DITL - February 23

Monday came early today. I lay in bed, waiting for the alarm and when it went off, proceeded to lie in for another half hour. When B got up to shower, I got up as well.

I got my winter things on and with the dog, went out for a 20 minute walk. Sometime between last night and this morning, I managed to strain a hip flexor. I figured my walk would loosen it up. Not the case however, and I've been trying to ignore it all day.

Once home, I went about getting ready for my day. I spent half an hour pulling schoolwork while having my morning coffee. At 8:30 I made R his breakfast and checked that K was getting out of bed. I got the laundry well under way, cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed.

At 10:30 I was ready to begin our schoolish stuff. K was using an Usborne Art book and making some really nice watercolour paintings and R was creating with Lego. I felt bad about interrupting them for boring school stuff, but I am flexible! I am adaptable! Ok, I would like to be those things. In reality, I feel the pressure (self-induced, but no matter) to accomplish some bookish, schoolish things. It makes married life that much better. R was happy to leave his Lego in favour of some read aloud. We're reading through some of this year's Silver Birch selections. After his reading, we tackled his math.

At 11:30, I took to the kitchen to get lunch ready. Lunches are bigger, family affairs since B has been working from home. We enjoyed lunch together while B filled me in on his day so far. We cleaned up and rebooted the laundry, again, before getting to our books. K and I did her math lesson. Really, she's fairly independently working through her second Saxon level this year, but I like to read the lessons. Her math is at the point where my math developed gaps. It's a weird feeling to be learning alongside one's 11-year-old. I went to R's room with his French book. He practiced some work from L'Art de Lire 2 while I scribed and he built with Lego. I was thinking how fortunate I was to be able to teach and learn with the kids. Not many teachers can say they have the luxury of teaching while lying in bed and watching their students keep their kinesthetic selves busy creating with Lego.

On Mondays, we have a standing skating date at the local rink with other homeschooelrs. R packed the hockey bag and we were off. An hour of skating made it a little more difficult to ignore my nagging hip flexor, but it was a nice time with friends. R plays hockey - although a less vigorous version than he would like - while the rest of us skate around. It's a nice time of chatting and exercise for us moms and the kids certainly get their share of networking in.

After skating, we headed to the local cafe for a treat. My espresso based treat - White Mocha Latte - might explain why I yammered B's ear off when we got home an hour later. After we were in and settled, the kids and I did the last half hour of today's school work (K's L'Art de Lire, history cards, symbols of Quebec/geography page). R and I sat down to get into his book, Gordon Korman's 'Swindled', before I had to make dinner. It's a very exciting book, so we put dinner off as long as possible. The kids had leftovers and B and I worked together to try out a sloppy joe recipe. I'd never had and B had been a good 15 years since his last sloppy joe. I cleaned dinner up while everyone else ran off to get into their own activities. R needed to re-tape his hockey stick and K went to recharge her introverted batteries with some alone time in her room.

As soon as the dishes were done and the final load of laundry drying, R and I finished his book. K got back into her painting. Hopefully I'll be able to snag these latest creations and get them displayed. They're quite engaging.

So here I am at the end of the day, taking some time to get to email, messages and phone calls. I've sent R off to shower and K is packing up her art supplies. The kids will be in bed around 9 and I will putter around before turning in; maybe some knitting or a movie with B. So, there you have it. Not a very exciting day, but somewhat typical of a Monday of late. I feel as though I accomplished quite a bit on my mental list.

♥Bonni

Out Vacuuming. Be Back...Later

The Dyson has landed.

It's light. It's powerful. It's quieter than my last vacuum. Its hose reaches a full flight of stairs without having to lift the main unit off the floor. It sucks up things in the general vicinity of the powerbar. Amazing.

I'm busy vacuuming. When I can wrestle the silly thing away from others. I'll be back to blog once the novelty has worn off.

And, of course, I must post the requsite picture of the nasty bits we've been living with for who knows how long. There's less of these now.

♥Bonni

The Vacuum Is Dead. Again.

The vacuum is dead.

Again.

This is the third one in ten-years-minus-three-weeks. And I was trying to be oh-so careful with this latest model. Especially after B told me - in the gentlest terms possible - that I was a teensy bit hard on things, that I wasn't the most graceful housekeeper and that it would make his life complete if I could please, please be careful with the newest member of our appliance family. But that was a little more than two years ago.

I felt a little sick when the vacuum just sort of droned to a stop three quarters of the way across the rug. I felt a little sick when it wouldn't turn on even after I emptied out all the filters and spoke gently to it and gave it a time out and plugged it into a different outlet. I felt a little sick when B took it apart, right there in the living room and began stripping it of parts and wires. I felt downright nauseous when, two and a half hours later, B announced the vacuum was no more.

Not only can I be clumsy and graceless when cavorting around the house with a vacuum in tow, but I can curse myself. The day before this wretched event I was visiting with my sister. We were talking about house-y things when I told her that me next vacuum was going to be a Dyson. And that I was sure I'd get another two or three years out of my current model giving me ample time to save up my pocket change in anticipation of the big event.

Sure enough, 12 hours later, the Universe decided to have a big laugh at my expense.

So, after both B and I came to terms with the fact that the vacuum could not be economically resuscitated, we sat down to have another little chat. In all seriousness, it was a two sided discussion about investing in something that was going to do a good job for us for a number of years. Hopefully enough years so that when K flies the nest, she can load it up in the back of the car when departing for her post-childhood adventures.

Given our daily use of a vacuum due to our copiously shedding dog, we decided on the Dyson DC25. Works well on all floors, lots of power, large receptacle for dust and dog hair, not too heavy and a good long reach. I'm excited to try out the ball it rides on. I'm hoping it's manoeuvrability will mask some of my clunking around.

The vacuum delivery man, Mr. Purolator, is supposed to arrive with this precious package sometime this coming week. I'm very excited. B is excited that I am excited. I'm even more excited since I used the shop-vac on the living room area rug this evening. That was an exercise in patience if there ever was one. Why must the husky shed in the winter?? And why must each hair weave itself into the fibers of the rug? Is it necessary, really?? I digress.

I know you're all as excited as I am for the arrival of our investment, my birthday present, K's future housewarming gift, the dog-shed-containment-system. I'll keep you posted.

♥Bonni