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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Ack (Otherwise known as "What's on YOUR Desk?" Meme)

"What's on YOUR desk?

You can tell a lot about a person by the state of their desk and what they keep on it. So, share what's on your desk. You can take pictures, take an inventory, or do both. Don't have a desk? That's okay, just give us a glimpse into the space where you pay bills, write letters, grade papers, study, or work on the computer.

When you've finished your photos or inventory, post it on your blog and tag five more people to do the same. Don't forget to share the rules with those you tag and ask them to share their posts with you when they are done."

Audrey tagged me again, and while I think it's really fun to be tagged for memes, I am terribly embarrassed by this one! I have to post a picture of what my desk looks like. I'd like to say that this has been an abnormal couple of weeks with the baby having the flu and all... but I'd be lying. My desk always looks like this, except for when I get a wild hair and clean it all up. Then it looks really good for a day or two. Then it looks like this picture again.



On the left you can see the printer and scanner. My camera case is over there (sans camera) and a stapler. I have a stack of CDs, mostly Classical Kids that I'm trying to load into iTunes. There are a few Mary Kay samples and a business card case. There are papers everywhere. The ones on top were intended for valentines that never got made. I have Todd's little photo album that needs new pictures. I have very annoying baby keys that need to GO AWAY. I have a calligraphy marker. I have a little hand towel with Abbie's hand print from 2005 that she made me in preschool for Mother's Day. I see a mechanical pencil and a recipe card, and the Epson PictureMate printer (which I love, BTW). Then, extending on to the back of the couch, I have some MK labels, my Franklin Planner hole punch, and some empty print cartridges from the above-mentioned PictureMate.

There you have it! Thanks Audrey! I don't know what this says about me and I probably don't want to know...

I'm tagging:

1. Jessica at Trivium Academy
2. Stacey
3. Susan at JAM & Cheese
4. Mom2legomaniacs
5. Aubrey

Have fun!

Here is the original meme-er.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

I'm not really missing

I don't mean to take so long between posts. Really, I don't. I have all these grand plans, you see, that involve taking pictures and actually loading them, and then the posts just don't happen! I decided to come and post a quick update, even though I don't have the pics just yet.

Last week was less than fun. Isaac had the flu - real, live, tested-positive-in-the-nose influenza. I don't know which kind, and I can't remember if the doctor told me. It doesn't matter that much, anyway - the baby was sick. He seemed fine Monday morning, but by the time he got up from his first nap he had a fever, which shot up to over 102. Off to the doctor we went, and he ended up having the flu. This caused me to panic quietly, as I have not had such a small baby be that sick before, but the pediatrician was wonderful. He prescribed Tamiflu for the rest of us (Schmooey being too young) and told me to keep the wee boy hydrated. He was clearly concerned, too, that such a young little guy would have the flu.

The good news? It really wasn't horrible. Zacky was definitely sick, but his fever stayed pretty low after that first day. That was a good thing, because he gagged and yakked all over me every time I tried to give him any Tylenol or Motrin. I got Tylenol in a couple of times, but only by sheer luck. He was able to keep nursing with no trouble, which was great. And now, he's really mostly better. I'm even thinking that we might still be able to go see my sister this weekend, even though I have basically canceled the trip in the interest of not exposing her 5 week old twins to the flu. (Everyone else there has had the flu shot. It's not that we don't give a hang about the rest of her family.)

So, last week the girlies spent a great deal of time watching TV and playing with their Webkinz. Emma was the next most ill, but she only had a fever for one night and after that was mostly fine, just a little tired. Abbie never got sick. Todd and I had a cough, and I was really tired, but whether that was flu or sleep deprivation is anyone's guess.

This week we are all much better, anyway. Tonna, my good friend and nanny, is on vacation. This is the third week without her. She usually does the laundry, among other things. I have been desperately trying to keep up with it, but somehow it's just never done. I think it's been breeding. It knows that she's not here and I can't keep it under control, so it's flaunting its ability to over run the house. Well, I have news for it - she's coming back next week! Ha!

The girlies and I have started our Birds lapbook from Hands of a Child. I'm going to have to see if I can get into lapbooking. I love the idea, but in reality, I'm not so good with longer term projects. I would like to do a lapbook in one day and have it be done. However, it's a very nice Charlotte-Masony project, in that you learn small chunks of information at a time and then do short activities for the lapbook. There are only 19 activities in this one. I just can't see this going on for 19 days, but what the heck. We have a great selection of birds at our feeders, and lots of books to read about birds. We can go outside in our yard and listen to all kinds of different bird songs. We really like birds around here. I suppose we can like them intentionally for 19 days. You think?

One of the cool things we did for science recently was to put an earthworm in a jar. We found a half-dead worm (nearly dehydrated after seeking respite from drowning on the sidewalk after a rain storm), took it home, and put it in the jar according to the directions in the MFW 1st grade teacher's manual. Well, mostly according to the diections - I didn't have any sand, so we used vermiculite. So, we covered the jar and tried not to peek too many times, but that worm never did anything. I told the girls to let it go, thinking that either one worm was just not going to show up in our jar (even though it was a small jar) or it had gone from half dead to all dead and we were out of luck.

So today, I looked at our jar, and there were TONS of worm tunnels. We even saw the worm on the side of the jar, digging merrily away. I was so excited! I showed the girls, so proud of our first-aid efforts to rescue the worm..... and then they informed me that they'd put a new worm in the jar. Humph. Well, it was still cool. Todd took a picture for me and I will try to post it soon... heh.

And, if you promise not to tell.... we've been playing a lot of Webkinz games! Even Todd and I are into this. I am now the proud owner of 4 pets: Imogen the LilKinz Googols, Millicent the LilKinz Horse, Eilonwy the Cow and Jenny Linsky, the black cat. I also have Hen Wen, my LilKinz pig to adopt on Saturday when it's really March - she will be the pet of the month so we will get all kinds of extra cash and prizes. Woo hoo! Todd and I are decorating Medieval rooms. Eilonwy is sleeping in mine. I also have a ballet room for Imogen, a country room for Millicent, and a royal cat room for Jenny Linsky. I have a garden for food and a yard for playing. I have an atrium that I'm starting to decorate. I am collecting a few other things for trade or possible future rooms. If that doesn't tell you that I've spent WAY too much time on the Webkinz site, then you're probably playing more than I am and we need to enter a recovery program together. The girls and I have made a deal that we won't log on until after 4pm when there are extra "events," but you know, yesterday my favorite game was the game of the day so I could earn lots of extra money and today there will be a hot air balloon on sale in the Curio Shop so..... maybe the post-4pm plan can start tomorrow.

All right, I'm just rambling. My boy is hungry and we haven't yet started school. It's lunch time, for goodness's sake! I will be back, I hope, with pictures soon.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Breaking News: Copywork brings major crisis for 7-year-old

This morning, we started school with math. That went over pretty well, especially since they only had to do one page with a whopping three problems. I got out their mini-offices that we used last year, since Emma tends to wait until Abbie completes her problems and copy the answers.

Then, Abbie went on to do her MFW phonics, and Emma was supposed to do her copywork. I don't ask a lot; she writes the date, her name, and one or two sentences from Farmer Boy, since that's what we're reading right now.

First, she wrote the date in deplorable handwriting and asked me if it was all right. I told her she'd have to redo it. This brought on tears.

Then, the pictures of letters and digraphs in her mini-office proved to be too distracting to allow her to complete her copywork, so I removed hers. More tears.

I told her we had to do school, whether she thought it was fun or not. I offered to let her work on her addition facts lapbook and then come back to the copywork. She informed me, through her pitiable weeping, that she did not wish to do either one.

I had her go to her room and lay on her bed with her blankie and bear until she feels better. That was approximately 45 minutes ago, and I've seen no signs of her coming out. I wonder if she's asleep?

I think that's a large part of the problem. I came to the conclusion last week that the girls are going to have to give up naps, because they don't sleep very long anyway and this way I can put them to bed earlier. Apparently earlier isn't early enough - we will have to work on that. I knew the transition into no naps would be rough, and that's why we haven't done it before. I can't take the whining.

Ah - I see my Bean in the doorway. I hope she's decided that we can complete school now. I wanted to go get some knitting needles today, but school has to get done first. Here's hoping we get to go later!