A Week's Accomplishments

In some ways, this week did not feel very satisfying.

On Monday, at our volunteer gig, I fell on a patch of ice and hurt my butt.

I waited eagerly to hear if Syd's outfit had been chosen for the 2014 Trashion/Refashion Show, only to be told--one day AFTER the results were supposed to come out--that they'd decided to push the entry deadline back another week.

Our Intermediate Ballroom Dancing instructor has only two new students--me and Matt--in this new session, along with all her other students from last session who are repeating the class, so she's teaching as if this session is a continuation of the other students' class, not a repeat. Matt and I have NOT learned all those fancy cha-cha steps that she begins every class with, and it's pissing me off!

Will, who is an independent thinker with leadership potential (this is what I'm going to say now instead of "pig-headed") was in full schoolwork rebellion for practically the entire week. This kid does not realize how easy she has it!

We discovered holes knocked with a hammer into the back of a rarely-used door, and it appears, after much separate questioning of the two resident suspects, that it happened during a playdate a few WEEKS ago. I don't know why, but I have the worst time getting kids to not destroy my house on playdates!

I hate Daylight Savings. Geographically, we ought to be in the Central Time Zone, so the Eastern Time Zone does not match well with our sunrise and sunset times. Daylight Savings does not help much.

So now, in order that I might have a productive Sunday, let me focus on what I DID accomplish:

I improved my slow mile by a full minute and a half.

This kid had an amazing Spring Ice Show--

--and says that she wants to be in the figure skating club next season. 

During Family Meeting this morning, we slogged through Will's school-related Independent Thinking with Leadership Potential-ness, and decided that for this week, I will only be writing lesson plans for Syd. Will shall be responsible for math only, but will be welcomed into any of the lessons that Syd and I are doing. I'm curious to see if Will participates more if it's not a requirement (she loathes requirements), and I'm also open to the possibility that I may just need to create a book list of every subject for her, and allow her to omit most of the hands-on lessons. Either way, she's getting old enough that she needs to be figuring out how SHE wants to learn, and not how to exercise her Independent Thinking with Leadership Potential-ness to get out of schoolwork.

I'm looking forward to a week with no fighting about schoolwork!

Other accomplishments included the kids playing well and creatively together--

--so that if I could have mustered the energy after fighting about schoolwork all morning, I *could* have accomplished many things! I'm counting that as a win.

Matt and the girls built the bookshelf that the girls need for their Girl Scout service project. I'm counting this as my accomplishment because I told them to do it. The kids are going to put a quick coat of paint and some paper collage on it today, and then we're going to install it and start stocking it next week!

I didn't even manage to make dinner most days (thank goodness for pasta, smoothies, and the rice cooker!), but these kids managed to make king cakes from scratch, all by themselves--

--and this kid and I played with our natural food coloring and made colorful, braided challah: 

There! That makes the week sound much better, doesn't it? Next weeks's accomplishments will include the following:

1. Toy Story movie marathon
2. completing and mailing off a labor-intensive etsy order
3. warm weather and sunshine
4. ---

Wouldn't you know that I wouldn't even be able to get a *list* of accomplishments written? As I was about to write an ambitious #4, one of the kids came in bloody and screaming, so we went to the emergency room instead.

P.S. Kid's okay, more or less. What do you even need a thumbnail for, anyhow?