MONDAY
Week two seems to be off to a rousing start. We have a new diversion in the house, I've named her Alice. Good grief, 2 dogs, 6 chickens and now...a puppy! What am I thinking?!?!
I am sort of hard core when it comes to dog training so, cute as she is, we're in full on crate training. Her daytime schedule is 2 hours crated, 1 hour out, no squealing, whining or barking allowed. So far, she's spot on and hasn't made a peep. She's also not allowed to come out of the crate until I invite her, also, she's nailing it and waiting patiently until I open the door and then stand back and invite her to come out. As I said, cute or no, I have things to do and I'm hard core :) She'll be trained quickly because she's smart, I'm consistent as hell and Lola and Walter are doing all the work for me :). My dogs are bell trained and it took Alice all of 30 minutes to figure out the bell ringing (Lola and Walter both ring it) means the doors is opening and we're all going out. She also comes to her name already! (I changed it to Alice because, well she LOOKS like an Alice) She is in the crate all night, 11-6:30 without a peep and isn't making a sound when I pop her into the crate so I can get something done. Puppies are never.ever.ever unsupervised at my house, even for a second. No accidents so far :)
I turned my office/craft room/ sewing room/ writing den/ classroom back into the space we needed after transforming it into a sewing space to finish a rug that was ordered from my Etsy store. I am suspending the store (for the craft stuff) for the time being. I can't do both in here and I prefer to write. I finished one rug, at the cost (almost) of the top of my finger, a gash which I keep reopening *ouch* I am going to trim and ship the white rug and am going to return the money of the second rug. I don't have the teeshirts here and have no intention of going to shop for them then cut them then make the rug for the cost I charged. I set the price when I was making them regularly and had the t's in stock. I am trying not to feel like a failure. I just don't feel it anymore. I think it's because I finally made the decision to move on, to write, to follow my passion and am feeling obligated to make these tshag rugs and you can't be creative and happy if you feel obligated. That's my thought anyway.
Science, Latin and Physics went fine today. I did buy the Banker an iBook for his iPad, Newton's Laws, for him to use in conjunction with his Khan Physics. He's delighted.
We have a good system with the big purple binder that we pass back and forth with notes and expectations and schedule, daily agenda and completed work. It's like a game of tag, you're free until it's your turn to work in the binder!
He finished by 1pm today and is on full puppy duty, I hear giggling and cartoons and the odd happy puppy noise coming from the other room. Most excellent. I think I'll make him garlic cheese biscuits to go with the farfalle with two sauces I'm doing for dinner.
/Tracy
WEDNESDAY
The week has been a rousing academic success, well, up until 10:30 on day 3. The Banker got all the work done on Monday he needed to, all the work yesterday and is well on his way on MathUSee day today. I finally *ooops* graded the rest of his tests from earlier weeks and discovered there was one that he failed miserably. I mean there's failing a test then there's failing miserably. The good thing about such an abysmal score is that he was obviously thinking about something completely different. He was so far off that I think he wasn't paying attention or something else was going on that day.
When I sit and think about it, I seem to recall he did a bunch of tests that one day and this may have been the last one or he was just done with it all. I get that. He is going to redo the test today, gotta love home school... the retake without worry or ramifications. That makes me happy. He was sort of surprised when I told him how horribly he'd done and agreed he was just off. You're allowed to be off when you're in the 8th grade, you can't be off when you're in high schools exams or college placement tests but he's 13 and working at home so he is absolutely, completely, allowed to have an 'off' day.
I'm also going to test a theory and give him 'review pages" at the end of each chapter instead of 'tests'. We are having a hellish day because he's shattered about failure. Having him redo a chapter (at my request as opposed to his decision to review the work) is being met with drama befitting of a 15 year old girl rebuffed in the lunch room over a love note. *gack*
I'm not delighted.
Alice, that puppy, isn't interfering too much. I am a hardcore crate trainer so she is in her crate from 9-11:30 every morning so she can rest (hahahaha) sure, we'll say that. It's so we can get our stuff done and it prepares her for when we go out, did I mention I really really need to go out. She comes out of the crate for about 1 1/2 hours then starts to fade so we crate her for another 2 hours. That schedule seems to work for her and then she's ready for bed at about 11 or so and she's down for the night and back up around 6:30. Not a peep in the night, this is my kind of puppy!
I am going to start the Banker on his photography class later today if for no other reason as for the diversion. I'm sending him out with a camera. Sure, we could talk about theory and history, naw, he's going to take pictures, experiment with hue and focus and the best way to learn what the million buttons on my Samsung digital camera do is to use them.
I'm thinking it might be wine time already. I have a hissy pissy teenage boy doing math in a snort and the puppy is only good for another half hour before I have to go be perky and joyful (and I'm in no mood suddenly). I should take my window of opportunity here and now.
/tracy
FRIDAY
Well, what a week, with my ridiculous decision to get a puppy, which is going beautifully by the way, then the drama that was trying to get through a 12 hour school day and today, one of my chickens laid their first egg! In the nesting box, wow. I'm over the moon excited about it. It's a little thing, barely brown and it's a big bowl on my counter waiting for more so we can have a meal. I am not going to get anything done today for running outside to check the run, the yard and the coop for another!!School kicked our butt this week a little bit. We did math for an entire day which pushed everything back a day and today, which is supposed to be our 'free' day, is going to spent on the final math test then chapter for this week to bring us back in line.
The Banker told me he doesn't feel well and has gone to lay down. I don't think he feels ill, I think he feels guilty from a little drama outburst he had at bedtime last night. He wakes up feeling guilty when he's acted like that. That's a good thing. I'd be upset if he didn't give a damn about acting like a mouthy 'i know everything and you are obviously an idiot' teenager.
I think it's going to be a low key day and that's fine. We are in week 2, are up to date on everything I wanted to be into by now and if we put off the next math chapter for a week then so be it.
I realize it's a short week next week and then we lose Friday by having the CoOp start. Yeah, my time is ticking away there. I'm still trying not to fret, even with the diversion of Alice and the chickens' egg I am feeling pretty consistently ill about the whole thing. I will have to decide which subject stream day we blow off. Just because Monday is Latin/Science/Physics doesn't mean that's the day we'll lose on a holiday. I'll talk to the Banker about it
I think friends are coming over on Monday to talk about a food trailer (be still my heart) and even if we weren't having people come play, I think we are going to take all the school holidays off.
I have to research chickens today, about their laying habits, I can't spend every minute wondering if I should run into my backyard to check for an egg! ACK! I'm excited **GRIN**
Have a happy weekend, I have work to do.
/Tracy
No comments:
Post a Comment