Meh. And schedules. But mostly meh.
I don't know what my problem is, but I'm having a very blah day. Don't want to do anything.
Actually, I do have some idea what my problem is: people. We're in the final stretch of the summer break (school starts 4 weeks from today) and I'm desperate to do things by myself again, even if it's just running errands. It's not even like the kids need constant attention, like they used to when they were younger, but they're still here, popping up whenever I go to do something, or asking me to do things for them, or tagging along whenever I leave the house. Even now, when I'm on the computer, MiniPlu is playing piano and Two is in the room with me. And I just want to be BY MYSELF. Except for Will - I could use more time with him, not less.
And in years when we don't take a nice vacation together somewhere, I find myself yearning to go ... anywhere. Doesn't help that MiniPlu caught the travel bug from her trip at the beginning of summer, and so has been doing random searches on Travelocity, saying things like, "We could be in London tomorrow, I have a flight all picked out." :P
Also, my BIL (Will's twin) just pisses me off sometimes, and lately "sometimes" feels like it's been happening more often. His stupid attitudes usually are directed at his wife, not at me, but they're still annoying. Then there's the times he won't do thins we demand of our kids - like being respectful and using headphones when he listens to music, or chew with his mouth closed, so it's annoying having this person who stubbornly sets bad examples for them.
Anyway, I'm just feeling out-peopled right now. Also, I hate meal planning, especially now that I have to juggle 7 people and their picky idiosyncracies, none of which match, and I don't like going to TKD because I'm not getting any better and I always feel judged, and right now I'm just sick of everything and everyone.
Meh.
On another note, the kids' schedules came today. Sort of. In what I assume is an attempt to foil a barrage of parents calling in and demanding changes to their kids' schedules, they only gave out "Block 1: English III, Block 2: Gym..." etc without listing any teachers. Or even classroom numbers. How the heck are kids supposed to know where to go for their first period on Day 1? At the middle school they don't give out schedules at all until the very first day - the teachers just come out and collect the appropriate students somehow, so maybe that's what they'll do at the high school, too? But for kids who want to know what classes they might share, it's hard to tell because there's absolutely no specifics listed. Although apparently MiniPlu's friends all have different enough schedules that, so far, she has absolutely zero classes with any of her friends, to her dismay. Also odd: they normally try to keep history and English in different semesters, as they're both reading intensive, but MiniPlu has both in second semester. Maybe because she has regular US History II, and not Honors this year? It's still Honors English III, though. (It also means her fall has all math and science: Psych, Anatomy, Pre-Calc. And gym.)
And speaking of MiniPlu's Anatomy class - she only realized last week that she had an additional assignment to do for them, in addition to the usual work for English and Math. Anyway, it's very odd. On the assignment page online, there's a link to download/print out a packet to do, which is normal. However, there was absolutely zero other information offered - so how do you fill out a packet of blanks for the various cavities in your body, the directional terms (dorsal, superior, anterior, etc), plane cross-sections, and the various systems in your body, if you have zero idea to start with? However, on the "Anatomy Honors" listing, there's a link to Ch 1 of the textbook online - which has all the answers to the packet MiniPlu is supposed to fill out. (Ironically, the Honors class has a totally different worksheet.) But, anyway - I simply printed out the relevant pages of Ch 1 from the Honors listing (she didn't need all the pages, maybe just 2/3 of the chapter?) and - voila! - she was able to fill out a bunch of stuff right away. Why on earth wouldn't the teacher include the Ch 1 link for all the students? How else are the non-Honors students supposed to be able to fill out the worksheet, if they've never heard of most of these terms before?
Weird.
Meanwhile, Two has, first semester, World Geography (the lower-level freshman history), Integrated Science (for kids not ready to go straight to Biology), ASL I and Alg I (spread over a year instead of a semester). Second semester will have English I, ASL II, Alg I and Gym. MiniPlu was briefly excited that they both had 4th-block gym, until she realized she had it fall semester and he had it spring semester. I do think they tried hard to give Two gym either 1st or 4th block so he only has to change once - at least, that's what we discussed as an option.
MiniPlu says that which lunch you get is determined by which wing your 3rd-block class is in, which I didn't realize. Since nobody's schedule has classrooms listed, there's no way to know for sure if she'll even have lunch with any of her friends this year, or with Two, for that matter. (She's anxious to keep an eye out for him, as much as she can.) You can take a guess, given that certain wings are more likely to have science classes, or history classes, but it's not a given.
So, anyway - we sorta know what's going on. But not really. :P
Actually, I do have some idea what my problem is: people. We're in the final stretch of the summer break (school starts 4 weeks from today) and I'm desperate to do things by myself again, even if it's just running errands. It's not even like the kids need constant attention, like they used to when they were younger, but they're still here, popping up whenever I go to do something, or asking me to do things for them, or tagging along whenever I leave the house. Even now, when I'm on the computer, MiniPlu is playing piano and Two is in the room with me. And I just want to be BY MYSELF. Except for Will - I could use more time with him, not less.
And in years when we don't take a nice vacation together somewhere, I find myself yearning to go ... anywhere. Doesn't help that MiniPlu caught the travel bug from her trip at the beginning of summer, and so has been doing random searches on Travelocity, saying things like, "We could be in London tomorrow, I have a flight all picked out." :P
Also, my BIL (Will's twin) just pisses me off sometimes, and lately "sometimes" feels like it's been happening more often. His stupid attitudes usually are directed at his wife, not at me, but they're still annoying. Then there's the times he won't do thins we demand of our kids - like being respectful and using headphones when he listens to music, or chew with his mouth closed, so it's annoying having this person who stubbornly sets bad examples for them.
Anyway, I'm just feeling out-peopled right now. Also, I hate meal planning, especially now that I have to juggle 7 people and their picky idiosyncracies, none of which match, and I don't like going to TKD because I'm not getting any better and I always feel judged, and right now I'm just sick of everything and everyone.
Meh.
On another note, the kids' schedules came today. Sort of. In what I assume is an attempt to foil a barrage of parents calling in and demanding changes to their kids' schedules, they only gave out "Block 1: English III, Block 2: Gym..." etc without listing any teachers. Or even classroom numbers. How the heck are kids supposed to know where to go for their first period on Day 1? At the middle school they don't give out schedules at all until the very first day - the teachers just come out and collect the appropriate students somehow, so maybe that's what they'll do at the high school, too? But for kids who want to know what classes they might share, it's hard to tell because there's absolutely no specifics listed. Although apparently MiniPlu's friends all have different enough schedules that, so far, she has absolutely zero classes with any of her friends, to her dismay. Also odd: they normally try to keep history and English in different semesters, as they're both reading intensive, but MiniPlu has both in second semester. Maybe because she has regular US History II, and not Honors this year? It's still Honors English III, though. (It also means her fall has all math and science: Psych, Anatomy, Pre-Calc. And gym.)
And speaking of MiniPlu's Anatomy class - she only realized last week that she had an additional assignment to do for them, in addition to the usual work for English and Math. Anyway, it's very odd. On the assignment page online, there's a link to download/print out a packet to do, which is normal. However, there was absolutely zero other information offered - so how do you fill out a packet of blanks for the various cavities in your body, the directional terms (dorsal, superior, anterior, etc), plane cross-sections, and the various systems in your body, if you have zero idea to start with? However, on the "Anatomy Honors" listing, there's a link to Ch 1 of the textbook online - which has all the answers to the packet MiniPlu is supposed to fill out. (Ironically, the Honors class has a totally different worksheet.) But, anyway - I simply printed out the relevant pages of Ch 1 from the Honors listing (she didn't need all the pages, maybe just 2/3 of the chapter?) and - voila! - she was able to fill out a bunch of stuff right away. Why on earth wouldn't the teacher include the Ch 1 link for all the students? How else are the non-Honors students supposed to be able to fill out the worksheet, if they've never heard of most of these terms before?
Weird.
Meanwhile, Two has, first semester, World Geography (the lower-level freshman history), Integrated Science (for kids not ready to go straight to Biology), ASL I and Alg I (spread over a year instead of a semester). Second semester will have English I, ASL II, Alg I and Gym. MiniPlu was briefly excited that they both had 4th-block gym, until she realized she had it fall semester and he had it spring semester. I do think they tried hard to give Two gym either 1st or 4th block so he only has to change once - at least, that's what we discussed as an option.
MiniPlu says that which lunch you get is determined by which wing your 3rd-block class is in, which I didn't realize. Since nobody's schedule has classrooms listed, there's no way to know for sure if she'll even have lunch with any of her friends this year, or with Two, for that matter. (She's anxious to keep an eye out for him, as much as she can.) You can take a guess, given that certain wings are more likely to have science classes, or history classes, but it's not a given.
So, anyway - we sorta know what's going on. But not really. :P