Quick Update

Here we go again....

Just as things are beginning to perk up - got the basement liveable, and both kids' rooms organized, decluttered, furniture set-up and cleaned, dog is not going to die from the KFC, I'm starting to sleep - Rai is crashing again.

Looks like he's had a week to rid his body of the antibiotics and the pain and fever is back with a vengance. The dr's office jsut got in touch with CHEO today who would like us to have some evaluation done locally before heading to Ottawa. Called the dr. at home (bad me, I know...it was either that or Emerg for the night) who called in a stronger, longer prescription and we caught Rai's fever before it went past 104F. Guess who will be the first call to the drs on Monday morning...have to book him in for something at the first of the week to hopefully get an ultrasound for his tummy by the end of the week.

Thanks for your kind wishes...

Today We Harvested Kori's Sunflower...Fall Is Really Here

I have left this fresh, new page on it's own for some time. It's kind of nice to think of perfect, new beginnings. Like Fall. I really do like this time of year.

I am finding, though, that with as much promise this new season holds, I am still missing the mark on a lot of fronts. The dreary days make me forget to focus on the positive. I am only seeing what needs to be done; what I haven't yet done; what I've wasted, or let go. The effort I dig up throughout the day in insufficient. I am not accomplishing much of anything. Each small accomplishment is dwarfed with a greater amount of things needing to be done....or the things that just come undone after having done them thirty times already.

I promise that tomorrow I will focus on something positive.

The kids and I will catch up tomorrow. There is school work that has been sitting on the small table for two days...ok, there are two math pages that have been there for two weeks...Tomorrow will be for the kids and I to look back on the calendar and fit in a few of the things we missed while Rai was sick. We will do our read aloud chapter - which, I might say, we have been sticking to like glue! In 15 school days - 9 of which Rai was down and out for - we finished Charlottes' Web and have begun Prince Caspian. We all agreed to at least one chapter a day. There are at least 20 chapters in Charlotte and we're ready for chapter 3 in Prince Caspian tomorrow. This is a small, yet important, accomplishment. The kids and I will focus on doing the work that they want to do so they feel accomplished and productive and busy and engaged.

Both kids are happy to do the school work they have choosen this Fall. That is a positive. Our first week was like pulling teeth to get them to sit and concentrate and stop pushing my buttons to see if I'd let them off easy. I did persevere...and we did accomplish our goals for that week. How can a schedule go so badly so quickly?? I have never been very good at schedules. It is still blatently obvious.

In more practical and upbeat news... Efforts continue to encourage more contact between local homeschoolers. Our picnic was well attended at the beginning of this month and there is a Coffee & Chat planned for jsut after Thanksgiving as well as a day of Museum programming in the works. I'm encouraged and hopefull. With very little effort, we have received emails from homeschoolers in the area we didn't even know about!

On more family & friends kind of news, my sister and fiance are getting a dose of real life. They seem to be handling it in stride. It's hard to enter the workforce and see the realities of people in business for the money...not for helping the people. Janie will be a wonderful occupational therapist. Her experiences each day will teach her something and I fully expect that when she gets her feet under her, she will have a thriving, successful practice that she is happy with. We still have to make it to her new place...but I have heard of plans for a winter skating rink on the River. The kids are looking forward to that.

For a first blog entry, this is getting mighty long. I suppose I should do an official welcome... <-- That's it. Don't blink. If someone were so inclinded to leave a comment, that would be nice. It may even help in the accountability department...remember that stuff I said I was going to do tomorrow???

Love & Laughter to all.

I Have A Headache. How's That For A Title??

Since it's 11:30pm and I"ve been fighting a headache all day...I'll give the short and sweet version.

We've done next to no school work except to keep up with our reading and outside activities. We've been in the basement, cleaning & organizing and feeding Raiden all week. Basement is coming along. Should be able to make some more progress tomorrow. Perhaps I should set a goal to finish it completely this weekend...but that would be ambitious.

Dr. Ashe called tonight. I was sort of hoping we wouldn't hear from him. Rai is feeling better. He finished the antibiotics last night. He probably overdid it a little today as we had a busy day with little to no downtime for him. He went to bed with a bad stomach ache. Anyway, Dr. says his culture showed a penicillan resistant bacteria that can show up as a urine infection (among other wonderful things). It is not very common. It shows up in primarily immunocompromised people. The bacteria is naturally present in the gut. But it wreaks a bit of havok when it escapes into your system. And the big question is: why is it escaping the gut? Which, it seems, Dr. Ashe is wanting to find the answer to. He needs to read up on whether the antibiotic Rai was on actually knocks this infection down or not...it apparently is a very picky bacteria that is not easy to be rid of. We need to go in for more testing on Monday morning to have another set of cultures for comparison. Brian is not a happy camper, so I will take the 'git-er-done guy' part on this one, I guess. Googling the bacterial infection is just about as good as when I was Googling 'Limping Toddler' and we ended up in CHEO. Poor little guy...it seems he's always got the short end. This week I came across a picture of him in his little cast from the summer he dislocated his elbow and they messed around with it so much at Emerg that Dr. Swanson put him in a cast for a month. Anyway...we'll see what happens on next week. Hopefully he doesn't go downhill over the weekend...I've got him all geared up to start back to school work and hockey.

Nanny Elane is visiting this weekend. We're due to celebrate her birthday out at the farm this weekend. And my new Stampin Up stamps are all ready to go with my new scrapbooking supplies...unfortunately, I neglected to get cleaner to get the ink off the stamps..at least I remembered before I used them. I'll have to get Jennifer to give me her Cheap Version Recipe. Oh well, I have the basement to finish anyway.

I've been A.W.O.L.

(from my original blog before moving to eBlogger)

Hi all...

Sorry to neglect you. During the day, I feel like crawling into bed; during the night I can't get to sleep...I swear, my head hits the pillow at 11pm and I suddenly have enough energy to do laundry, plan lessons and plug away at the basement.

So, the short story...waiting for Raiden's referral. I meant to call the office today at 3:50 (a really great time to call our office...really...I'll explain another time). But I didn't. I was driving to get Brian.

Basement progress is being made...although slowly...I can get into the laundry room now. Well, sort of, I washed all the delicates so flimsy bits are strewn about drying. I re-cleaned the basement hallway today and moved the crib out of the back room. It's going to moms...I'm having issues with that. Kori's new bed is set up..her room is still a disorganized mess. Big bed set up downstairs...I like having the 'stiff bed' option sometimes. Although, I'm a big suck now and sleep better with another body next to me rather than without. Even on the waterbed.

Kids seem ok...Rai's not sleeping through the night...although, it is rare when he does. Of course everything he does now set me to thinking nasty thoughts. Their activities are going well...Rai would really like to do Indoor soccer...however it is on Tuesday nights at 6 one week, 7 the next. So he would only go to alternate Beaver meetings. Conundrum. Also waiting for the hockey schedule to be finalized.

I made a Blog over at HomeschoolingBlogger. I haven't blogged anything...but I put a site counter on it and apparently people are stopping by even though it is blank...odd. Although, it is neat to sit and look over a blog and then hit the "Random Blog" key...so maybe people are just ramdomly happening upon my page. Curious either way. www.homeschoolblogger.com/Bonni I'll probably keep this one going for pics and such, until I figure it out over there...but I'm feeling pretty blah about everything...so I don't know.

And So The New Season Begins

Raiden is somewhat improved. His tests revealed an increased white count, but with the antibiotics started before the urinalysis completed, it's hard to tell exaxtly what he was fighting. The fevers have stopped and today he was motivated to play with some of his toys. After a huge nap, he thought he might make an appearance at Beavers tonight. He stayed for the whole hour...but only because there was lots of sit down stuff, he said. He also was not impressed with the noise. My poor, sheltered children. They're not used to 9 screaming boys in a small enclosed space...Is that pleasant for anyone...really?? He has also found some appitite, so that is encouraging.

Kori started Guides last night. There were fewer people there that she knew and more of them in uniform than she expected. So I was treated to the 'old' Kori who put on the brakes and nearly refused to attend. She did stay and by the time we picked her up, she was happy and had collected the names and numbers of a few girls. It hink we'll go up to Ktown this weekend and get her uniform. Today my mom came by and collected Kori for an afternoon of errands. She was supposed to take her out to the house to sew, however, that plan turned in to 'errands in town until 4'. She should be home by bedtime.

The leadership of the kids' activities seems to be much improved compared to last year. I hope swimming follows suit.

I am off to bath His Majesty and remind him that the servitude is not a new fangled parenting plan...it was just a temporary measure to keep him alive during his illness. I think a 2-day wean is in order. We started today with eating at the table and will continue tomorrow with less tv and more getting dressed.

Another Weekend

Things are very sluggish and tired around here. Raiden is not doing well. The short story is that he's had a fever for a week that keeps spiking and is not responding well to the regular Advil, Tylenol, Motrin. Up to Friday, it's been getting worse, not better. Dr. Wagg saw him Friday and ordered blood tests and a urinalysis. He doesn't have any great ideas, but we know whatever it is that Rai's come down with is not your usual strep, rash, cold or flu. It could be just a nasty virus however he said it may also be a bladder/urine infection. If so, he said that will require further investigation as little boys don't tend to get those 'just because'. The blood draw was not popular, by the ladies at the lab were wonderful. A mini-soccer ball accompanied by a box of Dairy Queen Dilly Bars along with two BlockBuster movies seemsed to soften the blow. Not only that, by the time we got home, Brian had hooked up the satalite for the weekend. Kori's been hitting all the 'good' channels like Discovery, A&E, Animal Planet, etc. It was funny to see her reaction to the 'useless' shows with commercials every 2 minutes. Ahh...I love not being ruled by tv. But I digress. We weren't able to get a urine sample from Rai by the time the lab closed for the weekend. So I called the doctor's office and Mrs. Kuipers and I decided it would be best to start the antibiotics anyway...even though it will throw off the urine sample that I still have to drop off on Monday morning. The antibiotics will start to work in 36-48 hours if it's something that will be helped by them. If they don't work, we're no further behind. Rai slept not too badly Friday night, which was good for me. I think I'm too old for these sleepless nights. Now I know why God makes babies who don't sleep through the night so cute.

Kori and I are off for a quick tour of the YMCA. I'm still not very happy with them, but a tour might motivate Kori to take advantage of some of the other programs they have available. Brian is debating a run up to Kingston. It's nice to see him doing some things for him. And today is Janie's big moving day. Lucas is working, so Janie gets to do the bulk of it herself. And before you think he's a big dolt for making her move into their new apartment on her own, it's a furnished little beach house somewhere just out of town on the river. I'm excited to see it. I did get afew things out for the Community Garage Sale. Some guy in a big flatbed truck came and hauled most things away. I didn't get the kids' dressers out yet, they might just end up being firewood. I did take a run through the basement...there's not as much as I thought that I can put out. Oh well...such is life.

There may be a light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Don't get all excited and everyone look at once...you might scare it away...

Raiden slept until 10:40 this morning. That's when I woke him up. Brian was home for lunch and I figured it was about time. I knew he was still alive as I had been in a few times to check on him...however, it was a bit concerning that he wouldn't get out of bed. Rai was hot and uncomfortable again by noon...so I drugged him up again and he rallied. He was up all afternoon. He joined in some school work at the table. Which was painfully drawn out and frustrating - for me - kids were in fine form.

The long drawn out school work session meant I started preparing for company and getting the housework done much later than I had expected. But I managed to fit in an emergency trip to the grocery store, so there must have been a little bit of efficiency in there somewhere. I managed to vacuum up most of a dog (Nuk's blowing again..still...whatever...there's a LOT of hair coming off of that beast..constantly) and prepare a dinner for the fam. I had put on a pot of chili in the afternoon. I bought fruit for a fruit bowl. I baked cupcakes - no icing - for dessert and I managed a pot of pasta for the vegetarians. So it was an impromptu dinner for Dad's early birthday celebration...kinda thrown together, but hey, that's what we're used to.

And surprise, surprise......someone brought up Christmas plans. I'll spare everyone the sordid details...I spoke up as Brian was clearing everyone out and it was decided that I will email out the gift exchange options and we will go with the most popular option based on the responses received. So, for your viewing pleasure...here are the three-ish options we discussed...I think. But since I'm sending the email...I guess whatever I come up with is what we have to work with. Darn...sometimes I just bowl myself over with these clever ideas...

OPTION #1 - All adults will pull one name. Purchase a gift for that individual, $30 - $50...amount to be announced.
OPTION #2 - All adults will draw an item from a list (eg. Christmas ornament, socks, book or magazine, chocolate, etc.). Purchase that item for all adults. ($3 - $5 x # of adults)
OPTION #3a - All adults will purchase one general gift at Canadian Tire in an amount t.b.a. ($30 - $50). A Gift Exchange Game will be played at gift-giving time. All Canadian Tire money will be pooled and given as a door prize.
OPTION #3b - As above, but you will purchase a Candian Tire Gift for a drawn name.
OPTION #4 - Matt buys all gifts from American Eagle Outfitters. We may or may not contribute toward the expense.

As you can see, I did not incluse Lucas' idea of saving our money and going away...or his idea of gambling for gifts. Who is this gangster that Janie is going to marry??!?! lol To be fair, he did have two very good ideas...but we can't let him have too much input yet...at least not until we've sucked him in past the point of no return. When's the date, you guys...February? March??
We had barely enough daylight left today to get in a quick outing with the helicopter. No major crashes so it was a successful night. The kids, however, crashed at 8:30. I'm hoping that Rai will kick this fever soon. He is SOOO skinny! He did eat a bunch of fruit and then had toast before bed, so there's hope for him yet...He'll probably just be feeling ok...and then he'll insist on going to hockey on Thursday...which should set us back a day or so.
I'm feeling a little land locked...need to get out for a real grocery shop and up to Prescott to pick up my Stamps at Jennifer's. Nuk should go to the beauty salon too. Might be able to convince the kids to go for a road trip here in the next day or so. The only other news is that I've started the ball rolling to open a Scholastic Books account. I'm tentatively thinking about trying to set up a book club for the homeschoolers...not sure of the logistics yet...but I'm working on it. Oh, and the kids' picture appeared in this months Homeschooling Horizons magazine. That was a bit of a surprise to open the cover and see my babies starting out at me.
Oh...and I saw the soccer coach in the grocery store...he works there. I wonder if all the kids who weren't there on the last day of soccer got their trophies...I'm trying to remember all of their names...I know the girls were Megan F. and Riley H. I'm not sure of the boys though...and I'm pretty sure I threw out the team list. Oh well, at least we got a deal on the trophies.

Check Your Windows....My Schedule Should Be Flying By

Rai had a pretty rough night. His fever seems to be getting worse, not better. The kiddy Motrin is not doing it's job as the fever is now breaking through it mid dose. I should have made him have the Tylenol, but he likes the chewy pills. So we've reverted to 17th century fever remedies...no, not leeches...just a cool bath. I think he's caught a bug of some sort, plus there's his tooth and his stomach woes to make it all worse. I was able to get him an appointment at 4:20, so we'll pop down to see Dr. Ashe as soon as Brian gets home.

Kori seems to be feeling better. ALthough I know she's not totally 100%. She's doing absolutely nothing today...and she's not bored. That's a sure sign that's something's going on. Her throat feels better though, she says...

We did get our read aloud book picked and started. I told the kids that I would pick a selection of well written, good, literature-ish books and they could choose from that selection. We only are planning on reading a chapter a day as Rai thinks he'll get bored if we read for a long time...like 15minutes would be awful to sit though...he says. lol They picked Charlotte's Web and we read the first three chapters at Raiden's request. It is so nice to read a real book to them instead of this Pokemon cr*p that he's been enamoured with lately. However, the cr*p is actually motivating him to read independently, so I'm not complaining at all.

I've also been able to pick up an excellent typing tutor for the PC. I skipped the kid version and went straight for the 8+ version. Kori is asking to learn to type properly, so there is no time better to begin. As soon as I can get Rai settled and her set up, she'll get started on that.

That's all for now folks...going to check on the progress of our 103.7F fever...

AARGH!!

So of course, Rai's fever breaks and he has a totally normal temperature by the time we arrive and the doctor's.Talk about making a liar out of me. Must have been the Tootsie pop that Mrs. Kuipers gave him while we were waiting to see the doctor. Doctor tells Rai that of course he's well enough to go to hockey tonight. Off we trek home, pack up quickly, get the skates sharpened, hit the arena, dress up, hit the ice, skate for 10 minutes and climb off the ice in tears. His tummy hurts. He fell on his knee. He's soooooo cold...and his fever's back.

We stipped him down, came home and he's now firmly entrenched in the waterbed...hopefully sleeping after some Tylenol.

And Kori likes the new typing tutor. Yippie.

We Made It To The Weekend

We got through the first short week of the Schedule. The dog got walked...twice. I think I got, um, 2 loads of laundry done. Totally frustrated myself trying to shop online for a stupid math program.

Ok, well..it's not a stupid math program. Really, it's one of the best. It's the stupid webpages. Why would anyone make a webpage that loads the covers of textbooks as pictures...but you can only see one corner of the dumb book because the silly graphic is too big? And, of course, they have to make their entire line of math texts load up on the same page...so not only do you have to wait 20 minutes (yes, we have a lickity-split connection and I just dumped a new whatever in the PC to make it go a bajillion times faster) to have the graphics load, you have to scroll down and to the sides. Drives me batty. And then try to figure out prices. They hide their shipping rates...and they make it nearly impossible to figure out which taxes go where...so good luck estimating a total so that you can apply 12%, 10% or 8% for shipping. Another good joke is trying to shop locally. I can drive up to Kemptville and pick up everything I need, theoretically saving myself the shipping costs...however the books have to be bought seperately, not in a 'kit' (teacher's manual, workbooks, manipulitives, review book) and they are more expensive then if I order from the company in ALBERTA and pay to have them shipped to me....I think. There's that tax thing to figure out still. Funny enough...the Newfoundland company has an easy to navigate, clear and concise webpage...and you don't lose everything when you click over to the 'Shipping and Handling' page...

The Schedule is working out allright. Kori is being dragged ou tof bed at 7:30 each morning and we're all still alive. Raiden is actually finding things to do...Lego, Bionicle, those loud spinning things...I even caught him reading on his own. They each picked out a bit of work that they produced this week to show Dad when he came home on Friday. Apparently, that was popular for all involved. Raiden even postponed his going outside to wait until Brian was able to look over his page of printing.

We set off for Kingston Friday night. Had to stop by a friend's house to pick up fresh apples and pears from the orchard on the way. That was unfortunate. We were going to go out for dinner....but Raiden had a suddenly painful tummy so we left the overcrowded resturant and picked up Arby's for in the car. Bri rushed us home in 40 minutes flat and Rai ran for his bed. He was in a lot of pain. It's really very curious at how quickly he can go from 'just fine' to 'not at all good'. It's disappointing as well. We've been so careful not to have junk food or anything else that may bother him. He was so hungry and Brian was looking forward to a dinner out as a treat. Rai did have a fever so we gave him the last of the Tylenol and he finally passed out. He was up at midnight...his stomach still hurting. He had an Ibruprofin and he slept again until he climbed in with us at 7 this morning. As he woke up he was getting increasingly uncomfortable...so another pill and he seems to be holding...he's not eating, but at least he's not vomiting this time. This is almost a week to the day that he had his last episode. He missed last Friday at the park due to being up all Thursday night. Not sure what to do about the whole thing. Taking him to Emergency in the midst of his stomach pains seems silly. They'd probably give him a Gravol and send us home after a six hour wait. Mind you, they'd be hard pressed to blame his fever on indigestion. Niggling in the back of my mind is his tooth problem....WHY don't kids come with a manual!!??

Girl Guide registration is coming up. Hockey starts on Monday. Swimming will start the week after. I am not looking forward to the politics of organized activities. Brian has said he'll take Kori to Guides if necessary. My solution was to enroll her in Maitland or Mallorytown....Bri thinks I need a backbone. He's probably right. Hockey shouldn't be too bad. There's some nice people there. I am a little anxious about running in to one particular family...but that's only because I need to have a backbone. It's unfortunate to have to say to these people - who I considered friends and who offered Brian work when he lost his job- 'hey, where's the money you owe my brother for the month he worked for you...and what's up with the two cheques you bounced on him??' So...that should be interesting...however, I heard a rumour that their little guy is going to be playing in the Brockville league this year instead of the Christian league...However, I'd rather I say something to them before my dad and brothers decide to go and say something....geesh.

Aren't I rambly today?? I am off to clean up...I'm looking forward to the community garage sale next Staurday (i.e. junk collection at the curb) as there is half a house to get rid of. I think I am going to put out the kids' bureaus as Raiden's dresser is here and built and Kori's should arrive on Friday. Brian has also agreed to look through the basement with me and see what we can get rid of. He reall, really doesn't want me to have a garage sale...he doesn't want me to sell stuff online at TP...and I have a hard time just throwing things away when I could get something for it. What a stalemate. But, we're bursting at the seams and I'm pretty much fed up with the dog getting stuck behind the washing machine and having to keep my clothes in the basement and having half of the kids' toys stacked in boxes. Wish us luck and ask God to grant me patience....I have great expectations, though...after all, we did put the air conditioner in this year without arguing...cleaning out the basement should be a breeze.

Upon Further Thought

So I am playing nurse maid to the kids...kicking myself all day at not keeping them healthy. Afterall, how often does Kori get sick?? And here she is with a runny nose, sore throat and no energy. That's pretty sick for K. They've been spending time all week with kids. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday they spent a lot of time with kids. And where have those kids been all week?? Collecting germs from other kids.

Now settle down, you schooled people. I'm not saying school kids are sickly. I'm just saying they have the opportunity to carry a lot of germs...and new ones now that school is back in. Raiden has a poor immune system at the best of times. So it's not surprising that he has picked up something, especially with the tooth situation he has going on..he's already fighting an infection. I'm a little more surprised that Kori has picked up something...however, I am playing with her sleep schedule and she is a little more stressed than usual. I remember when she started school at Montessori. She was fine and Raiden was sick straight through to Thanksgiving. She's definitely a carrier, most of the time. She's always had an excellent immune system...Rai, not so much.

On a different train of thought...I might need to take a break from my message board that I frequent. School starts and it gets entirely too negative for me. Maybe negative is not the right word...the stories are very sad. Add to it the frustration I feel when some people are dealing - or not dealing, I suppose would be the problem - with their kids. Few will get what I'm trying to say here - but who puts a barely four year old on the bus and then just assumes that they are going to arrive where and when they are supposed to? What controls are in place? Is the four year old even accustomed to speaking confidently to adults? Most likely not. Is the adult one who listens - actually listens - to children? Hmm...45 excited, easily-influenced-by-the-louder-ringleader and generally unsupervised children contained in one vehicle...I'd impose tyrannical rules to keep them all safe too. Probably not the best situation in which to foster respectful communication between adult and child. And you're surprised that your four year old child doesn't speak up? Do these kids even recognize the route the bus takes? Can they even see out the window? And who can hear them, 8 rows back from the driver anyway? And then...you get on an internet message board to complain about it?? To STRANGERS?!? I wonder if it ever occurs to these people that it doesn't have to be this way for kids. That just because most people do ____________ (fill in the blank with whatever thing it is that stresses you out to put your kids through) you don't have to if it's not what works for you. You would think that might be picked up on an internet message board..where there are many, many different experiences and different types of people coming together to offer advice and support.

More heartening are the stories of parents who are actually advocating for their kids. It doesn't stop me from wanting to march straight down to one of our fine educational institutes to shake the h*ll out of the future gems of society who need respect rammed down their throats with about a pound of playyard gravel....oh, I'm sorry...I think the correct term is 'pea-stone'. As encouraging as it is to know that there are sensible parents out there, expending every possible effort to do right by their kids, I find it criminal that the administration makes it difficult for them. Stay out of the school; make an appointment; reschedule for when all involved parties are available; you're not entitled to know all the circumstances; consider the special circumstances of the poor unfortunate instigator...don't we know how awful their home life is? Why can we not just have high standards of decorum that all who frequent the school are expected to abide by? Since when is some behaviour ok just because it comes from a certain type of kid?

So...it's just hard to listen to idiots screw up their kids...and then it's harder still to see the system fail those who are trying to do the best for their kids. And this last week or so, the more I read, the more frustrated I get. The common sense people are being drowned by siliness and negativity. The voyer in me won't completely disappear from the boards. However, I think in many (most?) cases, it may be best to keep my mouth shut. It sort of brings me back to some stuff Brian was saying about where we put our energies and efforts. There are some black holes that will keep taking and taking (think Girl Guides) and there are some that are worthy endeavors (think reviving the local HSing scene). I need to put my efforts into like minded people and into the things that we need to work for us. As Mr.C always said...you get out of something what you put into it. And, if I'm looking to poke at bears...I could always start with the young 'lady' who works at the Superstore. She seems to think it's ok to drive around smoking in a closed vehicle with her toddler in the front seat - no car seat. I need some pamphlets.

...and it's always nice to keep the family updated with recent pics and stories of our wonky adventures. See...look at me choosing to concentrate my efforts on the people who matter...after all...those who read here are few and far between, I am sure. They are the ones who matter.

And why the heck did they not add a spell check when they updated this blogging feature??!?! I'm going to put the kids to bed...that's the 'I didn't spell check' disclaimer...

A Scrambly Back To School

Popping in to recap the last couple of days. Over the weekend, we built the new school shelf. Now there are no excuses about not finding things or not having enough room. Big Ass Shelf pictures to follow. Built Raiden's dresser. He helped. Sort of. Those pics also to follow.

Tuesday was Back to Fall Schedule. Everyone out of bed at 7:30. To begin our school year, we started out by taking Nuk for a walk. We were blessed with the rare sighting of the local public school's first morning...kids in the playground...bell rings...teachers appear with whistles to call the kids. Kori and Rai are boggled by the whistle thing. Our work for the morning was to plan September. Then we were off to Kingston to get Rai's molars sealed. Had to put him on the emergency list for a sedation so he can get a different problem fixed. I'm hoping that the dental situation will calm down soon.

Wednesday I finished getting ready for the picnic. Or at least I tried. Fielded phone calls all morning. Made it to the park 15 minutes beofre 12. The newspaper reporter was waiting for us....he was a bit early. I think the kids had a great time. Rai fell asleep on the couch at 6 if that's any indication. Met lots of people...made sure to spend time talking to everyone. Have a good group all revved up to spend some time together this year.

Tomorrow should be interesting. Kids will need to sit and do some work. I think I've found them a math program so I will attempt to have them write the placement test tomorrow. Hopefully this bit of them taking forever to get anything done will be short lived. I know I need to be patient and stick to the Schedule. But I hope I don't go insane in the meantime. I mean, really, when I sne dyou up to get dressed and then I go up 15 minutes later, you should really have accomplished more then putting your pants on. Really.

More tomorrow night, hopefully....