Let's try a post about me

[drwex]

I realized in conversation at the Diesel last night that I'd sort of "lost track" of Monday, so I figure writing things down is a good way to combat my encroaching senility.

I'm off Tu/We/Th this week because I have vacation days I have to burn and with L's very odd school schedule(*) one or the other of us would have to be off much of the week anyway. And since Pygment loses income by taking off days, I'm elected.

Saturday was End of Summer, at which Pygment was sort of not feeling well but then got her energy back enough to spin. I had my own social issues but fortunately for me mizarchivist showed up and I was allowed to vent them slightly at her. Item of note: MizA is awesome. The party overall was good, the boys did well, and spinning was recorded. (See earlier post.)

Sunday was mostly a nap day as we were all feeling low energy. Somehow MizA managed to get us motivated to go apple-picking (did I mention awesome?) in the afternoon. The weather was gorgeous and the picking was fun and we now have to figure out what to do with 20 lb of apples. There will also be a return trip in October, after the first frost, to get macouns.

Monday was heavy cleaning day, with the kids' rooms as the major targets and Pygment as prime motivator. L's room got a thorough going-over and K's got somewhat mucked out. The messes in kid rooms are sort of like the tide - they rise and fill up every available space. It had just been a long time since the tide had gone out. It's out now but no doubt will rise again. A prime motivator for L cleaning his room was the desire to have (space for) the game Killer Bunnies, which the boys had played at End of Summer and which I'd offered to pay for if he did the work.

Monday was also game-shopping day. We failed to find KB locally, bought K a new hula hoop (see videos, again) and discovered that somehow my elder had saved up enough of his own money to buy a Nintendo DS. Price-comparing showed that the best deal was a used DS at GameStop (the new DSi is out and lots of folk have upgraded and turned in their lightly used older DSs). I'm still in shock that my son managed to accumulate the $143 for the hand-held and the game (Pokemon).

Yesterday I took L for his orientation at school, then more shopping - including calling Your Move Games to determine they didn't have Killer Bunnies so I ordered online from some small game store in Florida. Montessori school requires both slippers for the classroom and un-street-soiled gym shoes. The child's feet have gotten huge! We stopped for lunch at a 99 restaurant, which confirmed my suspicion that their attempts to up-scale themselves haven't improved the food any. But it was what the kid wanted, so... OK. Oh and then more nappage. Sleep is not my friend lately.

Two more days of 'staycation' and chores to go...

(*) Tuesday was parent/student orientation for two hours in the AM; Wed is a half day ending at 11:30; Thursday is no school at all. Friday is the first full day, with aftercare.

Comments

[mizarchivist]

Thanks- I had fun, too.

I strongly urge you to leave some apples at my house for magical transformations. What is your opinion on smooth apple sauce over previous season lumpy type?

Applesauce good

[drwex]

I tend to like lumpy but if it happens to come out smooth I suppose I can't exactly complain.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Saturday was Beginning of Summer

Yipes, you have lost track! :-)

DOH

[drwex]

will fix, thanks.

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

It was nice seeing the boys on Saturday. Killer Bunnies (and the booster decks) can be obtained from a great independent toy store in Westford called The Toy Shop of Westford (http://toyshopofwestford.com/). It's 10 minutes from Keystone and it's where Isaac got his copy of Killer Bunnies last year (which he saved up for). You also might consider 3 Trolls in Chelmsford for your future gaming needs (http://www.3trolls.com/). It's also about 10 minutes from Keystone ( sensing a theme here? :-) )

Thanks for the pointers

[drwex]

Good to know. I don't get up there often but maybe Pygment will.

[fairion.livejournal.com]

Yay for Killer Bunnies. That is a rough first week schedule. Why is there no school today?

Two classes

[drwex]

They have two classes and each has a half-day orientation/get-acclimated day. Wednesday was the day for L's class; today it's the other class. Each class has a teacher and an assistant, but the orientation also involves the other activity teachers and the after-school people who are not duplicated resources.

[mrw42.livejournal.com]

Who comes up with these school schedules? It's like they have never heard of families where both parents work... We made it through our complicated first days, and things are starting to settle down. Now if we can just work out a stable carpool schedule for Owen's school! (He's going to private school this year at Sparhawk in Amesbury.)

Of course one parent will be at home

[drwex]

One of my main complaints about both Montessori schools has been that they just build into their assumptions there will of course be a parent home during the day who does not have a schedule and therefore can do this or that activity at random hours mid-day.

The public schools have this problem as well, but to a lesser degree.