For the first time in a long time, we did not do anything other than hang out at the home over the whole weekend. It was really great. I accomplished almost nothing other than tax preparation (about an hour), homeschool prep (about two hours), correcting homeschool working and helping with corrections (about three hours). I was faithful in doing my exercise this weekend. I did 34 minutes on Friday and Saturday, then 33 and change on Sunday. I went from doing 30 minutes to doing 200 calories on the elliptical machine. Take that Bryan–I may not be losing much weight so I must be gaining muscle (hahahahaha!). We went to Del Taco on Friday, Wendy’s on Saturday, and Red Robin on Sunday. I am sure that had nothing to do with the fact that I only broke even in the weight department this weekend. On the other hand, we all stayed off the computer for most of the weekend, the kids played outside almost the entire time we were not at the library on Saturday and we got started reading The Great Brain while I did my exercise after Gospel meeting on Sunday. I highly recommend that book. It is hilarious. It even makes me want to visit Utah someday and that is a first in my experience.
Homeschool note: The government school kids have today off as President’s Day. That puts us exactly four weeks ahead. We plan for Kelly and Christian to take Spring Break at the same time as the neighborhood kids and the government schools will be in session two weeks less than us (and maybe more depending on whether they decide to make up their snow day(s)), so we still have two weeks we can take off while they are in session. Hopefully, one of those weeks will be when Jorge, Mari, Jorgito, and Valeria (Lorena’s brother and family) come to visit us for their Easter break. If not, I think we might go visit my cousin Udo and do a tour of Yellowstone National Park.
2nd homeschool note: We received an email this weekend notifying us that the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) will be administered for homeschoolers at Santiam Christian School April 9-13 this year. We are grateful to Santiam Christian for administering this test for the homeschoolers in the area because it is only available to schools and school districts, not individuals. This very weekend, we read in our local newspaper, the Albany Democrat-Herald, that the state is going to lower the passing score for mathematics on the state test administered to all Oregon government school students because not enough students are passing the test. Even before the change, the Oregon tests were not nationally normed as required for homeschools. In addition, they are neither as rigorous nor complete as the SAT. Ironic.
Linux note: A new version of Blender, the program Christian uses to create animations has arrived at their newly redesigned website. If he gets all, and I really mean ALL of his homeschool work completed, he can download and try out the new version a little before I get home. I am sure he will remember to call me after he gets his work completed to clear it with me before he gets on the computer.