Hi everyone! Still no progress on stopping by blogs. I promise I WILL do that in the next couple of days. Things are just so crazy around here because I’m wearing so many hats.
This week was pretty good. As you can see from the picture of IL and dad, it’s been beautiful weather. IL learned to eat with a spoon AND a fork, and one of the three molars that has been coming in has finally sprouted all the way. So, yay, less pain for him. Of course, he stabbed himself in the face with the fork after I took that picture, but it went well until then.
Otherwise, lots has been going on. I registered and dropped several courses over the week, trying to decide the best one based on all the variables (what courses are needed for various colleges, which college is my first choice, how many courses should I take at once, and will school actually be in person by summer session). I finally chose a CNA class. My thought is, I need a CNA license to get into one of the colleges, and I might as well get one in case I want to pick up a job as a CNA, to make some extra money to pay for tuition and house improvements over the next year. I’m gambling on school being in-person by June. A nice thing about this class compared to the other classes is that it doesn’t start until later, so it doesn’t overlap with homeschooling.
M and D have been doing great with their homeschooling. They don’t have school Monday (and didn’t on Friday) by executive order of the governor. Also, from now on school is catch-up-and-attendance-only on Fridays for the rest of the year. They’re looking forward to that since they’ve had no trouble keeping up on school activities.
M desperately needs a haircut – but he won’t let me cut it and claims that he doesn’t want to grow it long. I’m afraid he only has so many options. D is looking forward to her summer activities and to be able to go to the park again, so hopefully everything is a go. I’m skeptical about her resident Girl Scout camp, but have had no news. Hopefully I didn’t accidentally delete news. I get SO much junk mail from the Girl Scouts.
The governor has extended the shelter-at-home order which was supposed to end on May 4th. Now it goes till the 18th, and can be extended again. So no park for another couple of weeks.
Another thing Aaron and I have been hemming and hawing about for the past week is what yard work to complete and how to complete it. We want to improve our yard, but we only have so much money, so what are our priorities and should we do it ourselves or hire a professional. We have several trees we need removed from our yard. Despite Aaron’s willingness to do it himself, we have decided to pay to have a professional do it. I really think that’s best. We decided to have the trees plucked from the ground by their roots. That is more expensive than chopping down and stump grinding, but there are several benefits that we have decided are worth the extra money. That means we don’t have money to rebuild the retaining wall, so we’ll have to do that next year. This year, we also plan on reseeding our lawn, digging out the rocks that are embedded in the dirt on the side of the house, and refreshing the beds in the front. I’m hoping I can get my 16yo nephew J to help out a bunch, but he gets a bit flaky (like many teens) about answering my texts, despite his claims that he really wants the work.
I finished one book this week – the audiobook for Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. It was pretty fantastic. I’m going to listen to Blood Rites (the 6th Dresden book) next. Still working on reading Sorcerer of the North (the 5th Ranger’s Apprentice book) as my “real” reading, but I’ll be moving slowly on that once school starts.
Hibernator's Library 