Sunday, April 2, 2023

 Sunday, April 2, 2023

    I woke up before my six-thirty alarm. I had to get up early to get my walk in before church. Yesterday, I applied the tea tree oil to Elsa's lesions for the first time as I did the morning check-up on them. The ones on Elsa's belly looked better. Wow! If this works, that would be fantastic.  

    My right glutes were bothering me as I walked, so I took an easier, shorter route. I fed Elsa and took another short walk to get my numbers up. I ran into Rosemary. I walked with her for a bit. She is being evaluated for dementia. Alzheimer's runs in her family. Her mother and one of her sisters had already died of it. She tried two medications. One gave her so much gas she discontinued it. The second clouded her mind; she felt like she had dementia. She got off that, too. She is pursuing a healthy lifestyle as a solution.

  I applied my green tea face mask. I worked on the blog update while I waited the recommended fifteen minutes. I love this face mask. Applying it is a joy, and my face feels smoother afterward.

  I was on my way to church by twenty minutes after eight. I was surprised by the crowded parking lot when I arrived fifteen minutes early. I don't pay attention to the schedule. It was Palm Sunday. No wonder the church was packed. The Mass was longer than usual because of the special gospel reading, the Passion of Christ.  

  I was going to stop at Office Max on the way home to pick up the quality paper for my revised will but decided against it in favor of a nap. I thought I would nap the moment I got home. Church always exhausts me. Instead, I contacted Mama K and asked if this was a good time to work with her kids. We missed yesterday. She thought she had them set up, but her house had no Internet reception. I could only work with them briefly this morning because they were going to the beach. Mama K takes the kids there to get rid of their energy. Having five kids in the house is a lot. I started with Twin E, the one reading on a pre-primer level. I had her reread the selection we read last. She missed several words but got some that she would have missed in the past. Can anyone tell me why kids have trouble remembering the difference between her and here? It was one of Adolescent D's lingering problems.

  Twin A reread the last passage we worked on. It is on a beginning second-grade level. I may get her on a beginning third-grade level over the summer. That would mean she would only be a year behind when she starts fourth grade.

 If I could get Twin E to a solid first-grade level, she would be three years behind. I would keep plugging away. All of Mama K's kids have been developmentally delayed. The first two were left back in first grade. They are both doing well now.

  I worked on a fourth-grade passage with fourth-grade K.  When I asked him what it was about, he was stumped. I said what I always say when students respond that way, "Is it about elephants?" It was obviously not. "It's about . . . ." He said it was about why people move in their sleep. It wasn't. It was about sleep and people moving in their sleep, but it said nothing about why. He asked to see the possible answers. I said no, reread the passage, and be clear about whether it says anything about why people move in their sleep. It took a few minutes, but he did it. This is a huge breakthrough. He approached the passage with a clear mind. He said, "No. It says nothing about why people move." I gave him the answer. It only says that people move and how often.

  I texted third-grade KPS's grandma to ask if we could meet at 2:30 instead of 3. She texted back, apologizing. They had a previous appointment; could we meet on Tuesday at 4 p.m.?

  I took my longed-for nap. It took another short walk and got my steps above six thousand five hundred, but that still left close to four thousand more steps to complete before I reached my goal of ten thousand two hundred steps for the day.

  I wound up not meeting my quota. It was pouring at six, and it kept pouring all night. I didn't get to walk Elsa either before dinner or before bed. Fortunately, I did get her to pee in the back lanai. I anticipated a gift on the indoor lanai in the morning.