SL Core H Week 20 May 22-28, 2017 Last week of Driver's Education, G&G arrive

SL Core H Week 20

 May 22-28, 2017

 Last week of Driver's Education, Giz and Grampy visit, not an 'academic' week!

Hello, Friends!

Dd finished her Driver's Education class! Phew! I am sure glad all the driving back and forth is done!  I really didn't know this class was going to take over our month of May, but what is done is done.  Dd sure enjoyed this class and drives very safely.  This week was not an academic week, though Dd had lots of 'Home Economics,' Art, Reading, and Music.  This post isn't for those looking for book suggestions for Core H!  



Lab visits (3), Dentist, and Dermatologist appointments:

Besides Driver's Education Dd and I both had doctor appointments and it took three visits to two different labs to get the right order done.  Luckily, because the first lab lost our script and the doctor's office didn't get the info they needed, they called me and after hearing my story searched out a LOCAL lab for us to use!! Yay! No more driving 45 minutes to the busiest street in GR to go to the lab!  Now we can get our labs done and back home again within 30-45 minutes!  The new acne medication Dd is taking requires monthly lab work, plus doctor visits, but it could "cure' her acne.

Heather, my friend, mailed me this great book.  I finished it this week.  If you have chickens, you will enjoy hearing all about this woman's up's and down's with her flock!  Thank you, Heather!!!

Dentist:

Another visit to the dentist-- another difficult and painful visit.  But, my new bridge is in, and I can't believe how much it cost, even with insurance.  It seems impossible to believe that dentists can charge you thousands of dollars to hurt you?!?!?  At least I have a few months before my next cleaning.



Chickens & Ducks:
They are all doing well!  The ducks have been spending most of the day out in their kiddy pool.  It is so cute to see them both floating out there, asleep, with their heads tucked down.  Unlike the chickens, these ducks just ever seem to be anything but 'wild.' They always waddle away from me when I try to pick them up to take them to the pool.  I can't tell you how many deep scratches I've received on my hands, wrists, and forearms...they have such sharp pointy nails.  I hoped the ducks would come around to me, but I don't think that is going to happen, even though I feed them!  I've been walking around the yard pulling up as many dandelions and plantain weed/herbs.  I've been kind of laughing at myself for doing all the foraging for all these critters, but I want to help them grow up healthy.

Zeus is getting his tal feathers back!  Unfortunately, he is also getting aggressive to anyone but me...Dh is not liking his behavior lately.

Agnes, totally asleep...and yet still cute!

Birds:

Hummingbirds arrived this week, and don't you know it, I can't find my hummingbird feeders!  One flew right up to the window and looked in at me, as if reminding me it was time to put out the sugar water for them---I feel awful and am trying to find the feeders (that I put in such a great spot!).  The weather has been so windy, I've already found two small bird nests on the ground.

Giz and Dd making a GF apple crisp together! Yum!~

Family Visit: Giz and Grampy

Thursday Giz and Grampy arrived for their spring visit.  We last saw them when we got home from Italy on Feb. 10th.  It was nice to see "family" again.  My husbands family returned again to visit with us here in Michigan.  It is always SO hard when they leave, I'm sure we miss them WAY more than they miss us!  Our little family has such small family ties, which make those few ties even more precious.

Volunteer: Hats

We were asked to help clean the Marching Band hats with the other woman who volunteered with me (Ruth) in the year long band classes.  We drove to her house and cleaned each hat by hand.  It was nice to meet her eldest daughter, who use to be in the band program a few years ago.  She has been taking college classes at Grand Rapids Community College, where we are looking to sign up Dd for some classes, and she shared how well she likes it there.  We are planning on Dd taking one class in the fall, not sure if it will be an online class, or at an outreach location--they have one locally for us!

Volunteer: Olympians

Wednesday night was the LAST night of the Olympians program.  The kids were given money, the amount depended upon how many bible verses and missionary books they had read for the year.  We had a big presentation on the church stage, in front of the kids parents and our church congregation before going over to the community building for our party and prize tables.  The kids bought prize after prize--bibles, basketballs, candy, balls, games, etc. etc.  Even the siblings of our students went away with bags of goodies!  I was impressed with how much our church blessed everyone!  This concluded the program that started back in Sept. 2016, a whole year of sharing the Lord with such great kids!

Music Classes: Violin

Dd had her violin class with Christie.  Christie is taking July off, and maybe August.  I'm so glad we found Christie, she is an excellent teacher.  Dd will be trying out for Intermediate Orchestra sometime this summer and has been working on memorizing her scales for the audition, as well as trying to decide on a song for her try-out song.  Christie brought Dd a book of suggestions.

Music Class: Saxophone, Alto.

Mrs. March and Dd had their lesson time this week, though they did saxophone instead of their usual piano lesson..  They worked on her "sight reading" because when she tries out for Advanced Band in July she will be tested on her sight reading skills.  They are trying to get her abundantly prepared for her audition.

Music: Strings Group

Dd and I took Giz with us to our Strings Group at church.  She asked to go and see what it was all about and she had a great time!  She tapped her foot through our whole practice!

Music Practice:

Dd played her various instruments this week.  Giz said she could really hear a big improvement in her playing.  Giz was especially interested in seeing the ukulele and banjo ukulele.

Band Camp: Coming Up Soon!

Band Camp is coming up soon, so we hit our local thrift stores, Goodwill stores to look for extra shorts for Dd.  We both found a few things! It is so great to buy used and re-use many items that others were done with.  Dd says she has enough shorts now.  We went to the grocery store and stocked up on four tubes of 100 sunblock and two cans of spray sunblock, which I am normally opposed to, but considering she will be marching and not have proper time to stop and re-apply sunblock, I had to bend my rules!  I'm just glad she wants to wear it!

JoAnn Fabrics: Tie-Dye and owl painting kit

Dd used the gift certificate my mom had mailed her for her birthday to buy a super tie-dye kit!  Then Dd made two t-shirts this week, and had a lot of fun in the process!!

Driver's Education (Navigator):

Class Monday and Tuesday drove for her test evaluation and took her final test.  She spent the first days of the week in deep study for her upcoming tests.

Giz's goal was to get our 'Sycamore tree table' out of storage in garage and up in the Rec Room.  It is nice having our table back up!  Dh's Grandfather built this table with wood from a huge tree on the family farm.  The top is two pieces of wood!  That was a huge tree alright!!

Home Economics:

Dd made a GF apple crisp, skillet potato and carrot dish, and Dd cut up mango and banana for the dehydrator.  Dd helped Giz make up our meals and spend time in the kitchen together.  Giz is a wiz in the kitchen.  Dd did extra chores before G&G arrived--cleaned the bathrooms and tidy.  She did her normal chicken care and help with the dishes and laundry.

Cards:

Each evening of Giz and Grampy's visit, we sat around our dining room table and played UNO, Skip-Bo, and PIT.  We always have such a great time playing and laughing together.

Power Wash:

Dd had a blast working Grampy's power washer again.  She cleaned our pool wall and concrete floor.

Working in four new Peony plants and three new Dinner-Plate Dalhia's in our front garden.  I hope they grow!

Fun Reading:

Dd had the week off 'lessons,' but still did plenty of reading: her 

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer : Completed

Trials of Apollo: The Dark Oracle by Rick Riordan: Completed

Prudence by Gail Carriger: In Process

Bonfire:

We all broke out our camping chairs and sat around the bonfire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  It is beginning to feel like summer is almost here.  It was a chilly, windy week.  At Band Camp each day has a different fun thing to dress up as, one of the days is a Hawaiian Shirt Day, so we picked up the blue shirt this week for Dd to wear on that day.

Sophie and Agnes kept a close eye on all of our work! She is our inspector!  She had fun coming and going out of our normal window - without the glass in!

Grampy & Dh's window fixing: Leaking window

The angle of the wood holding in the window was tilting back into the window, causing rain water (or snow water) to angle back instead of away, causing wood rot to the wood under this window.  Little did I fully grasp we had a major problem in our sun room.  During the winter a middle window had become covered with ice on the inside.  I had to put little heaters on it, scrape off the ice, dry it, and then I peeled off the old caulk and applied new chalk to seal the moisture from coming inside. 



 I don't know if Grampy heard about that then or if he had already seen a hint of the problem last summer, but, when he arrived he had his sights set on working on that window.  Dh and Grampy pried off all the outer boards and found a LOT of weathering and rot.  It took the whole visit (minus Sunday), but they cut out the bad and replaced it with new.  What a BIG project!  I'm so thankful for Grampy and all his knowledge and ability...at 82 years old!  What an amazing man.  

It was fairly easy getting all the rotted wood out, but then they had to buy replacement wood (this time they used plastic wood that can't rot!) to complete the repair.

They put aluminum flashing up on both windows to completely be sure that this problem won't happen again!  I love flashing!  They really worked hard to remove any chance of this problem repeating itself.

The work isn't all the way completed, but the time of Giz and Grampy's visit arrived.  Dh and I will have to finish up this job on our own.

I brought up another seven or eight loads of humus from out in the woods; the humus pile that probably was where the previous owners dumped their horse manure.  I filled all the new raised beds we built last week; now we can plant!

Another car needing repair:

Grampy and Dh took my faulting auto out for a test drive and diagnosed a major problem, the 'boot.'  It is a major thing to replace.  Dh replaced one in his car a few years ago and it took up so much time and effort.  I'm prayerful that this time things will go easier.  Dh just got his truck back on the road about 2 weeks ago---if it isn't one car it is the other! Oi!

I planted spinach and Swiss Chard in the garden on the left side.

Giz and Grampy don't leave until Tuesday morning, so next week will still be a happy limbo, which is fine with me as we needed a break!

The turnips we planted came in way too thick, so I dug up a bunch and transplanted them to this bed.  I hope the transplants will be happy in their new spot!

I brought up another wheel barrow load of humus for this empty bed.  I planted a bunch of marigolds, sunflowers, cone flowers, etc.  I will be curious to see what comes in!

.............