We lived through the weekend. I hated Saturday, like all my weekends, but I made some of my own fun. I went to Calahan's Country Store and bought wood chips for the girls, downstairs and in their apartment. It immediately eliminated the mud pit. FriendC came by with more overgrown chard stalks, about 3 inches around! for the girls to jump on, chew on and generally play with and eat. Yay.
The boys did me proud on Sunday, Mother's Day. I was spoiled with loving cards from them, lovely notes and then they surprised me with a Ninja (blender). We all went to the grocery store to load up on fresh fruit and veggies to make smoothies and all manner of things and I'm going to be playing all week with the silly thing. We had smoothies last night, made snow and ice cream as well last night. This morning, husband actually ASKED me to make him a smoothie which he then ENJOYED and TOLD ME he liked it! it was a delightful surprise.
I made banana strawberry smoothies for Banker and I to start our day while we discussed the end of the year. I've done a quick review of the lesson plans of the middle schools in the area and think we've successfully covered everything they have. We are spending today reading and then the afternoon will be dinosaur documentaries Banker has been meaning to watch. He pulled the, "it's science, ecology, history, astrology AND cosmology, mom!" card and I happily acquiesced.
I'm writing his schedule now, he's excited for another day of microscope work, he thoroughly enjoyed having the time to spend on it last week. I may move the schedule around so FriendA can come spend some science day here with the Banker, she seemed enthralled with it when she was here and Banker was excited showing off his squished ant head under massive magnification!
I feel very close to the end of the year. We agreed to do another review at the end of the week. We are not going to take the summer off, Banker will do one morning per week of math, working through the prealgebra MathUSee, one chapter/week and he'll do one morning per week, formally, of English. The English will be in the form of grammar, comprehension, dictionary hide and seek. I expect him to read daily or close to daily. He seemed happy with the expectation so once I determine we've completed what I wanted to complete, I'll kick him loose formally and will start work on his schedule for next year.
I still need to get with the science gal, who is writing some of his curriculum for me and then I'll meet with MsZan and see if there's any schedule/plan overlap I can steal/use/borrow/work in tandem with Banker and FriendH at all during the next academic year.
I'm holding off opinion on how I feel it's gone. There have been solid ups and solid downs. It's been more emotional (for me) than I thought and Banker has really matured during the experience. NOT in a good way. I don't think he'd have been nearly to challenging in public school and although it got up my nose, I think it's been the best thing for him. The freedom and safety to take on authority, rules, expectations and see how it all plays out. I didn't cook him or sell him to gypsies, that's a pleasant surprise to both of us.
The girls are getting gigantic, loving their coop and apartment but I still need to get them out of there to run. I'm afraid they'll take off or try to fly away or that I won't be able to catch them. I guess I need a moderate form of containment before I let them go. I want them to have more freedom, the coop is already seeming crowded and once they are much taller, they'll have to duck when they are downstairs at all.
We made noises about husband putting up the pool in the not too distant future so hopefully that'll happen soon. With my newly done back yard, I intend on spending a lot of time out there floating and generally enjoying life offline. I hope to have loads of people here all the time to play with me and have loads of time just me. I hope it'll be good.
At the end of the day, I think I didn't break the Banker all the way. I think he's a good guy, he cares and even though I don't see any reason at all for me to actually LIKE 13, I peek in on him sleeping and realize I wouldn't change a thing. :)
/Tracy
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