I have a computer again!

A couple weeks ago, I accidentally knocked a glass of water over my laptop.  It actually wasn't very much water but the way it splattered directly onto the keyboard broke my computer.  I tried mopping it up and drying it out.  After a few days it did come back to life but the keyboard did not work anymore.  It kept typing some kind of funky cyrillic type alphabet.  We took it into the nearby Apple store and of course they said they couldn't fix it and tried to sell me a new one. But I am on this zero waste kick and one thing I've really come to hate is the way manufacturers design things so that you have to buy a new one to replace a broken one, instead of allowing you to fix the one you already have.  C'mon Apple!  Everybody drinks something while on their laptops.  I mean restaurants and coffee shops advertise they have wi fi!  Surely you can make a keyboard that is waterproof.  I keep reading horror stories of child slavery in the mining of minerals that supply us with our computers.  And the horrible working conditions in China due to the chemicals and the demands for new stuff.

But it just happened that we have a Mac computer that is several years old but still good.  It had been put in storage because no one was using it.  That's pathetic in and of itself.  See, we used to have family PC type computers, but then as the kids got older we switched to laptops.  We gave each child a laptop when they reached age 18, usually to help with college.   Becky has been using my laptop to participate in on line classes.   

So anyway, I did buy a new computer stand.  It was inexpensive and yes I am sure it has some plastic, and the packing material did contain some styrofoam.  I needed a small stand that could fit in the corner of my bedroom and I just didn't see myself waiting and looking around for something to use.  I needed it pronto.  So that's a bad!

But Josh put the stand together last night and set up this computer and it is working wonderfully so far.  So now I can resume blogging again!  Hooray!

I do have a phone to use while I am out, instead of a laptop.  So between the phone and this, I think I'll be fine.

Life is full of transitional stuff going on right now:

Rick:  he just took a flight up to Boston to see Sean's final performance and to bring Sean back from his 5 weeks away. 

Hannah (and spouse) are off to a wedding in South Carolina.  Josh is housesitting for them and watching their little dog.

Will is in Austria this week visiting his girlfriend.  He'll be coming back to Boston this weekend.  Then he and his girlfriend and a bunch of other musicians are doing a tour around the country for a couple of weeks.

Josh's schedule for work changed once again which is great!  He now has extended hours Sunday through Wednesday and then has Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. This is an answer to a prayer which I will explain in a minute!

Sean has been away for 5 weeks.  Can't wait for him to come home.  I thought for sure that he would want to stay up there and room with Will, but he seems to have gotten homesick about the 3rd week in.  So he's coming home and going to go to the community college as planned.

Becky is at AHG camp this week.  She got diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease (hypothyroidism), anemia and possibly Lyme just before she left for the trip!  She seems to be holding up, though I don't think she's doing as many activities as the other girls.  No wonder she's been a mess for the last few months though.  I am having bad mommy guilt over it.  I probably should have taken her to the doctors months ago. 

Viviane is going great!  She has gotten her work permit and her social security number.  She's got her learners permit and hopefully this month she'll take and pass her driving test.  We bought another car, a used 2013 Outback that someone's neighbor was selling.  Vivianne got a job at our parish school!  She is an assistant Extended Day Caregiver.  That means she will be working 6 to 8 M-F mornings and 3 to 6 M-F afternoons.  This is perfect because Dylan will be sleeping in the a.m. and I can watch him in the evenings for her.  Which comes to Josh's new hours.  Thursdays this year, I will be teaching Latin and Modern European History which means I'll be in Manassas all day.  Becky too is going to be a paid aide for one of the younger classes.  That meant that there would be no one here to watch Dylan during the gap time where Viviane isn't home yet but we are gone.  But Josh now has Thursdays off!!!!  So he can be home between 8 and 8:30 a.m. while Viviane is still in transit from work to home.  And he can also be here in the afternoons.  Viviane will need to leave for work before 3 and Becky and I probably won't get home until just before 4.  So Josh will be watching Dylan from about 2:30 to 4:00 on Thursdays.  Wait!  I just realized that Sean may be home now.  When I was thinking about this, I was assuming he'd be in Boston still!  Anyway, Rick helped Viviane fill out all her employment forms and Virtus stuff.  So now she's just got to take the Driver's test and go to the Virtus training for new school employees which is next week.

My head is full of homeschooling plans right now as well.  The co-op class that Becky was going to take just to be able to socialize didn't get enough enrollment.  That had me worried because she really is an extravert and needs friend time.  But it turns out that Becky and a friend from AHG can study Ancient History and ASL together.  So I guess the girl is going to come over once a week and they can study here together. 

Ancient History - I plan to be one lecture ahead of the girls in the Foundations of Western Civ lecture series from The Great Courses.  I will watch and then list 5 to 10 events, names, etc I think are important.  Then the girls can watch the lecture, practice taking notes, come up with 5-10 things to put into their annotated timeline (they'll each have a notebook or binder).  Homework will be researching each thing and writing one or two sentences or a short paragraph on each.  I'll have the girls quiz each for review before they start to watch the new episode.

ASL - there are several sign language courses on line.  I am going to let the girls explore their options and then choose which one.  They can watch and then practice together.

So Becky's schedule looks like:

Mondays - afternoon on line Ancient Lit class, 2x a month AHG meeting

Tuesdays - I think early afternoon - math tutor,  voice, evenings - Youth Group

Wednesday - open

Thursdays - 8:30 to 3:00 aide at Aquinas Learning

Fridays - Mass at noon, math tutor in afternoon.

It definitely looks like Wednesday is the best day for the girl to come over for history and ASL.  Though we could possibly squeeze it into Tuesday or Friday mornings.  Monday mornings I think will be catching up for the on line Lit class. 

So once all this is truly in place I can figure out when we will do our Environmental Science course.

In the meantime, Sean will be going back and forth to the community college.  The new old Outback is also going to be used for Becky and Sean once they get their drivers license.  Frankly, I think Becky will get it before Sean does.  But maybe not.

This is a very long post, full of info only interesting to me!  I guess I missed blogging!