April 5- April 11 (Less About Homeschool, More About Life)
Saturday: I'm starting to include weekends on these report 'cause my life is so full it just makes sense, although, not much is going on here today. Just me. Recovering from the last wisdom tooth coming out. Milking it for all it's worth "No, sweetie, it doesn't hurt unless I move around the house and wait on you..."
"Oh, thanks for getting that movie for me, could you put it in, because when I bend the blood rushes to my head and starts my gaping wound bleeding again..." I'm a little sad this is the last wisdom tooth I have to use for purposes of laying around without guilt. If only I had shin splints and needed an onion poultice.
Meanwhile,I'm really really really REALLY hungry. No one is home right now to wait on me, so I will waste away to nothing I suppose. That's the martyr in me.
We watch a PBS/Ken Burns special of Frank Lloyd Wright. Mr. Wright was from my grandparents stomping grounds...or they were from his, I don't know which came first. My great grandparents lived around the same time as his parents, so I don't know...at any rate, Ms. D is reading/listening to the marvelous book The Wright 3 by Blue Baillet. (If you and the kids haven't read this yet, you may want to start with Chasing Vermeer. We've really enjoyed these books and not only have they catapulted us into art history and mystery but math. Which has led to buying Pentaminoes!) But I totally digress. We've had fun watching the videos on Wright and learning about his life. This has led Ms. D to drawing her own home designs on paper. We've had fun figuring out how to solve mysteries of home planning. Like, really, the bathroom shouldn't be too far from the bedroom...and do we really need a connecting door between our bedroom and hers?
We received a package from Aunt Gin in Connecticut! Aunt Gin has a long history of basket making like you wouldn't believe. She now does these pretty cool kits that she sells to historic places and kids craft shops among many many other places. Wouldn't you love to see her website? Here is is: Basketmaking 101. But that's not all! She has embroidery kits, weaving kits, doll making kits and pen and quill kits.
Sunday: I totally overdid it on Saturday, thinking my tooth was sooo much better, when really it wasn't. So I lounged around and didn't enter the 'real' world on Sunday. I don't think I want to go back to the real world. The fact did enter my consciousness that I had a daughter, that the birds were singing outside the window and spring was possibly on it's way. Otherwise, I recognize nothing that constitutes reality. Wonderful day.
Monday:This day started out wrong. So very, very, wrong. I am NOT a morning person. Waking up in the early morning, with the birds, makes my head ache, stomach hurt and eyes twitch. I get nauseous just thinking about it. Nine a.m. is more my speed, I used to beat myself up about this, but no longer. I read an article about the scientific-ness of the biological time clock or something like that and I feel better. Homeschool was made for late sleepers.
So my hard working other half has a drywall job this month that is on an island. The ferry to take him to this island is 1500 miles away from our house. Well, no, you say how could that be? Well, not literally, of course, but when you wake up at 5 A.M. (you read that right...A.M!) and have to travel for 1/2 hour with aching head, stomach hurting and eyes twitching, it just might as well be 1500 miles. But I am ever the optimist! Old/working/birding People get up early all the time, I shall embrace this small change in my schedule! I shall do something interesting with this free morning time! I shall look at the sunrise and greet it with shining eyes....well, that's going too far, but I was going to do something interesting with the early hours. Nature. Nature is beautiful in the morning I'm told. So, checking the tide charts and noting a low tide at 6:15 AM or so, I decided Ms. D and I would go look for sea glass.
It was freezing. In my happiness over higher temperatures I forgot that mornings are cold and 36 degrees of wind in my face is not to be borne no matter what time of day. But as I mentioned I am EVER THE OPTIMIST. So I drug my sorry behind down to the beach, shouting encouragement to Ms. D who was having. none. of. this. I made it look fun. I hopped around. I found sea glass. I found pottery shards.
I found the sun directly in my eyes, the wind chafing my pupils, my stomach growling and my body screaming "What in the WORLD are you doing out of bed?" I finally shoved my optimism aside and ran into the car, sobbing quietly to myself. No wait. That was Ms. D. She was miserable and no amount of sugar coating was gonna change her mind. She is so smart. I need to listen to her more often. So we decided to go to our favorite resteraunt for breakfast. Except when we go there it was closed. They are on vacation. Because SANE people vacation when it's cold in Maine. So we decided to go all the way back to our secondary choice in breakfast (heaven forbid we come home and look a fridge in the face, which would've been closer) and here is where the day really started falling apart.
Ms. D was unhappy that she was out, unhappy her breakfast choice was not available (have I mentioned how she HATES/DESPISES change?) and, as she was mustering up good attitude and enthusiasm, she totally wiped out in the parking lot. Totally. That's where convergence/proprioception/vestibular/bilateral issues will get you, my friends. Smack dab in the middle of the pavement. It hurt. And did I mention this is where it started to get bad?
Ms. D wailed as if the furies were at her heels...wait, she WAS the furies all rolled into one. She railed at her morning, her day, her life, she moaned at the pain, the suffering, the inhumanity...the stinging. I gave her options: let's go home or let's eat. She choose to eat, she was still railing as we hobbled into the restraunt. We found our way to the restroom where, suddenly, it turned even uglier. More railing. I was not allowed to look at her knee and hand, touch her knee and hand nor speak of her knee and hand. And then I lost it. I did what any sane person would do and slapped my child across the face of hysteria like Cher did to Nicholaus Cage in Moonlighting. No. I didn't really. That was a figure of speech. I just took charge. I told her on no uncertain terms that I WOULD be indeed helping and that I was cleaning her up so the wound didn't get infected. Which I did. She calmed. And then I started taking pictures. She smiled. She laughed. All was well. Crisis met. Crisis dispatched.
And that was just up to 8:00 AM. I KNEW there was a reason I didn't do mornings. I won't go on at length about the rest of the day but here is the rundown: breakfast wasn't good, went home, hydrogen peroxide, fell asleep while reading books on solar system, woke up to be late for OT, went to OT where we discovered a hole in the nether regions of Ms. D's pants, (not good for OT, trust me), Ms. D can't do ANYTHING in OT because apparently her day had been so horrific she was still suffering, discussed attitude check, came home, got mail, discussed attitude again,jaw is aching/need more painkillers, why isn't it better yet, three days is enough, right? Ms. D reads and listens to books/draws, I look at houseplans,dreaming, sick to my stomach from meds, husband comes home, two girls scowl and we go to bed early. Here was the highlight of my day. This picture cracked me up. Can you see the toilet there?
Tuesday: Tuesday was not sponsored on this blog.
Wednesday: A fascinating day. Recall this cool piece of artwork?
Well, the artist called me today and said that he wanted me to have the matted print that went with it! How nice was that? So he made a trip to our house to deliver it. In addition, he showed me a wonderful book he's created. Really. He made the book, bound it, and printed it. He took his Ulysses inspired woodblock prints and copied Tennyson's Ulysses and bound it. Beautifully done! He's always been inspired by Japanese prints and, 40 years ago, not being able to afford his own decided to make his own. He's still at it! I've still got in mind a print that David really really likes as a surprise for him, but we'll see....Meanwhile, this wonderful gentleman also showed me a book he made about the osprey family that lives down near him. They have a beautiful nest and it was a fascinating photo album (again, hand made) of the lives of the ospreys. What an interesting person! How many interesting people, with interesting lives and story's are around us? Walk by us every day? Just waiting to share their story.
Later, Ms. D and I go pick up Dad's new shirts from the printers. I am against them. We almost came to fisticuffs over this shirt.
Here is my thing. What ON EARTH does a fox have to do with Drywall? This was the "logo" my husband chose? Huh? Foxes have nothing to do with our life. Our last name is not Fox. My husband's nickname is not Fox. My husband was not raised by foxes. He did not have a fox as a pet as a child. We are, as a family and as a company, in NO way affiliated with Foxes of any type. Then WHY did he use this for a logo? I'll tell you why. Because I was NOT there to stop him! I'll let you be the judge. He says the fox is now his mascot. Um. Right. Whatever. Is this a guy thing that has been laying dormant in my husband? Kind of like he NEVER liked football until our fifth year of marriage. This doesn't bode well for our golden years together. It just doesn't. I'm pretty sure karaoke will be next. And you know what, honey? The blog has the last word. And here it is.
Not pretty, is it?
Next, we went grocery shopping and to the library. That was our day. Oh, and as far as education goes, see above. Ms. D learned about navigating relationships and logos.(oh, alright, and ospreys and woodblock printing and screen printing and all that kind of thing...)
Thursday: Had to run errands today...slow day, we read together a lot...listened to books. Ms. D read of her own volition for about 15 min straight!! Hooray! We've been doing our OT homework daily...it was sixty degrees out!! We went to the beach and found some great sea glass...and what was even more impressive? Ms. D decided to climb all over this tree/driftwood thingy. See it in the distance?
Not, in of itself a big deal.
What WAS a big deal was that she didn't give up,
she stuck with it,
she persevered and wasn't afraid.
HUGE.
I know most kids would scamper on this and be done, but for Ms. D to get up on that thing, turn around on it, straddle it. For her, it is SO far from the ground. And there she is...relaxing after some hard work. Because of OT? Just three visits and daily work at home? Who knows. Could be..I'm just thrilled she did it! And I looked for sea glass. There are five pieces of sea glass in this picture. Can you find them?
We also found,what we were pretty sure was some mermaid fin that had been recently shed.
We also took a nice drive with the windows down...completely glorious. However, those rude people from the Midwest are sending rain our way.
Meanwhile, I think I am dehydrated. That's why this skin on my neck is so loose.
I mean, it has NOTHING to do with the fact I'm almost forty, right? The kinda thing like loose skin doesn't happen that fast, right? Right?? Work with me here! I have to just drink more water.
Ms. D tortured the dignity of our cats today, also. This is Thistle who is thinking "What, now, is that child doing? She bores me to tears."
This is Moxie, listening intently for the footfalls that could be the 'cause of doom.
Too late! She's been caught in a frightful web of undignified shenanigans!
Rabbit ears! The ultimate horror!
And for those of you who have been clammering to see my new hair cut. Here it is. I am ambivalent about it and, it seem to change every day depending on many factors:growth, weather and do I have the energy to do anything with it?
Friday: Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning for company. I wish I felt a bit better to do justice to this house, but that dang tooth is still botherin' me. I don't know why I didn't recover this time around as fast as I did last time. It's irritating me. So the windows will be left alone. The dusting is 1/2 way done and then I gave up. But a clean toilet, fresh towels and clean sheets are good, right? You know what? I have to face facts. I'm not the greatest hostess in the world.I don't think of everything. But I DO enjoy my guests....and I hope they feel that "help yourself/mi casa es su casa" vibe.
Tomorrow we pick up Anna and Josh!! Ms. D is very, very, VERY excited! She recently said to me "You know, even before Anna and Josh were "a couple" I always loved Anna. And to believe my friend became my aunt? Isn't that cool?" Way cool, Ms. D.
Recent Comments