Week in Review, May 11-16th

It’s been one of those “be careful of what you wish for” kinda weeks. First…for Mother’s Day, I wanted to be like Greta Garbo. “I vant to be alone.” I wanted a day free of cries for mommy, free of hearing “she did…,” without questions about where the peanut butter might be located. The usual. So…I did get what I wished for…but it was covered in a benadryl induced fog. See…Saturday morning I dyed my hair. The same dye I have used for 10 years. About 12 hours later…my head started itching. Really itching. And burning. I don’t think I managed to sleep at all on Saturday night. I just wanted to dunk my head in a big vat of calamine lotion. So…Sunday, I slept. And scratched. And then slept a little more. And had some steak.

I’m not sure what happened. I am guessing a minor allergic reaction. I say minor because if you google “allergic reaction to hair dye” you’ll see some really gross pictures. That, thank you God, was not me. Just the itching and burning. It was completely gone on Monday…with only some mild twinges since then. In case you were wondering.

Then…all week, I have been looking forward to Thursday night. My book club meeting. We were going to discuss “Jesus Land.” I was invited to a Southern Living party for Thursday night…but I could not go because of book club. Someone from my homeschool group turned 40…and a bunch of people were going to take her to dinner Thursday night…but not me, I have book club. So, Thursday came…my day was a smidge discombobulated…but not more than normal. I made dinner…sat down to do some blogging…and just other “stuff.” Later I decided to go to bed…I went up to brush my teeth…and it hit me. I FORGOT to go to bookclub! I am such an idiot.

And because things happen in threes, I did have one other “off” thing happen this week. Last week, my husband offered to buy me a new watch. Because he won a prize. Again. I looked at my options…and thought “meh.” I have a great watch. It’s Brighton. Really pretty. And it somehow survived our cruise – where I wore it in the ocean to swim with both stingrays and dolphins. Not on purpose, though. So…why would I need a new watch? Well…because it died today. Not sure what killed it since the ocean water didn’t do it.

We did have something exciting happen this week. The landscaper came. My yard is almost gorgeous. They have a few more things to do…and I can’t wait to share my before and after pictures. Just to whet your appetite, here is one small area that is done -- the first one is before, the rest are the afters (hey, Jenny...what's that purple vine around the mailbox called?):

I am getting really excited about my blog give away. I need to figure out exactly “how” I am going to give the big bundle of prizes away…

Okay…onto homeschooling:
I finally managed to plan the rest of our year. Katie is so not happy with said plan. See, Madalyn gets out of school on the 21st…and Katie has enough work to go through the 30th. But…her last week of school is just history and grammar.

MATH: This week we started a new chapter on percent. It’s been really easy for her. A little too easy. We are going to finish the chapter next week, and then wait until the fall to move on to the next section.

HISTORY: We finished chapter 38 and moved to the next chapter. No skipping this week. Katie read the first section “India after partition” – and then read a book on Indira Gandhi. She is also reading the book “The Breadwinner” by Deborah Ellis. It’s about an 11 year old girl in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule. When her father is taken away by the Taliban, she disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for the family. Katie finished the book in one day…and we have reserved the next two in the series.

GRAMMAR: Katie finished chapter 7 – the last section focusing on the common mistake of “could of…should of…would of” that actually should be: “could have, should have, and would have” – but the mistake is made, probably due to mis-hearing “could’ve, should’ve, or would’ve.” Wow…was that a run-on sentence or what? Not that I use appropriate grammar on this blog. But you would think that once a week in the grammar section, I could accomplish it. But no, not this time.

WRITING: Katie spent this week working on her Jackie Kennedy paper. Making notes, organizing them, and doing a first draft. And today, in looking over what she has done…there is not one mention of the words “first lady” anywhere in what she has done. What’s up with that?! This might take a few more drafts…

LATIN: We finished up our classes with our homeschool group…so Katie is on holiday from Latin, folk dancing, and organized swimming lessons. Our last day of classes picnic was rained out…so hopefully that will be rescheduled.