Gack! Root Canal!!

I went to the dentist this morning for my 6 month checkup. I've been waiting for it to get here. One of my molars has felt really funny for a few months. Not painful, not sensitive to hot or cold, just funny when I bite on it. It started back when I had a sinus infection back in December. I'm now thinking maybe that wasn't a sinus infection after all.

The hygienist did her whole thing and she didn't see anything with the tooth, but we reported it to the dentist. He had her do an x-ray and sure enough, it is infected. He put me on an antibiotic and scheduled 2 appointments for later this month to do a root canal. He assured me it is in the really early stages and will be a breeze to do. The receptionist also assured me they are much easier than people make them out to be. My mom, quite the veteran of the dentist chair, said that a root canal is even easier than a filling and especially on a molar will be a piece of cake. The dentist did explain the whole thing to me but all I heard was "root canal, root canal, root canal."

I'm not so sure about this, but there are two good things I'm trying to focus on. First, is we have really good dental insurance through Mr. Incredible's job. We've never had dental before this job. They pay a really big chunk of it. I never had dental insurance growing up and I remember my parents working out installment payments with the dentist. I am really fortunate that I didn't have to ask how much it would be and wonder how soon we'd have enough to get it done. I don't take that for granted for one minute.

The other thing is, I'm hoping the antibiotic makes me feel better. I haven't felt good for a couple of months. Just run down and achy here and there. Having an infection would really explain a lot. Maybe it isn't just because I'm getting old I had thought it was just winter and working too hard. But maybe I've been too hard on myself and there was an explanation for it all.

So we get the infection knocked out. Do whatever it is he's going to do to the tooth (really I blacked out around the time he talked about drilling down into it from the top). And by May, I'll be like a whole new Freak!

California history and geography

We're starting our next state in geography later this week: California! We're using "Discovering the Geography of North America with Books Kids Love." We have studied Washington State and Oregon so far and have loved all the picture books with Native American fables, stories of the Oregon Trail, learning about Mt. St. Helens, and much more about the Pacific Northwest that this mid-western mom didn't know anything about.

Today I sat down at my computer to put in my interlibrary loan requests for the California books. I wasn't nearly as happy with the recommendations for California as I had been the other two states. There were a several books on race riots in Los Angeles, more on the poor conditions for Mexican immigrants and migrant workers, still others on Japanese internment camps. Not that these aren't important issues, they most definitely are. And I don't believe there is anything to be gained from studying our history through rose-colored glasses. In fact, the dumbing down and outright rewriting of public school history is on my list of reasons to want to homeschool.

But the list of recommended books seemed too heavily weighted towards these topics for my comfort zone reading them aloud to an 8 year old. I would have liked to see more on the Native plants and animals of the state, the environment, the geography and the landmarks of the state. I did put a few of the others on hold. And I searched for others on topics I could think of, like the Redwoods, California Condors, and the Gold Rush. I have some books to look for when I'm at the library next week.

I am still looking for ideas. It is such a large state, I know there is more to it than was represented in the list from the book. If you have any ideas, either specific books or just topics please let me know.

Thanks!

Working with the lights on

We did not participate in Earth Hour and turn out our lights tonight. Not that a reduction in energy consumption isn't a good idea. Not that we aren't environmentalists. I think we are just non-conformists. We don't need to be guilted in to doing something good for the planet. We do a lot of good things everyday.

And we are skeptics.

Did you notice how convenient a time they chose for the Earth Hour for Big Business? Sure, we'll turn our lights out between 8 and 9 pm on a Saturday night. Hmmm. Coincidence? But they couldn't have picked a worse time for families. They picked the getting ready for bed, taking a bath, reading a book, having milk and a snack and finding pajamas hour for it.

Speaking of pajamas I got this stuck in my head earlier tonight:

"Pajammy to the left, pajammy to the right,
Everybody's wearing them for dancing tonight.
Jamma, jamma, jamma, jamma p.j."

(Please note, my little one is now 8. "Eight and a half mom!" I haven't gotten to read Pajama Time by Sondra Boynton in years. I might have the words slightly wrong. But it is still a catchy verse.)

The snow has melted. It was sunny and in the 50s. In fact it was nice enough for Violet to take her in-line skates out to practice. She actually let go of me and Mr. Incredible a few times. She is getting some balance. She still needs a lot of practice, but she really wants to learn.

I spent much of the day working. I have been assigned to a really big project at work. The money is good, but I don't know how I'll get it all done. I did come up with an idea for enlisting the help of others from the department. I'll broach it with my boss next week.

Tonight we ordered in pizza. The kid with the black hair spiked up a good four inches and all the piercings in his face forgot the garlic bread. He was really nice about it. He even looked to see what was in the other order he had to deliver. I think if that family would have had garlic bread he would have given it to us. But he couldn't find it and drove back with it a little later. Nice kid, but I don't think I'll stand next to him in an electrical storm.

While we ate we watched the movie "Enchanted", the Easter Bunny left it in Violet's Easter basket. It was a fun movie. We had not seen it in the theater. Funny how it is cheaper to buy the DVD than for the whole family to go to the theater to see the movie.

Tomorrow promises more of the same: work. But the money's good. And since the economy is so bad, I am not complaining.

March 27th!?

You can't tell from these photos, but it was snowing hard this afternoon. I wouldn't be surprised if we are up to 80 inches of snow total for the season. This is the view from my back door:



The snow was coming down on our tulips and daffodils that are trying hard to come up:



I think it will mostly melt by tomorrow. Snow this late in the season isn't unheard of. After the great tornado outbreak on April 21, 1967 the clean up efforts were delayed by a freak snowstorm. But it isn't very common. This snow wasn't as heavy or as slick as the one on Good Friday. The editor of our local paper called that snow "the consistency of a Slurpee," he was right. This was the lighter flakier stuff.

Tomorrow Violet and I have a shopping spree planned at the Girl Scout center. You can bet if I see the product sales director I'll mention Violet's missing dog. Our cookie chair blamed the delay on waiting for her to place a new order. The director gets enough "she said, she said" so I'll be more tactful but will ask if she knows the ETA of the dog.

Off to research ideas for a right-brained, hands-on learner to memorize her math facts. So far I like the idea of her learning all Multiplication Rock songs from Schoolhouse Rock.

Super Freak!

Thanks for all the wonderful comments the last day or two. I've been getting the cobwebs out of my brain and using the blog to do it. It is so nice to know I'm not alone in often feeling alone. What would we have all done before the internet? We wouldn't have been able to find each other.

I am taking MOM#1's advice to not be ordinary, be extraordinary! So from now on I'm thinking of myself as Superfreak! She's a freak, superfreak, that mom is freaky. Well, at least some people in real life have probably said the last part as I've left the room.

Is the song stuck in your heads, too? Then my work here is done.

Except to say that Violet loved her class, they hiked all over looking for tracks. She said they found a lot of deer tracks. The weather was beautiful today, sunny and in the 50s. And the ground was really muddy from all the melting snow. Perfect tracking weather.

The cupcake recipe is at the Girl Scout cookie website: ABC Cookies. Hover over Cinna-Spins. Cinna-Spins are similar to Cinnamon Teddy Grahams, I think they'd make a decent substitute, if you don't mind crushing teddy bears that is.

There was a front page article on homeschooling in my local paper today. Featured the self-proclaimed homeschool expert in our county (I'm just mad because about a year ago she called me ignorant in a e-mail loop, I'm sure she's totally clueless as to how rude and insensitive her remark was). The only other homeschool family interviewed had an 17 year old daughter who was about to graduate from college with a 14 year old sister about to start college. Why can't these articles ever feature normal kids? Like we need the press making us look any stranger. There was also a quote from someone from a teacher's union that was humorous. Said that homeschools needed more regulations because "All you have to do is register as a school and you’re in; there’s no checking of qualifications and curriculum.” Hee, hee, in Illinois we don't even have to "register" as a school. We just start homeschooling. Bwahahaha. Regulate that.

I put the paper in the recycle bin.

Spring Cyber-Cleaning

I've been working on cleaning up my cyber-life. I found myself frequenting forums that I just don't enjoy anymore. And receiving e-mails through Yahoo Groups I don't care for either. I don't feel like I fit in. Guess it is hard for a freak to find a place to be herself. I'm not an unschooler. I'm not a Christian homeschooler. I don't have a big family.

But I've figured out that blogging is where I do fit in. I blog. My friends blog. I enjoy writing and reading blogs. That is where I'm going to concentrate my efforts.

Blogging and Homeschool-Talk.com. I like HST a lot, and not just because I run it, but because people are nice there. I'm tired of people being mean and negative. Oh, I can complain with the best of them. But I can also say something nice. And I try to never hurt people's feelings. At HST people are nice, everyone is welcome, and we try to support each other through whatever we are going through. That's what I like in a forum.

I haven't actually deleted my accounts anywhere, but I have deleted a lot of my bookmarks. That slows me down from going back. And I haven't missed anything yet. I also changed my several of my Yahoo group memberships to no e-mail. I haven't missed getting messages from any of them either.

That leaves the only child Yahoo group I started a few weeks ago. That just isn't panning out like I'd hoped. I was rereading a lot of the messages yesterday and I thought that if I just joined and saw how mean and argumentative and negative they are, I would leave the group or certainly not participate. It was a good idea, the mix just wasn't right. Or maybe it lacked focus or leadership. I just know I don't have the energy or interest to do anything with it to try to save it. If anyone wants to try to save it, you are welcome to it. Let me know and I'll transfer the group ownership over to you. Otherwise I'll probably delete it soon. I'm not bitter about it, it just didn't work out. Lots of things don't pan out on the internet. You try them, then you move on to something else. Maybe I'll try something else this summer.

For now I need to concentrate on a really big project for work, Girl Scout Spring registration, and finishing up third grade. That's enough projects for me.

Cupcakes!

As promised, a photo of Violet and her Razzle Dazzle Cinnamon Carrot Cupcakes:




They were as delicious as they look! We still have extras so I put a few in the freezer today. I think they'll keep okay there.

In other news...

We had some school lessons today. Violet finished the last of the regular pages in Easy Grammar 3rd grade. Tomorrow or the next day she'll take the post-assessment test. I'm also going to have her do the few pages at the end book on letter writing on sentences. Then no more grammar until fall!

She also did a lot of math work. The combination of Miquon and Noble Knights of Knowledge is really working. She gets the concept beeter with the Knights. She can do the problems in Miquon as practice. One complaint I have about Knights is that there aren't many practice problems. Yes, I know, I'm a smart gal, I can easily make up math problems. I just don't want to. I love, love, love to make up my own curriculum and lessons, but I'm just too darned tired. The next math session we have she'll finish up the Blue Book in Miquon.

I called Cookie Chair to see if she'd heard anything about Violet's missing stuffed dog. She was almost rude saying she'd call me when it came in. Well, she doesn't have a very good communication track record this cookie season and I just don't believe her that she'll call me very quickly. Meanwhile Violet is waiting patiently and I'd really like to wrap up this cookie season.

I'm also following up on 8 missing registration forms for girls who sold cookies but are not yet officially members of Girl Scouts. Out of the 8, 7 of the forms are supposedly on their way to me. Should have been here by now. They aren't. I sent follow-up e-mail to the leaders. The leaders of girl number 8 never returned my first e-mail. I'm just trying to do my volunteer work here people, is it too hard to do what you'll say you'll do? I suspect that Violet's dog didn't make it here because Cookie Chair wasn't happy about hearing about the unregistered girls so late in the process. Guess what? She was the one who had all the listings of troops as well as the listings of who sold. I never once, and still don't, have access to who sold cookies. I got the list of girls from Council. Next year if they expect me to collect the registration forms after the fact, they are going to supply me with the information much earlier than this year.

Whew. Thanks for listening to all that. I kinda had to get it out of my system so I could put it on the back burner and forget about it for a while. If no one else cares enough to return my e-mail or call me, I don't either. I am just a volunteer.

Tomorrow Violet has a class called "Junior Trackers" at a local nature center. It looks like there are 7 kids signed up for it according to the online system. A really nice size. They get to make a cast of an animal print. I think she'll enjoy the class. I'm going to take it easy for an hour while she's in her class. Maybe I'll take a cupcake with me. And NOT think about Girl Scout cookies.

It's official

This is the snowiest winter on record for our county. The previous record was the winter of 78-79 when we had 74 and a half inches of snow. Last Friday's snow got us to almost 78 inches of snow! That's a lot of shoveling. The forecast says we might still get more snow later this week. Ugh.

Guess I wasn't the only one sliding on the snow/ice mixture last Friday. There were a lot of accidents that day. That snow was deceptively slippery. I thought I had driven in a lot of bad road conditions this winter, but that topped the snow heap. The funny thing is, as I was sliding out of control towards the side of the road I wasn't scared. I probably should have been. But I was actually annoyed. I was thinking what a pain in the neck it would be to get stuck in the snow and have to get a tow truck to haul me out.

Since the weather was clear tonight, after dinner Violet and I ran some errands. One thing we did was drop off the Linus blankets she made as part of the all service unit Girl Scout service project. I can't remember if I posted these before, but here are her blankets. The pink one is pink and purple tie dye with skull patterns. The red is just red.






She chose to make them the requested size for pre-teens or teens. And she thought the pink would be good for a girl, the red for a boy.

Happy Easter

We did make it up North on Saturday morning. The roads still had snow on them in some parts so we were really glad we didn't try to go on Friday night. We've had a nice visit so far. The Easter bunny found Violet here. Hid the eggs all over the grandparents' house. That was a nice change of pace from the boring places he finds year after year at our house.

Not sure what time we're leaving tonight to go home. There is a chance of more snow in the forecast, so we should be keeping an eye on the weather.

And just a side note. Did you know it is the 70's in Wisconsin. The decade that is. We stopped at a Taco Bell/KFC on our drive up for lunch and Casey Kasem was on the radio doing a count down. Then we got here and they had the 70's channel on both televisions. I had no idea the state of Wisconsin was still 3 decades behind.

Definitely not going tonight

I just tried to drive over to our library. Violet had a book come in through interlibrary loan and I wanted to get it for her. It is only about 2 miles away. There are nearly white-out conditions from the snow. And the road is the worst I've seen this entire winter. I tried to make a turn onto another road. I turned, I kept spinning. I made a full circle and was pointed back the way I'd come from. I took a deep breath and drove home. That was with 4-wheel drive on.

Violet wasn't with me. Mr. Incredible is working from home. He agreed, maybe tomorrow morning we'll make it to Wisconsin.

p.s. The carrot cupcakes are done. I'll try to post a picture a little later.

Snow

Yep, the snow is coming down. It started a few hours later than expected, but even in the hour I've been up it has picked up. We've got over an inch on the ground. I doubt we'll be traveling tonight. They are still calling for 6 to 10 inches of snow.

Piggy asked in comments, wasn't it cold waiting for my package to arrive yesterday? You'd think, but no yesterday was beautiful. It was sunny all day. Nearly 50 out. Violet spent time out on the swings. I was thinking this morning that in the days before forecasts and Weather Channel and radars, we would have been shocked to get up this morning and find ourselves in a blizzard.

My box of goodies did come yesterday. I bought the whole set of the "Key to" series for math. I had them all out on the family room floor and was sorting them out. Violet starts looking at them. Then asks if she can start one of them. We settle on Key to Measurement. She did 7 pages in the first book. We still have a way to go in Miquon, but there's certain enough Key to that she can do at the same time for fun and confidence boosting!

For now I'm going on with my day as if we are leaving tonight. We baked the cupcakes yesterday, today we must make the frosting and decorate them. Violet has several projects to finish up. I'll go ahead and pack.

Glad we didn't bother to start any clean up work out in the yard! Happy Spring!

Odds and Ends

We were supposed to pick up Violet's incentives from selling Girl Scout cookies and turn in the bank receipts for the money yesterday. But I got an e-mail from the cookie chair saying that Violet's stuffed dog wasn't in yet and I might as well wait and go over later to get it all at once. Since that was the main thing she's looking forward to getting we're waiting. I just wish she'd told me that before I told Violet we were going to get them. We decided that that stuffed dog was on the truck to go to the cookie chair's house. But then he got off the truck to chase butterflies and it left without him. I assured her we WILL get her incentives. There are always missing items. I don't know why, but there always are.

Not only are we supposed to get snow flurries tomorrow. Now we are under a winter storm watch. We could get 5-7 inches of snow tomorrow. We might not be driving up to Wisconsin until Saturday morning. If at all.

That'd be a real kicker if we didn't make it there. First we took two weeks to decide if we were going or not. Then Mr. Incredible's step mom and his dad have contacted us trying to figure out what to make for Easter dinner. Mr. Incredible isn't a vegetarian, but he practically is. He won't eat beef, pork, veal, lamb, shell fish, anything weird, mushrooms or eggs. Some of the foods are because of health reasons. Others because they gross him out. He's a challenge to cook for. But he doesn't expect anyone else to give up all that stuff just because of him. He'll eat bread and side dishes and be fine. It has been a royal to do assuring them of that. But step mom is making a turkey (one of the few meats he'll eat) instead of the ham she's made every other year probably her entire life.

My Rainbow Resources order is on the truck for delivery today! If you need me I'll be sitting on my front porch waiting for it.

I blame it on my public school education

Heck, I even went to a public state university. After 20 years give or take a semester in the public school system, who would expect me to score higher? Good thing I'm getting a second chance to learn it all.

By the way, I found this from my blogging friend Maria's site: Eclectically Yours,

Ugly

That's the only way to describe how it looks outside. Ugly. The grass is brown. The trees are bare and many of them broken from ice storms. The ground is muddy. The remaining traces of snow are dirty and black. It even smells bad out (like rotting leaves and things I can't identify - Violet said it smelled like a rat, rolled in cat poop and drowned).

Friday we are supposed to get snow flurries and possible snow accumulation. I don't have to tell you how that makes me feel.

But I am actually feeling good today. Violet and I got our hair cut this morning. I got 4 inches chopped off mine. I love it! She only got a tiny trim, and even that was under protest. After the stylist and I both assured her that her hair would grow faster and be easier to comb out with it trimmed up she agreed. But wasn't happy about it. I bought her a cherry Slurpee from 7-11 afterwards.

Violet has been making HUGE strides in math! I am so happy. Things are really clicking. She's been using Noble Knights of Knowledge to learn concepts she doesn't get through Miquon and using Miquon for the extra problems to practice. If one approach doesn't work, we drop it and try the other. She loves the story format of Knights. I like that Miquon has so much practice that I don't have to make up. She's about to finish the Blue book in Miquon which is the third of out the six books. Hoping to have her up to grade level by the end of the year. I think other than not having memorized her times tables, she'll be there.

I'm pretty sure I am going to order the Discovering Great Artists book I mentioned in my last post. I have it on interlibrary loan request. I thought we could do a test run with one lesson and see how it goes. Most people who've commented have liked it. The main complaint I've heard is not enough sample pictures, but we do have quite a few other reference books around. Hopefully that will work okay.

We are heading up to my in-laws in Wisconsin this weekend for Easter. We'll be going up Friday night. Violet is making Razzle Dazzle Cinnamon Carrot Cupcakes to take with. A picture of them and the recipe is here: ABC Cookies. It is another of our Girl Scout cookie recipes. They are delicious. I had one at a volunteer meeting. (I know Piggy, never drink the Kool-Aid OR eat the cupcakes.)

Curriculum Fever

It must be the avoidance of spring cleaning, but I am on a curriculum kick. I've ordered our next history, grammar and math. Now I'm shopping around for art. We don't need it urgently. I just have the urge to buy curriculum. I should have my computer taken away until the feeling passes. Or at least my credit card.

I have ordered Story of the World volume 4 and the activity guide. We've used volumes 1 through 3 (well, we're in 3 right now) so I've known for a long time I was going to get that. I got it from Amazon because it seems like they are eliminating a lot of the curricula they carry. They had it for a good price and free shipping.

I also ordered Editor in Chief Beginner for grammar next year. Violet's done well with Easy Grammar, but it is rather dull. With Editor in Chief they learn grammar by editing and finding mistakes. If there is one thing Violet loves to do it is point out other's mistakes. And if it turns out to be a mistake, we'll go back to Easy Grammar.

I also ordered the whole Key To series for math. We're still working in Miquon and using Noble Knights of Knowledge as a supplement, but I know I want her to use this series next. I'm also thinking she can start in it pretty soon. Maybe not. Both the math and Editor in Chief came from Rainbow Resources. I have to pay sales tax from them because they are located in Illinois, but technically I'm supposed to pay the state sales tax on any out of state purchase.

I'm looking at several art books on Amazon, but I don't know. Anyone have any recommendations? My favorite is Discovering Great Artists: Hands on Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters.

Maybe I'll see if I can get it through interlibrary loan and check it out first. That might justify the purchase more.

Its gone!!!

For the last 2 months there's been a huge mound of ice and snow at the end of our drive way. It was at least 8 inches high and in some parts as much as 3 feet wide. It is where Mr. Incredible got too worn out to keep shoveling and the snow plow piled it up higher. Every time I drove in or out of the drive way the car would have to go over it. Bump, bump, thump. Don't be taking a sip of your coffee at the time or you'd be wearing it. I couldn't even hold my arm steady enough to push the garage door opener button while going over it.

And the ice mound extended to in front of the mail box. I had to climb the snow mount every day to get to the mail box. I had to walk across the ice mound to get there, then climb up the pile to reach the box. I kept thinking I was going to fall and slide out into the street right under the wheels of a passing delivery truck.

But yesterday it finally melted! I don't have to wear boots to get the mail anymore! I can drive out without a huge thump (well, unless I hit a neighbor kid who are now all out on the sidewalk again).

I'm free! I'm free! Spring is almost sprung!!

Quick follow-up

Violet didn't get home until almost 7:00 last night. She was invited to stay for dinner.

It just confirms my suspicions, she is not a bad house guest. They would have packed her home long before that if she was.

Now the question. Why doesn't she get invited to other homes more? Playdates are almost always here. Because I'm the one who calls and initiates. So the other parent says sure Little Susie can come over and play. Never once, how about if Violet plays here?

I suspect it is because people are too self-centered and wrapped up in their own lives. No one stops to think how one sided they are. They are so busy that everything and everyone who isn't in their face everyday (at school, at the bus stop, at after school activities) gets forgotten.

Last night when she was getting out of the shower Violet said to me, "Red does a better job at keeping up with her friends than I do with mine." I tried to assure her that Red doesn't. She just sees them every day at school. And that she probably isn't very close with most of them. Just like Violet she probably has 3 or 4 she's really close with, the rest she just knows.

I don't think it was much of a consolation. I guess it is my job to be calling and inviting the other girls over and supervising them each and every time. After all it is my job to make sure Violet has kids to play with. But I just have too many jobs right now. I can't do it all. If only it weren't so one sided I could probably manage.

Whew

Violet had a birthday party to attend today. It was held across the street in her best friend's house. They had a lady come with exotic animals to pet and meet. There were 15 girls at the party. Violet knew the birthday girl, her little sister and one other girl. We'd practiced all morning what to do in certain situations. How to politely decline petting an animal. What to do if the party got overwhelming. How to respond to people and how to make small talk.

I just stopped over there. The party is over but she's been invited to stay and play a while longer. The birthday mom (who knows Violet really well) said she got a little teary-eyed at the beginning, but warmed up and relaxed more when the animals showed up. The mom made sure Violet was sitting next to the birthday girl or the sister. She didn't pressure Violet to pet any animals, or eat a cupcake. Just made the offer and said that's fine if Violet said no thank you. Why can't more grown-ups do that?

I'm so glad. This was Violet's first big outing since several public breakdowns in December. And this outing had a lot more people and a lot more that she didn't know. I had assured her it was okay not to participate in every activity at a party but that you just needed to be polite about it. And I encouraged her to slip away to the bathroom if she needed a minute, wash her hands or get a drink of water, then return.

I'm so glad it went smoothly.

Light switches should not be sideways

I can never tell which way is on or off on our sideways light switch for our porch lights. And since I can't easily see the lights when I try to turn them on, I have to go out to see if I've just turned them on or off. Mr. Incredible can seem to remember if the switch is pointing to the left or right means on or off. How that works when there is another porch light switch in the garage is beyond me!

And why Mr. Incredible can remember the light switch pointing left means the light is on, but he can't remember that I have a meeting to go to that night that is posted on his computer calendar, is also beyond me.

There was a little incident with light switches the other night. There would be a lot more family harmony if all switches could just go up and down like they are supposed to. And if there were only one switch to control each light.

My poor brain just can't handle sideways switches.

Lots of errands

Today we needed to go to the library to pick up all those interlibrary loan books that came in. And I had to stop at the post office to mail our taxes (we're getting a little bit of money back - hooray!). My boss asked if Violet and I wanted to meet up for ice cream. She lives nearby and was working from home. She also had the last of the cookie money from my office. We said sure. Since that would take us past the grocery store, we added that to the list.

Turns out our ice cream date became a work meeting. She had just gotten off a conference call before meeting us and had a big project to assign me. (More hours - the checking account will really like that). I didn't realize we would be talking so much business or I would have taken Violet something to do, but she did fine. And the boss brought her a chocolate Easter bunny and some Peeps!

On the way to the grocery store Violet opened the Peeps and tried some. She later determined that 2 Peeps in the backseat of a moving vehicle, on top of ice cream, is one Peep too many. I was a little afraid there'd be pink Peep projectile. But there wasn't.

School was mostly canceled for the day because our errand list got bigger and bigger. But I did have Violet take the third grade reading comprehension proficiency test from Texas. Illinois doesn't require testing of homeschoolers, but Mr. Incredible and I want to do our own periodic testing just to make sure she's on track. She is. She scored a 35 out of 36 on the test. That deserved the rest of the day off. Sometime in April we'll give her the math test. She's been working really hard on her math the last month. I'm confident she'll do well on it too. Especially after another month of hard work.

We were hoping to go to homeschool open gym at the gymnastics place tomorrow, but the gym has canceled it. They haven't gotten a high enough attendance the last few months. This is the first time all year we didn't have a conflict on the open gym day. Bummer. But I do think we are both rather looking forward to being at home all day tomorrow.

Catching up

I spent yesterday catching up for work. My big accounting client's work is completely done! That felt good to finish up. I should be in for a quiet time since everyone at work is completely swamped. They will be too busy to send me stuff. Of course, it will catch up in the end and they'll all send it at once.

The cookies are all delivered (except for 3 out of town family members who we'll see eventually). Violet added up all the checks on the 10-key (adding machine) yesterday, then figured how much I needed to write my check for - yikes! I kept the cash out that people paid and just put in a check for the remainder. I have to deposit it all in the bank but I'll have to wait until Tuesday to do it. The cookie chair forgot to give me deposit endorsement stickers to go on the back of each check and I don't want to write it all out. The product sales coordinator at Council said she'd give me some at Monday night's meeting.

I also spent some time yesterday interlibrary loan requesting books. We'll be starting our geography studies with the west coast, Washington State in particular. And we're moving into the American Revolution in history.

Last night Violet couldn't fall asleep. I think she wanted to get back up and read more of her book. She gets so focused on things and can't see past them. I think that was what was keeping her up last night. I'm going to go drag her out of bed when I'm done with this entry. Otherwise she'll be up till midnight tonight too.

I'm going to take her out to Michael's this afternoon. She has a birthday party next weekend and wants to get craft stuff for the present (it is on the birthday girl's list). We'll also actually go to the library (I did my interlibrary loaning at home over the internet). Hopefully that will give Mr. Incredible some time to get some projects done that he wants to do.

I would like to report that it became March and spring was here. But it isn't. It is sunny and warm today but there's still snow all over the ground. Last night I got wondering how many days we've had snow cover on the ground. Most winters we get snow, it lasts a few days and it melts. It has just stayed and stayed this winter.

Hope all of you with cases of the ickies are feeling better!