Notes 9/8-9/12

Monday

Rose from my by bed twice. Once to take a shower and then, much much later, to collapse into a chair and pretend to watch Monday Night Football. Matt cheated the children out of their Family Movie Night by changing it into Family Football Funtime. Only Romulus had fun. Everyone else sat brooding, though Alouicious seemed satisfied in his usual anxious sarcastic way. I read a nice long article about how teetotalers die earlier than people who drink alcohol. Crawled back to bed.

Tuesday

Woke up at a good hour but was unable to think clearly enough to blog. Felt rather devastated and inadvertently made eight cups of oatmeal instead of only six. So Much Oatmeal. Ate an egg on a large Aldi sausage patty (trying to convince myself that I don't need bread), and blogged after all. Felt humanity return to soul and body. At 10:15 finally gathered everyone for prayer. Forgot to read the bible. Couldn't sing the hymn. Played a YouTube clip of it but the words were unintelligible. Worked on the canticle and reviewed some of the catechism. Read out history and science. Read Hurry Hurry Mary Dear, Owl at Home, and some book about babies and mothers to the little girls. Tried to work with Gladys but was interrupted So Many Times by all the others made no progress at all. Gave up and made lunch. Started bread and muffins with the left over oatmeal. Went to church to work on Sunday service music for an hour. Didn't get back till three. Did a bunch of math with Romulus and then some with Gladys. Elphine insisted that she was done with everything and she should go play with her friend at church. Knew this to be untrue. Didn't have the energy to disprove her. Let her go. Made tea for standing Tuesday tea break with friend. Went on with muffins and bread. Made pork chops for supper which, if I do say so myself, were pretty nice. Took the little girls out for their evening constitutional and met a nice woman hanging around the parking lot with her two little children. Chatted about this and that; discovered her to be a Christian and promised to pray for her. Came in to find Alouicious being incompetent in the kitchen. Not a total failure as a school day, but not brilliant.

Wednesday

No piano again. Got started early and didn't forget anything. Good amount of French, spelling, one whole Latin lesson, read several chapters of My Side of the Mountain (can't believe we haven't finished this yet), got everyone through math and writing.

Stupidly began to rejoice over so much progress just in time to have a wave of a headache hit as I stood up to pour boiling water into cups of soup. Shuffled to the couch and lay down for a while but managed to read the rest of a math book to Gladys and to help Romulus with some more of his math.

Startled into reality by the doorbell. Spent a nice hour with a friend. Wandered back to church to work on Catechesis. Wandered back home for supper. Herded the kids to fencing. Collapsed into bed.

Thursday

Not with it still. Headache, frustration. Finally called the doctor and made a real appointment, but not until Monday. Spent much of the day on the couch but noticed, to my great shock, that I must not have communicated my inability to deal to the children because they all seemed to think we were in the middle of a school day and did all their work. Crazy. You probably think I'm trying to be funny, but I found it bizarre and strange. I mean, if you were a child, and your mother was splayed out on the couch with a pounding headache, and you had a big stack of work, and you knew that she didn't have what it takes to hunt you down and make you do it, what would you do? I would disappear quietly with a book or something, and apologize later, or I would pretend to work and Not Work. I would not sit nicely and actually do all my work. But that's what everyone did. Even the little girls. All the subjects. Every single one. And I noticed that Elphine has taken it upon herself to learn the Lady of Shallot because she was muttering it over and over to herself quietly. I know this definitely looks like humble, or rather, not humble bragging but really, honestly, truly, I take no credit whatsoever. And even the children aren't that good. It must have been some sort of mystical divine intervention.

At two everyone was done…..I'll just whispering it quietly again to myself…..everyone was done. I went to church and faced down the twelve apostles (see Fridays post), and then Solemn Communion.

Friday

True friend came at nine. Elphine did geography, math and something else. Alouicious did math. No one did anything else. Finished My Side of the Mountain, finally. Loved it though. They loved it, I loved it. Found Julie of the Wolves on the shelf and started it right that moment. Boys, philistines, sneered and ran away. Elphine says she will read it on her own. Writing seems more stilted and not as tight. Still, subject terribly interesting. No other school related anything. To church to work for the rest of the afternoon.

Although, I should say, re visitation of true friend earlier–true friend known to be true friend because of seeing real catastrophic wretched state of house and seeming not to judge, even when leaping up to sweep up shattered glass and discovering horrible dog poo in the same general vicinity, and then telling lots of horrible poo stories in commiserating friendly way. “It's nice you have real friends” said Matt, relishing my writhing embarrassment. “Jerk” I reposted and wandered away. True though, it is splendidly nice to have real friends.

Go read Melanie!