Monday, Sept. 19

Up at 6:30 this morning, so I could get ready to go to water aerobics. After a stormy night, there was a dense fog this morning. It was just cool enough to need a fleece outfit, which I fully appreciated after swimming in that frigid pool.

When I arrived at the dressing room, only two women were present. I asked if we were going ahead with aerobics, and our leader said we would if enough members showed up. So I proceeded to the pool. By aerobics time, only eight of us had braved the water, but we went on with the session anyway.

I was plenty chilly after swimming in the deep end for thirty minutes and then doing aerobics for another thirty minutes. The showers in the dressing room have hot water now, so we think the boiler has been repaired, though that large pool will take days to heat up.

Back home, I warmed up with a couple of cups of steaming coffee, and then enjoyed a hot shower that further helped thaw me out. After that, I did this and that around the house for the rest of the morning. Mother came over around 11:30 and joined us for lunch.

After lunch, Hubbie ran errands, Mother worked on her jigsaw puzzle, and I reviewed the lesson plan for a tutoring session this afternoon.

The first thing I had my student do was to register for a libary card. Since I didn't have one at this library, I registered for one, too. Once the student had a card, I asked her to check out a book, CD, or DVD. She chose two DVDs, one a movie, and one a Spanish to English tutorial.

Registering for a library card was a request of the Literacy Council director. By getting a card and borrowing a book or other material, the student will be entered in a drawing to win $50 to a gas station, a grocery store, or the WDCS.

Today, the student read a couple of simple stories, and then answered questions about them. She had a little trouble with correctly answering who, what, why questions, but after going over the stories a couple of times, she caught on.

She also learned beginning consonant blends: cl-, dr-, and sp-, as in clash, drug, spot, as well as pronouncing contrasting short vowels, "a," and "o," as in tap, top, cat, cot, and rack, rock.

We ended the session with the student choosing the correct words for sentences, as in "Ann is (stand/stands/standing) in the the kitchen," or "Kim and Jill (stop/stops/stopping) at the gift shop.

Back home, Mother had prepared a supper of leftover barbecued pork chops in a carrot/onion/celery sauce, and baked potatoes. We spooned the sauce mixture over the baked potatoes, and had these with sides of leftover Lima beans and coleslaw.

Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I vegged in front of TV. We started with an episode of Inspector Lewis, a British cop show from PBS, followed by the season premieres of "Dancing With the Stars," and "Castle."