Weekly Wrap-Up: The Plague Edition
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What a crazy week! Last weekend, as I sat down to plan, I realized that we only had two more weeks until we were to begin our winter break, which will go from the week of Thanksgiving to the first week of the new year. That meant that we had to get busy and finish things up. The week got off to a good start as we did the basics along with discussing Augustus Caesar, Nero and the burning of Rome for history and mollusks and sharks for science.
On Monday, Nim enjoyed a game that I made for her from Phonics Pathways. It’s the first time she’s ever been excited enough about something we’ve done to tell her mom about it as soon as she walked in the door. It was just some vowel cards and a pair of eyes from the book. I printed several sets and when she drew a vowel, Nim had to say its sound. When she drew the eyes, she had to spin around three times (or whatever…it was just supposed to be some silly, made-up something). She loved it! And, I believe she’s about got the vowel sounds down.
Nim also tried her hand at a new matching game I made for her. It’s basically the same as the number stamping game we did a couple of weeks ago, except this time I made numeral/number word cards for her to match with the sticker cards. This proved to be a bit more challenging, but I think she’ll get it before long and it’s great practice for number recognition, counting, and learning the number words.
I also made a color matching game that we didn’t get to this week. First, I copied and pasted this crayon sheet from Kidzone into Microsoft Word. Then, I used the “insert text box” feature with a white fill to cover up all the color words. I then printed that sheet, along with a copy of the unaltered original onto card stock. I colored the blank crayons the appropriate color and cut them out. Now, Nim can use them to match with the correct color word. If I get industrious this weekend, I’d like to “laminate” them with contact paper so they’ll hold up a little better.
So, you can see that the week was sailing along smoothly, until Wednesday, when I was hit with the plague. I had felt like I was coming down with something for a few days, but I was hanging in there. Wednesday, when I got up, I was thinking how unfair it was that I felt pretty rotten, but not rotten enough to justify a day at home in bed with the kiddos indulging in massive amounts of TV-watching and video-game-playing while I slept in a cold-medicine-induced coma — you know, basically what each of the kids have done at one time or another over the past couple of weeks, while I’ve plugged away with whichever part of the crew was healthy at the time.
Well, never let it be said that God doesn’t give us our heart’s desires. Before Josh’s music class was over, I’d decided that I was getting Megan’s music homework from her teacher and we were heading home. I did go ahead and take everyone to lunch before we came home since this sickness was not one that particularly affected my appetite, meaning: I was hungry, but I didn’t want to have to fix everyone lunch.
After one final stop at the pharmacy to pick up some NyQuil — where even the pharmacist took one look at me and told me he hoped I felt better — we headed home. Remind me never to take that stuff again. Wow! It knocked me for a loop. I tried to stay awake a couple of times with limited success. Thankfully, my kids are pretty self-sufficient and my husband gets home fairly early.
I remember my dad calling and us having a phone conversation that went something like this:
Dad: How are you?
Me: Okay. I just can’t stay awake.
Dad: Where are the kids?
Me: I don’t know. They’re watching TV or something.
Dad: Is Brian home.
Me: I don’t know. He was. I don’t know if he is now or not.
Just for the record, my oldest is 13 and is of babysitting age, so, though I was really out of it, my kids were not being totally neglected. Thursday, Nim stayed home, while my guys did all the schoolwork that they can do without my help…and indulged in massive amounts of TV-watching and video-game-playing.
It took a little over 24 hours for the effects cold meds to finally wear off. Though, I will say, now that I am awake, I feel much better, so I guess I might take NyQuil again…as long as it’s at a time where I can go without fully functioning for a couple of days.
Today was “catch-up” where we made every effort to make up lost time for yesterday. We did a pretty good job. We didn’t get much fun stuff done, but we got the necessary stuff so that we can finish up our first “semester” next week. We may have to put in a little overtime this weekend, getting things done for the kids’ music performance at the nursing home next week. They’re both supposed to have an Indian headdress and Thanksgiving cards to hand out for the residents. We haven’t even started on that yet…though, Josh has a headdress around here somewhere from last year.
The most personally exciting thing that happened for me this week was finding out on Monday that I’d been nominated in three different categories for The Homeschool Post’s annual Homeschool Blog Awards! I’ve been nominated for Best Homeschool Mom Blog, Best Unschooling/Eclectic Blog and Best Cyber-Buddy Blogger.
Additionally, the group blog for which I contribute, The Homeschool Classroom, has been nominated for Best Family/Group Blog. What an exciting honor to be nominated! If you haven’t yet voted, I’d be honored to have your vote. Be sure to check out the other nominees and vote for your favorites…or find some new favorites.
So, how was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with Mr. Linky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines.
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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
NyQuil does the same thing to me. I can’t touch it!
Glad to hear you are feeling better Kris! Sounds like you still had a very productive week!
Glad you are feeling better today!
I think NyQuil is some good stuff. It always works for us, but you know why I think it works? Cause when you are sick you need to rest and it is for sure you rest with it.(lol)
Glad you are feeling a bit better today. Sounds like you have done well catching up though.
Glad to hear that you are on the mend. I love reading this feature. It give me ideas for my week ahead.
Thanks