School Started!

We officially started the school year August 3. It was a typical Monday: laundry and getting the house back together. It was also an atypical Monday: Renee's 14th birthday, first day of school, me frantically trying to finish the paperwork I needed to do before the start of school, and sweet potato and peach casserole (the requested birthday dinner) instead of potatoes for dinner.

We each have our box of books. This year Lorissa and Renee are doing Bible, Classical Astronomy, Physical Geography, and Spanish together. They have a Speech class with Petey and Jerimiah Tiemersma.

Lorissa, Margaret, and Renee

Lorissa is a junior and Renee, a freshman. I remain the primary teacher, Keith, the principal, was at his paying job at Cigna on opening day of Trinity Christian School (TCS), our homeschool.

TCS has only half the students it had compared to the years of peak enrollment from 01/02 to 06/07. It also has no enrollment in the elementary classes for the first time since 96/97 when Nathan was in kindergarten and Janine in 2nd grade. Janine was in TCS for kindergarten in 94/95, the first year of TCS. She went to Central Valley Christian for her 1st grade year.

Monday, Monday II

Since it is Monday again it is time to do laundry.
See, I am doing quite well, I have some loads lined up to go into the dryer. And being the good wife that I am I also made sure to wash Keith's wallet with all of its contents. Why was he at work and the wallet at home in his jeans pocket? Hopefully he doesn't need to buy gas or anything else today! Hopefully ATM and credit cards still work after a run through the washer!

Monday, Monday

There is something about Mondays. One should never plan too much to fill that day, because it will get filled up with the unexpected. Lorissa looked out the window and noticed our mailbox standing all crooked. So we went out and determined that some vehicle loaded with tree branches had scraped by it. We pushed it back into place, removed the leaves, and hoped the dented box will still keep our mail safe.

At lunch time I was reading emails and I sniffed wet soil. Sure we had some sprinkles on Saturday but I shouldn't be still smelling the dampness. A sniff at the heater vent in the living room and Renee's room verified the damp smell was coming from under the house. Nathan crawled under the house and confirmed that my washing machine was draining under the house about in the area of the bend in the hallway. Could this be in anyway connected with the plumber coming out about 3 Mondays ago when he had to unclog the bathroom sink? The same Monday when he punched a hole in the elbow under the sink and sewer water drained into the bottom cupboard and bathroom floor? When he explained that this can also happen when you snake out other lines, which we had him do because that one usually clogs on a Monday which coincides with the main laundry day at our house?

Then Richard from the next door warehouse comes by, while I am on the cell phone talking to Nathan who is under the house to check out what is happening. He wonders if we could help him get rid of some frozen stuff because he has more than his freezer can handle. Sure we could, but there goes another 45 minutes.

Well, today is Tuesday and a plumber fixed the leak so we can finish laundry, run the dishwasher and drain the water out of the kitchen sink. The mail was delivered to the dented box, and we heated up the frozen goodies and enjoyed them for our 10:00 AM snack. Now I better get going so I can get caught up before next Monday.