Daydreaming while waiting impatiently!

[tortoise]

I pulled the rest of the carrots from the garden and canned another 10 pints. Both my batches were 11 pints, and 1 jar broke on the top layer in both batches. Never had jars break before. I did raw pack. I'm assuming the water I added cooled too much from the raw carrots and then was a heat stress break? IDK, it was wierd.

I froze the first batch of zucchini bread in slices. My whole family liked it! Even my fussy DH! I made another batch yesterday. DH took one to work to share. I'm happy to have the frozen slices - I plan to use them for toddler breakfasts.

I have continued cleaning my basement. I'm about 80% done and about to go down to try to finish it this morning. I intend to paint my studio when the basement is done. I want to have both projects finished this week. I'm getting to worrying about "things to finish before winter". Mostly worried because I can't think of anything - and as soon as freezing weather hits I'll remember something and regret not having it done.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I'm doing the same thing- still August and worried about winter already! Lol

I never thought about freezing zucchini bread slices. Good idea!

 

[tortoise]

Basement cleaning is done! I did about half the remaining painting in my studio this morning. Had to switch paint colors and decided to stop there for the day.

I weeded my gravel parking spot (hah! It looked like a lawn!) and put down about 10# salt and watered in. My plan for permanent weed control is to get the soil so salty that nothing can grow. . DS10 helped a little bit and also hauled bricks for me to make a smooth path to the new hose faucet DH put in. I need to get leveling sand, hopefully tomorrow, to finish the project.

I canned 7 quarts of pickles and made another big batch of zucchini bread. DS10 made a french toast casserole to bake tomorrow morning.

 

[tortoise]

We went on vacation out west to view the eclipse. I slipped on my salt/water loading for managing POTS. It hasn't been bad, but I've noticed some symptoms creeping back, lower energy, and worse temperature regulation. Lesson learned. I'll be good now!

DS10 is all ready for public school now. Tuesday is the day to meet teachers, and Wednesday is the first day of school. He's going in 5th grade and then they start testing him the second week to determine what grade to put him into. I'm betting 9th, unless they REALLY play the "social/emotional" card. But we have an independent family consultant this time with the acceleration process and they're taking him much more seriously than 3 years ago when I got the "that mom" brush-off. Whatever happens is going to be interesting. Where's my popcorn?

I finished painting my studio! Yay! Very relieved to cross that off my list finally - it's been on my to-do list for years! I'm almost ready to start my next painting project! 2 walls of my living room have a poorly-done faux plaster effect. I just want to paint it the same color without the scrapey distress marks that show all the flaws in the wall.

DH and DS10 picked wild hazelnuts today. DH picked blackberries too. DH and DS10 picked the garden this morning. The first tomatoes are starting! Cucumbers and zucchini still coming but getting toward the end, I think.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I know you had a blast on your eclipse-cation! Glad ya'll got to do that - what a memory!

Congrats on finishing the studio. I really, really should think about re-painting inside my house. It's been a good while since it's been done and it's starting to look like it. Ugh!

Back to school is going to be interesting!

Take care of yourself.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I hope your son isn't too anxious about going back to public school! We never accelerated kids in the schools I worked in, we did individual lessons and classes within the grade level for kids who were gifted (or who didn't meet the criteria for being gifted but were far ahead academically). It was nice because they got what they needed socially as well as academically. Not all schools do that though, for sure!

It'll be quiet at your house with just the little DS!

 

[tortoise]

they aren't logistically able to do that - or so they said 3 years ago, not sure what has changed since. The elementary school is in one building and the middle/high school is about a half mile a He's sooo advanced it's not even funny. He took college placement tests LAST summer and did great but bombed the writing prompt - didn't even try it. :grumble: Socially, he doesn't do well with age mates. Younger and older he does great, but there's too much hierachy tension with agemates. Emotionally he does best when he's intellectually middle of the pack. When he's the "smartest" in the group his perfectionism and anxiety get out of control.

I think community college is socially safer than high school, I wish we could skip this whole thing. Or that the state would make an exception to the mandatory school attendance law. Or that he would just DO homeschooling. The requirements are so low for homeschool - works out to <3 hours per day for year-round schooling - but he wouldn't even do that after a couple months.

I'm so annoyed with the situation. I'm ready for it to be someone else's problem.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Have you looked into online schooling? Unfortunately it would still be you that had to make him work! You can't get community college classes to double count as high school classes?

 

[tortoise]

He doesn't do well with online schooling. Worse than homeschooling. Our district has a virtual school, which was awesome because he could see his learning guide / teacher in person. But still not enough. They skipped him to 7th grade (when he was in 4th) so he could take high school classes for credit. He got mad that the high school classes were too easy and refused to participate.

I could put him in community college at my expense if I was willing to homeschool him. The district will pay for community college if they don't have equivalent classes - he would have to take AP classes first. It's possible to graduate from high school with an Associate's degree here. BUT, if I let him do that, then I don't have a gap year plan. I'm trying to delay high school graduation until he is 16, but I don't know if that will be possible. He will live at home until 18 because of his ADHD.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Ah complicated! I hope they have someone good there to help find the right fit for him. What does he want? Is he able to be a part of the decision making process?