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I believe I used to write things, here.
Sep. 17th, 2012 05:59 pmToday is a day off from my weekday "days off". Evelyn's school is really big on having days off from school. Today it's a planning day, but every single month has something, and most of them have multiple somethings. Next month, there's a week off for fall break and an extra one day off for another teacher planning day. These teachers, they must like to plan. :) It's just very different from when I was in school. We hardly ever had days off, much less a week off in the fall. Of course, we didn't start at the beginning of August either. Unfortunately, we're all sick. Or maybe Evie isn't sick. I'm not really sure. M went to the doctor this morning. In a completely unlikely turn of events, we both got sick and HE is the one with the unexplainable skin condition. He has these pink red dots all over. She thought it was a virus, but also thought he should not go on to work like he was planning, so he had an unexpected long weekend. It's the weirdest illness I've experienced in a while. The absolute worst part for me was being awakened in the middle of the night Friday night with the worst headache I've ever had. I was awake for an hour or so with it, and then when I got out of bed int he morning, it came back and there may have been tears, but it gradually went away again. Thank goodness!
(FYI: Google says having a headache severe enough to wake you up, or having a different sort of headache than usual, or one that you would classify as the worst headache of your life are all reasons to see a doctor right away. Unfortunately, my head hurt too damned bad to get out of bed at two in the morning and start googling, so I didn't find that out until later. Oops.)
Guys, having a child in school is not like I thought it would be. I have a ton of things that I think I have time for now, and it turns out that I don't have much more time than I did before, somehow. I feel like by the time I really get a handle on it, the year will be over. Time is flying. And then there's all the STUFF that she brings home. Homework and notices about community events and school events like a literacy night, math night, an event hosted by the school counselor, pta meetings. I thought about sending in a little note to the teacher to explain that it's not that I'm not involved in my child's education, but as long as these things were all hosted on Tuesday evenings, I was going to continue to not be able to attend, since that's when Evelyn has violin lessons. Then I realized that the event I was thinking about was actually on Wednesdays... and I also can't make it then, either, unless I take Evie with me and she does not want to go to this stuff. She is overwhelmed at the amount of time she spends away from home already. We've never been big on going places all the time, as I've mentioned before--not just because of me. She's never liked leaving the house.
I am really proud of her self-awareness, though. If you're a Facebook friend, you've probably seen this, but she actually decided to quit ballet and tap this year. She has been really excited about it all summer, and she was really excited about the first class. The day of her second class, we told her it was ballet day, and she started whining about not wanting to go that day, she was too tired. She was saying that she still wanted to do it, etc etc, just not right then.. but that's what happened at the end of the year last year, too, and M and I were united on not wanting to fight about it for a whole year. So, I sat her down and told her that we wouldn't be mad at her if she chose not to do ballet this year, but we wouldn't be quitting now and restarting in a few months. I went through the pros and cons of the whole thing, and also told her that if she did choose to quit ballet, she could OCCASIONALLY take gymnastics again. Occasionally. Did you hear me say occasionally? *lol* There's only a four-week commitment with that one. ;) She loves to dance but having extracurricular activities two evenings a week was just too much for her when she's still adjusting to being gone seven hours a day. To be honest, it was quite a lot for me, too, especially since there was no possibility of M taking her to either of them this year. Last year, he could have taken her to ballet every week. He usually didn't, but having the option was nice. She started out saying of course she still wanted to do it, but when she really thought about it, she decided against it, which I thought was pretty mature. And, the dance studio actually refunded the first month's tuition. I still need to sell the shoes (which will hurt, considering there are two pairs and they were both worn only once) but we didn't end up losing as much money on this as I thought--and it'll still be cheaper than continuing with dance all year. ;) Anyway, I really think dropping one of her classes was the right choice, and dropping violin wasn't an option.
Hmm.. just so I don't come across as one of those scary parents forcing their child to be musical against their will--she eventually will have the option to quit violin if she wants to. Right now, though, I think she has to learn that she can't quit things right away just because it's hard. We've fought over practice since May, and something has finally clicked. Twice this week, she has done her practice before I even reminded her to do it, and she has admitted that it's getting fun now. She really still wanted to go to the classes, but she didn't want it to require WORK. Dare I hope that the message has been received?
I finally got around to signing up for Goodreads this weekend and have been having a lot of fun adding in books that I have read and enjoyed and adding books to my to-read list. I feel a little self-conscious about how trashy some of my reading is but not enough to care too much. I enjoy it. I don't watch much television. It evens out. I have been in dire need of new reading material. My book reader was desperately low on entertainment and I had no clue what I wanted to read next. Fun fun fun.
A long time ago, I posted about the process of becoming members at our church and how it involved walking up to the front and being introduced to everyone at the end of the service. We are all about the procrastination so we finally got around to officially joining last week. Why, certainly, I finally got up the nerve because I was having a good hair day. We are relieved to have that over with, though truly, nothing much has changed. One of the things we are working on, though, is becoming more involved in the church because it's a nice place and they are nice people and it is SO. GOOD. for the kidlet. She went to her first youth group meeting yesterday and she loved it, can't wait to go back. They did all sorts of enriching activities, and they feed them before it starts. So, an hour and a half of child-free time on a Sunday evening, when M is home? I think, my friends, that we have just established Date Night. And... it's right across the low-traffic street. I could be there in thirty seconds if I needed to. So very excellent.
(FYI: Google says having a headache severe enough to wake you up, or having a different sort of headache than usual, or one that you would classify as the worst headache of your life are all reasons to see a doctor right away. Unfortunately, my head hurt too damned bad to get out of bed at two in the morning and start googling, so I didn't find that out until later. Oops.)
Guys, having a child in school is not like I thought it would be. I have a ton of things that I think I have time for now, and it turns out that I don't have much more time than I did before, somehow. I feel like by the time I really get a handle on it, the year will be over. Time is flying. And then there's all the STUFF that she brings home. Homework and notices about community events and school events like a literacy night, math night, an event hosted by the school counselor, pta meetings. I thought about sending in a little note to the teacher to explain that it's not that I'm not involved in my child's education, but as long as these things were all hosted on Tuesday evenings, I was going to continue to not be able to attend, since that's when Evelyn has violin lessons. Then I realized that the event I was thinking about was actually on Wednesdays... and I also can't make it then, either, unless I take Evie with me and she does not want to go to this stuff. She is overwhelmed at the amount of time she spends away from home already. We've never been big on going places all the time, as I've mentioned before--not just because of me. She's never liked leaving the house.
I am really proud of her self-awareness, though. If you're a Facebook friend, you've probably seen this, but she actually decided to quit ballet and tap this year. She has been really excited about it all summer, and she was really excited about the first class. The day of her second class, we told her it was ballet day, and she started whining about not wanting to go that day, she was too tired. She was saying that she still wanted to do it, etc etc, just not right then.. but that's what happened at the end of the year last year, too, and M and I were united on not wanting to fight about it for a whole year. So, I sat her down and told her that we wouldn't be mad at her if she chose not to do ballet this year, but we wouldn't be quitting now and restarting in a few months. I went through the pros and cons of the whole thing, and also told her that if she did choose to quit ballet, she could OCCASIONALLY take gymnastics again. Occasionally. Did you hear me say occasionally? *lol* There's only a four-week commitment with that one. ;) She loves to dance but having extracurricular activities two evenings a week was just too much for her when she's still adjusting to being gone seven hours a day. To be honest, it was quite a lot for me, too, especially since there was no possibility of M taking her to either of them this year. Last year, he could have taken her to ballet every week. He usually didn't, but having the option was nice. She started out saying of course she still wanted to do it, but when she really thought about it, she decided against it, which I thought was pretty mature. And, the dance studio actually refunded the first month's tuition. I still need to sell the shoes (which will hurt, considering there are two pairs and they were both worn only once) but we didn't end up losing as much money on this as I thought--and it'll still be cheaper than continuing with dance all year. ;) Anyway, I really think dropping one of her classes was the right choice, and dropping violin wasn't an option.
Hmm.. just so I don't come across as one of those scary parents forcing their child to be musical against their will--she eventually will have the option to quit violin if she wants to. Right now, though, I think she has to learn that she can't quit things right away just because it's hard. We've fought over practice since May, and something has finally clicked. Twice this week, she has done her practice before I even reminded her to do it, and she has admitted that it's getting fun now. She really still wanted to go to the classes, but she didn't want it to require WORK. Dare I hope that the message has been received?
I finally got around to signing up for Goodreads this weekend and have been having a lot of fun adding in books that I have read and enjoyed and adding books to my to-read list. I feel a little self-conscious about how trashy some of my reading is but not enough to care too much. I enjoy it. I don't watch much television. It evens out. I have been in dire need of new reading material. My book reader was desperately low on entertainment and I had no clue what I wanted to read next. Fun fun fun.
A long time ago, I posted about the process of becoming members at our church and how it involved walking up to the front and being introduced to everyone at the end of the service. We are all about the procrastination so we finally got around to officially joining last week. Why, certainly, I finally got up the nerve because I was having a good hair day. We are relieved to have that over with, though truly, nothing much has changed. One of the things we are working on, though, is becoming more involved in the church because it's a nice place and they are nice people and it is SO. GOOD. for the kidlet. She went to her first youth group meeting yesterday and she loved it, can't wait to go back. They did all sorts of enriching activities, and they feed them before it starts. So, an hour and a half of child-free time on a Sunday evening, when M is home? I think, my friends, that we have just established Date Night. And... it's right across the low-traffic street. I could be there in thirty seconds if I needed to. So very excellent.
