Notes and updates on the Denims

It's been a crazy few weeks but I wanted to update you on all the excitement.

Mini-E, I think, is finally contagion free. I can't tell though, for certain. We kept her home from church on Sunday because it's hard to tell which are old pox and which are new. After talking to my friend today, though, I'm very glad that we did have the immunization - a serious case of chicken pox would have really put a damper on our lives.

The boys never broke out as bad as Mini-E. G only had about 5 spots and J-man had somewhere between the two kids. He had enough for me to confirm that he had them. I didn't expect G to get them because he had the booster shot - but he only had 5 spots, so i guess the booster worked. His only complaint was that the spots itched.

We got our van back. After driving the Nissan Armada for 2 weeks, seeing my van back in the driveway -- it looked very short and small. I feel short (er) driving the van --- I really miss the size and height of the SUV. I totally agree with Mrs. Darling who said : "I feel so safe in it. Another thing I like about the height is that on rainy days you sit above most of the road spray! Have you noticed that? It makes driving an all new experience."

She is so right. I think I want an SUV now. Before I was indifferent - I am no longer. Indifferent, that is....about SUV's. The Armada had this fantastic button on it. If you pressed it, the heads up display would tell you how much gas you had and how many miles you had to go before you refilled the tank. It was awesome.

My van is great, too. I don't have to worry about it getting scratched. I own it....and it's already scratched. The day we got the van back in the driveway, I wanted to make a quick run to the library.

It was dead.

Dead.

Dead.

We couldn't tell if the alternator was dying (or already dead) or if it was the battery. So we called a local repairman and he came out the next day to have a look-see. It was the battery and he suspected that it was the battery original to the van. The van is about 6 years old. And after seeing how it is placed in the van, I'm really glad we didn't undertake installing the battery ourselves. It reminded me of that Operation game....if I touched the side I was going to get buzzed and see lights...

J-man is doing very well with speech therapy. The only downside to speech therapy is that we're not doing well with following up with school work in the afternoon. Okay. I'm not doing very good with it.

After lunch, after getting the babies down for a nap and after mom goes home, I just want to sit. Today I gave Mini-Me a Math test, as opposed to a work book page. It took her over an hour to get part of it done, and she still wasn't done by 3:30. We needed a new toilet seat (not sure how it broke - but it split in two) and some apple juice. Luckily there's a wal-mart down the street from the hardware store. She'll have to finish that test in the morning. I know it would take her about 15 minutes if she'd just focus. J-man only slept for 45 minutes instead of his normal 2 hours. Which didn't help matters for Mini-me's concentration because he wanted to finish his movie.

Oh, I got the seat home and figured out that it doesn't fit - after struggling to get the old, broken seat off. So now I've got to see if Lowe's will take the seat back. The box is open, but the plastic is intact. (Insert sigh here). Another trip back to the store with 4 kids. Honestly, The Professor just doesn't know what he's missing out on.

When we do manage to get a full days worth of school done, it's been good. Both the big kids are doing great with what they get to do. It's an exciting year, really. I'm well pleased. I did make a change with our handwriting curriculum. During the Back to Homeschool Week hosted by Randi I had come across a curriculum called "A Reason for Handwriting" and I gave it a try and liked the look of it...so I purchased it. On a whim, I tried the first lesson - with actual words. I was too much in a hurry to figure out why there were two sections in the book and two different pages marked "lesson 1". She was so excited with it. She came to me and said "Mom!! Look at this letter and this word!" She did so good. I think it was because there wasn't too much in the lesson. I have forgotten, in my haste, to give her a daily dose of handwriting - but was much encouraged by this. I've decided to switch from ABeka Cursive to this. And next year, I'll put G in this curriculum,too.

I'll also endeavor to learn why there are two sections in the book and two lessons marked Lesson 1.

Those are the notes that I can think of that might even interest ya. The challenges of daily-ness are still there: discipline, powerstruggles, struggles with self. But they often don't make good blog fodder, I think, because they are just so ... everyday.

Those are all the notes from the Laundry Pile for today.