Something like normal

Thank you to those of you who have been prodding me to post something (nudging my husband). Fact is, I need to get rid of the Christmas decorations around the blog and I get paralyzed with "I don't have time for that right now" --and then I don't bother to post either. Babysteps!

Yesterday we bid farewell to my parents at the Amtrak station and resumed our typical existence here in the soggy Pac NW. There are traces that a holiday did indeed occur here: Roboraptor on the kitchen floor, snarling and attacking bypassers; Sculpey clay on the dining room table; the Christmas cards taped to my kitchen cabinets; new pajamas and clothing in a basket, awaiting my attention.

It was a much-needed change of pace, and I am grateful that I took so much time off from the studio. Next week I'll be in the thick of it again with piano lessons, but for this week I'm cleaning the house, teaching my two kids, and practicing Beethoven's Sonata in E, Op. 14, No. 1, Allegro.

Along with changes of pace, once again I'm changing gears. I was so faithful at exercising, but then my kids' schedule changed, and I was not flexible enough to change with it, so exercising went out the window. After all, I reasoned, if I couldn't go from 8:30-9:30a for my favorite classes (Powerflex and Cycling), what was the point? I need to be home at that time to get the day moving along, or truly, everyone in the home will be in pajamas until noon. (Stereotypical homeschoolers).

So finally I sat down, put pencil (never pen! only pencils!) to my planbook, and deemed that 7-8:30a is MY TIME. Nobody wants me then, nobody needs me then, so I can go to Bally's then. Even though there isn't a class during that time, I'm reasonably clever enough to use the elliptical machine and the weights and get a decent workout. (Now if my mp3 player will only behave and start uploading files!)

So I went this morning and had a good time. Ran into many exercise buddies from before, including my favorite instructor, who gave me a hug and told me she hoped she'd see me back in class soon, "Because, after all," she confided, "It's a New Rear!"


On the kidlet front: (aka "mom moments that are funny to me but probably nobody else") We've been doing some basic letter writing for composition. Assignment: To write a Friendly Letter. D and S both worked on their rough drafts, then switched papers for proofreading and suggestions. D had signed his letter, "Your Chum, D___." S. offered the following suggestion for improvement: " You need to get rid of the comma after chum and add a P."

It took a good two minutes to restore calm.

We also have some money/math issues with S, it seems. I gave her a dollar today at Costco so she could buy herself and her brother a bottled water to take to karate with them. (The bottles are $.50 each.) Today on the way home from karate, S informed D that he owed her a dollar, since she'd spent a dollar on him buying water at Costco. "Excuse me??" I interrupted, "Just WHOSE dollar did you spend??"

"Well, I put in your dollar to buy a bottle, and got two quarters back. Then I used one of MY dollars to buy a bottle for D, and got two more quarters back."

We had to connect the dots for her, that she still in fact had her dollar (though in a "very special form" as my high school physics teacher was wont to say)--which caused much hilarity in the car as we drove home.

To quote Crystal from high school days: "I guess you had to be there."

Anyway, nice to be back to normal. Whatever that is. Happy New Year! Or new Rear, depending.