Welcome to Mom School.

Today is the first day of summer break and at 8:19AM, my daughter has already (on her own) done a few pages of math, was introduced to her summer learning notebook and is currently busy journaling while listening to a Junie B. Jones audiobook. On Monday, we'll start with spelling tests of high frequency words. (Journaling and HFW testing at the request of her teacher to keep her on track and to slow down her end-of-the-year laziness with spelling.) We have summer bridge math work that the school always sends home to prepare the kids for the next year. I made two copies of it and I have timed math sheets.

"BUT SHE'S ON SUMMER BREAK!" I can hear people cry. Yes, I agree. I'm trying to avoid my child's summer brain. If I don't keep her on track, there is a lot of loss over the summer. She is a child who thrives on a schedule and things that are a bit more regimented. She is happily, without argument, working hard on her journal entry.

It should be noted that I promised that my part of Mom School will take no more than one hour.

In regard to T.V. viewing, our summer plan is "You watch what you read." Since they have a summer reading log for school (by 15 minute incriments for a total goal of 25 hours) this is bridge work anyhow. So, if K reads for 15 minutes, she has earned 15 minutes of viewing time. She can bank time for movies. K, a child who takes at least a book everywhere she goes, will not have a problem with this. My challenge to her is to reign her in a hair and to have her read 2 chapter books in full each week. She'll read 6 or more books at a time and occasionally finish one, but I'd like to reign in her ADD style of reading. We are going to participate in library group, too and that requires the children to write book reports (small and just a sentence or two) to win prizes. She won two prizes last year, so she knows how nice that was!

We've just reviewed her "My Last Day" journal entry. She did well, trying hard on spelling and had most excellent handwriting. We reviewed any misspellings (computer, watch, tornado and practice) so that she can reference back, if needed.

Here's to hoping that the rest of Mom School goes as swimmingly.

I couldn't leave this post without giving K an atagirl. She stayed on honor roll all year. I sat last night with report cards, certificates, ribbons, some papers and whatnot and made her second grade memory book. She loves to look at her past year and we do, too!

Aunt Patti to the rescue!

You might remember my story of crying in the produce section of our local grocery after my aunt passed away because she was K's cherry informer. She would call to say when cherries were ready and where they were on sale. I was thrilled to find an e-mail from Aunt Patti today (mom of Janeen at Our Story) to let me know that not only are cherries out and good, but where to score them for reasonable cheapness. Hooray! Thanks, Aunt Patti!

The birthday that I couldn't celebrate.

My brother Billy has somewhat removed himself from family. I admit that I was still in favor with him until I found that I absolutely would not take his screaming treatment of my mother as okay any longer, so I sent a text telling him what I felt.
I was invited not to contact him.
I sent him a birthday card, but it wasn't the same.
I drove my niece home from my mom's house last night. I her that I was no longer coddling her father. I still wanted to make sure that she remembered his birthday yesterday and was able to phone him. "Aunt Amy, I'm not allowed to have my dad's phone number." She did send a card, though.
Grand.
My birthday wish for my brother? I'd love him to remember how important family and his children are.
My birthday wish for my mom? That my brother takes his head out of his butt (I'm being nice, considering) and starts giving her the respect that she deserves. I mean, I know that it isn't a big deal to him that she and my dad have been busy raising his son, pulling him through school and teaching him to read since October (my nephew is 9), but he might want to consider that perhaps not so many parents out there would do the same. They've fed, housed, helped to clothe and miscellaneous things all with no offer to offset those costs. It is a great thing what my parents have done and the lack of respect and true appreciation astounds me. Frankly, it breaks my mom's heart the way my brother has chosen to treat her and speak to her in tones and words that I would never consider using around people that I greatly dislike.
I hope that my brother can see what matters most and that whatever life he choses to lead allows him to sleep at night. If he finds that it doesn't, that he might consider adjusting likewise and to make life improvements. Until then, I pray for him to consider reconciling with his family- the very same people he has called on and has bailed him out on numerous occasions.

Cotton candy, Elementary Match Day and a Star Wars store

This morning I went to school to do a final update on the 100 Book Challenge board, do the final book pass of the year and scoodle on out.
So was not in the cards for me.
Patty greeted me in the hallway with a big smile. Drat. I forgot that it was cotton candy day for Field Day tomorrow.
Double drat.
I hadn't eaten breakfast before I left since I thought that it was going to be a quick run. I did bring a Diet Coke with me. Hallelujah.
I thought that cotton candy would be a lickety-split thing.
It wasn't.
Y'all, I had cotton candy in my hair. I walked down the hall with the sticky feet sound. A big hunk of pink was stuck to the bottom of my pant leg and Mr. B was laughing at the hunk stuck to my shoulder. My clothing is now in the laundry. My shoes will hit the laundry tomorrow.
It was Match Day and K got into the class that we wanted. The teacher is lovely, thorough and firm, but loving. Hooray!
I was talking to K's substitute about when the next math test is and turns out that it is going to be tomorrow! The test is on counting money and while she knows denominations, she hasn't been the greatest with counting out on a long run. (Different combinations to make the same amount.) Hubs decided to prep her by having a Star Wars Store. He tagged figures with prices, had K pull out her pig to count money and make change from. They did that for nearly an hour. What a nice dad!
Hubs has been battling a major sinus infection that has also scored him lovely antibiotics that has a horrible headache as a side effect. I feel bad as I know that he has felt kind of like a steaming pile. He even missed K's soccer on Sunday and he knew that he would miss her last game this week. That alone said that he was feeling rotten.
Because I know that she has been generally MIA this week blogwise, I wanted to let you know that Rachael is holding together okay and just needed to take a bit of a bloggy break this week. I assure you that I have e-mailed and texted her multiple times daily. She has truly loved all of the bloggy love that I've been able to pass on to her from all of you during this past week. It was the love lift that she needed from her friends. Thank you all for being so kind!
Okay, so this isn't completely monumental or anything, but I did at least figure out coding to at least try to give paragraph separation. It isn't perfect, but it is better!
ETA: Rachael is updating! My sidebar didn't update because the private status must disable that feature! Hooray for Rachael's updates!

Rational discussions with a rabbit.

Peter, he is the cottontail that takes refuge in our backyard, and I had a discussion the other day.

Mind you, he's not much of a talker. Buddy boy is a good listener, though.

I went to hang some laundry on the line, went toodling around the corner and found that I scared Peter nearly to his bunny death. He jumped about 3 feet away from me, sat there and looked. He didn't move. Cottontail was not up. I bent down and said, "Now Peter, I need to hang laundry. You are where I need to be. I'm not going to hurt you. You know me and it's all good. If you could just move over there :gesturing where to go: that would be great."

All be darned if the rabbit didn't listen. He hopped over, as any bunny rabbit gentleman minus the red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch would, and hung out there to watch. He moved on a handful of feet more to hang out under the swings. Then, he decided that his appetite got the better of him and he decided to graze on the clover in the middle of the yard. I would move, but he wouldn't stir. He knew I meant him no harm.

When I was done, I went into the house, peeked out the back window to see if Peter was still up to his nose in clover buffet when he looked up, saw that I was in the house and promptly hopped back to the original spot that I scared him out of. What was the funniest thing was that not only did he go back to his original spot, but he decided to sack out and just hang out there for a while. His leggins were all at rest as he lounged in the shade of the swingset tower. He was camped out there for a while until the evil black and white cat from next door tried to make him a kitty vittle. Peter ran for his life, seeking shelter in the thick lilies. I opened the windows, clapped my hands and yelled for the cat to go home. Then, I texted Hubs that Peter was almost lunch and QUICK! we need hardware cloth to cover the neighbor's fence holes. (The new fence goes up a hill and the neighbor kept the sections whole, so there are triangular open sections under each fence panel where critters can get in.)

We were talking about Peter last night. Hubs has seen him. He seems to have temporarily moved operations to the front yard. He had lived there once before. Perhaps, in time, our cottontail will feel safe enough to lounge in the backyard once again. Until then, I'll keep my eyes out, I'll crouch down and continue to talk to him gently. I'd like to think that he misses our discussions.

Comments, need for moderation and assumptions.

Rach,

It is my love for you that I ask you to stop reading here.

Love,

Amy

I got a text message from my friend Rachael last evening. She said that an 18 year old had gone missing in the exact place where her daughter did on July 19, 2007. I pulled up the news feed and knew things weren't good. Thankfully, Rachael's neighbor gave her a heads up before she turned on the evening news. While I'm familiar with Hannah's death, I pulled up the news bits on her. I noticed that there were several pages of comments.

There were 127 comments.

I have to tell you, in light of someone having lost their child, you would have thought that the community would have lifted the family in prayer. Sadly, most comments were horrible, judgmental and dreadful. There were people talking God, but last I checked, they aren't Him. There were people saying that Rach should be charged with neglect, yet they weren't there or they would have known that she was right there and didn't just farm her out on her own. There were a lot of statements said about my friend and her family- by people who had never even met them. Why would people feel the need to be so judgmental and debating? I texted Rachael and asked her to turn comment moderation on, as in attempt to show the people who were being so judgmental about Hannah's tragic drowning, someone who knew her actually published the name of her blog in the comments. I know that there was at least one person who came directly to her blog to flog her about Hannah's death. I just don't want that to happen.

For those searching for information regarding the drowning death of Hannah Davis at College Creek, please know that it was an accident. My friend was right there with her and her other daughter. This was an area that they had frequented over the years. Sadly, there is an 18 year old young man who is missing right now. Instead of being judgmental of the families about accidental drownings, why don't we wrap them in our loving arms, as God would have wanted us to? Our prayers go out to the family of Hannah Davis and Trevor Times. Please be gentle with these families. They need your support, not your judgment.

ETA:  Sadly, Trevor's body was recovered yesterday morning.

End of the year madness!

Every parent with a child in school right now knows what I'm talking about. We've had field trips weekly, an influx of tests, a retiring teacher, end of the year picnic, field day and all sorts of lovelies including 95 degree heat forecast for Sunday, right when my child will be running around the soccer field. Don't think that I've forgotten about the blog. I'm just up to my eyeballs. Have a great weekend!