Feeling very happy tonight

Today was one of those -- WOW, HOMESCHOOLING IS GREAT days!

Thomas got up early, had his special breakfast, and we set out to work. He worked very hard. He even gave up his usual morning break to continue plugging along. At noon, I looked at my list and aside from reading and physics in the evening with dad, he was done.

Impossible that we had a four-hour school day! I don't know who was more excited, Thomas or I. Well, I do, it was me. After Bob left from lunch, Thomas settled in with his book and I took a hot, long bubble bath. During the day. It was a very overcast day where it tries to rain all day, sometimes managing a little precipitation hitting the ground, but definitely foggy. It was a snuggle in your jammies kind of day.

And that is what I did. After my luxurious soak, I threw on my favorite nightgown, grabbed my favorite Biederlack blanket, and found the couch and remote. Thomas snuggled in. I think he thought we'd have fun with TV for the afternoon, but the mom that I am found a two-hour show on the Dark Ages on the History Channel. I remember the first hour, but after that I was sawing logs. Thomas enjoyed what he saw. I wonder if he changed the channel when he heard me snoring? (Yes, I snore.)

When I woke up Thomas was making a cave with all the blankets in our house. (We have about eight of those lovely Biederlack blankets.) The tv was not on. I got up and felt energized so I vacuumed the entire living room, even moving furniture. I vacuumed the entire upstairs. I did all my daily chores that I never get done during the day. Wow.

Bob and Thomas did physics after supper tonight and that went well. (Sometimes it's a bit rocky because the two are too alike and butt heads.)

So I'm just feeling great, relaxed yet energized and very happy.

I wonder...would it be possible for this life-long nightowl to change her ways and become a morning bird?

Thomas has already told me he wants normal routine back tomorrow. I think I'll surprise him with some banana nut muffins to entice him out of bed instead.

I'm seeing the light -- the early morning sun rays, and they are nice.

book meme from meg

Mark in italics any books that you have read.
Mark in bold any books that your kids have read.
Underline any books that you have on your shelves. *I'm highlighting because I can't find how to underline on blogger!)
Cross out any books that you (or your kids) didn’t like. I don't know how to do this, either. Someone teach me!

red - we own it Of course when I made blue, it messed up my red, so we actually own a lot of books.
blue - Thomas has read it. (bold didn't show when I publised the post.)

What a mess I made here!


The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Robinson, Barbara)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl, Roald)
Charlotte’s Web (White, E.B.)
Freckle Juice (Blume, Judy)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler I hated this, Thomas loved it(Konigsburg, E. L.)
Misty of Chincoteague (Henry, Marguerite)
Pippi Longstocking (Lindgren, Astrid)
Ramona (Cleary, Beverly)
Shiloh (Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds)
Sounder (Armstrong, William)
Velveteen Rabbit (Williams, Margery)
The Whipping Boy (Fleischman, Sid)
Little House series (Wilder, Laura Ingalls)
Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes (Coerr, Eleanor)
Sarah, Plain and Tall (MacLachlan, Patricia) Thomas read the whole series and enjoyed very them much.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Verne, Jules)
Alice in Wonderland (Carroll, Lewis)
The Cricket in Times Square (Seldon, George)
The Secret Garden (Burnett, Frances) Childhood favorite of mine
Wizard of Oz (Baum, L. Frank)
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Pyle, Howard)
Tales of Uncle Remus (Lester, Julian)
The New Kid on the Block (Prelutsky, Jack)
The Magic School Bus series (Cole, Joanna)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain, Mark)
Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery, Lucy Maud) on our to-read list
A Christmas Carol (Dickens, Charles)
Flowers for Algernon (Keyes, Daniel)
Holes (Sacher, Louis)
Island of the Blue Dolphins (O’Dell, Scott) We loved this.
The Little Prince (De Saint-Exupery, Antoine)
Little Women (Alcott, Louisa May)
My Side of the Mountain (George, Jean Craighead) Thomas LOVED this
The Pearl (Steinbeck, John)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor, Mildred D.)
Summer of My German Soldier (Greene, Bette) Childhood favorite of mine.
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Avi)
The Yearling (Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan)
Across Five Aprils (Hunt, Irene)
Catherine, Called Birdy (Cushman, Karen)
Johnny Tremain (Forbes, Ester)
Out of the Dust (Hesse, Karen)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham (Curtis, Christopher Paul)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Speare, Elizabeth George)
The Hobbit (Tolkien, J.R.R.) I saw the cartoon movie in the 70s and HATED -- double hated it. Not my thing. I think Thomas would love it, though.
I, Robot (Asimov, Isaac)
, the The LionWitch, and the Wardrobe (Lewis, C.S.) Thomas and I each read a couple -- found them dull
Phantom Tollbooth (Juster, Norton) just bought this
Swifly Tilting Planet (L’Engle, Madeleine)
The Time Machine (Wells, H.G.)
A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin, Ursula)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle, Arthur Conan)
And Then There Were None (Christie, Agatha)
Call of the Wild (London, Jack)
Hatchet (Paulsen, Gary)
Motel of the Mysteries (Macauley, David)
Treasure Island (Stevenson, Robert Louis)
Aesop’s Fables (Aesop)
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth)
Song of Myself (Whitman, Walt)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Irving, Washington)
The Night the Bed Fell (Thurber, James)
The Tell-Tale Heart (Poe, Edgar Allan)
Thank You Ma’am (Hughes, Langston)
Hiroshima (Hersey, John)
The Diary of a Young Girl (Frank, Anne)
All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot, James) on my to-read list forever
Animal Farm (Orwell, George)
Catcher in the Rye (Salinger, J.D.)
Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky, Fyodor)
Frankenstein (Shelley, Mary)
A Girl fo the Limberlost (Stratton-Porter, Gene)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, F. Scott)
Heart of Darkness (Conrad, Joseph)
House on Mango Street (Cisneros, Sandra)
Jane Eyre (Bronte, Charlotte)
The Joy Luck Club (Tan, Amy)
The Metamorphosis (Kafka, Franz)
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck, John)
The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway, Ernest) I started reading this years ago and just could not get into it. Why was Hemingway so great? Maybe I need to revisit.
Pride and Prejudice (Austen, Jane)
The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee, Harper)
All Quiet of the Western Front (Remarque, Erich Maria)
The Jungle (Sinclair, Upton)
The Red Badge of Courage (Crane, Stephan)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Clarke, Arthur C.)
Brave New World (Huxley, Aldus)
Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury, Ray)
Iliad (Homer)
The Once and Future King (White, T.H.)
The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer, Geoffrey)
“I Hear America Singing” (Whitman, Walt)
“The Tiger” (Blake, William)
“The Lottery” (Jackson, Shirley)
“Gift of the Magi” (Henry, O.)
The Crucible (Miller, Arthur) saw the movie, does that count? Our library doesn't have this, I wanted to read it.
Death of a Salesman (Miller, Arthur)
A Doll’s House (Ibsen, Henrik)
The Glass Menagerie (Williams, Tennessee)
“Declaration of Independence” (Jefferson, Thomas)
“The Gettysburg Address” (Lincoln, Abraham)
“I Have a Dream” (King, Martin Luther, Jr.)
“I Will Fight No More Forever” (Chief Joseph)
A Brief History of Time (Hawking, Stephen)
Democracy in America (de Tocqueville, Alexis)
Roots (Haley, Alex)
Walden (Thoreau, Henry David)
Night (Wiesel, Elie)

Biscuits and Gravy

Awhile ago I blogged about our Hardee's closing and how upset it made us. Thomas loves his biscuits and gravy, so we always went the first morning of school, then throughout the year as a special treat. (Or as a great incentive for him to get up early.)

Earlier this week as we were driving around, we noticed a sign at Burger King: Try our new biscuits and gravy.

And so we did.

For some unknown reason, Thomas actually awoke early and was up and dressed by 7 am. That is an amazing feat, believe it or not. So I thought a special Burger King run was in order.

I drove up to the microphone and placed our order: One biscuits and gravy and one large diet pop, please. (The pop was for me.) As we pulled around the side of the building, we saw this advertisement:

I know, I know, you can't read it. The first sign said: This burger is stocked full of good stuff. The second sign says: Just like our 10,000 lakes.

Now I don't know who came up with that advertising campaign, but it immediately made me nauseous. I know they were talking about good fish, but I was thinking of fish byproducts. Come summer, our lakes (we have several lakes in our small town) smell. They're full of algae. They're an ugly green. And that is what came to my mind immediately, not lovely fish. I don't like fish anyway. So I had my laugh of the morning.

Thomas was in heaven: Fast, easy, cheap biscuits and gravy. (I know, I could make them -- Bob does every once in awhile.)

He ate every last drop. He also said they're not quite as good as Hardee's. He was happy nonetheless.

A busy day

We don't typically have busy days outside the home. I do that for my benefit. Today, though, we had a field trip and a play date at a friend's house.

The local homeschool group went to a pizza place and the kids got a tour of the kitchen and got to make their own pizzas. They had fun. I was wishing I had their kitchen -- the dishwasher that washed and dried dishes in two minutes really excited me! And the pizza oven. That would be fun.

Thomas and all the kids had fun. After eating the kids went outside and played in the yard and the moms talked shop. I used to think I didn't fit in because I had nothing in common, but in reality we have a big thing in common: love of our kids and homeschooling. Whoops, that's two big things.

A lovely outing, during school hours, in a public place -- wow. What a day.

It got better because we went to a friend's new house. I was a little envious because I absolutely loved her house -- it was huge, designed nicely and on the lake -- gorgeous. Then I come home to my little home that has many unfinished projects...sigh. We had a good time, though.

After supper, Thomas and his dad were getting ready for train club. I was so glad I didn't have to go because I was tired. As they were heading out the door, the phone rang. I answered and it was Bob's boss. He never calls here so it raised the hair on my neck. Bob took the phone and was very serious, giving uh-huh's, yeses, mmmm's for the longest time. I was thinking the worst -- maybe he'll have to fly out of town tomorrow unexpectedly to attend to one of the projects. I was dreading that only because I'm not caught up with his laundry. Well, this phone call had nothing to do with work. All of a sudden Bob said, "Well, the key is in the axles."

I bust out laughing so hard that I'm sure his boss heard me. The light bulb went on and I figured out that phone call. It is Pinewood Derby time. His boss's son is new to scouting and this is his first pinewood derby. His boss called him to ask for help/info/pointers in designing their pinewood derby car.

Bob walked out of the room when I was laughing but came back when I shut my mouth. He then told his boss how Thomas's cars did very well, having won districts three years in a row.

Guess who is going to take Thomas's pinewood derby cars to work tomorrow to show to the boss? I just think this is so funny.

The clincher, though, is this. When Bob hung up the phone, he laughed and said: "I would hope that the boss could help his son build a better car than we did. After all, he is a mechanical engineer."

And so it goes. Never a dull moment, but lots of laughs.

Honoring My Father

Dad is standing in the gangway.

This is taken in Laramie, Wyoming. I don't know the date except that it was in the 1960s. My dad is on the far right. Our neighbor, Bob Davis, a man very kind to me as a child, is second from the left. I don't know the other men. This photo was taken because it was the very last run of the Portland Rose out of Laramie. The Portland Rose was a Union Pacific passenger train that ran between Chicago and Portland that started in the 1920s.

That's dad sticking his head out the window waving hello. Taken in Laramie, Wyoming in the '60s.

Dad mad copies of these photos for Thomas. They arrived in the mail today. I don't know who loved them more, Thomas or I. I get kind of weepy looking at them. I'm very nostalgic. I wish there were more photos of dad at work. Because Thomas and I love all things train, these photos are very special indeed.

Sorry they're blurry, dad had them enlarged and they're a little grainy. I think they're fantastic nonetheless.

He thinks he's SOO funny

When will this phase end? It seems unending.

For Mama B -- Gila Window Films

Mama B, at Home Depot I bought Gila Glare Control Smoke colored window film. It was $11 and some change for each roll. It took one roll for each window (with some left over). Each window is about 24 by 52 inches. I pieced the remnants to cover a third window, but that looks really tacky.

Our kitchen faces east and the films make a huge difference in the morning. I installed them on the inside -- a no-no if you have thermal pane or dual pane windows, which I do have. Our windows are so old, that I didn't think it could damage them. We went through below-zero temps with the clings above the kitchen sink and the windows are fine. But I wouldn't do that on new, good windows.

The room did get darker. It's still light enough to sit at the kitchen table and read a book, though.

The best thing about these films for me is the privacy factor. These are not their privacy films, but they do a fantastic job of affording us privacy. At dusk I went outside to look in. All the lights were on. I had Thomas stand by the window and wave and I could not see him. I loved that! We can see out just fine.

So just a cheap fix for us but one that makes me very happy. Next time I hit the big city I plan to buy three more rolls (there goes that money again) and do our living room.

Tuesday, blues day

Well, it's a blues day for two reason. First, it was overcast all day. I do like gray days because I have blue eyes and the bright sun hurts my eyes, but gray days aren't very cheery. (My eye doctor claims the sun hurts my eyes because they're blue. lol)

It's a blues day also because I just paid bills. Aaargh! Where does our money go? Ugh, ugh, ugh.

We've been very "on" with school yesterday and today. I just love it when that happens. Thomas has been very well behaved and eager -- yes, eager to learn.

A few weeks ago I ordered Power Basics Physics from Rainbow Resources for Thomas. (Where DOES all our money go? d'uh) At any rate, I couldn't be more pleased. Thomas is doing well. Maybe that's because dad is teaching physics at night as opposed to me. Thomas and I are both taking the class. Thomas is whippin' my you-know-what, too.

That same Rainbow order also included World History the Easy Way. I just didn't like History Odyssey. We had been pecking away at it and Thomas didn't have a good sense of history. He knew bits and pieces about bits and pieces. It didn't have a good order to it, either. It just wasn't very cohesive.

I couldn't be more impressed with World History the Easy Way. Thomas likes it, too. When we got the book, Thomas actually looked at it -- I nearly fainted. He asked to start at the beginning rather than trying to start with the middle ages. Oh brother, that messed up my plans, but I agreed. We have really been enjoying the book. I read each chapter in two days, we listen to a correlating Story of the World chapter, and then I read the correlating chapter from Van Loon's Story of Mankind. I've printed out maps, too. We then do the questions at the end of the chapter in WHTEW. If I get the time to sit down and do some planning, I just might incorporate some projects as well. Otherwise, we just read and discuss. Thomas retains very well.

I was so happy with this purchase that when we were in the big city the other day at Barnes and Noble, I bought American History the Easy Way. I really like Barron's Easy Way series. I am even more impressed with the American history book.

So everything is going well here, knock on wood. I had been searching for those history books since we started homeschooling -- I am so happy to find them.

I continue to feel better every day. That was a rather nasty spell I had. I'm picking up the pieces, getting caught up on things, and making good progress. Yeah.

I'm alive...

...and kicking, just have been very busy. Well, that and I think I just got over my normal springtime blahs.

Whew.

Last night I told DH I was very blah, and I haven't been blah in a very long time. It's a combination of hormones, time change and just stuff. I told him I really needed to get out of town. So today we did. We drove to the big city. We went to real stores: Home Depot, Barnes and Noble and Best Buy. That was fun.

At the Home Depot I bought some Gila window clings/film for my kitchen windows. I installed the smoky film over my kitchen sink a few months ago and loved it, so I bought more for the big windows. Instant privacy and glare reduction. That made me so happy. I took down the cute cafe curtains I made and the room just feels larger, brighter and airier.

B&N was having a 20% off sale of everything as they are moving their store. We only spent $65, believe it or not. What was really nice was that they gave me my teacher's discount on top of the 20% on the "educational" books.

DH bought new speakers for the new computer. I was upset with him that he didn't order any speakers when he built the computer...I was really missing sound. He's installed them and has blared George Thorogood, his fav.

To top the day off, we went to the Olive Garden. Last time we were in the big city, I spied a brand-new Olive Garden as we were driving. Before that, the nearest was 100 miles. OG is my most favorite restaurant in the world. We had a delicious meal.

I feel SO MUCH BETTER. I just needed a day out and about. I needed an attitude adjustment.


School has been going well, thankfully. I might have loads of laundry to do, dishes to catch up on and fur balls floating across the floor, but by golly, school gets done. We have made some changes which I'll blog about later, but we're very happy.

I want to give a heart-felt thank you to the people who have emailed me or left comments wondering where I was. That made me feel great to come home today and find those today.

A Long Time Ago...

Last summer, to be exact, we went to Wall Drug in beautiful South Dakota. I didn't post the pictures here because our digital camera broke. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, so I asked Bob to fix it. Well, Bob had no desire to fix it because he didn't need to use the camera. Today he wanted the camera to take photos of the snow. Amazingly, he fixed the camera in 15 minutes. Grrrr. Oh well, the end result is I uploaded 190 photos this afternoon and can say goodbye to my blurry cell-phone photos.

Wall Drug is a tourist trap, but lots of fun nonetheless. If you're in the area, I highly recommended spending an hour or two there.

500 miles to Wall Drug!

The Fun of it All!

King of the hill!

For an idea of how much snow is out there, that little black thing that is below and in line with the tan house's window is our mailbox.

The Back Yard After the Storm

This drift is taller than I am.

Mid-morning snow report

A rare site -- a cardinal at our milk-jug
feeder. Usually only the chickadees indulge at the milk jug.

It has been the most beautiful morning here! The snow is gorgeous. Great big fluffy flakes continuously falling.

Thomas curled up in my bed and read a book after working on his new time line. I actually watched The View ... both on TV and out the window.

I wish my good camera was working because the Razor phone doesn't take the best photos. You can't see those gorgeous snowflakes.

I learned a new term today. While watching The View, the Twin Cities news came on during a commercial. They talked about "thunder-snow." I had never heard that. Apparently there is a lot of thunder-snow in Minnesota today. Thankfully not where I live.

It's been fun watching my neighbor. They run a day care. The kids have not been out playing, but there has been a constant stream of cars. Even if the schools are closed, the work places are not. I bet it's crazy in her house today. At any rate, it's been fun watching them go out every half hour and snow blowing the driveway. They keep their drive very clean because of the day care. The snow is so heavy and falling so fast that they are working very hard to keep up with it. The snow is winning.

Bring it on!

The weather forecast keeps changing. At first we were expecting 4-6 inches of snow yesterday and today. Now we're expecting up to 21 inches by tomorrow night.

I got up this morning at 6:30 am. When I took the dog out, it was not snowing and we barely got a skiff last night. I saw my husband off to work, turned the radio on and settled down with a Sudoku and cup of coffee. Then I heard it: Schools were cancelled! I was scratching my head because it wasn't even snowing. Then I looked outside. In a mere half hour it went from nothing to snow so thick I could barely see across the street.

Thomas woke up while Bob was still at home and talked to us from the comforts of his warm, cozy bed. He threw out that he hoped schools were called off so that the poor public-schooled children could have a day off. Gee, how generous of him. (Think there was an ulterior motive there? I usually follow the public school's snow days.) He promptly went back to sleep. And I let him.

We will have school today, but we will definitely go into unschooling mode. I think a batch of cookies is in order. Maybe some hot chocolate, too. Today seems like a great day to curl up on the couch, snuggle, and read a good book or two.

I only wish my Rainbow order was here...today would have been great to play our new games. Those new orders never arrive soon enough, though.

Back in the Saddle Again

We're back to our normal routine, finally. Thomas was sick, then I was sick, now Bob is sick. We all had "that nasty virus" that everyone is getting and taking forever to recover from.

Last week we did a little school every day. Ha, little might mean reading one book. On Friday Thomas and I sat down and discussed this year's school. He shared his likes and his dislikes. He really wanted to go back to Sequential Spelling. He did not like MegaWords. Okay. Done. We started Monday morning first thing with Sequential Spelling. This time I got my spelling rules book out and after his lesson, we reviewed a few lessons. A cheap little book with a good list of rules. That will satisfy my need for teaching rules for now.

Thomas also begged -- and I do mean begged -- to learn Spanish. I have fought this tooth and nail. I had no desire to learn Spanish. German was my language love, both in high school and college. I discussed this with Bob and he quickly produced his college Spanish text, tapes, workbook and completed tests. Ugh. I looked it over and quickly determined it was too difficult for Thomas. We listened to the first lesson together and he did the freak-out on me. He freaks when he doesn't understand something the first time. I closed the book and said the magic words, "I really think this is too difficult for you and I don't think that you can't do it." MEAN mom. Mean, nasty words.

Well, those mean, nasty words motivated Thomas. Monday morning the first thing he asked to do was Spanish. He quit freaking out, started listening and studying. We did the first two pages in the book. We will really have to go slow because this program moves fast. Surprisingly, I am actually enjoying it. I have been sitting at my kitchen table at night with the books and tape recorder and studying on my own. Go figure. Thanks to Thomas, I now have a desire.

I ordered a couple label books from Rainbow. (My time is worth something, right? I could have made these on my own, but it's so much easier to just order something.) When they arrive, I'll take my tape and cover the house in Spanish words. Hopefully this will help increase our vocabulary.

On the math front, we came to the decimals chapter Rod and Staff. Thomas had very weak instruction in decimals last year. My fault totally, because we were switching curriculum and it got left high and dry. So instead of forging ahead with Rod and Staff, I pulled the Key to Decimals series from the shelf. He actually started this last week (I don't remember when, I was in a fog) and has been working 5-6 pages a day. What a nice break from the rigors of Rod and Staff.

On the World History front, we both decided that History Odyssey is just not for us. Neither of us like the flow, neither of us have a good understanding of the time frame. It seems as if we're just learning little chunks or snippets here and there and that it is not cohesive. What to do? I spent a bit of time searching history curriculum. I just don't like anything I see. So I ended up buying World History the Easy Way as a guide and will incorporate reading lists from the net, SOTW CD's, Kingfisher, etc.

Geography. Last year Thomas loved geography. This year he hated it. I had purchased Trail Guide to US Geography. Thomas thought it was all busywork. So I looked at other programs and decided to wing it. We're going to study region by region using The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geography as our guide. This is not my choice book to use as a guide, it will need lots of supplementation, but heck, it was sitting on my shelf. We started yesterday and had fun. That's what counts, having fun while learning, right? I also ordered the Name that Country game from Rainbow. It had good reviews at Amazon. I read a great idea at Amazon for making more cards as the game doesn't have that many countries, so I ordered some blank flashcards, too.

It seems every year about this time I evaluate school and place a big order. This year is no exception. Sometimes we just need to stir the pot a little.

Well, shoot

We decided to take Monday and Tuesday off from school as originally planned. Thomas still wasn't up to par so the break, we figured, would be nice.

Sunday Thomas went ice skating for an hour, came home and crashed. Today he was very crabby. It wasn't registering in my head he didn't feel well, I just thought he was in a mood. However, tonight was train club night. Thomas and his father scared the you-know-what out of me by coming home way early. Bob said that Thomas was running the trains but wasn't asking any questions, which is very atypical. Finally Thomas asked for a chair to sit down and rest in. That's when they decided to come home. Thomas went to bed. Immediately.

I've been reading about this virus. Lots of my e-friends' families have had it. I hear it lasts a few weeks. Sigh.

How on earth do you school when your kiddo(s) are sick like this? Even worse, how on earth do parents and kids deal with public school? I am very thankful we're not doing the public school thing right now, but I feel very sorry for all those kids.

Well, tomorrow we'll do math. After that, I think we should climb into my bed and read, do English orally, and wing it from there. Bed school. Sounds like the only solution to me. And if need be, nap school.

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Thank you, Mama B

Mama B, you saved the day. We were successful (well, DH was) in putting the old hard drive in the new computer and transferring files.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing that idea!

I'm so funny, aren't I? This was a picture taken at cross over. Five of my six boys. I don't have their parents' permission to post their photo on the blog, so I made them all happy faces. I did something else to the photo, can anyone figure it out?

Cross over was Thursday night. It was a wonderful experience. Yes, I cried. I was so proud of the boys, and they just seemed so grown up.

Thomas is on the mend. He really shouldn't have gone to the cross over. I broke my rule of not taking him out and about less than 24 hours after a fever has broken. He'd been on antibiotics for 48 hours, though, so I hoped he wasn't contagious. It was, after all, a once-in-a-lifetime event. Another boy in our den missed the event because he had exactly what Thomas had, only he had not started antibiotics until the day before. Sadly, he stayed home.

We did not do school all week. Thomas is much better this evening, and I think after the weekend, he'll be ready to do school. Our plans were to take Monday and Tuesday of next week off to coincide with the public school's vacation days, but I've decided to just forge ahead and do school anyway.

Our project for the weekend is to figure out how to transfer files to the new computer. Neither the CD or DVD drive is working on the old computer, and the USB port will only recognize the printer so we can't plug the external hard drive in. Ugh! I'm also having a bear of a time figuring out the new Outlook Express in XP. I am such a creature of habit and behind the times. I'm hoping my dear, sweet husband will wave his magic wand and make something work. He is an engineer, he loves a challenge, so hopefully he'll be up to the task.

Monday -- Not without school after all

While I was feeling like garbage Monday, we still managed to get some form of education in. In the afternoon Thomas and I made a milk-jug bird feeder. Bob hung it when he got home from work.

Monday night Bob and Thomas built the new computer. It's up, it's running, but Bob still has to install Office. It's still sitting on my kitchen table.

Bob was going to install that tonight, but Thomas had other plans. Thomas woke up very grumpy and not feeling well at all this morning. His throat hurt and it was bright red. He laid down in bed and read a book this morning. He ate a good lunch and requested we do school in the afternoon. We did math and geography. We also watched birds out our window.

Then Thomas did the unspeakable. He went into my bedroom, climbed into the bed and took a nap. Ding, ding, ding...I knew he was not well. He slept for quite awhile. I woke him for dinner. He had a temp of 103. He was moaning, hurting, and miserable. (He's just like his mom, he's a whiner when he's sick.)

I made the decision to take him to the after-hours clinic. My husband wasn't happy about that, but I didn't want to wait until tomorrow. Part of my reason is that he had a temperature, and I have learned that when you take your child to the doctor, you can't give them Motrin beforehand because then their true fever won't show. Sad but true.

So we went to the clinic and I, Dr. Mom, learned that I was wrong with my diagnosis. I was sure he had the flu. The doc said he had strep. The doc told us that because he did not have a runny nose, he was sure it was not the flu. If he is wrong, we'd know in 24 hours. If Thomas isn't feeling better in 24 hours, he told Bob and I to get in for a flu shot pronto.

I never knew you had to have a runny nose to have the flu. Learn something new every day. Or not. We'll know in 24 hours, I guess.

So Thomas took his antibiotics and Motrin and promptly fell asleep.

The doctor ordered him not to go to school until 24 hours had passed from the time his fever broke. I started laughing and said he had to go to school, as he lived in his school. We just won't make him do any work. Such a lame attempt at homeschool humor.

I had completely forgotten that tomorrow was Valentine's Day. I didn't have anything prepared. Bob reminded me as I was getting out of the car. While I filled the prescription, with Thomas and his dad waiting in the car, I bought him a bouquet of balloons. That will be a sure hit with him. The kind clerk got a garbage bag to stuff them in so I could sneak the goods into the car in front of him. Whew.

What a week. I just hope he's feeling better tomorrow and it really isn't the flu. Next week we had planned on taking two days off because the public school does. I think we'll have a full week of school instead.

Manic Monday

Frankie is not feeling well today. I got up at 7, went back to bed at 7:30, woke up at 10:45. Thomas was reading a book in my bed, but I felt awful I let him down. I'm glad he let me sleep, though. My husband came home for lunch and I told him I just don't feel well enough to do school and he said to make this a Fun Monday and do school on our typical Fun Friday. Perfect solution!

Thomas is working on art, I'm sipping coffee and on the net wishing I had a drip IV of Motrin -- or something stronger.

Speaking of Thomas and art, he had an artistic weekend. He prepared his cake for his last Scouts Blue and Gold banquet. He worked on it Saturday night and Sunday morning. I am a little upset with myself because I didn't take a final picture. What you cannot see is the jello lake. Thomas scooped a portion of the cake out, and we made blue jello and poured it in. Stuck the entire cake in the fridge so it could gel, and he had his beautiful blue lake.

The banquet was yesterday afternoon and it was quite fun. Thomas got lots of blue ribbons for his cake. We're about done with scouts, we have our cross over and an ice skating event left. Counting the days...

I think I shall now go back to bed.