Sunday, March 30, 2014

Weekly Wrap-Up – March 16th-22nd

Welcome to a new week!

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Haylee’s been doing a 50-state study from Knowledge Quest this school year, so I bought her this fun magnetic states puzzle from Ollie’s Bargain Outlet for $4. 

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She put it together on the included magnetic map first and then transferred it to the side of the freezer so it would look cool.

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Monday was St. Patrick’s Day, so I decided to make our traditional meal.  Our long-time favorite is Betty Crocker’s Slow-Cooker Old-World Corned Beef & Veggies

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Haylee was quite happy about that, because she LOVES this meal!  I didn’t make it on St. Patty’s Day for the last 2 years in a row because I was following the PINK Method nutrition plan and didn’t want all of those calories and fat.  But I agreed to make it this year and just gave everyone far more veggies than meat!

Then for dessert, we had these Easy Grasshopper Bars from Betty Crocker. 

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They were pretty good!  And it made 24 of them, so it was a treat that lasted us most of the week.

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Mid-week, I went with my neighbor friend and my homeschool field trip group to Student Night at the Opera to see Carmen performed at the Harrison Opera House. 

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The last performance I saw was Ariadne Auf Naxos, which I hated because it lacked a cohesive storyline.  This was so much better!  That crafty Carmen…such a seductress! 

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I began working on my homeschool plans for the new school year starting in June.  Sonlight released the .pdf version of the new 2014 catalog on Friday, so I pulled out some storage tubs of books in our shed that contained Core B and Core F, and I compared what I had with the latest version. 

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Customer service at Sonlight informed me there are no changes to those cores from 2013 to 2014, so once I’d made my list of what I needed to upgrade my cores and science packages, I went ahead and placed my order to take advantage of 2013 prices before they increase to the 2014 rates on April 1st. 

I’m so excited!  I could hardly believe they changed out so many books in Core F…it hardly resembles what it was when I first purchased it in 2009.  This was our favorite core of all, so I’m hoping the changes don’t ruin it for us!  I’ve heard rumblings that the old Eastern Hemisphere Explorer was much better (it was certainly more visually appealing on antiqued paper), but if that’s the case, I still have an unused copy of the old EHE that we could go back to if we wanted to. 

I went ahead and shipped off two big boxes to Sonlight to return Hayden’s Core 200 and Science 250 that I’d ordered for him last spring but never ended up using since he ended up going to charter school.  That will get me a refund of about $850, and I’ll just lose the $47 I spent shipping it back to them.  I’m so glad I remembered to check on that, because I was only a week from the return deadline!  It was so much money because I had to order the Sonlight Ultra Microscope, which account for over $200 of that cost alone.

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I’m hearing almost nothing on my mom now that my sister is not there visiting.  I did learn, however, that she has been switched to liquid morphine as needed for pain.  On one hand, that makes me sad, because I know that is done in the final days for a patient’s comfort.  But on the other hand, I am glad to know that my mom will not be in pain with that.  I certainly don’t want her suffering day in and day out like that.

I feel very torn about whether or not to try to visit again.  I don’t think I want to see her this way and have that be what sticks in my mind when I think of her.  I don’t think I could hold myself together seeing her in pain, and I don’t want to upset her more.  She is now on a catheter and bed pan and no longer getting up at all.  She still can’t speak from the stroke.  My sister said when she has the stomach pain, it’s very intense.  I can’t imagine watching her suffer like that.  My sister said leaving for the last time was the hardest thing she’s had to do, and she wasn’t even sure my mom understood that she was going home.

Please continue to keep her in your prayers.

I’ll leave you with this beautiful portrait of my parents that was taken not too long before my father passed away in 2001.

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This is how I think of them.  That’s what I want to remember.  I love them both so much.

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Until next week!

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