Busy, busy Thursday

Boy, I'm tired. I sit here on Thursday evening to write this and I'm flat tuckered. It's been a busy day.

The day actually started early in the AM. Well, I suppose it really started Wednesday night at 11:30 PM. That's when the dog on the corner lot started barking. It kept up the "I need something bark" for 4 hours. And yes, the 4 hours were not such great sleep to me. I felt like I wanted to poke the owner in the eye this morning, but that's not really being a good Christian, is it? And, before you think that I'm prematurely intolerant, I should tell you that said dog barks like this on a fairly regular basis, so much so that we can't even leave our windows to our bedroom open as Hubs can't sleep at all of the dog barks at all. The problem? For years she used to keep them in the house. They were used to that, she has a man living in her house and now the dogs got kicked to the curb, so to speak. We get to suffer. Oh thank you, funky neighbor.

K- woke up at 6:35 AM and ready to watch Martha. (Martha Speaks.) Well, it wasn't quite time for Martha for another hour, so I had her snuggle in with us until the alarm went off at 7:00 AM.

K- and I hung out in bed for a little while, then it was off to school to do the bulletin board. I'm the bulletin board mom and it needed tended to. She's off on Spring Break now, but the first Thursday of the month is my obligated bulletin board day. We also had Parent/Teacher conferences today, so it was a two birds with one stone kind of morning.

I'm pleased-- actually thrilled-- to report that the conference went swimmingly well. K- has much improved in all areas under the teaching of her saint-like teacher, Mrs. K-. (Again, I think the woman can walk on water.) She even counted to 60 for her teacher! I know that to some that isn't a big deal, but I've only gotten her to go to 50 with a few limps here and there. My concerns about K- so concerned with what others are doing and thinking that she is missing out was dismissed by the teacher. She said that she does well, but that is something that all kids her age do. She wouldn't be concerned about it. She can do all tasks that were asked of her at good or excellent level. The only satisfactory that she received was in the way that she holds her pencil. She needs to develop her own feel, her own way. We'll work on that. Her pronunciation issues were something that I brought up, but the teacher (and pediatrician) both feel that K- is improving greatly and they would both like to have us wait until she goes to Kindergarten to have speech therapy to iron the issues out. I'm continuing to work on that with her, so I'm hoping to move her on to more correct pronunciation.

After school was home! It was a "beautiful day, Mom!" A day perfect for playing. K- made herself a peanut butter sandwich (yes, I was aware and believe that her doing that on her own is perfectly fine), got her bug net (the little cover to keep bugs out of her food) and off and away she went. I laundered the towels before we left and dropped them into the dryer. I stripped our bed and laundered those while we were gone. Since it was gorgeous and the upper 60's, I decided to put them out on the line. :) I love line dried sheets! They were drying so fast that I pulled K-'s bed apart and did the same for her. Here's my little clothes line:
The towels, which were tumble dried, ended up wound up with the bath mat that never quite dries all the way, but I have sheets and K-'s "Linus"-- AKA her security blanket. I'm fully aware that there is a giant hole in the very corner that "Tag" lives on, but she loves this blanket. She has used it since she was an infant (you couldn't tell at all, could you?) and rubs her face in it the first thing she finds it. One day she'll get married and I'm afraid that Linus may very well be moving into her home with her. :) "I take you K- and Linus to be my lawfully wedded pairing . . ."
K- decided that it was a barefoot day. The child just wouldn't wear shoes if she didn't have to.
See? Here she is tip-toeing through the rotted crab apples all the way down the street. That's okay. We have soap. The child's feet this evening? BLACK.
It was a great day for drawing on the neighbor's driveway. She's drawing puppies. She wanted to know how many legs they have. It appears on the one that she made is a cross between a puppy and a centipede. That's okay. It's all about creativity, yes?
She's right into it. Don't worry. She's just made herself comfortable. She's just fuzzing out her lines with one of her new chalk tools.

I cleaned the bathroom, did a little extra laundry, swept, dusted, trimmed up the butterfly bushes (one is about 9 feet tall, which I hadn't realized it was that big until about now), raked up all of those trimmings to put in the can as well as some leftovers from last week. The can is full enough to allow us garbage space, then I'll fill it up again next week.

I forgot to mention that we did make a trip to KMart. I'm not a fan of KMart, unlike Rainman, but I thought I read the Sunday ad to read that Color Wonder kits were on sale for 4.00. (They weren't there and now I can't remember what store, but it isn't Target or KMart. Oh, maybe Toys R Us!) At any rate, we did find a gift for the bowling birthday party next week. K- and I thought it was kind of neat. In fact, K- wanted me to buy her one. I explained that we were there for a gift only. Here is what we bought. She is the Bath Beauty Cinderella. I'm pleased to say that KMart had her for 1/2 off. Sold!

With that, I need to shove off and bathe a very tired child. She was so tired when she undressed for the bath, that she fell asleep on her floor. Pardon me, I have some coal black feet to scrub! :)

Day 14: Love takes delight. Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life. -- Ecclesiastes 9:9 HCSB

Purposefully neglect an activity you would normally do so you can spend quality time with your spouse. Do something he or she would love to do or a project they'd really like to work on. Just be together.