the girl | matching tracksuits

Good Day

Monday 02 November 2015 | 0 Comments

Have you ever had a good day? Well, I did today!!!! It was a really good day.

When I got to school today my teacher told me to go to the library so I can be the leader of the month. So I went on the morning news, and said my name, grade, and teacher. Then I got a picture, sticker, and two coupons.
We had a sub in P.E. ( she was my P.E. teacher last year and I got to see her again).
We got to start reading groups.
We ONLY had half a math sheet and spelling for homework!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We got to watch Goosebumps for recess ( it was raining all day).
E (my brother), mama (my mother), and I went to McDonald’s for ice cream (that was one of the coupons).

That was my good day.

We always have leaves in the trampoline when we head down to do some jumping. Even in the summer, there’s a smattering of leaves that we have always swept away before we begin jumping. There are always just enough to be a bother. The sweeping process, in fact, has been quite beneficial: it’s motivated L to learn how to be a more efficient sweeper.

Today, when we made it down to the trampoline, it occurred to us that, with so very many leaves on the jumping surface, it might be fun just to leave them.

We were right.

Autumn Tomatoes

Monday 19 October 2015 | 0 Comments

Even though it’s nearly November, we still had tomatoes in the small raised beds we accuse of being a garden. For the last several weeks, though, the ripening process has all but stopped, and so ahead of tonight’s possible freeze, K sent the kids out to pick the remaining tomatoes.

They were to segregate them into red and green, with the plan being to eat some of the green later this week in the form of fried green tomatoes and putting the rest in paper bags to ripen slowly.

Given the color distinctions, everyone felt it was best if E just held the bowl.

Autumn Sunday

Sunday 18 October 2015 | 0 Comments

It's during this time of year that the early morning sun is so spectacular. It's not that the leaves are kaleidoscopic for they're all still green here in the South. It's the angle of the sun at this time of year.

"It's the best time of the year in South Carolina," K always says. Sunny cool days that invite backyard play.

And it's time to begin decorating -- first Halloween. Pumpkin ghosts to hang on our Crepe Myrtles in the front yard.

Of course, there's always time for the sandbox.

Disaster Lurking

Saturday 17 October 2015 | 0 Comments

Saturday in the fall means a day in the yard more often than not. We have neglected our yard, however, and so we had quite a bit to get caught up. Rain for several Saturdays didn’t help much either, other than encourage growth of our lawn, which amounted to more work.

With a batch of pumpkins for fall decoration, the kids had a bit of work as well. They each got a small, personal pumpkin but had to share a large one. On his half, E elected for an all black pumpkin, then decided that he might like to have an entirely black pumpkin and began slowly taking over the whole pumpkin. Much to L’s frustration.

While they were painting, I was trimming all the hedges when I discovered the fourth nest of yellow jackets since we moved here. Or rather, they found me, with one giving me a welcome present just below my left eye.

Two catastrophes in one day. If only we could keep all catastrophes at this level.

Daddy Day

Friday 16 October 2015 | 0 Comments

"Daddy, there's no working today."

They'd been talking about it all week, the coming Daddy Day as they called it. Friday was an optional work day at school, so I availed myself of the opportunity to be off work and spend the day with the kids. And the kids were ready for it, complete with a plan. First we had to have pizza for lunch. "It's been so long since we've had pizza," L begged. Then we were to go to the Denver Downs, a local farm that turns into an autumnal playground every September. That was the plan. The actual day fell out a little differently.

By Thursday, a little television time was in the morning mix: L has been getting disks of the old 80's show Full House, and the latest DVD arrived Thursday. "Can we watch an episode or two in the morning?" So we did.

It was then that the no working comment came up, for during the second episode -- I try not to let on, but I don't find Full House fully engaging -- I'd gotten the laptop and began fiddling with this site, trying to get rid of a graphical element that has annoyed me for ages. L thought I was grading papers, though. Showing the PHP and HTML that I was wading through to try to find where the element is inserted in the code so I can take it out didn't convince her. "Looks like student work to me!"

Another change: everyone needed a library book refresh. The Girl scored exceptionally well on her fall MAP reading scores, which showed that she's reading four or so grade-levels higher than her actual grade (as opposed to some of my students, but that's a gripe for another post, one I've made several times). It was time to get her out of some of her favorites -- Cam Jansen and the Magic Treehouse series -- and into something a little more challenging. Since she's developing an affinity to mysteries, we ended up walking out with a Nancy Drew book, a Hardy Boys adventure, and a couple of Encyclopedia Browns.

After pizza for lunch at a local establishment that has fantastic pizza but looks like it hasn't had a renovation since its establishment just a few years before the debut of Full House, the Boy took his nap, and L and I played school. I got to be Frankie, the bad student. And having had plenty of experience from the teacher's side of the desk, I knew just what to do. L, having no personal experience with such things other than watching her teacher deal with the one or two behavior issues in her class, struggled a bit. I tried to give her some classroom management tips, but it was hard switching roles, so I just let her struggle and tried to make it amusing for her. For example, when it was time for writing, I wrote my composition about -- oh, let's just change the topic.

The after-nap plan, by this time, had changed as well, after having already changed. Denver Downs got bumped the night before because of a little bit of hoarseness on the Boy's part. "He'll need to have a nap," K explained, which meant no chance of going to Denver Downs. Too far, too tiring, too everything. So we settled on the zoo. But by the time we got to the zoo, there was only a bit of time remaining before they kicked everyone out for Boo in the Zoo, the annual waste of time and money, rather the trick-or-treating in the zoo after hours when all the animals are stashed away for the night and great herds of children rush through the zoo collecting small portions of sugary treats from various stations in the zoo, all for a ridiculously expensive price. I guess it's fundraising for the zoo, but K and I decided long ago it's not worth our time or money.

Instead, we played at the playground across from zoo, hiding, climbing, running, and being just generally silly.

After dinner, a little trampoline time before I packed both the kids off to bed as K was at choir practice.

Playing and Destroying

Sunday 27 September 2015 | 0 Comments

"Daddy, will you play with me?"

Some day, I know, I will regret not taking as many opportunities as I could have to play with my children. It's certainly a regret most parents have, I would say, no matter how much time they actually spent with their children.

This weekend, with the rainy weather keeping us inside, we were together most of the time. But I spent a large amount of time grading papers. Late Saturday morning, I sat with E on my knees, grading papers online as he played with cars and shoved various items in my way. Saturday afternoon, I headed to the basement for more grading and fewer distractions. And Sunday morning, it was a mix of grading papers and hanging out with the kids -- mostly the former. Sixty papers graded in one weekend. And the price?

I justify it with the realization that it's just the unit my English I Honors kids are working on now. Lots of writing -- lots of it -- to form the foundation for the entire year. Once we finish this unit (about a week to go), everything will calm down. But there will always be something I could do for school, so perhaps I'm just fooling myself.