Our week, so far

Monday:

Monday started off with Kara waking up at my mom's house, as usual.  I went straight to "work" at church while she did history with my mom.  She is studying the middle ages these days and feudalism in England and Japan was the subject for those two chapters.  I started working at 9 and was done with everything by 11:45!  That's amazing!  I was given some extra reports to do each week, but I figured out that if I automated them, it wouldn't take as long.  Call it efficiency, call it laziness, either way, I get more work done in less time.  :-)

My mom gave me lunch and I was able to visit with her a bit. Kara sees her quite a bit, but I don't.  And if I do, it's rarely just the two of us.  And if it is just the two of us, we're constantly interrupted.  I cherish any alone time with my best friend!

I came home to some free time, so I decided to get deep into my Bible study.  I did a good amount and watched a video that goes with it.

In between there, I made dinner.  I made brown rice, which is healthier than white rice, but also takes longer.  I put a little bit of butter in the pan and cooked some onions in there with the raw rice and salt and pepper.  After everything was brown and nutty, I put in half water and half chicken stock.  (Rachel Ray cooks all rice like this.  Yum!)  Then at the end it was still tasting a little.....bland, so I added a little cheese.  I really liked it, but Michael was just polite.  :-)  I served marinated chicken with it.  I marinated it in a homemade honey mustard marinade  - honey, mustard, lime juice, hot sauce, and garlic.  Unfortunately, the 2 hour marinade didn't really take, but any chicken prepared any way then grilled is fabulous in my book.  Michael added bbq sauce to his.  :-)

Kara is old enough to sweep her own crumbs after dinner.  YES! 

Before bed, I read to Kara while she did her physical therapy exercises.  We are reading Pippi Longstocking, which Kara is devouring.  (She took the book from me and wanted to read out loud herself for a while.)

We are actually doing it for school, but don't tell her.  We are comparing and contrasting Pippi to Anne Shirley (of Green Gables), doing out loud Venn diagrams, comparing the two stories (different types of fiction), talking about Pippi's behavior, etc.  Tee hee.  One day she'll catch on to me, but I'm going to ride this wave while I can!  Pippi is almost done and I think I want to do the Secret Garden next.  I'm not sure.  Maybe something on the younger side like The Boxcar Children.  I have read the Secret Garden before (and LOVED it), but not the Boxcar Children.

Tuesday:
Tuesday was a full day for us.  Kara and I did school in the morning,

I LOVE finding these notes in her schoolwork.  <3
Especially when her spelling and grammar are correct.  :-)

then headed out to have lunch with my cousin who was in town.

We went to the company office and Kara and my mom had fun drawing on the white board

We went straight from there to her physical therapy, which is going well.  Next week is the one month evaluation to see how she's doing.  They are increasing her homework because her range of motion is increasing and they need to work on her balance now.  This is a good thing, but they're still talking about casting in another month.  I am open to it.  I really prefer she doesn't have surgery though.  Well, I'm no doctor, I guess it would be a last resort.  While Kara was in PT, I have to sit in the office (I can't go shop or whatever), so it's a great time to spend an hour in the Word.

After PT, we went home for one hour before we left for dinner with our friends.  Then we went to Awanas.  It's about 30 minutes from home, so it's not worth it to drop her off and go home while she spends 90 minutes at Awanas.  Sometimes I shop, but I decided to spend those 90 minutes in the Word again.  I ended up in tears, hearing a pretty strong message, which I texted Michael about just to find he heard the same thing from his own prayers.  Powerful!  I'll give you the details later.  When I went to pick Kara up from Awanas, I am appreciating having a big kid.  When she was in the K-2 grade class (I keep her with her age group, not her grade), the kids were so young and the room was so hot and it was loud and crazy and hot and loud and crazy and hot.  lol!  Can you tell it's not my cup of tea?  Well, now that she's in the 3-5 grade class, they meet in the sanctuary where it is lower light, quiet, they are sitting quietly as adults, they pray for a long time, and it's cool and quiet and I can sit down and it's cool.  lol!

Big kids sitting quietly at Awanas

We came home to bath, exercises, Pippi, and bed.

Wednesday:
Today we started school a little early and I gave her a list of everything I expected her to do for the rest of the day.  She needs to start learning responsibility and time management, so I am starting small (I put brush teeth, do PT exercises, read school book, etc. on there).  She did really well and we are going to be working this into our lives - an older, more responsible Kara.  She felt very mature and independent to be working from a list, and that's how I know she was ready.  I will end up adding chores on there, putting week long goals, etc, but we're just starting right now.  I am so proud of her.

My friend came over to clean, so I visited with her while she did that.  Then I made us both salads, figured out a homemade chick fil a sauce, and my mom came over with chicken salad for lunch.  It was divine - the food and the company.  Then we left at 1:15 to meet another friend!  Her kindergartener is several years younger than Kara, but she was at school, so Kara was left to play with the 3 year old.  Kara did a good job and never complained, but I could tell she was kind of bored.

I made a quick dinner when we got home and hung out with Michael until now.  I'm watching a movie with Kara while she draws.  Then it will be bath, PT exercises, and bed time with Pippi again.

Boy, these weeks fly by!