Howard: Still love him. Makes me laugh. Takes care of many things so I don’t have to. Sometimes makes dishes and laundry that I have to clean up, but sometimes cleans up after me.
Kiki: Still enjoying junior high. Has figured out that a small application of effort on a daily basis is all that is necessary for her to achieve straight A grades. Still struggles with maintaining a regular sleeping schedule. Is sometimes too hard on her younger siblings. Takes care of her own homework and chores without me having to nag, (much). Recently figured out that hanging out with a friend after school is more fun than sitting at home mostly bored.
Link: Likes his teacher isn’t complaining about school. Still taking daily medication for ADD. Gets his work done in class most of the time. Is beginning to wrap his head around earning scout merit badges. Loves his once-per-week tumbling class, but could use more physical activity in general. Still highly motivated by all things video game. Still misses Bestfriend who moved away over two years ago, but has also started forming a bond with Newfriend here in the neighborhood and spends a good portion of his afternoons playing.
Gleek: Not real happy about school right now. Struggling to control herself and follow instructions during class. She often fails. The academics are easy for her, which may be part of the problem. Edit: after discussion with her teacher, it seems Gleek’s problem is not boredom, but rather that she gets too involved and resists switching. Loves her once-per-week gym class. Not so thrilled about the once-per-week piano lessons, but loves to pick out tunes on the piano. Will spend long periods of time reading. Has been listening to an audio book of Anne of Green Gables at bedtime.
Patch: Enjoys kindergarten. Proudly shows off his papers as soon as he walks in the door. Is a beginning reader able to blend short words with short vowel sounds. Loves to build with legos and draw. Needs to talk to sort his thoughts. Frequently has trouble settling down to go to sleep at night. Still gets up in the night to crawl into bed with us or with Kiki. Enjoys having half a day with no other kids in the house. Has friends living in both next door houses and in our backyard neighbor’s house.
Writing: I’m just getting started again after a 10 month hiatus. So far it is going slowly. Thursdays are my days to be a writer first. The other days of the week business gets precedence.
Business: Predictably December has included a lot of shipping. Even Amazon.com has been stocking up on Schlock books. I began a preliminary layout on margin art for OFU. Next will come scanning and prepping images. Starting in January we’ll be doing some marketing things and putting out more merchandise. We’ll be doing some marketing for Hold Horses as well.
Gardening: The outside garden is dormant. I have a winter garden again. This year I’m trying out bulb forcing. I’ve planted hyacinths, lilies, and narcissus. The narcissus have nice green shoots but no flowers yet. The hyacinths are just peeking above ground. The lilies are still looking like a pot of dirt. I haven’t been as desperate for flowers this year. I think that is a measure of how much less stressed I am this year.
Frugal living: Not doing so well here. I need to get back to meal planning and cooking from scratch. Also, I should make a trip to the thrift store for next summer’s clothing.
House: Howard and I have been doing some small maintenance repairs. We’ve also been working harder at keeping things clean. It is an improvement, but we’ve still got lots to do to make up for the years of living with little-to-no maintenance.
Church: I’m still a primary teacher. I miss getting to go to an adult class, but I’m so grateful for all the people who are and were teachers for my kids. It is my turn to be a teacher for someone else’s kids.
Extended Family: Got to see lots of family in November. I’ll probably see lots more in January/February/March because of scheduled events.
Holiday shopping: Not done yet, but close.
Health: Not feeling well today. Also I’ve passed the high end of weight that I consider acceptable. I’ve started going back to the gym, but it is more miss than hit so far.
Sounds pretty good, all round. I hope you get to do some writing, you’re good at it.
For what it’s worth, you can tell Kiki from me (if you want) that it’s a good plan to notice the point at which you can’t any more get straight As from just being smart, and start doinf a bit more work – leave it too late and you don’t have the necessary habit of working to succeed at higher grades, esepcially college and university where you often get less hassle from teachers or lecturers to actually do the work – you’re meant to hassle yourself. Looking back on thwe latter part of my schooling, I missed that point where starting to do more work would have paid off later. Whether, had I done so and not made a hash of my “A” levels (exams at 18 where you qualify for university, whatever that equates to in the US system), I’d have been a better, richer or more fulfilled person is of course something that I can’t know. Perhaps I’d have been a burned-out dot-com boom person by now…
Link: good news abotu newfriend, hopefully in the spring they get to do more active stuff together.
Gleek: is there any way she can do more gym or similar? Maybe that’d make the classroom stuff easier to bear? Alternatively, maybe scope for some slightly harder academic stuff to stretch her mind a bit more. It’s real hard to sit still and do stuff if it’s boring and easy.
Lookin’ forward to the new merch in the spring!
When I was Gleek’s age, I was bored stiff in school. In first grade, my teacher flunked me on a reading test because I finished so fast that I had my answers and then started doodling the answers to the oral test she was giving to the lower reading class behind us. Yep, that’s right: instead of noticing how smart and bored I was, she flunked me. We moved the next month, and my other 1st grade teacher noticed that I’d been able to read large books for a while and told my mom I should be tested for gifted–that made all the difference. Is Gleek in a gifted program? It might challenge her enough to avoid the boredom.
I will give an amen to “notice when you should start applying effort”.
I’m very, very smart, but failed to notice when I should start putting effort into school. As such, my study/work habits are horrid to the point that I’ve taken ENGL 110 5 or 6 times. I just can’t get my head around the concept of “WRITE THE PAPER, YOU IDIOT!!!”
Yeah, sometimes I’m a lil slow. 🙂
Funny “Anne” story.
Way back in the day, Disney did a great adaptation of these books (I call them great now, back then I complained about how I wanted to see Star Wars). During the early stages of the first one, Anne says something in the schoolhouse along the lines of “she is my bosum friend”.
Now, I have always been a most precosious child, and knew (one of) the definition(s) of “bosum”, which led to much confusion.
A young boy should not be beset by such confusion…
Gleek’s task switching
I had a nephew, who was living with us, who had difficulty switching tasks even at the age of 11. We started giving him a schedule i.e. “At 6:00 we’ll be eating dinner.” We would also give him 5 minute warnings before events. It helped him have more control over his time and allowed him to detach from what he was doing. You might want to ask Gleek’s teacher if she is doing something similar.
I like this idea for a post, Sandra. And I also loved the Santa letter below. Very sweet. Good luck with the gym. I want to say, “weight, schmeight.” But I have been past my high end before and it feels yucky. Either way, you’re still beautiful!
p.s.–I forgot to sign my comment–it’s me, Wendy. Have a great weekend!