le sigh
Today is the day that Becca decided she is too old (at 5!) to call me Mommy. I am now Mom.
When I expressed sadness at this I was told that it is okay. I can be grandma for her kids.
Kindergarten question
I think parents have a hard time judging where their kids should be when it's their first.
Becca has started the school district's 'Jump Start to Kindergarten' program. She has been bringing home school work for the first time. Today there was a sheet explaining what they had been learning this week.
So here is my question. How many kids make it to 5 without knowing colors? basic counting? the alphabet? simple shapes? Every day they cut out pictures from magazine that start with the letter of the day. That just seems too basic to me.
I have no way of knowing if she is ahead or right on track. For all I know, this is just teaching kids learning skills with knowledge they should already have.
Why I am a bit concerned. A few memories from first grade.
Being held back and stopping reading for 3 weeks until the next fastest kid could catch up to me so the teacher wouldn't have to teach just me at that speed.
Getting in trouble for rushing through the classwork and not using multiple crayon colors to draw my pictures to match my words. The teacher made me redo it with more than one color. I was bored with it, which is why I only used one color. It was red-violet. And yes, I am still bitter.
Whichever kid finished their work first got to scratch the teacher's back. After quite awhile of this, I started slowing down on my work.
Becca came home with a sheet of paper on which she had drawn a picture to represent each season. The teacher wrote underneath what Becca said they were. For Fall there is a pile of leaves. For Winter it is a pile of snow. Which brought the single crayon flashback to me.
Maybe it isn't a big deal. Maybe I just enjoy worrying about things. But it does worry me.
Walk
Ben suggested we go for one of our walks in Queeny Park today. So the kids gave me an early birthday gift. A pedometer. So that I can measure my Walk to Rivendell.
Due to Becca's dance recital last night which meant kids went to sleep after 9:30 and them waking at their usual time, they were a tad cranky. Which meant that we only covered 4 miles. So I have not even made it to the Brandywine Bridge, much less left Hobbiton.
I'm going to have to pick up the pace a bit.
Heh
Do you know what occured to me? It's been a bit since I have shared dorkiness with you! Please forgive me.
Aaaaaaannnnnd the latest in the dork-o-drome....... Walk to Rivendell
Yes! You too can track the distance that the fellowship
covered! What fun! And for added benefit and enrichment, be
sure to listen to the audiobooks as you go.
Now I need a pedometer that measures distance covered. And a
treadmill would be nice. I should go check out craigslist.
Complete happiness
As you might be aware, I knit. Last spring, I decided to try my
hand at lace and laceweight with some lacey scarves as end-of-year
gifts for Becca's teachers.
They were never acknowledged. Mind you, the mulling spices we
gave at Christmas received thank you cards through the mail, but the
hand-made lace scarves in a wool/silk blend laceweight?
Nada. And I even chatted with one of the teachers over the
summer. bleah.
Anywho, after that attempt I got a tad bit cocky. I have many
patterns I have looked over longingly, but I got this itch to go for this. Isn't it gorgeous? And so nice and big to wrap in!
So last July I started. And I worked on it off and on.
Mostly off. Because after a bit the rows got pretty darn
long. At the end it was a half hour to go across once.
About 4-6 weeks ago I picked it up at apporx. 40% finished and started
concentrating. I didn't do too much of other stuff. Other
than a break for Aubrey's baby's sweater and hat. And tv knitting on a scarf. And a spot of
Mystic Light. (It's a knit along. You wouldn't understand.)
And yesterday morning it was done. And I took pictures of it in all its unblocked glory.
Blocking, by the way, is where you wash the lace and then spread the
heck out of it and pin it there and let it dry that way. And when
you unpin it, it stays like that. Gorgeous.
And look at it. I'm in love. I love how I can just drape it
over my shoulders and put my hands in my pockets and it's like I am
wearing long sleeves. Light, lacey, silky long sleeves. I
need more. Lots of these. In these huge sizes to float
around me. And it is warm. It doesn't look as though it
would be. i had to take it off earlier. Thank goodness that
most airconditioning is too high for me. I will be able to wear
this everywhere! Adding to my dorkiness.
Next will be this. In deep plum.
Dorkdom revisited
The Fellowship has left the mines of Moria. For that matter, I am in Return of the King. Aragorn is on the paths of the dead.
So one little problem. No way to bookmark my spot. So if I leave, I have to try and find it again, which could take some time. Or I could write it down on a dorky little piece of paper and lose the paper.
So, no other music ever comes out of my ipod.
What this situation calls for is an ipod that is all Tolkien, all the time. My birthday is coming up. Who want to get me an 8gb?
Children of Hurin 9 hrs
Fellowship of the Ring 20.5 hrs
Hobbit 11.25 hrs
Two Towers 17 hrs
Return of the King 18.5 hrs
Silmarillion 15 hrs
Grand Total 91.25 hrs
Selfish
I own a Bissell carpet cleaner. It is an amazing device. A device which has been seeing weekly use for the past six weeks. Because I have boys who are at the helpful but not potty-trained point. Which means that they try to change their poopy diapers themselves. And there is also drawing on the carpet with markers. And your standard spills and whatnot.
I have long been of the opinion that there is no need for everyone I know to own their own carpet cleaner. I'm not going to be using mine everyday, so why not borrow it?
That has now ended. The carpet cleaner is out on loan as of Sunday, with an expected return date of Thursday evening. You wouldn't think this would be a problem, would you?
I just spent the past hour trying to wash cake icing in blue and red out of a carpet with a washcloth. My boys have learned well that moving a chair lets them reach more things.
Nothing personal to any of my friends, but if I own the carpet cleaner, why am I the one struggling with the cleanup without it?
For the future, anyone else who wants to borrow my carpet cleaner can rent a cleaner at Schnucks or do the washcloth method themselves. Because when I am PMSing and need to give the boys baths because they are covered in icing and need to register Becca for kindergarten today, but just discovered that the forms are incorrectly filled out and need to take the kids to Becca's dance class and then rush them out of dance class to their scheduled haircuts, I just don't feel like making sacrifices and loving my neighbor.
I just hope there aren't any poopy issues before Thursday.
Who knew?
Innocently, I checked the forecast to see if the projected accumulations had changed. Much to my surprise, it appears that Saturday is 'big pile of doody' day. Carry your umbrella.
I don't know about you, but I think my Saturday is going to be crappy.
