It’s crunch time for NaBloPoMo, and although I have lasted longer this time than any other year when I attempted it, if I make it through the last few days it will be a miracle. It’s nothing but sheer stubbornness that is keeping me going at this point, really.
We have house guests coming to stay this weekend – a family of four from our travel group. Sport is excitedly planning our activities, while I am staring around the house thinking hmm, guess I’d better clean up. And get some of these jobs that have been on my to-do list for a year (like, hang up curtains in living room) finally done. And maybe figure out where they are going to sleep.
So it’s been a little crazy over here. Plus this week features parent teacher conferences, book fairs, doctor’s appointments, and me needing to update all my homestudy paperwork (yep, it’s been a year.)
In other words, I’m going to keep posting every day if it kills me, but I’m not promising quality here.
Filed under: offspring
It was report card day today at Sport’s school. I think it took me longer to decipher his 4 page report card than it did for him to do reach his “outcomes”.
He got mostly “P”s, if that means anything to you. It sure didn’t to me. There are also some “C”s which are good! Who knew? And a couple of “A”s, which are not as good. (Who knew?)
Could we please just revert to alphabetical order? I know I sound like an old fogey here, but seriously, what was wrong with letter grades? Ah well, at least he didn’t get any “T”s, since as any Hogwarts student can tell you, that stands for Troll.
Filed under: offspring
Sport walked in just now while I was on the computer and delivered the following punch to the gut:
“Mom. In Ethiopia, I fit in. In Canada, I don’t fit in.”
“Do you think so? What do you mean by “fit in’?”
“In Ethiopia everyone has brown skin. In Canada almost everyone has white skin.”
“Well, there are people in Canada with all different colours of skin, because people here are from all over the world. Like S and J at daycare, or B and F in your swimming class.”
“Some people have brown skin, but most people have white skin.”
“That’s true. Would you rather live somewhere where there were more people with brown skin?”
“Yeah. Except the bad thing is then I would have to make new friends.”
Not unexpected or anything, but still a reminder that challenges are going to be completely outside my experience.
Filed under: life in general
Here is a picture of Friday night’s supper prep. You will notice it is a little different from the supper prep photo I posted earlier in the week.
And if you’re wondering what the heck that is beside the Corona – that, my friends, is a Friday Afternoon Hammer. Some genius replaced the claw with a bottle opener. Is that not the best thing ever to keep in your kitchen drawer?
Filed under: offspring
Oh, it went just fine, of course. No 11 pm come-get-me phone call, no 5 am come-get-your-kid-he’s-making-us-mental call, and I got to sleep in until 8:30. I’ll tell you, there is not much sadder than realizing that 8:30 now qualifies as “sleeping in”.
The only drawback to the sleepover, according to Sport, was this shocker: “Mom. Did you know that some people don’t eat breakfast on Saturday until EIGHT O’CLOCK?? That is way too late. I have been up for hours by then.”
Thankfully, he did not wake everyone up at 5 am, which I was a bit afraid of. Although he had been told it was fine to get up and play or read, apparently he just stayed in bed until his friend woke up too. Now if I could just get him to do that at home…
So, sleeping away from home without Mom, check. Since sometime in the next two years I may have to leave him for a week to go and get Little Brother, my intention is to work on some gradually lengthening trial runs, and this was a start. (I say “may” have to leave him because it is possible Sport might come too. It’ll depend on when it happens, how he feels about going back to Ethiopia for a visit, and whether or not I have another adult to travel with me. I’m not too sure how Sport will react when re-immersed in the sights, smells, and sounds of his old home. Handling the transition for a new child along with a possible total meltdown on the other child’s part might be a bit much for me if I was flying solo.)
I dropped Sport off at a friend’s house tonight for his first sleepover. Sure, he’s slept over at other people’s houses or cabins before, but I’ve always been there. This will be the first time since the day we met that I won’t be there overnight.
I hadn’t really thought about how I would feel about this, being more concerned with how Sport would handle it. Turns out that “mildly nauseous” is the best descriptor of my current state. Sport, on the other hand, seemed fine. This is a family who was in our travel group to Ethiopia after all, and they are practically a second family for him. I think it will be fine, but I won’t be totally shocked if I get an 11 pm “come get me” phone call.
Filed under: random whining
“Morals” and “values” are not precisely the same thing. Please do not substitute words when you quote me, especially when I know I was on tape. It makes me sound like even more of a doofus, and frankly, I don’t need help with that.
Guess what we had for supper tonight? Here are some of the key ingredients:
Missing from photo: entire bag of onions, three saucepans, and the shambles that is my stove. Cooking with all that oil and berbere does make a mess.
Filed under: life in general
A few blocks away from our house, there is a house with a giant flagpole in the yard. The flags that are flown on it seem to change at random. Sometimes it’s the Canadian flag, sometimes the provincial flag, sometimes the Royal Standard of Scotland, sometimes it’s the football club logo, and for a while it was a skull and crossbones. (No, it wasn’t Halloween.)
This morning I drove by and did a double take. Dude is now flying the Confederate flag.
Uh… I’m not sure what to make of this. Is he a Dukes of Hazzard fan? A Son of the Daughters of the Confederacy? A member of the Aryan Nation? Or just a completely clueless Canadian, who has no idea of the connotations of that flag? I’m not sure, but I’m keeping a closer eye on that flagpole now.
Filed under: offspring
No, I’m not talking about the lack of sleep this time. Actually this morning wasn’t bad, Sport didn’t wake up until almost 6 am. Miraculous! But between then and when I got up, he was working on a project. And when I finally stumbled downstairs, he announced, “Guess what! I am writing a book. A book about how to solve problems.” Well, excellent. I would like to read such a book. “It’s not done yet. It will be long when it’s done, but it’s not done.” Ok then.
While he was having breakfast I took some clean laundry into his room and sure enough, there was page 1 on his desk, titled “How to Solv Probolems”.
The first problem he is choosing to tackle?
“What to do when you wear your favorit shirt to school and then your frend says it dosnt match your pants.”
Seriously, this kid kills me.
