Monday, March 9, Tuesday, March 10, Wednesday, March 11, and Thursday, March 12, 2026

On Monday, Nanaw ordered three more Wimpy Kid books for Chase from ThriftBooks for him to read for his AR requirements. Nanaw also ordered the Nancy Drew Mystery, The Secret of the Old Clock, for Mama, who requested it. For homework, Chase had the Hobbit Chapter 7 worksheet to do, plus an infinitives worksheet in English. His vocabulary test is Wednesday, and he has a history test on the 1920s on Thursday. Nanaw printed out information on No Brainer, one of the Wimpy books, for Chase to study. It was 18 pages of notes about the book, and Nanaw wasn't sure if Chase would have enough patience to read the whole thing. He wants to take the AR test on the book tomorrow. He's trying to get as close as possible to his goal for AR points. On Tuesday, Chase took the AR test on No Brainer and got three points, bringing him a little closer to his goal. He thinks his goal is 16 points. He has a North Africa geography quiz tomorrow and a verbal worksheet in English for homework. Nanaw had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning for the lump at the base of her right thumb. They took an X-ray and said it was a subchondral cyst, and Nanaw has to go see a hand specialist (who knew that such a doctor existed!). Nanaw made an appointment for March 23, and they asked her to get a copy of the X-ray. Chase and Nanaw studied for Wednesday's vocabulary test, and Chase seems to really know the words well. On Wednesday, Nanaw went to St. Clare hospital in the cold, rainy weather and picked up a copy of her hand X-ray. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he thought he did well on the vocabulary test. They studied for Thursday's history test on the 1920s using a cool online study guide called Kahoots that asks the multiple choice questions that might be on the test and gives the user four answers to choose from. Chase zipped through the questions several times, getting the answers right. On Thursday, Uncle Mike came over to take things to Goodwill and to work on installing an electrical outlet for the sump pump that's going to be installed in Nanaw's basement. After Goodwill, Uncle Mike said let's go to lunch so they went to Taco Bell. Uncle Mike wanted to pay but Nanaw got her credit card faster than he got out his debit card. So Nanaw said next time he could pay. After school, Chase told Nanaw he thought he did really well on the history test. He studied for Friday's DLR quiz, the Persian Gulf/Levant geography quiz and finished his English worksheet on phrases and clauses. Chase was very excited because he had a completely free evening tonight: no hockey, no baseball, no workout, and no homework -- just playing on his phone and other devices. 

Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8, 2026

On Saturday, Chase had one of his last hockey tournaments with the Affton team. He'll have the very last one in a couple of weeks. Then he'll move on to the Columbia team but no one knows when that will start. Mama texted Nanaw that they lost Friday night's game in Wentzville 3-2. She said the game started badly but then the boys played better. Nanaw texted Mama that a semi-miracle had occurred because Chase actually likes reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. There are about 20 of them so that's enough to get him through the rest of the year's Accelerated Reading (AR) requirements. He really hasn't liked reading books for AR so it's great that he's found books he likes to read. Chase's team lost the first Saturday game 5 to 2. They were going to meet some of the guys for dinner before the second game. They lost the second Saturday game 5 to 1. On Sunday, Chase set up the guys on the kitchen table in front of a bowl of strawberries and bananas -- very cute!! The pictures from seven years ago of Mama, Chase and Sylvester are appearing because they came up on Mama's Facebook page.  Mama got Sylvester from the APA on Nanaw's birthday seven years ago. Chase's team won the Sunday game 6 to 4. In the afternoon, the team had a celebration party at Affton. It was Nanaw's birthday, so in the evening Mama, Daddy, Chase, Uncle Mike, Aunt Becky and Nanaw met at Gianino's on Telegraph. Unfortunately, they had to wait for 45 minutes to get a table. But the food was delicious and perhaps almost worth the wait. Chase had spaghetti and meatballs and had lots leftover to take home. Nanaw got a mystery DVD set, a balsam cedar candle and an Amazon gift card from Mama, Daddy and Chase. From Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky, she got a clever gumball machine that they made themselves, filled with large gumballs, and an Amazon gift card. They had Bunny Tracks ice cream, vanilla ice cream, and cheesecake for Nanaw's birthday celebration. 

Friday, March 6, 2026

On Friday morning, Chase and Nanaw studied for his religion test. He seemed to know the material but it's hard to know what the teacher will put on the test. When Nanaw asked Chase after school how he did, he said he thought he got a 100 -- which would be wonderful. But as long as he did his best, that's all that matters. Mama took Nanaw to Joe Boccardi's for her birthday lunch. Mama had cheese pizza, and Nanaw had Caesar salad. When Mama brought Nanaw home, she came in to see the mess in the basement and to get something to put Nanaw's birthday present in. Nanaw told Mama that she had huge amounts of wrapping paper and gift bags downstairs, and Mama should come get some whenever she needs some. Mama and Nanaw went to pick up Chase after school, and as always, he was one of the last students out of the building. He and his friends gather together after school around Chase's desk and visit for a few minutes, which is really cute. Mama and Chase came into Nanaw's house to get Chase's stuff but they couldn't stay to visit. Chase has a hockey game out in Wentzville, and they have to leave at four to get there on time. So Nanaw didn't get much time with Chase. 

Thursday, March 5, 2026

On the way to school on Thursday morning, Chase announced to Nanaw that he may have forgotten about a Hobbit test in Reading for that day. He said he had a study sheet and he'd study it during the day before the test. Nanaw thought the test was next week but she got that wrong. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school on Thursday, he told her that he had taken care of his missing math assignments. His grade went from a 90 to a 96. Chase was very happy about that . He said most of the class had missing assignments from when they were out sick. But his history grade went down to a 90 based on a test last Friday where he got a C. Nanaw didn't know anything about a history test, and they certainly didn't study for it. Nanaw is going to go look at a copied version of Homework Central and see if it says anything about a history test on February 27. Chase figured out a neat way to look at back versions of Homework Central. You make a copy of the spreadsheet and you're able to look at previous weeks. Nanaw didn't find any mention of a history test on Homework Central but Facts says Chase got an 86 our of 100 on a WWI test on February 27. -- what a mystery. Nanaw is going to stop mentioning Chase's grades to Mama. After school, Chase did his English assignment and then they studied for Friday's religion test. He said he has a big history assignment but he's going to use one of his homework passes for it because he doesn't have time to do it. Evidently, with a homework pass you don't have to do the assignment and you get a 100%. Cool deal if it really works that way.

Tuesday, March 3 and Wednesday, March 4, 2026

On Tuesday, Nanaw offered Chase the new kind of protein bars Mama bought for his breakfast but he didn't want to try them yet -- he wanted his regular ones. Nanaw reminded Chase that his chapter 6 Hobbit worksheet was due on Tuesday and that he should bring home his science study material for the science terms quiz on Wednesday. After school, Chase had his healthy snack of the Premier protein drink, grapes and strawberries, cashews and pumpkin and sunflower seeds. He requested Blue Bunny vanilla ice cream and root beer after his healthy snack. For homework, in addition to studying for the science quiz,  he had an English worksheet and for history he had to work on an Iran slideshow. The teacher had switched from the regular history assignment to an Iran assignment because of the military attacks going on there. Chase and Nanaw went into his room and went over the list of disease-related terms several times. On Wednesday morning, they went over the terms again twice, and Chase seemed to know them. When Nanaw picked him up, he said he thought he only missed two of them but when they checked Facts they saw that he got 28 out of 28 so he didn't miss any. So that was super. But he ended up with math troubles. His grade has gone down to a 90 from a 98 because he missed several assignments from when he was sick. He said he didn't receive the assignments and the teacher said it was his responsibility to find them out for himself. He had big red missing announcements on Facts. This is a real shame because he had been doing an excellent job in math before this happened.

Saturday, February 28, Sunday March 1, and Monday, March 2, 2026

Chase had an exciting adventure on Saturday. His friend Tucker invited him for a sleepover. Chase met Tucker years ago when they played baseball together in Columbia. They met up again, and Tucker spent last Halloween with Chase and the crew trick or treating and having a sleepover. On Saturday, Chase went to Tucker's house around 3 p.m. in the afternoon and stayed till Sunday around noon when Mama picked him up. Chase and Tucker had pizza for dinner and played a lot of computer games together. They stayed up till 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m. so they didn't get much sleep but had a lot of fun. Saturday was the night of the dinner auction, and Chase usually stays at Nanaw's house while Mama and Daddy go to the dinner auction. Nanaw was fine with Tucker's invitation to Chase because she knew how much fun he'd have. Chase was supposed to have another sleepover with the crew at Cole's house on Sunday but that didn't work out. So Mama said Chase could have a sleepover at Nanaw's, which made Nanaw extremely happy. Mama brought Chase and all his guys over to Nanaw's house about 4:30 on Sunday evening. Chase wanted Sonic for dinner so Nanaw went to get it and discovered that Sonic's electricity was out so she came back home to see what Chase wanted for dinner. They settled on Domino's pizza and stuffed cheesy bread, and Nanaw went to pick it up, which was an adventure for her because she'd never done that before. Chase loved the pizza and cheesy bread and said it was the best he'd ever had. They watched TV in the living room and in Chase's room and didn't go to bed until midnight. In the middle of the evening, Chase had a snack of pizza and cheesy bread that Nanaw heated up in the toaster oven. Chase slept till 8:30 on Monday morning, very late for him. During the day, they had two sessions for homework and AR reading, one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. Chase did lots of AR reading and did his vocabulary packet and the chapter 6 Hobbit worksheet. Nanaw was very proud of him and how well he did. For lunch, Chase did a very innovative thing he'd heard about on YouTube. He put a glass of water in the microwave with the pizza and cheesy bread to heat them up and make it like they were fresh again, and it worked! Nanaw needs to remember to tell Mama about it. He told Nanaw what a great sleepover it had been, which made Nanaw very happy.

Friday, February 27, 2026

 On Friday morning, Chase and Nanaw did more studying for his Friday science test. Once again they studied the terms and the study review pages in the textbook. They also went through the packet on chapter 4 and found some things they hadn’t studied. Chase was in a good mood about all the studying they’d done and said he felt ready for the test. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he thought he'd done well on the geography test and the science test. She told him about a science quiz next Wednesday. On his own, Chase volunteered to go back into school for his science textbook. But when he tried to go back in the school, he discovered they had already closed the door and he couldn’t get back in. At Nanaw’s house, Chase helped Nanaw clear away a bunch of boxes in the basement. In the evening, Mama, Daddy and Chase went to watch an Affton hockey game.