Wow! It’s only Friday and it’s been a busy week! Zac and Bode love basketball. Bode practices Monday and Wednesday after school and Tuesday and Thursday before school starts at 7. Zac’s practices are now consistently after school or at least for this week. Other weeks some of the practices have been after school, some at night and some on Saturdays with no rhyme or reason. Jessie has committed to be to school with her math teach every Monday and Wednesday morning at 7:30 for extra help. Makes for some crazy mornings around here. To lessen the craziness I pack Jessie’s lunch the night before and make sure her hair is in a braid or her bandana rollers. Preparation is key.
On Monday the boys went to a Rockets game with Aaron. They had a great time even though they lost. Jessie and I read about Annie Oakley for her book report that was due today. She decided to share her book report orally and dress up as Annie Oakley. She and I also came up with an idea for the recycling fashion show for Science, a petal skirt made with cereal boxes, aluminum foil, gum wrappers, bullion wrappers and duck tape, which was due today as well. We renamed the activity the “Trashion Show”. This was along with her weekly homework activities, which include a vocabulary assignment, at-home journal, 8 times multiplication sheet, reflex math and test study for vocabulary and a maps test in social studies that she does on the computer. She also had two extra math homework sheets to complete as well. This also didn’t include her time spent with her math tutor or Chinese tutors. I am not kidding about the academic push that is here. It is crazy! The happy news is she did great on her oral book report and recycled “trashion” show skirt. Hoping the same for her vocabulary test and maps test. ;)
For the past week, Zac has been working on a Romeo and Juliet paper that was due on Wednesday. I am not going to lie, there was a little mom and son tension happening but the paper was completed and turned in on time. ;) His art teacher thinks he should move up a level. He has really done well in art. His Spanish teacher wants him to go on the summer trip to Spain but I don’t know if we can swing that. Bode is learning Texas History with obviously no previous knowledge and his teacher isn’t very helpful getting him up to speed. In ELA and Literacy he is learning how to annotate his directed reading book, Dark Water Rising. He proudly showed me his book the other day. This is huge because he did not understand why he should annotate, wasn’t going to and was determined not to. Happy that is no longer the case. ;) I think we are all on “this is how we do school now” bus. Hard transition but all will be better for it.
Zac’s basketball team is involved in a tournament this weekend that started yesterday. It’s been a rough start for his team with two losses but close games. Last night they only lost by 1 point. Zac played great! He hustled on defense and offense scoring 13 points. Zac was telling me Clements is the only school that has more than one white kid on the team in the whole district. Our team has the most diverse representation. This is going to be an awesome experience for Zac. I’m excited for him.
My week was filled with meeting with sisters for companionship study (3x), a district meeting, two-week follow-up meeting with the new missionaries and a planning session with a sister companionship. The companionship study is a new addition for me. A great addition I might add. I get to be with the sisters, increase my gospel and scripture knowledge, provide insights and get to be apart of roles plays. The sisters have enjoyed it as well. I went to a well-planned and executed district meeting. There was great teaching, investigator updates, exchanging of ideas and revelatory role-play. Loved it!! In the planning session, the sisters followed the 13 steps that help the missionaries plan and prepare for their investigator’s needs, experience insights and revelation to get the ward members more involved and make sure the missionaries are busy helping others come unto to Christ. All things needed to be effective and dedicated missionaries.
Tomorrow, what will tomorrow bring? Some rest, some family time, a stake conference speaking assignment and……… Allie girl!!! So excited to see her!!!! It will be fun to have her for a whole week. I am so looking forward to it.
*Pictures of Jessie as Annie Oakley and her outfit made from recycled materials for her "Trashion" show