November 21, 2008

• Cold Day

  We woke up to 20° ish temperatures this morning.  Electric blankets felt great!  Jesse kept the house a little warmer last night, just in case the girls accidentally threw off their blankets and fell back asleep.  They are almost old enough that that rarely happens.  They pretty much wake up and snuggle back under the warmth of their covers.

  It was a cold, windy day yesterday, but I stayed busy doing all kinds of “fun” housework and laundry!  I never started a fire in the fireplace.  I hate to start one this morning, because we will be leaving for our afternoon appointment and errands.  It will be another cold day, but with no wind.  That makes grocery shopping (and unloading the cart’s contents into my car) less of a chore.  I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the wind and hauling groceries yesterday.  Brrrrr!  Even Sampson went out and immediately came back inside when he had to go.

  Rissy was having problems in math this week, so we took a day to work on the “issues” and she caught up yesterday in her book.  Imagine her “UNhappy” face when the other two girls were dismissed from the table and she stayed another 45 minutes with her math book!  But, the time spent on Wednesday was worth it.  She DOES understand and has also gotten past her mental block of filling in the missing addends.  (___ +  3 = 5)  She used to add the numbers together and fill the blank in with an 8.  The mental block started this time last year.  I pulled the subject of math from her curriculum for four months to give her “despair” a break!  We didn’t do ANY math from December through March.  Then, picked up the book again while she continued to struggle.  Yesterday she breezed through all of those problems, including the subtraction problems.  Yay!  She didn’t know how to write numbers over 100.  She could count, but didn’t know what order to place the numbers when writing, so that’s why we took an extra day to learn.

  They are all tired of school and I’m doubly tired of teaching.  We finished with history and geography yesterday and only have a science book left.  We will be finished with that one next week.  They are looking forward to new books after our break and Luci is excited that I ordered a third book for her.  She was still in daycare when I bought the last set of books, so I didn’t include her.

  The girls had great fun, the other day, pretending Chirper was “Prince Chirper” the “royal” cat!  He was carried around on his “royal” pillow!  And, some “royal” laughter ensued!

  Isn’t this a pathetically, spoiled cat???!!
  

  
  Of course, he soaked up all of the attention.  HE’S no dummy!
  

  I keep saying this, but it’s true,  He is the “kissingest” cat I’ve ever had.  This may make some of you ill, but I have always kissed my pets, including our pony.  This is the first pet that kisses back and actually ASKS for kisses.  He paws at your lips and wants you to bend down and kiss him!  He butts back with his nose when being kissed.
  

  Annamarie pretended to ignore him and he tried to grab her hair to pull her down to him.
  
  His claws are clipped way back, but he is naturally a gentle cat.  Even with claws, he’s never hurt us.  He doesn’t bite, either.  He pretends to “attack” us but barely touches us.  We play the same way with him – VERY gently.

  Eventually, His Royal Majesty was carried off to bigger and better places and I caught pictures at he left my presence!
  
  With Rissy on roller skates, nonetheless!

  The closest I have ever come to royalty!
  

  Today’s To Do List:
  *  Take a shower and wash my hair so it can dry while I’m teaching school
  *  Teach school (VERY QUICKLY, since no one is enjoying it these days!)
  *  Start Jesse’s laundry, have Annamarie put her clean laundry away (she left half of it in the kitchen)
  *  Make a grocery list to include Thanksgiving food items
  *  Go to girls’ therapist
  *  Stop at post office box
  *  Make deposit at bank
  *  Wal-Mart for groceries.  “My one stop shop!”  (snicker! – I sound like the commercial!!!)

  If that’s not enough to keep me busy, I don’t know what will!!!  I feel stiff these days and I move really slow in the mornings compared to my normal tempo.  I think my body is getting used to the colder weather.  I hate to think I’m old enough to feel less than supple, but I think it may be true!

  Last night, “it” happened.  I was chilly in the house and mentioned to Jesse, “It seems cold in here.”  His reply, “Yeah?  I’ll remind you of that next summer!”  I knew if I made a “cold” comment, it would come back to bite me!

  Be blessed  ~ 

  • 9:50 am
  • 6 Comments