8 a.m. My perceptive husband takes one look at me and sends me back to bed.
9:30 a.m. (or thereabouts) I've been laying in a limbo of headache haze for a while. I try getting up. "I can be miserable and get something done just as well as I can be miserable lying here in bed." Wrong. After about 10 minutes of upright-ness I feel like I want to barf or crush my head. That's when it hits me: Homeschool teachers don't get to call in a sub and stay home. Crap. Now what?
While I'm in bed. Here's what:
Lovely lady, 13, is a gem. She helps with lunch and helps her brothers. Before groaning back up the long steep stairway I asked her to do the schoolwork she could complete independently, and to fill the rest of her time with some catch-up work. She does.
Lovely lady, 11, with autism, gets herself dressed and offers me an ice pack. After another hour in bed I venture upright and creep downstairs, holding my head so that it wouldn't fall off, to write her a list of independent schoolwork. In order. Things must go in order for this lovely young lady or it throws her so off-balance that there is much screaming and gnashing of teeth. She works her way through the entire list. By herself. If I didn't think my head would fly to pieces, I'd cheer.
The gents watch television. Given my druthers, most days anyway, I'd just as soon haul the t.v. to the curb. Today I want to hug the guy that invented this magic box that leaves young children gape-mouthed and quiet. Loving husband lets them watch a couple shows while he cleans the kitchen, then takes the gents outside to play backyard golf.
Noonish. I creep downstairs again. I don't feel like I'm going to barf, that's good. Loving husband has a work meeting, which he volunteers to cancel. I lay my head on the table and whisper weakly, "No, I know you need to work." I mean to come across as brave and cheerful. I don't. But I do mean it, because he does need to work. I leave my head on the table because it feels better that way. Loving husband brings me coffee before he heads out to the office.
1 or so. I've made it as far as the recliner. I put in a movie for the fine young gents, Ocean Oasis, a library find. It's educational, so it counts as science, right? I crawl to the couch and the gents cuddle around me. The gents find it highly amusing that I'm watching the movie with my eyes closed.
Around 2. The movie's over. Wow, neato! It was pretty good. The aching in my head has subsided to a dull roar. Tylenol is my new best friend. Lovely lady, 11, takes youngest gent off to play and read stories so that I can get a break. Kindergarten gent and I water his bean experiment and look at his science notebook. He reads me a story about...something. I'm listening, but not really.
3:00. Finally functional. I head to the basement for a basic piano practice with kindergarten gent, peel an apple for preschool(ish) gent, put the toddler gent to bed, help a lovely lady prepare a petri dish and give feedback on her writing assignment (beautifully written but off-topic), and get the other lovely lady ready for her girls group.
The day worked out after all. We all learned at least one new thing today. We're not horribly behind. We'll have a busy day tomorrow catching up, but....that's homeschool life.
1 comment:
Poor sweetie!! I hope you feel MUCH MUCH better today.
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