My van brakes no longer make a horrible creaking noise every time I stop. I paid for this particular happiness with a significant pile of money, but we’ll be launching our holiday sales push next week and hopefully that will bring in enough to cover it. (And Howard’s car battery, and Patch’s Xray. Some months are unexpectedly expensive.)
Gleek started a Polynesian dance class. She gets to learn hula as well as Maori and Tahitian dances. She likes it because many of the dances include props that swing or make noise. I like it because it is a studio run in a woman’s garage and is very welcoming to people of any heritage. I don’t expect that Gleek will want to make a career out of Polynesian dance (a career which would be hampered by her Caucasian appearance) I just want her to have a chance to learn skills she enjoys. So far so good.
Link had his first band concert. They played two songs, which we are informed by the band teacher, is pretty impressive considering they’ve only learned 5 notes so far. Link announced proudly once the concert was over “There was only one squeak!” Practice is paying off I guess.
I’m up to 12,000 words on my book project. I’m not using word count as a measure of completion. The book will be however long it needs to be. But watching the number of words increase is satisfying.
Kiki has begun managing her own homework without me. She’s planning her schedule and getting things done without my intervention. This is worlds better than in September when she would melt into a puddle and I would scrape her up and convince her to keep going. “It feels really good.” She said. “It feels…”
“Grown up?” I asked.
“Yeah. Grown up.”
“You know, managing your own things and getting stuff done even when you don’t want to is kind of one of the definitions of being grown up.”
Kiki laughed.
Howard finished scripting for the current Schlock book. He wrestled with scripts all day yesterday and could not get them the way that he wanted. Today he realized what was wrong and they all cascaded into place. I laughed out loud when I read them. I’m looking forward to putting this together as a book.
I made dinner and everyone ate it without complaining.
I found a love seat cover on clearance which will make my front room couch stop being an embarrassing eyesore.
Patch has become very self-sufficient with his reading. He picks his own books and reads them. We had him moved up to chapter books in the home reading program at his request. One of his sadnesses right now is that he does not have very much homework to do. Patch has also been writing stories, some of which I really love. I may ask his permission to post one later.