Monday, March 23, 2009

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

Where does the time go? Seems like Rachel just got sick - but we finished the antibiotic last night.

My favorite grocery store has just started a program where you can take a scanner around the store with you. You scan your groceries and bag them right into your cart as you are shopping. Then at checkout, it downloads your items into the register, you pay, and you've already bagged everything. I love it. I'm such a techno nerd, I would much rather do it myself (they already had self-checkout, which I love). And playing with the scanner really does feel like playing.

Yes, I know, now they don't have to hire as many cashiers. But you know what? They're already cutting back on them anyway, and if my doing this makes the line move faster, well, that's all good. And it's fun!

I'm trying once again to get back on the diet bandwagon that I fell off of at New Year's. So far today I've done very well, and I went for a walk AND went to the gym. And resisted the last home-made chocolate chip cookie. That's the hard part.

A whiteboard fell off our wall last night. The foam double-stick tape that failed to hold it to the wall is now permanently attached to my floor. Go figure.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Maybe Even a Little More Grey Hair

No strep, but a fever -even with an adult dose of Motrin. It was kind of a rough night. Rachel had trouble getting to sleep because her throat hurt so much. Then she was up trying to tell me something important at 12:30am. I don't know if I didn't understand her because she has no voice or if she was "sleep-talking" or if I was too groggy since I was asleep. But it doesn't really mattter - she had no memory of that this morning.

She's on antibiotics, and I was starting to freak out a little because she has been SO miserable all day, but about an hour ago her throat started feeling better and the fever has stayed down, so maybe we've turned the corner.

Poor thing. She has no voice, and she's supposed to sing with the kids at church tomorrow, and then at the district Arts Festival on Tuesday. I think I'll encourage her to lip-synch. She's done the work, she should at least get to pretend to perform.

Friday, March 13, 2009

More Grey Hair

Or, perhaps, "best laid plans."

John was planning on taking off work today so we could go to the Sugarloaf Craft Festival that's nearby. I even traded my library volunteer time so we could have more time. So of course...

Rachel was up in the middle of the night with a very sore throat and possible fever (thermometer was downstairs, it was 4:45am). We have a 10:45 appointment for a strep test.

Sigh. Even if she tests negative for strep, it's still not right to drag her around the craft festival. If she's well enough for that, she should be in school, right? But I was really looking forward to going today, rather than tomorrow with crowds.

And we got JC's progress report yesterday. He's slipping in classes he was at least holding his own in before. We had discussions about "focus" and "finishing". I do think part of the problem is the stupid system in our schools for music students. They start in 5th grade, and up until high school, they get pulled out up to twice a week for music lessons. It is their responsibility (in the middle school) to get to the class they will miss, let the teacher know they will miss, turn in homework, pick up any new homework, and then get to their lesson on time. The usual time for passing in this school? 4 minutes (or maybe it's 3). I think they get an extra minute or two to get to music, but it's at the farthest end of the longest hallway - quite literally as far as it could be from most of JC's classes. Given that he's already organizationally challenged, this is not helping. Can't WAIT for next year - in high school, band is a real class, with its own period. Getting pulled out isn't the only issue, of course, but it sure doesn't help. Many many kids drop out of music because it's just too hard to deal with.

And in Rachel's defense, she had done the assignment - she just couldn't find it in her backpack at the time it was due. And she was not allowed to turn it in later when she did find it. A little harsh for 5th grade, I think. Although she has had a minor problem this year with forgetting work (both at school and at home), it still seems like making her call me (and then worry all day because I wasn't home) was excessive.

It's been a long week. I fell down a couple of stairs yesterday because I stepped on a Hot Wheels car William left on the step. Yes, I'm ok (a little sore last night). Yes, we had a "discussion" about putting away toys. Yesterday, Rachel had to dress up as her biography report subject (Marie Curie! Guess who suggested that one!), and no, scientists at the turn of the century did NOT wear lab coats, at least in the pictures we found. So I found a long black skirt, and a black cardigan with long sleeves and a shaped waist, and we put a black polo shirt under to make a high neckline, and I put her hair up (as best we could, it's a little short). Seemed to be adequate - of course, I had to run all over creation to find a lab supply place to get a flask for her to use as a prop. After running all over trying to find skirts and high-neck blouses. In black. Wrong time of year.

Don't tell me I'm not a supportive mom. With rapidly greying hair.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Grey Hair

Are my children conspiring to make me old before my time? I now have two children who are "not performing up to their potential." Rachel called and left a message (while I was at the library) that she had not done ANY of the DAILY reading log from last week. That has been due every week since school started. The teacher made her call, she was clearly upset.

Every day, I ask my children what homework they have, and (later), have they completed it? I occasionally check the online homework site to see if there might be something they've missed. I don't usually ask to physically see their homework, though perhaps that's been an omission on my part.

I thought the phrase, "have you finished your homework?" was fairly self-explanatory. I guess we're going to have to work on the definition of "finished".

Friday, March 6, 2009

Psychotic

The weather, not me. For all my complaining about the cold and snow, our prediction is for 65 deg. by Sunday.

Some would say that all our cold this winter is a sign that global warming is a crock. However, global warming leads to more extreme weather swings. This sure feels extreme to me, but I'll take it!

Don't get me wrong, I do like seasons. I just get tired of them slightly before they're over. Just wait - by August I'll be dying for snow.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Ok, Enough Already

Do you realize that Daylight Savings Time starts this coming weekend? Do you realize that we have snow on the ground and subzero temperatures? This is just wrong, people!

I am SO ready for some actual Spring. We had a little tease - now I need the real thing, baby.

Monday, March 2, 2009

There's Snow Business Like Snow Business...

Yes, we had a snow day again today. I think that's actually only three for the year so far. It was a bit of a tough call on this one. If we had gotten the predicted amounts and timing, it would have been absolutely the right thing. As it was, we didn't get as much, and it had mostly stopped snowing by late morning, so we might have done ok with a delayed opening.

Ah well. The school district actually called it the night before - have I mentioned how much I like the new automated calling system the district is using this year? Previously, I would have to turn on a computer and check a website, or listen to the radio, or turn on the tv at 6 am to find out about closings/delays. Now, at 5:30am, the phone rings and the computer voice tells me the situation. I stumble across the hall and tell JC, turn off Rachel's alarm, and can go back to sleep almost immediately. Last night, they actually called about 10:30pm, and we really truly got to sleep in.

So all three kids had a dentist appointment scheduled, which we were able to reschedule earlier to get it over with. And then we went out to lunch at our favorite Mexican place, which is WAY too crowded to go most weeknights (not to mention about 30 minutes away), and fagheddaboutit on weekend evenings. I usually go for lunch on weekdays, but that means the kids and John can't go. John was working from home and on the phone, but the rest of us OD'd on chips and salsa. Dinner ended up being clean out the fridge night, and all I ate was cereal and yogurt.

Did I accompish anything on this free day? No. Unless you count doing the dishes.