Curious kids

And a tired mom. It is official. Working full time sucks. I always had a suspicion it did and now I know it is true. I've been on a day schedule this week due to meetings for the electronic health record implementation. I mistakenly thought I would have more energy. Uh, no. I get home and the children are bursting with creative ideas and all I can think about is dinner, homework, teeth and bed--theirs, not mine. Though, after they are in bed, it doesn't take long for my mind to drift in the same direction! Ryan wants to do science, Charlotte wants to make another tornado out of water bottles, they both want to cook. So tonight while I was warming my meal, Greg had already fed them... I challenged Ryan to spelling words while doing Charlotte's flashcards. We didn't have a book home for her to read today so we worked on Ten Apples on Top. It is wonderful watching her make the beginning and end sounds and try to put it together. I gave Ryan words he didn't necessarily know--he played along for awhile and then gave up. Curious, curious children. Tired, tired mom.

Bookmakers

So the kids have started making books. I am not sure what has started this...Charlotte brings a collection of papers to be stapled. She fills hers with drawings. Ryan wrote another book today. It's about a ship called the Larson Dawson that gets hit by a tornado, catches fire and sinks. And is found 19 years later. You can definitely see what favorite subject is influencing this piece! But it is accompanied by pictures. And punctuation.

Charlotte is reading simple sentences now and is writing. The teacher encourages the children to spell by the sounds they hear--so some of Charlotte's words are very interesting! Today they spent some time in their fort. Ryan wanted to make a flag for it--literally wanted me to sew him the flag of England and mount it on a standard flag pole--I talked him in to a garden flag pole and he picked "Peace on Earth" flag--thank goodness. the kids' craft requests for fabric items are stacking up. I will have plenty of work to do on the sewing machine when school is done.

I am reading them Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--two chapters a night. I've never read it before now. We'll catch the Gene Wilder version after we're done. The Johnny Depp version looks creepy. It's my first time reading them a novel--I look forward to others.

Max's visit

We had a first sleepover since school started. After making root beer at Beth and Lori's they allowed us to take their son for an overnight! the goal was to get the kids to the train show at Hara today. Since I was working, Greg was volunteered to watch them all and got to spend the most tiem with them. Max is a delight--really a sweet boy. The kids loved having hiom here,. I thjink Ryan liked having a little guy around and Charlotte just liked having here period! So there was lots of playing, one head butt to a nose, staying up late and getting up early. The best opart for me though was when Ryan made a book called Captain Underpants and the dinosaur written and illustrated by Ryan R and Max H. It was hilarious. Such a sweet boy.

Aunt Martha is in town for a few days before she finishes her trek home. It's so nice having her here and the children just love her.

Back to work!

Sigh

I read my last post and had a quiet chuckle. It probably wasn't a week after I wrote that that Greg brought home some wretched respiratory ick that flattened him for days. He then gave it to Charlotte who gave it to me. Ryan was spared with only a cough. So Charlotte had a week off school, Greg several days off work, me off two nights. I still have a flipping cough. It's finally out of the house. Greg was tested for H1N1 and it came back negative, then we found out that the cultures aren't catching it at all and some docs are calling it H1n1 because no other flu is "out yet." There is some mild hysteria about the flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine. Mostly people are scrambling to find out where they are being given, waiting in god-awful long lines. Arguments abound about the flu mist versus the shot. Egads. I traditionally have not taken the flu shot. And I may for the first time this year. Their is a suspicion that H1N1 will be rounding again in a few months. Even though we may have had it, no one can really tell us, is it worth getting the shot? I hate that the media has this all jacked up and that there is so much suspicion about the vaccine. Our doc says that 40% of the kiddoes dying have no underlying health problems--they catch a secondary infection while their immune systems are knocked down with the flu. Oh, yay. It also has apparently peaked in our area without many places even having a vaccine to give yet. So the question abounds. to vaccinate or not. I hate this question.

I have started my last class before my practicum--project management. I like it. I liked workflows too so informatics seems to have been a promising choice:) I start my practicum in January!! The things I will do with no more school! Hmm...well, need to graduate first:)

Thanksgiving is a few weeks away. I cannot believe it. Christmas is soon too. Already picking up gifts. It is now getting dark before 6. Weird.

Fall

While walking Charlie tonight I noticed the vibrant leaves that have changed color are falling and are giving way to the brown more muted colors. More bare branches are visible now and I am once again aware that winter is on its way. It's neat though, we'll be ramping up for the holiday season soon which will carry us to January. Then the hard part hits. the stretch between January and April seems to take forever with little to break it up. Good news is, if everything goes the way it has been planned, I'll be graduating in April and will be in a new position. I cannot begin to express how excited I am at this prospect. I am restless at work, eager to be done and away. More and more things are getting on my nerves and I am tired of the constant ebb and flow of drama on the unit. Working alone sounds very appealing right now.

The kids are excited about Halloween, Ryan wants me to put more decorations out, there are still a bunch in the bin, but that takes time and it's been busy. We are to go camping with the troop this weekend, pup and all. I love that Ryan can run through the woods with his cub scout buddies.

Ryan continues to inhale books. A Half price books opened nearby and it is a gold mine for kids books. Grown up books too I imagine, but I do okay at the library. We got him 4 Magic treehouse for what it would have cost to buy 2 at BN. Charlotte hs developed a passion for drawing. The characters are consistent but I love watching her as she changes what they wear and the stories that go with them. She is learning high frequency words in school and is spelling them. She also continues to absorb books. Recently she made flags out of origami paper. She has very specific plans and it is fascinating to listen to her.

The pup has bounced back from whatever his ailment was. He is getting into things again and his appetite is back to normal. He is a sweet pooch. I am eager to enroll him in the next set of training classes. He picks up things fast.

H1N1 seems to be making fewer headlines now. People around us are getting sick and passing around what seem to be garden variety colds. The hospital has instituted no visitors under 14--which has definitely made the unit a quieter place.

I've read through my email and FB, time to get to work on this week's post for school.

Black September

I understand from friends that there are times when you should just write the month off as a loss and good riddance. I have never experienced this phenomena. Now I have. I am calling it Black September and hope that as the month has passed that the black cloud firmly affixed above the house has moved on as well. It is difficult to catalog the events. Should it be consecutive or by what was the most expensive, or perhaps what required the most doctor visits? We of course start with the car accident, proceed to poison ivy, then onto a viral infection with only headache and atrocious fever as the symptom to just recently, the dog swallowing foreign objects and vomiting. At the end of all of this, I have a well but tired daughter, a new van, a lethargic but rebounding dog and a son with pink patches on his legs where the poison ivy continues to fade. I also have my life--which before would have seemed to be a fundamentally silly item to give attention to. We all have our lives, but like our heart that beats hundreds of times a day without us really acknowledging it, we don't often consider or appreciate this fact. So while the house is a shambles and we continue to move through our days at an often frenetic pace, I have to stop every once in awhile and acknowledge that I have my life. I have been stopped in my tracks more than once in the last few weeks with this realization. The richness and joy and companionship that I can embrace fills me to almost bursting. I am happy.

Kids and puppy go well together

So every once in a while I catch a snapshot moment, one that I will hold in my mind and heart forever. Today it was two kids playing in the wooded area in a neighbors yard--one of those perfect places for kids to have a hideout-- and running across his expansive lawn. The day is gorgeous, one of those days where the autumn sun is high in the sky and there are barely any clouds. So while my ragamuffin, mismatched clothed children run (Charlotte in a dress, shoes with no socks and Ryan with binoculars for spying pirates), there is a puppy gamboling along beside them with his tail high as he tries to keep up with his playmates. The kids are laughing as they run in the sun; I'm sure the puppy is too.