Yesterday, school was derailed by long division. Stuntman knew how to do it, and I knew he knew how to do it, but he didn’t know he knew how to do it. And I could see that the 3 problems the math book assigned him each day were not reinforcing his skill set, but were just … making him feel like he was dealing with a new concept each day. Yesterday, I assigned 4 extra problems, and though the first 3 had taken almost an hour, and the fourth one had taken about that long due to his protests, I held firm, and the last three took about 10 minutes. The boy now knows how to do long division, and more importantly, he knows he knows.

It’s a good thing I like math.

Sometimes, things just drag on and on and on. I have 20 rows to go on the front of Skimmer, and that purling back takes forever. Of course, it’s also increasing by 2 stitches every fourth row. I expect the back will go much faster, since it will be decreasing at that rate. Muhahahahhahah.

In other news, I have a headache. It is a new kind of headache, like a band around, but up and down, not across, my head, and with shooting pains down into my jaw, mostly affected my left side. Not fun.

Yes, I said morning! I’m posting in the morning again, because I think I am wittier and more entertaining then. I’m still going to be short and sweet, because, HI! it’s Monday, and Monday is just so dang Monday-ish. Of course, at a fluffy five foot nothin’, I am short and sweet all the time 😉

Ok, today was the day I had planned to give away A Fine Fleece. I think I really messed that up by pulling an old entry and updating it and adjusting the time stamp. I know a lot of you read on the feed, and I think the feed readers disregarded that since in “cyber speak” it was not a new post. There were only 4 entries, and I feel like it’s a discredit to the publisher to complete the give away today when I usually get over 50. I know knitters still love books, so I know I must have messed up something somehow. Please look over in the sidebar, and you’ll see “Enter Here” over a picture of the book. That link takes you to the contest entry post. I will close the contest next Monday, abundant entries or not, and I am updating that post to reflect same. Or, if you don’t need to see a picture of the book, you can just click here.

Now for Menu Plan Monday. You will recognize these items. I just got to the grocery store Friday night. (No wonder I feel hard pressed if it takes a major maneuver just to get out to buy food, LOL). I now have the ingredients for the food I planned for last week, and so that’s what we will be having.

Corny bites (I’ll talk more about these after we try them) with refried beans and some sort of Mexican rice.
Chili with Cornbread
Beef Stroganoff
Tacos

And that’s all I am planning for now. You can participate in Menu Plan Monday by clicking on this banner, but don’t go yet, there’s more from me underneath it!

Ghandi: I put this movie in my BlockBuster Q awhile back, and it has been sitting here on my desk for a couple of weeks. I spent the weekend pretty much unplugged, as I indicated in my that post on Friday. That means that I did not get the lesson plans made. I realized that late yesterday evening, and then I realized that this made today a perfect day for watching Ghandi. I went to see it when I was in school, and I wanted to share it with my kids. FWIW, I also saw the Hobbit as a school field trip. Yes, I had one extremely cool teacher. I’ll work on the lesson plans while we watch. Then I’ll probably finish Skimmer AND read a book. Ok, maybe not all that, but it is over three hours. We’ll start right after lunch, and I’ll try to remember to let you know how it went when I post tomorrow.

I realized I kinda left a lot of stuff out of that last post, and I thought I might try to round it out just a bit. When I re-read it, I was left hanging, and not only did I write the post, but I;m the one living the life, so if I am scratching my head, something needs to be clarified for sure!

Ya’ll. I am tired. No. I am not tired. I am just two hairs short of weary, and there is a world of difference. Tired means resting will fix it. Weary means I need to get away from the press of life. There is nowhere to go, though, and I …. it’s just been a constant assault these past few months, and just when I think things are coming a bit more under control, I get blind-sided again. Like, for instance, I had planned to basically take this weekend off and pamper myself just a little bit. Read, play with the kids, talk to dh about something besides what’s for dinner, and then this afternoon, I realized I have to write lesson plans. Not just the plug-in-the-new-math-book plans, that I was expecting, but entire multi-subject plans. Not quite the “light shopping and general relaxation” I had envisioned.

Ya know… if I were a rich woman, I would book myself on a Flight to Australia, and I would hire a guide (paying him extra to be quiet), and I would go on walkabout. With a new camera. And lots and lots of sunscreen. I would go for the weekend and only sleep on the planes there and back.

Instead, I will go to the grocery store, write the plans, and maybe, just maybe squeeze in an extra five minutes in the shower. But I tell you this, if my mama says “Let’s go to town”, I am dropping what I am doing and going to town.

This has been a real lackluster week at Cass Knits. See, I even left off the ! because it has been so. stinking. dry. I have been so busy with the house and the schooling, and all the other stuff and would you believe? Another wake yesterday! Therefore, there was no Cass in the Kitchen yesterday, there will be no Online Craft Club today, and I think I am going to take the weekend to basically unplug.

Oh. Except for the lesson plans I have to write. See what I mean? It’s just not letting up!

Anyway, please remember to enter the giveaway. I’m not quite sure what happened this time, but I think the fact that I used a previous post to announce it may have affected it. I’ll see you Monday.

Right before Country checked out today, UPS arrived, a harbinger of changing times. The package contained her new math book. My gal starts Algebra 1, and high school, next week.

I am excited, because I like Algebra. It’s like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Of course, I didn’t love it so much when I was in school. I think Algebra is a subject more suited to adults. One needs a certain amount of life experience, a few years spent figuring out how life actually works, to deal well with a system built on abstracts. It ought to be an interesting year. I bought the TM, with the answers, but I elected not to buy the solutions manual. Hopefully, I won’t regret that decision.

and moving right along too! I took Skimmer with me Sunday, but I did not knit a single stitch. # hours there, three hours back, and I did not knit. That is incredibly strange for me!! Nonetheless, since I got past the boobs, I am able again to pick it up and work it while I help the children with their schoolwork, and I just finished up a ball of yarn a few minutes ago!

I am doing mine a little differently than I instructed last Friday. I know what I said will work, and I am not exactly sure how what I am doing will turn out. I am not decreasing on the arm sides, and those extra stitches will be the beginning of my cowl. I’ll just join the shoulders to the first X stitches, once I figure out what X will be, but I am thinking 9 (2 inches). That is enough to cover my bra strap, but I may put a safety flap on the shoulders anyway, just because I think it is such a neat concept, and also, who wants to be hitching at their clothes, yk?

This has been an intense weekend. There is so very much to say, and I just don’t know how to say any of it. I guess the safest way to handle that would be just to stick with the facts. My Papa died Friday night. He was buried yesterday. He was without a doubt the laughingest man I have ever known. I will never hear a cuckoo clock again without remembering that laugh.

Don’t think the irony is lost on me that just Thursday (?? was it Thursday??) (I think it was Thursday.) I said I missed my Grandmother, and I still do. And if people know each other in heaven, then without a doubt, those two are talking today, and there are no misunderstandings or miscommunications and there is only love. I have been blessed in my life to see the love of Jesus flowing out of a handful of people. (They are rare, these ones that will take in the love from God, and push it all right back out onto those around them, most of us are selfish and hold it in once we receive it. I happen to think that they are the smart ones, they know that love shared is love multiplied, you can’t out love God any more than you can out give him.) I’ve been doubly blessed that of those handful of people, two of them were my Grandparents: my mother’s mother and my dad’s dad. There is no way to doubt that there is a God when you have seen Him look out at you from a Grandparent’s face. Lord, I want to love people like that.

For the most part, I try to keep this blog light-hearted, and I relegate serious stuff to Midlife Musings, but it is hard to be light hearted today. I am sad. I don’t know what else to do but to do the next thing. It’s Monday, so that must mean it’s time to post a menu, yk? Good thing I wrote it out on an index card in teh middle of last week, because I haven’t been worth a flip since Saturday morning. But here is what we will be eating, once I get to the grocery store.

Corny bites (I’ll talk more about these after we try them) with refried beans and some sort of Mexican rice.
Lasagna
Chili with Cornbread
Beef Stroganoff
Tacos
Stuffed Peppers

Click here to participate in Menu Plan Monday.