September 2017 week 2

Babysitting Grandma and Grandpa

Or was it the other way around?  My mom went into the hospital on September 11th for bypass surgery.  I went down to stay with my dad, so he did not have to be alone and waiting and then stayed while she was in the hospital.  I was able to do this because we have such wonderful grandparents on both sides.  Jeff's parents were able to come stay with Nathan and Genevieve while I was away, and they were willing to stay as long as I needed them to!  We tried to prepare as much as we could before the arrived so their stay would be easy on them.  Both Nathan and Genevieve tried to help by doing most of the chores while they were here.  So they both took turns cooking all of the meals and making sure their grandparents were well looked after.  I am pretty proud of both nathan and Genevieve for stepping up and doing all that they could.

Genevieve visiting grandma in the hospital

grandma few days post surgery, looking pretty good at this point

Nathan sent me lots of pictures of what they were up to

Proof Nathan was doing dishes

School

They both also continued their studies while I was away.   Nathan had to problem solve and figure some things out on his own for his intro to online learning class, he could not get ring central to work, he called me and I logged into the hub, but I was on my cell phone so I could not access ring central to see what was going on.  Nathan talked to me calmly while he was trouble shooting and then I said well Nathan I am sorry I can not help you, your just going to have to fool around and see if you can get it to work.  Well he decided to shut down safari and try it from another browser and guess what it worked.  I think it took him almost 2 hours of fooling around. (If it was me, I would have been frustrated after about 5-10 minutes of trying).  I was just texting jeff to see if he could help out as he was at work with a computer (and I secretly know jeff would actually like to help out with school work especially tech stuff if I can't do it!).  I think I am sensing that a computer would be helpful for me to have as well though...  I don't have access to a computer during the day because both of the kids are always on their computers.  

So what did the kids actually accomplish at school while I was away?  Well I haven't really checked it over yet, but I know they both completed several LA lessons and Social studies lessons.  Maybe this week we can all have a sit down and discuss their LA and social studies since they are both working on the same thing, I kinda feel a little left out, as I have not been following along with what they are doing.  I think they both must be enjoying it as neither of them are complaining.  It is much better then the ancient world MBTP units.

Hockey Hockey Hockey

Wednesday hockey game...
Friday, very late hockey game over at 10 pm, that is past bedtime!  This game Nathan received a crosscheck to the back into the boards, he got a penalty shot because of it and scored
Saturday, game at 4
Sunday game at 2

Monday.... guess what.... Migraine

So Friday I arrived home from being at the hospital with my mom, and we go to take Nathan to hockey at 8 and my car does not start, will not turn over at all, so we hop in the truck, and I dropped Nathan off at the rink so I could go try and look at the car.  I am glad as I missed when Nathan was checked from behind!  I went home and looked at the car, hmm what was I to do.  Decided first thing to do was try to jumpstart the car.  Of course its a Volvo, I had to read the manual to figure out how to jumpstart, nope not stupid, its a Volvo... the battery is in the trunk of the car, and you need tools to access.  I knew you jumpstarted from engine compartment even if the batter was not there, but I just wanted to make sure where.  Well jumping did not help, I decided to look around the engine a bit, that didn't help much either, no idea what I was looking for.  I knew I should have looked at the battery, and got out the battery tester, and check cables, but I just didn't have the energy to do it.  So I decided to stop wasting time in the dark and cold, and go watch Nathan play hockey!

Saturday I decided to stay home and not go see my mom in the morning, at first I was going to look at my car, I decided if I just ignore my car, it might make me feel better so that's what I did.  I thought the kids needed me home.  Saturday night after hockey, we talked about going and seeing grandma and grandpa at the hospital, kids were going to go swimming at the pool with grandpa, while I spent the day with my mom.  Nathan says, well how am I going to my hockey game... umm you have hockey again... umm can you miss it?  ha ha ha.   Jeff happened to be on the phone while all this was figured out and he says well do you know anyone on the team?  Guess what I did, one of the kids I had kept overnight at a away tournament, so I had the parents phone number.  They were happy enough to pick up and drop off Nathan.

Monday.

I knew Nathan had been waiting for me to start his science, because he wanted me home incase he had questions, he knew that meant he had a lot of work to get done in 1 week.  So he opened up science and started.  He got to the reading and then he had to do the check your understanding questions.  So he tries to do them, he gets the first two, then says, OMG this is too hard, I can't do this, why did you put me in science 9?  As he was reading I notice constant yawning.  The first chapter in science is chemistry, Nathan already has a pretty solid understanding of chemistry, so I was a little confused as to why this was hard.  I knew he needed to get this done.  So I decided to help him go over his reading, maybe this was because he was having a hard time comprehending the science text book.  So we would read and discuss.  More complaining from Nathan, more yawning and complaining how tired he was.  I finally asked him, are you getting a migraine, no no no, I am not, I am just tired, stop telling me I am always getting a migraine.  (I know when he replies like this it is a sure fire sign he has a migraine coming). So I tried to trick him into taking Advil, I said Nathan it will really help with your sore back (his back has been sore since the hit and he has been having a hard time sleeping because of it).  So I did manage to convince him to take Advil.  I had to leave to go get my mom from the hospital and bring her back to her house in Hope, so I told Nathan to stop the science, and just try to work on his intro class.

Jeff had called to check on everyone about 45 minutes after I left and guess what, Nathan reported a migraine, he was extremely nauseous and could tell he was getting a bad one.  But he did not think to take his migraine pill.  thankfully jeff texted me, and I was able to get Nathan to take his zofran, sublingual.  When I called an hour later, Nathan had crawled into bed with Genevieve, she was up in my bedroom doing German.  When I had left I told Gigi that Nathan was getting a migraine and just to stay away (Nathan gets grumpy lol), and to make sure she made him something to eat.  I thought it was pretty cute that he had gone up to be with her.  So Monday was pretty much a write off school wise.

Tuesday Nathan woke up still feeling a headache.  about 10 am he took another zofran.  By 12 o'clock, he was tired and still had a headache, but he was determined to come upstairs and try to do some school work.  I stayed close by as I wanted to make sure he was understanding and that I could help guide him a little.  He started with intro to online learning as that class requires fewer brain cells, and then moved onto French.  I asked about science and he said no he was not well enough.  At 2 oclock I left to take Gigi to piano, and when we arrived home at 4 pm Nathan was still doing his French!  I then gently encouraged him to do his science an he was able to get some done, including sending a chat message to his science teacher asking for clarification on something.  All while still dealing with a pretty big migraine.  He then had about an hour break and came up and did about 40 minutes more of French before he declared bedtime at 8:15.

Music

Genevieve's teacher has asked for more time with her, I knew that 1 hour was not long enough for both piano and voice, especially if she is wanting to complete RCM, so we will be adding 1 hour of music lessons on Fridays.  

I still have to work on ways to help Genevieve manage all of her music endeavours so she can spend the amount of time she requires on each.  

She has been moved to soprano 1 in the Youth Choir and she will have the first performance October 14h singing hallelujah, she will be accompanying Roy and Rosmary.  Here is a link to them performing hallelujah, I can't wait to hear it, Genevieve is super excited.  I think she is super excited to be moved up to soprano 1 as well.  Lots of work in a short amount of time.

Genevieve has been working on her song for her Canadian composition and it is sounding great, she has some time to figure it out and perfect it.

I feel she is going to be behind for finishing her book project in time for Christmas unless we can figure out some time for her to work on it.  I think it is a bigger learning curve.  She has been working with her drawing tablet and enjoying it, but I think it will take time for her to perfect it.  We will see how we can find the time for he to work on it.  I think I may give her a break from LA and Social studies after she finishes this unit, so she can focus on her book.

So the more I am listening to Roy and Rosemary the more I am excited!  It think Genevieve is going to love their music, I don't think she knows anything about them.  They have quite the following, and I think their music will definitely appeal to her.