FEELING PUNY

I'm a tiny bit under the weather and trying to sleep it off.  Should be back to normal tomorrow ....

Because look at next week!!

 

AFTERMATH of FOREST FIRES

We've had rain, not drizzle, twice in the past 4 days and predictions are for three days in a row starting today.  The air smells fresh ... like Autumn is in the air.

It's been a blessing for two boys with lots of energy.  Now they start their day with a walk with the parents.  Usually a shorter walk after dinner.  We are all coping very well.  But the fires blaze on just southeast of us.  So many displaced families.  

Today will be mainly good news!

Both boys are enjoying Acellus Academy online learning.  Yesterday, after only a few weeks of learning, they each bumped UP a grade in math!  I figure math and reading are most important so I am very happy with these results.  They both went all through the house saying "I GRADUATED".

I'm so blessed to be living with them all.  Mr. Almost 10 comes in every morning and we solve most of the world problems and research a topic of the day.  I pick one day and he does the next.  Today we peeked into the perks of working for Google.  AMAZING.  Mr. B wants to design video games (what little boy doesn't?).  (After he serves as a US Marine and gets college paid for) He and his little social group play Roblox together ... they even got Dad to join in.  It's good to have an idea of what they are into.  He and little Mr. D play together every time they get screen time.  They also play with their two cousins but maybe just once a week.  So far, no strangers.

It's a creative game where you create your own characters and your own "games" within the platform.  So far VERY safe although they both get absorbed ... it's hard to find a place to quit for the day.  (read this if you want to know more ... https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/parenting/roblox-screentime.html)

Although, they do a lot of creative play with things we already have.  They love building dioramas, a scene on cardboard that involved hot glue, paint, twigs, pieces of my plastic plants, etc.  Usually a famous battle scene.   Legos and GI Joes are very popular.  They now have two GI Janes (Barbie dolls).  Stuffed animals at least once a week!

Notice GI Jane is included this day.  May have been combat training.

Jesse is going to broaden his handyman area outside the condo complex.  Kate is helping design some business cards and flyers as well as post on NextDoor, Facebook and local community groups within Facebook.  Now with all these electronic ways to receive money, he won't have to worry about billing and collecting.  It's $60 for a business license ... still looking into liability insurance.  But mostly word of mouth will keep him busy enough.

The cooking around here is amazing! Kate tries a new dinner recipe at least once a week.  She makes baked oatmeal frequently and breakfast muffins this week.  Our neighbors gave us some Asian pears and Jesse made a crumble for dessert.  The whole family is back to a more socially acceptable routine ... up at 9am, being productive by 10am.  Boys are now getting lunch at 1pm, snack at 4pm and dinner around 7pm.  I do still remind the Chef of the Day (they take turns) at 5 pm to start dinner.  Kate usually has to run to the grocery to get an ingredient.  

WLLO is having another patio get together on Monday (sunny cool day) and it might just be the last one of the year.  Unless we want to bundle up just to be outside for a bit.  Some of our members are needing more hands on assistance so the Office Team is now a Concierge service.  The two members with the most transportation requests do not write things down on their calendar.  The driver calls the member the day before the ride to reconfirm.  But now they are forgetting to call in to arrange a ride!  Although they insist they did talk to someone.  And after a year of having a virtual office, they still think we are at an office somewhere answering calls!  It's a phone number that sends us an email of their voice message.  Yesterday she asked "I never seem to get anyone to answer".  What hours is the office open?  Now, our Friday volunteer will call both of them and review/compare calendars.

Can you believe we actually signed up a new member?  And EVERYONE has renewed their membership (so far).  We must be doing something right. We do have assigned members to call 3-4 other members every week or so to combat loneliness.  We have one member who wants a phone call every day at 8:00 am and if she doesn't answer or call back in 15 minutes, we alert her sister in another state.  Her mother died at home and wasn't discovered for a week.  Thinking ahead!

While our HOA doesn't like our landscaping, Kate has attracted two very uncommon birds visiting our feeders and and yard. 

Black Headed Grosbeak (Uncommon) 

Yellow Warbler (Rare)

WOW!  Who knew I had so much happiness in my very own lap!

NOT MANY WORDS

We are all suffering from the eleven days of horrible smoky air.  Both boys are complaining that their lungs hurt.  Kate had days of coughing.  Everyone has a headache.  And we are all sleeping longer, maybe to let our bodies heal on their own.

All of this poor air quality was topped off Thursday night when our upstairs neighbors decided to enjoy a wood fire in their fireplace.  It was bad enough they were adding to the smoky air but with an air inversion, their smoke went out their flue and DOWN OUR FLUE TO OUR LIVING ROOM.  The family was their doing a dance party and were hit hard.

Believe it or not, Kate (severe case of social anxiety) went upstairs (to verify) and then asked them to let it go out.  The girlfriend of the owner (we're talking 70 year olds) got all defensive and Harry said we just enjoy the ambiance ... Kate asked them to wait until Lake Oswego was in the healthy zone.  IDIOTS!  And it was 70 degrees.

 

DANGEROUSLY HIGH AIR QUALITY

I'm sitting here with noise cancelling headphones as we have four box fans with furnace filters taped on running on full blast.  The air "quality" outdoors is the highest ever recorded (although I didn't take time to check on the blast of Mt. St. Helens).

We have sore throats, runny noses and eyes and awake with a headache.

Milwaukie is a suburb of Portland, right across the river from us.  My brother is in Oroville ... luckily he did not have to evacuate as winds changed direction, just like for us.

Many business have closed.  School is closed.  Amazon takes a week instead of two days.  Prescriptions are four days in backlog.

But we do have toilet paper.

ARGH!

 I should never have changed my blogspot theme!  Now I have to go to blogspot and then choose my blog and then write.  Ridiculous.  Can't figure out how to do anything that I had on my previous layout.

Oregon is having the worst wildfire season in over 100 years.  Lake Oswego is at Level One evacuation ... have your bags ready and you gas tank full.

Our County is being hit hard ....

We are at the edge of green on the top left.  Most of these are HUMAN CAUSED.  And several people have been caught lighting mattresses in the green area.

This is the map of my town ... if you can see the yellow arrow, condo is in the grey area.  We are two blocks from the river which hopefully will save us.

The air quality is so bad, we are being advised to get air purifiers or put filters on our box fans.

Thoughts and prayers please.

UNSCHOOLING

School.  Online school.  Pandemic school.  Home school.  Hybrid school.  Religious based home school. Own school.  And finally, Unschool.

UNSCHOOLING.  Basically it means "not sending your child to school". Unschooling is an approach to home education based on learning through living rather than through the conventions of school. parents partnering with their children rather than re-creating “school at home” children following their interests and curiosity, with help and resources from supportive parents.

Kate has teamed up with another family from Montessori who is doing the same style of schooling.  They are going to come up with a "theme" every month and try to use that theme in every subject.  The two boys will have a team projects (so they learn how to work well with others ... I should have had more of that!).

The families are both very environmentally conscious which will play a big factor and I bet there will be a trip to Mt St Helens (who blew her top in the early 80's and is growing back!) and so on.

As long we they do math and reading every day, the rest sounds okay to me.  Of course, sometimes they do math upside down ....

 

The kids listen to a child explaining the concept and reading the problems to them.  Once they reach 90% accurate answers, they have a "challenge" formerly known as a test.  If they get 90%, the move on to the next concept.  This guy is First Grade and is learning sentences, punctuation and capital letters.  It's amazing!

I was playing with the boys while parents ran errands last week and asked "who wants to do a project?"  I brought out a bag of corks, hot glue gun, string, googly eyes, pompoms, etc.  D made a raft.  Went outside to pick the perfect mast and added a sail.  When the parents got home, both boys challenged them to a contest to see whose raft stayed upright and moved the most.

 

Above is D's first raft (which won!)

 

D is holding Mom's fancy boat (which came in third place)

In addition to doing math and English every day, the boys can choose another way to learn or use Acellus for another subject.

 

They've also been very successful replacing a toilet flush valve, making dinner, baking a cake, how to fix a bicycle flat, jump a car battery (yes, car #2 hasn't been used much with me not driving).

My sister is going to offer art appreciation.  She is a docent at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville working with groups of elementary students and having a hands on project at the ready.  I'm thinking a microscope for Christmas this year.

The Kidults do hands-on science experiments quite frequently.  Learning has always been fun and hands on around here.  We need to have state testing in grades 3, 5 and 8 and will find an approved evaluator for high school.

P.S.  Sorry ... I have forgotten how to make the background transparent!

SEPTEMBER MUSINGS

First and most exciting is my eyes are doing great!  I can see about 20/50 without any glasses.  I will be getting bifocals for driving.  And I already have reading glasses and computer glasses.  The biggest issue is dry eyes.  Must add lubricant drops 4x day as well as a moist heat treatment twice a day.  And a shmear of gel on eyelashes at night.

No make up until tomorrow!  

Thinking of keeping the long scraggly thin grey hair and tossing it up in a bun!

With the reading glasses.  Foster Grants from the local drugstore!

More good news ... eating low(er) carb is working (2 weeks, so far) and the whole family is helping.  Which makes it so much easier as they do most of the cooking.  I bought myself some carb friendly items for quick snack or light lunch.  While we do not have a scale in this place, my clothes are feeling more loose.

I aim for the smaller amount in each category since I'd like to lose weight.  And I usually can get by with just one snack ... so I can have my glass of wine.

My weakness is savory and crunchy .... besides popcorn ... do you have any good substitutions for potato chips??