It’s time to COUNT THINGS

I studied chemistry at Houghton College.  By some miracle, I did pass analytical chem, so at one time, I dried a crucible in a kiln, and weighted it to make sure it was completely clean and dry, after it cooled down.  It took me three times.  Two afternoons.  And it was weighed to a thousandth of a gram.  I don’t even remember what I was burning in the crucible in the first place.  Just the careful prep.  After that, all measurement in regular life was off. Even in baking.  If I have to measure it too much, I fudge it.  My husband says he’s never had the same meal twice – even if it has the same starting recipe.  I may think it’s to be more responsive to locally available foods, but really, it’s that after the weighing of a crucible to dryness – I was done measuring carefully.

Well, sort of. I’ve never been adverse to graphing knitting patterns, working out algebra to figure out how to pleat fabric, or anything fun, it’s just that in general, I am done with real fussy numbers. 

But this week, my number is up and I have to count, measure and plan.  Which assignments can I skip to end the school year?  If we have one more vacation week in July, one week shot by standardized testing, how many chapters must we accomplish each week in each thing?  Bills are due soon, I need to come up with a budget, and while the mitten pattern is sort of graded, it needs to be written too – so I have no escape, the numbers are after me, and they want me to count them.