You know, it seems like kind of a bad idea to purposely go away for two days to the place where the snow is going to be heaviest when we live in a state that gets infrequent heavy snowfall and therefore doesn't clear roads in a timely fashion. I'm still debating whether this retreat is the best idea. On the good side, it seems that although there is a vomit illness that some children at preschool had this week, Rutledge might have dodged it. I kept him home today because he was still coughing a great deal last night and sounding a bit croupy, but also because with something he's already fighting, he doesn't need to be exposed to something we truly don't want. You'd think I'd be resigned to illness with four kids, but nope. I'm still a zealous germphobe, probably even more so now because it can take a while for something to make its way through six people.

I listened to Andrew Pudewa's recorded seminar on how to build writing skills by helping children collect lots of strong, sophisticated oral communication primarily through reading aloud to them through high school. I don't need a lot of convincing, but I really do like to hear it again and again. And today, we had no shortage of reading aloud. I finished _Caleb's Story_ with Frances, and now we are reading a shorter book by the same author. We read a James Herriot picture book that reminded us a great deal of Babe. Last night Ollie and I started reading The Boy Who Dared, which is about a Hitler Youth boy who is executed for high treason after standing up for what was right and spreading the truth when the Nazis tried to control information given to German citizens. It was intense, and we couldn't put it down, so we finished it this morning. Then I continued with Strawberry Girl, which is one of the books from the Sonlight list that we had skipped. It's interesting--set in the backwoods of Florida, but very much in keeping with the "trailer park genre" that the Newbery committee seems to favor. It's not a trailer, but that's just because it took place at a time before the trailer was invented! And as if that isn't enough, we're making our way through A Gathering of Days, which is a New England girl's j0urnal from the 1830s. The writing is harder for the boys to get into, and I understand that, but again, it's a Sonlight book that I'd like us to experience, and though the subject and quaint writing is a little challenging on our attention at times, it is still giving good historical background about the North before the Civil War, and it fits well with where we are in A History of US, which unfortunately is perpetually before the Civil War. I swear we make no progress in this series. And if we weren't reading enough things at once, I also started reading The Dead and the Gone to Walter and Ollie tonight. We're only about 20 pages in, but this is sort of a sequel to Life As We Knew It, which was an amazing book that we read for a book club a few months ago.

My running is going kind of poorly. I keep forgetting to do it, or it gets late and I don't have time. Today was the first time I've run since last Saturday, and I was supposed to have gotten in at least 2 other exercise days before today. I don't even remember how far I'm supposed to be running at this point, but I'm sure I'm not doing it. I tried to make up for it today. This afternoon, I had about 15 minutes before ballet started, and I went for a quick run. It wasn't terribly far, but I still got winded and had to walk about 1/4 of the way. I took a route I've never done before, and it was rather hilly, which isn't something I've subjected myself to yet. I estimate I ran about 3/4 of a mile to a mile, then walked about 1/4 of a mile. So tonight I went out again after I came back from picking up Rutledge from capoeira (he's so adorable doing his kicks and ducking and parrying back and forth in rhythm and participating in a big circle of kids clapping for the sparring dancers). This time I did better. No walking, and though I stayed in our neighborhood, I probably ran about two miles. I think I could have kept going, but it was late, and I didn't want to push myself and knock myself out. Because it is going to snow this weekend, I'm going to spare myself the trouble I'd be in with a 3 mile run on Saturday morning. It's pretty obvious that that is canceled, even though the bad weather hasn't started yet and won't until late tomorrow. I'm going to take this opportunity to get my run in for tomorrow and to make it a good one, then to try to get on the treadmill at the hotel this weekend if I can. I'm going to get that iPod charged up, since today was the first day I listened to music while running, and it really helped me. Normally I count in rhythm to 100 over and over again as my feet his te the ground. Much better to spend the time with Iris Dement singing "Let the Mystery Be" on repeat.