Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Knee-deep in the Hoopla

Life just got a bit more crazy.  Friend Husband has the next 10 days or so off from work. 

We've been having quite the time lately, as I will show you by my pictures.  My crisis du jour was the arrival of the homeschool evaluator at 9 AM.  I called her a couple of times in the last two weeks and was about to ask someone else to do it when she called yesterday.  Today was about the only day she had to do the thing.  Problem was, I wasn't ready.

Yes, I am a slacker.

So I stayed up late (for me) grading and got up early to enter grades.  About 30 minutes before estimated arrival time, the papers were still not in their neat little accordion files, ready to be shown to the teacher-evaluator.  This would be because I refused to do them last year and they rarely got done.  So I dragged the girls out of bed with a frantic, "Get up and get these papers filed NOW!" and put some actual clothes on, as opposed to the ones I'd slept in. 

Sarah didn't have as many papers to file.  She uses a spiral-bound notebook for both biology and history and she was the only one who'd managed to get anything filed ahead of time.  Rachel and Abby, on the other hand, basically had a year's worth of papers to file.  At that point, I was about ready to strangle them both for being such amazing slackers (apple doesn't fall far from the tree) but I was frantic about having something to show the evaluator.  As it happens, I needn't have worried.  And now I find this picture more than a little funny:


Rachel, attempting to bring order to chaos.

It's nice to have them have to deal with the consequences of their actions for a change.

So, the evaluation went well, despite the paperwork debacle and now all I have to do is to fill out all the paperwork that goes to the district.  Bleah.  This is the time of year when I miss living in Kentucky.  All Kentucky requires is a letter saying you're going to have them in school for 180 days and to teach them in English.  For Ohio, I have to give them a proposed list of books and sort of a scope and sequence.  It comes out to 6-7 pages plus the cover letter informing them that I'm doing it, plus the 3 pages of teacher evals.  I used to walk it into the district office but a few years ago they were so unconscionably rude that I decided to save myself the hassle and mail it in.  Registered mail.

Moving right along...

We had a lot of visitors at services this weekend due to the appointment of elders in our congregation.  It must be an amazing thing to have your son become an elder.  I can't even imagine the feelings.  Of course, right now it's all I can do to keep David from maiming himself and others around him.  I'll probably be dead by the time he's old enough to be an elder...if he lives that long.  Anyway, here are the families of our two newly-appointed elders.


And yes, Benjamin (3rd from the left) always does choose to be a total dork in all situations.


Look at the glow coming off Elizabeth...how angelic can you get?

Anyway, since one of the visitors was a woman who'd helped Friend Priscilla and I by quilting a quilt for her granddaughter (and we hadn't yet finished it), I kicked into high gear to get that puppy squared off and bound.  We finally gave it to the happy couple (two years married now) after Sunday lunch.  I think the bride was pleased.



The large view...the sashing and binding are denim.  You can't really tell from the picture.


So much has changed in just the two years since we started that quilt.  It's rather bittersweet to read the inscriptions on the blocks..

It seems like I've been doing a lot of things but I surely can't remember what else has been going on.  Oh, I finished the last Harry Potter book the night before last.  It was so good.  I'm sad that I've read through them all but they were enjoyable fantasy.  Time to find something new to read.

Here are a couple of other random pictures to round out my explanation of why I haven't been doing much online.  Friend Husband has a lot of grand ideas (like cleaning out the garage and tearing up carpet in the LR) so I doubt I'll be around much the next week or so.  I've got a lot of grand ideas like getting things ready for school, which starts back on 8/21.  I don't think that life ever really slows down.


Look who's doing the work here.



Ok, this one bears some explanation.  On Sunday, Zi's hairdo was sort of a bouffant thing with a hairband in it.  The teenagers seemed amazed at the poofiness of her hair and asked/hinted that it would be cool to see how big it was when I wasn't trying to pin it down some.  So I combed it all out and this is what it looks like.  Hannah pointed out that her profile looks a lot like Queen Nefertiti's and I concur.  She's very regal when she's not tired and whining around on her dad.

Ok, speaking of hair, it's time to do Zi's again and take a shower myself.  I hope y'all're all enjoying the waning weeks of summer.  We surely are here.  It's been downright chilly for August (highs in the low 80's) and the living is certainly good.  Hugs & misses!

3 comments:

Kelly said...

okay, question here, hope I don't cross any lines. A lot of people are so set against the Harry Potter books, I guess that is why it took me so long to pick one up. I read the first one and really liked it. Will you let your girls read them? Maddie is in the 7th book now and almost done. I quit reading the 2nd one due to something someone said. It made me mad and I quit reading it, but still let Maddie read it. Go figure. I guess I am trying to get at, what do you think about the whole Harry Potter stuff?

Anonymous said...

Glad to know your eval is wrapped up. I'm going to pull our notice together on Friday. Sigh. Pray for me.

I can't believe her skinny little legs can peddle both of them!

!

Ohio_Momto3boys said...

Did you have to pay your evaluator? I would have signed your papers in exchange for a new scarf and some cookies :-).
One of my homeschool moms pays me in strawberry pie... that's what I call PAYMENT! Another one has a mint tea farm... guess what I'm asking for there? LOL.

Katie... whose 5 year old just got on the school bus... ah well, out of my control