Another Sitcom Day

Late last night we got a phone call from a friend visiting from out-of-town, so we invited him for dinner.  I found a roast in the freezer and put it on the counter to thaw.  I would figure the rest out tomorrow (today).  I went to bed early, woke up early, and planned on an ordinary day.  Nope. 

We’re studying nutrition right now… grains and beans, to be exact… so for co-op the kids cooked up some beans and rice, much to my little Colombiana’s delight.  That didn’t go as planned.  The beans weren’t done until two hours after co-op.  The rice was not the kind listed in the directions and needed WAY more water.  Nothing worse than crunchy rice… okay, I can think of several things much worse than crunchy rice, but still.

Outside we went to have games with the bean bags my sons had sewn on the sewing machine all by themselves. (Does a mother’s heart good!)  BUT…. the child in charge of clearing the grass of the dog’s deposits had not done her job… in a LOOOOOOONG while, I discovered.  That doesn’t do my mother’s heart good at all.  After my dog doodoo duty, the games began.  One bean bag on the two-story roof out of 9 is not bad odds either.

Off to the ortho to get Keeve’s braces taken off!  What an exciting day!  I took pictures at home and in the office….. but it wasn’t the removal day after all.  WHAT?  Seems two teeth are “flaring”… honestly, I couldn’t see it, but I’m just a mom.  So two brackets were repositioned and two more months of braces are at hand.  Here are the pictures of the day Keeve was supposed to get his braces off:

And even in the office…. the assistant later told me she wondered why I was taking pictures.  Great.

I arrived home an hour earlier than planned to troubled news.  Friend #1 is in the hospital with breathing problems…  friend #2 went to be with her because her husband is out-of-town.  Friends #3 and #4 picked up her two children at their schools.  Friend #5 picked up Friend #2’s younger children from school.  Friend #6 was supposed to be picking up the eldest child of Friend #2…. buuuuuut, while she waited in line for her children, a fire truck pulls into the school parking lot and blocks her in.  Somehow the eldest child of Friend #2 found out and called my daughter to come and pick her up.  I wasn’t home yet, so she told her that she didn’t have a car.  THEN I arrived and saved the day.  My daughter took off in a flash to save her friend stranded at school.  Forty minutes later I get a panicked call from Friend #6 who didn’t know if the eldest child of Friend #2 was still stranded at the school.  While reassuring her that all was well, the phone dropped from my shoulder into the bowl of flour/sugar that I was mixing to make a cake.  Nice.  Never done that before!

Then my sweet hubby calls and reports that our out-of-town guest is bringing a friend with him….. perfect.  I’m serving a new type of cake “Pumpkin Phone Dip Cake.”  It should be good.

If I make it to bed tonight, one thing will have gone as planned!  :o)

Flashback Friday!

Well, tomorrow is Friday… but Flashback Thursday did not sound as good as Flashback Friday.  Anyway, our younger son who is the one sporting the orthodontic headgear has had the contraption on his face non-stop since he got it.  I didn’t think he would be this diligent, especially after the first night when he said it made his entire top row of teeth hurt!  Tonight I found out why he is wearing it every moment he can…. my husband calculated how much it will cost if he has to wear it for the full nine months…. and he told Keeve that he will PAY HIM if he gets it off early!  Bribery is alive and well in my God-fearing home. And can I just add here that money talks in this house!

This reminded me of another bribe-gone-bad from a few years back.  Both my boys were scheduled at the dentist on the same morning.  The dentist looked at our older son’s teeth and announced that one tooth, which was already loose, needed to be pulled.  He quoted me $60 to pull the loose tooth.  I phoned my husband to give him the update and he asked to talk to our son.  They talked.  Then hung up.  I asked what was going on!  My money-saving husband told our son that he would pay him $30 to pull the tooth himself!  A savings of $30!  Of course, our son was all for the $30 tooth pulling plan and started pushing and prodding the loose tooth.

Back I went to the other son in the next room and sat with him during his cleaning.  After a while, son#1 called out my name, “MOM!”  I went in there to discover a bloody hand holding the prized $30 tooth.  I was not surprised.

After cleaning #2 son’s teeth, the dentist reappeared in the room of son #1 who was still holding his freshly extracted canine.  The dentist was a bit surprised (and probably sad at losing and easy $60) and had a peak in my boy’s mouth.  His next comment made me laugh all the way home (just like the little wee-wee-wee piggy!)  “Son, you pulled the wrong tooth.”  It was all okay in the giant dental picture, as it was coming out soon and was loose as well. 

So we arrived home with the $30 tooth still in his head and a free tooth in his hand.  My husband gave him two days to pull the other one, or the $30 deal was off. At the end of day two the money exchanged hands and the Big Indian Tooth Fairy (my husband) was busy twice in one week!

Oh, the joys of parenting with purpose!

End of the School Year

Tomorrow is supposed to be the last day of school for LAKE Academy.  (L = Larisa, A = Austin, K = Keeve and if Zaza’s real name starts with E… it will all be so perfecto!)  However, none of my pupils are finished with their work.  My most hopeful student did not pass his last math test with over 90%…. which is not a passing grade at LAKE Academy.  We have high standards to uphold… and math requires skills that need to be remembered over and over.. and mastered.  He will be doing some review and then retaking the test.  Some of you may balk at my expectations, but the kids know they can live up to them… so I set them HIGH!  If I set them low, they would live up to those as well.  We are not striving for mediocrity in this home school!  No, I’m not pushing my kids beyond their capabilities either.  Calm down.

Pupil #3 got braces put on this week and it has slowed his progress in math and grammar.  I gave him a check-off list five weeks ago with what needed to be accomplished each day.  He has been faithful and diligent until this week.  He may be able to complete his work for the year on Friday… if his mouth is not distracting him.  Wires poking your cheeks can be such a detriment to every day life.  Good grief!  Thank God for wax!

Pupil #1 has had an unbalanced year.  She had way too much of a good thing during the first semester and much making up for the lacking things during second semester.  I also gave her a list of what needed to be accomplished to complete her sophomore year.  Frankly, it will probably take her another month.  But that’s OK.  Her calendar is wide open!  She’ll be winding down the same time as her cousins in Washington who don’t finish school until end of June.  Perfect.

As the homeschool marm, I reflect on my teaching for the past year… right about now…..  Mid-May.  I didn’t do as well as I had hoped with staying on top of high school history.  Spanish for my boys died mid-winter and is still in need of resuscitation.  We may be doing that all summer.  For spelling, both boys advanced more than a year!  They also finished math and are right on course… actually, #2 son is about 2/3 of a year ahead.  Their writing dramatically improved this year thanks to an IEW course.  (Institute for Excellence in Writing)  They know how to take notes from three sources, compile them, make an outline, write a three paragraph paper with opening and closing/clincher sentences… AND know how to add strong verbs, adjectives, adverbs, clauses and sentence openers.  (More than most high school graduates!)  So I feel great about that!  Not so great about high school history.

Out of my nine years of homeschooling my kids, I would only say I did a great job one out of nine years.  That’s not good odds. I’d tell you the exact percentage, but my calculator is missing from my desk.  And I don’t do math in my head.  As soon as I have to carry a number, they all get mixed up.  My great year was last year…. year EIGHT!  But, hey, there’s always next year!  And if we don’t set our goals high… we wouldn’t accomplish hardly anything at all!  Next week I’ll be breathing easy.  Whew!