Another catch-up, plus books and summer
Ok, I honestly have no idea where the hours go. I've barely had the time to keep up with my flist, and no time to post.
So, the rest of my week - had our older dog, nearly 14, at the vet on Wed morning for raspy breathing, which she's had for awhile but seemed to be getting worse. The vet prescribed some meds with a mild steroid included. Does not seem to be helping at all, sigh. It would have been nice to have her sleep in our room again, but when she's awake, she breathes so loudly, it's disruptive. And it can't be comfortable for her, either. Maybe it's just age?
Wrapped up the book fair - I worked Wed afternoon (the a/c had been broken for most of the day and it was sweltering in there), and helped pack it up Thurs afternoon. We didn't make anywhere near the profit we normally do, but given there was no parent-related event this time, we did pretty decently. Certainly, we kept up a very steady, sometimes ludicrously so, business.
Also Thurs: I did laundry, went to the grocery, ran some other errands, and I don't even know what else I did with the day, but it disappeared. In the evening Will and I had another update meeting with Two's tutors; she's making noticeable progress for them, now, which is good. But, of course, there's always the mantra: She has to slow. down. Think it'll ever sink in? :P
(Side note: MiniPlu's 2nd-grade teacher, who has one of Two's friends in her class - and who is also at Huntington - was so impressed with the progress H has made, she decided to work for Huntington for the summer. She was training this week and got to work with Two on Thurs evening. Two was delighted.)
Will had Friday off - the first one, for the college's summer schedule. He had a follow-up appointment with the orthopedist for his knee, and has now been cleared to run. No more PT necessary, except to continue the exercises at home. After his appointment, we went to the mall and bought a pile of new polos and summer shorts for Will - he's lost so much weight, nothing fits him anymore. (He's previously bought two sets of dress pants - one round in one size, and another in the next size down, plus new jeans - it's been an expensive diet. :P) We treated ourselves to lunch out, sans kids, then had a bit of a nap before I picked up the girls from school.
Not only that, but they had their first sleepover at someone else's house (the aforementioned H had invited them over for her 8th birthday party, and they were the sole invitees) on Friday night. So - we not only had most of the day to ourselves, but most of the evening, too! I worried someone would get homesick and I'd be getting a late-night call to come get them, but - nope! Not a peep. Will and I caught up on tasks we've shoved aside for ages - and this includes finally putting the rest of our Europe photos in a scrapbook - and enjoyed the quiet.
This morning I ran 8 miles early - it's been disgustingly humid and blech all week - then caught up on some weeding and pruning in the front yard while I was still all sweaty and gross. After picking up the girls around 10:45am, we ran some errands, had lunch, and then I took MiniPlu to therapy. Today was the first day we touched on some adoption concepts (MiniPlu brought it up) instead of just focusing on some social drama at school, and I think it was a good start.
I finally mended some of my FIL's shirts I've had hanging around here since ... uh ... winter, took the girls to church where Two fell asleep for a bit (ahhh - the magic of slumber parties, where very little slumbering is actually done); Will spent the afternoon with a friend in the garage working on both the friend's Jeep and Will's battered pickup. Two was kind of clingy-pesty today, but remarkably, neither girl was too cranky, given the lack of sleep. Two did argue about going to church, but that's normal. :P
Tomorrow we're spending the afternoon and early evening at Will's aunt's house; I'll go to the grocery in the morning, and MiniPlu has offered to do laundry from one of her Mother's Day coupons. Monday - Memorial Day - Will leaves for a weeklong business trip to Dallas. Wah. :(
I finished two books recently:
Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Gray. This was ... okay. It did a good job of portraying Maria Antonia's youth and the transformations she was required to undertake to be considered good enough to marry the French prince, as well as court life and social machinations going on, to Marie's consternation. However, the book kind of dragged after awhile, and it never really captured me the way Phillipa Gregory or Allison Weir's historical fiction does. There is a sequel, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow, which only just came out, but while the author has alluded to some mysteries being revealed in this book (like why Louis XVI was terrified of touching Marie Antoinette and wouldn't consummate the marriage), and apparently there's a third book in the works, I'm not sure I'm interested enough to bother with the sequels.
After that, I zipped through Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch by Nancy Atherton, from the library. This was much better than a lot of recent Aunt Dimities have been (it's an ongoing "cozy mystery" series, with a mild supernatural element), and a fun romp after the rather stilted life of Marie Antoinette.
Currently reading The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I had no idea this was a series! However, I gave the book, having heard good things about it, to my Boston friend, and while I was visiting she showed me the pilot HBO episode based on the books. It was just adorable - charming and fun - so I decided to get my own copy of the book at a recent used book sale and read it for myself. I'm only about 1/4 of the way in so far, but I'm definitely enjoying it.
Seven days of school left. I'm usually stressing about this, but for some reason, I'm not. A lot more is going to fall on me, because camp schedules are a lot more varied; normally both girls go off to the college with Will and he walks them to camp at 9am. I pick them up. This ends up being the routine for the majority of the summer. This year, he's only got them together ONCE, and only has ANY kid with him four weeks. Other times, the camps are in the afternoon, or they're not taking a camp that week. MiniPlu will also attend TKD camp two weeks, and Two will attend one week; this year they elected to go to separate TKD weeks, not the same one like last year. Two will continue to have tutoring at Huntington, MiniPlu will have therapy, and I need to get her signed up for clarinet lessons so she doesn't lose what she's learned. With all of that, plus the pool (I just bought my summer passes last week) I think we'll stay pretty busy!
And ... I think that's enough from me for now.
So, the rest of my week - had our older dog, nearly 14, at the vet on Wed morning for raspy breathing, which she's had for awhile but seemed to be getting worse. The vet prescribed some meds with a mild steroid included. Does not seem to be helping at all, sigh. It would have been nice to have her sleep in our room again, but when she's awake, she breathes so loudly, it's disruptive. And it can't be comfortable for her, either. Maybe it's just age?
Wrapped up the book fair - I worked Wed afternoon (the a/c had been broken for most of the day and it was sweltering in there), and helped pack it up Thurs afternoon. We didn't make anywhere near the profit we normally do, but given there was no parent-related event this time, we did pretty decently. Certainly, we kept up a very steady, sometimes ludicrously so, business.
Also Thurs: I did laundry, went to the grocery, ran some other errands, and I don't even know what else I did with the day, but it disappeared. In the evening Will and I had another update meeting with Two's tutors; she's making noticeable progress for them, now, which is good. But, of course, there's always the mantra: She has to slow. down. Think it'll ever sink in? :P
(Side note: MiniPlu's 2nd-grade teacher, who has one of Two's friends in her class - and who is also at Huntington - was so impressed with the progress H has made, she decided to work for Huntington for the summer. She was training this week and got to work with Two on Thurs evening. Two was delighted.)
Will had Friday off - the first one, for the college's summer schedule. He had a follow-up appointment with the orthopedist for his knee, and has now been cleared to run. No more PT necessary, except to continue the exercises at home. After his appointment, we went to the mall and bought a pile of new polos and summer shorts for Will - he's lost so much weight, nothing fits him anymore. (He's previously bought two sets of dress pants - one round in one size, and another in the next size down, plus new jeans - it's been an expensive diet. :P) We treated ourselves to lunch out, sans kids, then had a bit of a nap before I picked up the girls from school.
Not only that, but they had their first sleepover at someone else's house (the aforementioned H had invited them over for her 8th birthday party, and they were the sole invitees) on Friday night. So - we not only had most of the day to ourselves, but most of the evening, too! I worried someone would get homesick and I'd be getting a late-night call to come get them, but - nope! Not a peep. Will and I caught up on tasks we've shoved aside for ages - and this includes finally putting the rest of our Europe photos in a scrapbook - and enjoyed the quiet.
This morning I ran 8 miles early - it's been disgustingly humid and blech all week - then caught up on some weeding and pruning in the front yard while I was still all sweaty and gross. After picking up the girls around 10:45am, we ran some errands, had lunch, and then I took MiniPlu to therapy. Today was the first day we touched on some adoption concepts (MiniPlu brought it up) instead of just focusing on some social drama at school, and I think it was a good start.
I finally mended some of my FIL's shirts I've had hanging around here since ... uh ... winter, took the girls to church where Two fell asleep for a bit (ahhh - the magic of slumber parties, where very little slumbering is actually done); Will spent the afternoon with a friend in the garage working on both the friend's Jeep and Will's battered pickup. Two was kind of clingy-pesty today, but remarkably, neither girl was too cranky, given the lack of sleep. Two did argue about going to church, but that's normal. :P
Tomorrow we're spending the afternoon and early evening at Will's aunt's house; I'll go to the grocery in the morning, and MiniPlu has offered to do laundry from one of her Mother's Day coupons. Monday - Memorial Day - Will leaves for a weeklong business trip to Dallas. Wah. :(
I finished two books recently:
Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Gray. This was ... okay. It did a good job of portraying Maria Antonia's youth and the transformations she was required to undertake to be considered good enough to marry the French prince, as well as court life and social machinations going on, to Marie's consternation. However, the book kind of dragged after awhile, and it never really captured me the way Phillipa Gregory or Allison Weir's historical fiction does. There is a sequel, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow, which only just came out, but while the author has alluded to some mysteries being revealed in this book (like why Louis XVI was terrified of touching Marie Antoinette and wouldn't consummate the marriage), and apparently there's a third book in the works, I'm not sure I'm interested enough to bother with the sequels.
After that, I zipped through Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch by Nancy Atherton, from the library. This was much better than a lot of recent Aunt Dimities have been (it's an ongoing "cozy mystery" series, with a mild supernatural element), and a fun romp after the rather stilted life of Marie Antoinette.
Currently reading The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I had no idea this was a series! However, I gave the book, having heard good things about it, to my Boston friend, and while I was visiting she showed me the pilot HBO episode based on the books. It was just adorable - charming and fun - so I decided to get my own copy of the book at a recent used book sale and read it for myself. I'm only about 1/4 of the way in so far, but I'm definitely enjoying it.
Seven days of school left. I'm usually stressing about this, but for some reason, I'm not. A lot more is going to fall on me, because camp schedules are a lot more varied; normally both girls go off to the college with Will and he walks them to camp at 9am. I pick them up. This ends up being the routine for the majority of the summer. This year, he's only got them together ONCE, and only has ANY kid with him four weeks. Other times, the camps are in the afternoon, or they're not taking a camp that week. MiniPlu will also attend TKD camp two weeks, and Two will attend one week; this year they elected to go to separate TKD weeks, not the same one like last year. Two will continue to have tutoring at Huntington, MiniPlu will have therapy, and I need to get her signed up for clarinet lessons so she doesn't lose what she's learned. With all of that, plus the pool (I just bought my summer passes last week) I think we'll stay pretty busy!
And ... I think that's enough from me for now.