Happy Friday, once again. I hope everyone had a good week. Did everyone enjoy Halloween? It was unseasonably warm here. Figures, the one year that we don’t go out with Bailey. Jason and I stayed home, turned all the lights off and watched Halloween and Halloween II. So scary, but we like that stuff. Bailey had a blast! He went with his best friend, and a few others. He made out big time! 6.4 lbs of candy, and it’s the good candy. Even some full size bars in there. So far, I’ve been able to put it away and not touch it. Granted, it is only day 1.
Weekend plans? Another quiet weekend for us, I think. I have an Essential Oils class to go to on Sunday. A baseball mom turned me on to them, after Bailey suffered a 5 day long headache. Nothing seemed to work. She brought me over a vile of peppermint oil, and I massaged it into his forehead and temples, and it seemed to work. I know a lot of people don’t “buy” into this stuff, but I’m willing to give it an honest shot. I’m curious to see what oils work for certain ailments.
Anywho…that’s it for me! I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Us Girls..Our Views 
Huh. I’ve just started dabbling a little in essential oils. I found a blog by a woman who has become crazy-loco over them. Truthfully, I stopped reading because that’s ALL she covers anymore. She used to talk about life out west, where she lives, but then she became an essential oil consultant and that’s ALL she blogs about. But, on the other hand, I’ve found some very useful stuff there, when I’ve needed essential oil information. It’s called Camp Wander.
In other news, Steve is going to Omaha for a week on Saturday, so Josh and I are going to be on our own for a while. It’ll be interesting… he gets to hang at school after hours at “Latch-Key” all week, until I can get over there from work to pick him up. He’s thrilled with the idea. Me? Meh… I’m gonna have to do the cooking on my own, and whatnot. I think the biggest chore is going to be getting him up and going in the mornings, but I think I’m going to drive him, which will mean I can get up and dressed and THEN get him up and dressed. It’ll be better for him, I think, ’cause 7 AM is a little more reasonable wake-up time, anyway. I think it’ll go ok. Wish me luck, though, just in case…
AND, I’ve just made some WICKED awesome plans for our next Pack Meeting!! (the Pack is the entire group of kids, ranging from 1st-5th grade) Our November Pack meeting is going to be all about the Police… and I have TWO K9 teams lined up!!! The handlers are both SWAT members, and one team is a Narc team, the other is a Bomb team. I am SOOO excited!! They’re going to do a demonstration of how they work together, and even one on K9 Defense… how the dog protects the handler. One of the guys is bringing his bite suit!! I am so incredibly excited about it. I know the kids will enjoy it, too…
Right now, I need to hit bed. And then I need to plan a den meeting for Tuesday. THAT I’m not looking forward to as much. Not sure what I’m going to do…
That’s so cool about the K9s. A year or so ago, my kids were at the park and the cops were doing a K9 training down there with the bite suit and all. The “bad guy” actor would hide in a tunnel and the cops would yell “come out, you’re under arrest” and then send the dog in after him. The dog would drag the guy out and hold him for the cops to arrest him. I think it rattled the kids a little, but they were too fascinated to look away.
Good luck on that solo week you have coming up. I have to say that I would have a really hard time waking myself and the kids up before 7am every day. We all go to bed way too late. I target 7am but they usually get up more like 7:20 or 7:30. So yeah, it’s probably a good thing that I drive them.
It will be interesting to find out what they do at your school’s after-school program. I have mixed emotions about ours, but it is growing on me. I like the mixed ages and other “real-life” exposure which my kids don’t get at home (since we don’t do TV and they don’t have older siblings). I mean, I don’t love all of it, but it’s real life, right?
I’m really looking forward to the solo week. I think it will be easier getting J up at 7, instead of trying to haul ** out the door at 7:10, like we usually have to. His bedtime is 8:30, and with the time change this weekend, I think it will go just fine.
His after-school program isn’t really a ‘program’, it’s just a classroom with toys. TV is usually on, he says mostly Nickelodeon. Which is a treat for him, because we don’t have cable here. Honestly, I like it. I don’t need him to be ‘educated’ every minute of the day, and this will give him some downtime to just hang out and be a kid. Especially since two of those days, he’s at school from 8 AM until 7 PM (school, latchkey, wrestling practice).
We drop S off at the bus in Cedar Rapids at 2, then we’re going shopping (for MOM!!!) ’cause I need work clothes. Then we’re having probably a pizza/popcorn/movie night. tomorrow, he’s asked to go bowling, so we’ll get some chores done around here and head out for that. At some point, I have to plan the menu for the week, and make sure we’ve got the groceries for it. AND I have to plan a Den Meeting. *sigh* I’ll be glad when we finally get someone else to take the reins there.
I agree that the after-school program is a great time for the kids to chill out. In ours, the main things that bug me (so far) are the choice of TV channel (it is commercial TV and they see all sorts of nonsense that isn’t appropriate for young kids) and the way they push unhealthy snacks. I love the activities they have available. When I arrive to pick up my kids, they may be building something with Lincoln Logs or Legos, playing a game (cards / board game / Battleship / handheld electronic / etc.), drawing, socializing, reading, etc. They’re picking up some of the kid-culture stuff my older siblings and neighbor kids taught me as a kid. They also go outside or play in the gym for part of the time. My kids’ bell choir and piano lesson are also done during those hours. Also, I’m going to be starting Miss A on a listening therapy that, according to the therapist, she should be able to do during late room. So that leaves us time in the evenings to do stuff they need me for.
I would like my kids to eventually start doing their homework on their own at that time, but I’m not pushing that yet. They don’t have homework every day and when they do, it usually requires some parental guidance. The other thing I’d like them accomplish during late room is to get changed for their evening gym stuff (if applicable) and pack up their bags before I get there. I should be pushing the skill of telling time so they can do this. I’m such a slacker.
As for my week – I got some stuff accomplished and was working on getting my to-do list down a little (from 950 to only 860 items, LOL). But in the past couple of days I’ve received a crapload of stuff that I need to work on. So I am kinda swimming against a current, but at least I’m swimming.
We got the edge of the hurricane early in the week. They were calling it “Frankenstorm” in honor of Halloween. Trick-or-treating was postponed until Sunday. We lost power in our building and it took about 2 days to get it back on, so that was interesting. My parents’ old evergreen was uprooted. But for the most part, we’re all intact. It was so sad to hear how badly the hurricane harmed the east coast.
The kids had the day off on Tuesday, so I took Miss A to order her new glasses. Later my parents came over so I could help them with a legal issue. The legal issue’s been hanging over our heads since my grandmother died decades ago, so it was good to get that done. And it was good to have the folks over. They only make it here about once every two years. Then on Wednesday, there was a birthday celebration which took up most of the evening.
My schedule with the girls is still off kilter. There is so much to do. I am supposed to learn a couple new therapies for Miss A in addition to everything else. They had a couple of “big tests” this week in addition to the usual stuff. I know they had a day off, but that doesn’t mean I did. Oh, and of course they had a school Halloween party and all that jazz.
Next week is my first official parent-teacher conference at this school. Maybe that’s why Miss A’s papers haven’t been coming home much lately. I am feeling nervous and defensive on behalf of Miss A, who can’t seem to follow along in class to save her life. There are also some math concepts that seem to go way over her head. I don’t think most schools teach those concepts so young, but that probably doesn’t matter, does it? While I can think of all kinds of things I could do to help the situation, they all take time and I don’t have much of that. But on the positive side, Miss A did get “merit roll” and she seems to be doing fine in reading. I sent the teacher all kinds of info on the diagnoses Miss A has gotten and what we’re doing about it. Teacher needs to be patient, because Miss A and I are doing all we can. As for Miss E, I don’t know exactly what to expect, but from what I’ve seen she seems like a model student, so I assume most of the conversation will be about Miss A.
Oh, and the kids have another short week next week, followed by our annual trip to Great Wolf Lodge to hang with the other kids adopted from the girls’ homeland. That’s always a good time. I am sure I will take some heat for taking a weekend off work, but too bad.
I hope some of that nice weather you guys had is coming our way!
Have a great weekend!
I know I need to get over myself, but ugh! I just took a peek at last week’s grades.
I had better get busy ordering that listening therapy stuff. Yesterday I ordered a couple of books from Amazon about vision / processing / organizing stuff.
I never thought I’d be wishing that it weren’t so important to get thoughts down on paper.
I’m very tempted to go down the path of complaining about the irrelevance of half of the curriculum at this age, but that really isn’t the point. (Or, that’s a rant for a different day.) Except that it screws kids who need more time for the stuff that matters. WHY did I spend two precious evenings this past week reviewing the BS in the health and science texts? I’m not even sure it made any difference.
I had a dentist appt yesterday and it didn’t go very well and I have a doctor appt this morning and grandparents day with Christopher at school this afternoon so I don’t have the time right now. I hope everyone has a great day and weekend.
I’m sorry the dentist appointment didn’t go well. I hope the doctor visit and Grandparents’ Day go much better!
I have my fingers crossed that the whole day ends up a LOT better than when it started!