydrated mushrooms into the bag- I have about 2/3 of a gallon bag full of dried mushrooms now, ready to add to soups and be rehydrated for other dishes. 

I then hauled the sewing machine upstairs in preparation to sew my torn bedsheet.

 

Yeah. It was a bad one.

I could NOT get the sewing machine to cooperate with me. I don’t know if it was something I was doing wrong (this is probably the most likely answer) or if there’s something wrong with the machine, but nothing I tried made my stitches turn out right. Not straight stitches, not zigzag stitches, the tension was messed up on everything. I’m going to have to play with this a little bit with some scrap fabric and figure out what the deal is. I ended up stitching the entire rip by hand, down and back again. It’s not perfect, but it should hold, and really, that’s all I care about!

 

By the time I finished sewing, it was lunch time. Afterwards, I got to work finishing the second knit square for my friend’s memorial blankets. I watched some YouTube videos while I knit. It’s been ages since I knit anything where I had to pay close attention and count while I knit, but this was a good project to get back into that. I think they turned out well. (If you haven’t seen my last post, my friend, who passed away last month, LOVED spiders. These squares are going into two blankets, knit and crocheted by our friend group, for her two kids, who are almost the exact same ages as my kids.)

 

With my knitting finished, I headed to the kitchen and prepared a breakfast casserole for dinner, with onion, garlic, peppers, and zucchini thrown in, then sat down to work on this post. After dinner, I did my Duolingo, then biked for thirty minutes and showered. I put the no-longer-ripped sheet back on the bed, then I put dinner away and filled and ran the dishwasher. I put my daughter to bed- we started reading Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb- and I read my book. My husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed (and I kept waking up through the night. Hmph).

 

That’s it! Really, not a bad weekend. I had been worried, since I had so much to do, but I got everything on my list done and still had a bit of time to do other things. Being that productive feels good.

We’ve got an exciting week coming up, with something special coming up on Wednesday, so I’m looking forward to that! Happy Valentine’s day, friends!

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 3 February - Sunday, 6 February, 2022

 Monday, Monday. Here we are again! It’s been…a weekend. Some potential changes coming around here, but nothing is certain yet, and I’ll get to that in a minute. This is a bit of a longer post today, because of some of those issues, so bear with me! Here's a cat picture to make up for it.

Here’s what I’ve been up to during the second part of last week.

Thursday, 3 February 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I worked on my Thursday post, got dressed, and scooped the litterbox. I filled and ran the dishwasher, put a batch of chickpeas in the Instant Pot, then finished and posted my Thursday post. I edited and posted my review for Playing with Matches by Suri Rosen over on my book blog, and then it was time for a very snowy and cold school drop-off!

I ran to a local grocery store for some green peppers and tomatoes and ended up coming home with some packages of marked-down cheese ends (they don’t always have these, so it’s a nice surprise when they do!) and a marked-down pizza/focaccia thing that would go well with the leftover soup for dinner. Back at home, I did an hour of volunteer work, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and hung out on the computer for the little bit of time I had left before taking lunch to my daughter. (If you’re new here, I take her lunch every day and she eats in the car. It’s a way to help calm both of our anxieties about being unmasked in the lunch room.)

I stopped by the library to pick up my book from interlibrary loan, then came home to have lunch myself, and I did my 30 minutes of my own personal Read Harder project, reading American Literary Almanac, edited by Karen L. Rood. And then I dozed for a bit!

I put the cooked chickpeas in the fridge, put dinner on to warm when it was time, and after we ate, I did my Duolingo. I biked for 25 minutes, showered, put my daughter to bed, and read Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford. My husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Friday, 4 February, 2022

I had breakfast and coffee, wrote my Friday post, got dressed, edited and posted Friday’s post, filled and ran the dishwasher, and then it was time for a very cold, walk-right-in school drop-off!

I ran to another local grocery store for a few items (zucchini, coffee creamer, and frozen noodles), and they had their discount produce rack out again. Lo and behold, they had THREE bags of mixed mushrooms!!! They used to have these all the time, and I was SO disappointed when the rack disappeared. Needless to say, I took all three bags ($1 each; all kinds of mushrooms in there!), along with a large bag full of perfectly good green beans. JACKPOT!!!

At home, I did an hour of volunteer work, then cooked a batch of taco-flavored lentils in the Instant Pot. I unloaded the dishwasher, took out the compost and recycling, then spent a few minutes on the computer before taking lunch to my daughter.

After my own lunch, I did my 30 minutes of my personal Read Harder project, then took the cooked chickpeas from the day before and made a batch of taco-flavored hummus. And then I prepared the taco dip I’d been craving: the bottom layer of taco hummus, a layer of taco-flavored lentils, a sprinkling of cheese, a layer of yogurt mixed with salsa, and a top layer of cheese, tomatoes, and some torn up spinach. Yum! Into the fridge it went.

I spent some time on the computer and got an idea I may try to turn into a piece of writing, depending on whether I can find the time and an outlet that wants to publish it, then I finished reading Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford. After dinner, I showered, did my Duolingo, and worked on some cross-stitching and knitting. At 7:30, it was time to sign in to virtual services at my synagogue. I so appreciate the virtual services (and they’ll come in handy in the future for me when my back is out- sometimes I can’t sit upright without pain so bad it makes me sweat, which is just SUPER fun), but man, I’m looking forward to when things have calmed down and I’m able to attend in person.

After services concluded, I began reading After Long Silence by Helen Fremont, and my husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Saturday, 5 February, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I wrote two book reviews (which always takes me a bit) and got dressed. I loaded and ran the dishwasher and took out the recycling. I tidied the living room, and by this time, it was time for lunch!

My son came over, which was wonderful, since I hadn’t really seen him since December. He’s likely going to move back in next month, so we’re all looking forward to that! I gave him a ride back to where he’s currently living, then took his and my own books back to the library.

Back at home, I re-tidied the living room, then settled down to work on chapter 5 of Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way. Oof, this one, which was on adjectives, turned my brain to soup a little bit (mostly the rule about using an adjective with a definite noun in a phrase and attaching an untranslated ה to the adjective. What counts as a noun phrase versus a complete sentence is what threw me off a bit, due to some of the examples they gave, because some of them with that extra ה were complete sentences!). I wish I had an instructor for this. I know my synagogue offers basic how-to-read-Hebrew classes (I can read it just fine, so I have no need of that), but I’m not sure about beyond that.

My Hebrew book has jokes, you guys.

 

#12 says, “Holy Moses!” I laughed.

I folded a load of laundry, then emptied and reloaded the dishwasher. After dinner, I did my Duolingo, biked for 30 minutes, showered, did a late-night 30 minutes of my own personal Read Harder project…and then I got the email from school.

Our school’s mask mandate has been going through the court, and a judge decided that, despite 191 people dying of COVID-19 in our state Friday, schools can’t require masks anymore. They can only recommend. My husband, who is a molecular biologist who works in a lab at a major research university, is FURIOUS about this, as am I. He was having an indoor campout with our daughter, though, so we decided to talk about it in the morning, and I did my best to focus on reading my book before going to bed.

 

Sunday, 6 February, 2022

Discussing school was the first item on our agenda in the morning. We came to the agreement that we’d send my daughter (who is double vaccinated) to school on Monday to kind of scout things out. If there are a bunch of maskless kids in her class, or even enough to make her feel uncomfortable (and she would), then we’ll bring her home and I’ll homeschool her. I homeschooled my older son until he was in fourth grade, so I have no problem doing this again, especially if it means protecting her from a novel virus whose long-term effects are unknown. I cannot believe the long-term health of our children has become a political pawn, and the depths of my disgust for the people who have made it this way knows no bounds. How. Dare. They.

After coffee and breakfast, I got dressed, unloaded the dishwasher, and set to work in the kitchen. I had about twenty peppers that needed to be chopped and put in the freezer (especially if homeschooling becomes part of our future, I need to get to work on the weekends so our weeks run smoothly!). I started with the red and ended up with two bags, then started in on the green, which gave me four bags. Phew! That was a lot of chopping; it took pretty much all of the morning!

 

After lunch, I chopped a bag and a half of the discount mushrooms I’d bought and got them set up in the dehydrator.

 

I took the chopped peppers out to the freezer, took the compost out, and wiped down the stove and countertops. I visited my bookmarked homemaking blogs, and then it was time for a trip to the library in order to pick up some books. I stopped for gas on the way home, which is what made me realize I did *not* want to go for a walk- it was 31 degrees out and sunny, but there was enough wind to hurt my ears. That’s no fun to walk through!

At home, I finished visiting all of you, then got to work on this post. I helped my daughter with her math, finished reading After Long Silence by Helen Fremont, and then, armed with some new information, my husband and I made the decision to not send our daughter to school on Monday. The fury we were feeling was pretty big, and while I trust the school to do everything they can to keep her safe, their hands are tied on this and they’re not allowed to do what needs to be done to protect their students. Thus, my daughter isn’t going. That’s that. The governor has applied for a stay, which would put the mitigations back in place; if that goes through, we’ll send her back, and if not, it’s homeschool time. I’m okay with either.

After dinner, I did my Duolingo and showered, and then my brain decided that all that stress was just too much, and I got another migraine, so off to bed with me at 7 pm. I woke up around midnight and took some more migraine meds and went back to bed, where I had weird dreams all night about working as a nanny/housekeeper for a large family whose mother had died.

 

And that’s that for now! Not the Monday I was expecting to have, but like I told my daughter in the beginning of the year, we’re being flexible this year and understanding that everything can change at any moment. This is just one of those moments, so today, we’re off to the library to pick up some books for our hopefully-temporary homeschooling! (Migraine-wise, I'm feeling okay so far, just tired and a little woozy. Definitely better than yesterday, when my vision was so smeared, I could barely see at all.) Hopefully your weeks are all going a little more predictably. :)