What a crazy week. I can't believe it's almost over. I can't believe that I have so many things to do this weekend. I can't believe I haven't uploaded pictures lately. I can't believe much at all.

Frances was the Petit Prince, and it was amazing. It was an incredible experience for our whole family. We were worked to the bone last week, and the long hours are still taking their toll, but it was worth the pain we endured running back and forth downtown day after day, shutting down our entire lives for day after day, everyone missing all kinds of school, and just sucking our life into a black hole. Frances was not only thrilled to have a big role, but we had the kind of learning experience that many people only get through a field trip (if they're lucky).

Now the General Assembly is voting to determine whether funding for the Virginia Commission for the Arts is going to be cut by 50% in a year and within two years be eliminated completely. This would be devastating for small arts organizations and non-profits like the one where Frances and Rutledge dance. They rely on these grants to be able to put on their productions that reach out into the community, and without them, small businesses are, by necessity, going to be closing their doors or drastically reducing what they are able to do. This will leave primarily the for-profit businesses, and while there's nothing wrong with them, they simply often don't provide the same opportunities that a community production organization can. We have a nice dance studio down the street, and it would be so convenient, but the chances to perform alongside professional dancers in multiple shows a year is something that this place can't begin to offer. The view into the life of a professional dancer, the chance to learn from practicing people who have made this their living, the opportunity to work in a theater, to take direction, to cooperate as part of one large whole, to learn about all of the work and expertise that goes into the lighting, the sound, the preparation of the physical space--they are all educational moments that we couldn't duplicate elsewhere. Then I think about how much Spanish we have learned, how much we've learned about people from somewhere different from where our ancestors came from, how much we've learned about the traditions, the things that other cultures hold dear--again, unparalleled elsewhere. I realize that cuts have to be made across the board, and I certainly believe that people need to eat, have adequate healthcare and security forces and education, but the Arts Commission has already had 30% cuts in the past year and started at a lower per capita level than most other states fund their arts. And these arts organizations that would be affected by the proposed cuts often fill the gaps left by elimination or reduction of arts programs within the public schools. Even as homeschoolers, who may not always feel directly affected by educational budget cuts to public schools (though these, of course, have short and long term effects on us as well), we are concerned about what is beginning to feel like a broad-reaching huge reduction in support of the arts will leave as a legacy to future generations of artists...who are also workers, contributors to the economy, and carriers of our culture. If the arts continue to be cut in schools (and certainly they are among the target areas of educational budget cuts) and in the greater community, what will ultimately happen? Where will the arts survive? If only they were truly free.

So today, we went down to the General Assembly as part of a rally to support the continuation of arts support in Virginia. When we first arrived, we couldn't find anyone--just two lonely-looking men outside with signs (Frances asked if we would have pitchforks and flaming torches). We rode down with another family, and we sincerely hoped that this was not the entire showing of the arts community; if it was, perhaps they didn't need the state's support so much after all. But then we heard that the action was going on inside. When we got into the Capitol building and headed toward the House chambers, we discovered a line hundreds of people long, stretching back down the stairs and around the halls. We waited for about 45 minutes to get in to the House chamber to watch the budget debate. Frances had another chance to be on the news--she was filmed for a piece on Lynchburg's ABC channel 13. We were only about to listen to the speakers for about 15 minutes, and then I had to go and rescue my car from getting parking ticket, but the important thing was to make a showing and to be part of the presence of people who would be affected. What was unexpected is what an incredible field trip this all turned into (and it had to be good, since we missed dissection class yet again--it's been weeks since we've been in a groove with it, what with the snow and the illnesses). We are planning to go down to the General Assembly again in the coming weeks, hopefully at a time when we could sit for a bit longer and wouldn't have to wait so long to get in, leaving us restless. Today, people were asked to not stay for too long so that all of the people who wanted a chance to come in would have that opportunity.

Then tomorrow night is my baby's birthday party. Rutledge has never really had a birthday party before. He had a two family dinner last year, but this year he is having a real party at the pool. It's going to be small, but he is so excited. And Saturday I need to leave before 6 a.m. to go to a training meeting for Classical Conversations up in Northern Virginia. I'll be gone all day. And I have several mini-essays to write (in my copious free time tomorrow!) before that. Then I have a swim and dive meeting on Sunday night. We have a one day outing planned next week, so anything I don't get done now is going to end up pushed off to almost Wednesday. It feels terrible to be worrying about what I won't get done by next Wednesday when it's still barely Friday of this week.

I'm kind of flipping out because I don't know how I'm going to accomplish getting everyone where they need to go tomorrow. I'm wondering where my very real needs are going to fit into all of this. I'm still suffering from this headache that has been going on for at least 5 whole days now. It goes away. That's the good part. I've taken prescription medication (Maxalt) three times during this period, which is more than I feel comfortable taking in the course of a whole month, and it has worked each time. But it only removes the symptoms, as it says on the bottle. I get relief, my life goes on just fine, and I haven't even gotten too directly sick from it (normally it leaves me wanting to barf). The trouble is, the next day, the thing is back again. I started taking Excedrin Migraine, and that also helps a little, if it doesn't wig me out completely. And then I have taken some ibuprofen, usually only once a day. Yesterday I woke up with a weird pain on the right side of my abdomen, which is the scary side (appendix, gallbladder, liver, etc.) And today I was just in bad, bad shape. I can't tell what's the migraine (my head didn't hurt at all this morning) and what's the medicine and what's whatever is behind the whole thing (weather, food, hormones). At any rate, it has to stop. I can't deal with this every day. I spent today trying not to take anything else because everything I was taking was potentially causing me problems. But by 6:00, I couldn't take it any more, and I broke down and took Goody's Powder, an old standby that sometimes takes the edge off. It worked. I still feel a hint of pain, but nothing like what I had before. And I was finally able to eat. Of course, I might never sleep again from all that caffeine so late, but hey....

Tomorrow is scaring the living hell out of me. I had made an appointment for our wasting-away-dog late last week, and that's at 9:45, which is right after preschool dropoff. No problem. Then I added in a doctor's appointment for myself when I called at 4:30 today--11 a.m. A little bit of a problem, since if they're running behind I'm a little late for preschool pickup. But it's doable. I just might have a dog in my car for it. Then there is piano at 1:30, art at 2:30, art pickup at 3:30, and a double shot of can't-be-in-two-places-at-once at 4:00 with dance and Latin. I figured I'd drop off at dance early, then rush to Latin and sweat a lot.

Then, uh-oh, at 6:20, I get a call saying that Frances needs to be at a rehearsal downtown tomorrow from 11-3. I don't know if I can swing that! There's no way to get all the way down there and back for my 11 a.m. appointment. I think I'll have to cancel that, which I hate to do since I've been really miserable with this headache and would like something to make it go away. I could cancel on the dog, but I hate to do that because he looks like he is going to die. I could drop art, but I hate to do it to Walter, who wants to be there and already missed one of his classes for this session. And I probably will call to cancel Latin, since that's the one thing too many, though I suppose in some ways we'll be done by then.

What I see is a whole day of not just rushing and being in the car, but that kind of heart-stopping late to everywhere with everyone mad at you at every single turn. The vet runs late and I'm screwed for the rehearsal; the drop-off there takes more than 5 minutes and I'm late to the doctor. The doctor is late and I'm late to preschool. Any delay in picking up Frances, and the not-quite-enough-minutes I have while Walter is in art makes me late to pick him up. And it goes on and on! I want to just vanish and leave town before it can happen!

And then, when I thought that all I needed to do was take Frances to a TV interview on Wed. morning and another at noon, and she'd miss her acting class. But now it looks like I might have to hold Rutledge out of preschool on Wednesday and have the boys skip their math class so that I can be out at a rehearsal that I hadn't planned on because for the past four weeks we had been scheduled to rehearse all day Friday. Now I'm not sure what it all means. And it's book club day for Walter's selection, and I have no idea how he is going to be there. Sigh.... I knew that this week would be hard, but we had our schedule, it had been confirmed last week, and I had made plans for how to handle it. Now these late minute changes are really throwing me for a loop!

Of course, all of it comes on the heels of the snow week, where lots of things were canceled. Now we're missing things left and right again!

Today we were home almost all day, except for the part where Kerry was resentfully having to drive. I didn't teach this morning because I wasn't feeling well. Then Latin got rescheduled. But the boys had a birthday party to attend, and I was able to get them there, but then I had two hours to kill while I wasn't feeling great and had two kids in tow in the rain. I went to Ukrop's to get them a rotisserie chicken for lunch and to pick up some chips and cookies to take to Walter at the party (he can't eat pizza and cake). Brought him his food. Went to Costco to pick up a pork loin to make for dinner and to get some yogurt and other things we needed. Then was heading to the library when Kerry called and said he could go get them, but I had to meet him in the middle to pass off the flute and trumpet. He dropped them at flute and trumpet. I watched the writing video portion on writing critiques so I could teach the boys. Then I went to pick them both up. Came back and finished up dinner while Kerry picked up Frances from ballet. It is very important to me right now that we start to eat at the table like a normal family. It isn't going to happen every day of the week, but it should happen often enough that it feels like this is our typical dinner, not a special occasion. Afterwards, we had the Mardi Gras king cake with the sugar baby in it. And Walter and I had ice cream bars, since we can't eat it. Played a game of chess with Ollie, who quickly beat me. Played a few games of Ticket to Ride. Went through everyone's schoolwork with them, except for writing, which I wanted to do and couldn't fit in. We finished "The Secret Garden" and I will have them write about it at some point tomorrow (in our copious free time!). And we started "Om-Kas-Toe of the Blackfeet," which is going very quickly. The Secret Garden was such a total delight that anything is going to seem like less for a while. I was thinking that our next read should be Little Women, but now I'm thinking that Anne of Green Gables might be the better choice. Frances needs something she can really relate to, and this just might be it.

I have this nagging feeling that I should be watching more of the Olympics, and not just after 11 p.m. Actually, I have a nagging feeling that I shouldn't be up past 11 a.m., since maybe this is behind my headaches. But I do feel like I get enough sleep--it's just more in the 12:30-8:30 or 9:00 range most days, not in the 10-6, which is probably preferable but which I've never pulled off in all my life. I don't know whether it is possible or desirable to change what seems to be your lifelong pattern, or whether there really is something physically superior about early to bed and early to rise. I think a lot of Americans end up with the late to bed, early to rise, and at least I don't tend to do that. But I swear, I'd do anything to have fewer headaches these days!

I know it sounds boring, but I just want to have recorded, somewhere, that I actually do accomplish some housework, even if it appears as if I have never seen a clothes washer, done a dish, or mopped a floor.

In my copious free time today, and I guess it was copious, since I had no places I had to be, I...

1. Washed and folded and put away four extremely large loads of laundry.
2. swept and mopped the floors in my kitchen and eating area.
3. Vacuumed the junk up out of the entry, the library/art room, and the front music/tv room.
4. Cleaned the area around the computer.
5. Vacuumed upstairs hallway and two bedrooms.
6. Put up new shower curtain with new shower curtain hooks for the "Penguin Bathroom."
7. Coordinated disposal of the Hamster That Lived Three Days, after taking the body to Petco as evidence that we needed a new one.
8. Two loads of dishes.
9. Watched writing video before showing it to class tomorrow.
10. Made almost 200 photocopies for writing classes.
11. Graded 10 papers.
12. Cleared out offensive video games to put away.
13. Bought more printer paper.
14. Five games of Ticket to Ride with Ollie. He beat me at least once.
15. 70 pages of "The Secret Garden."
16. Made gf pancakes.
17. Temporarily got rid of headache that has been plaguing me for four days.

I guess this isn't too bad....

Sleepovers are a constant reality for us. Tonight, Walter and Ollie are spending the night with their friend Nathan, so I am home with just Rutledge and Frances. Frances and I are curled up in my bed right now watching Cars, a movie that we've seen a zillion times, since it used to be a favorite of Rutledge's, but that seems to reveal some new funny line or scene to us each time we see it. We had started watching "Annie," but since we had already missed 2.5 hours of it by the time we discovered it was on, it didn't feel worthwhile to see only thirty more minutes. We also got to play some chess with just Frances and Rutledge. Rutledge is not a bad little chess player. He has so many ways he's not mature, but he does know how the chess pieces move and how to set them up. He's no Bobby Fischer prodigy, but he likes to play around with it. We have also been working on playing a little game called "Pawn Mower" that our friend Teresa publishes. I have never been particularly interested in chess since there always seems to be more baggage associated with it than just playing a game. Chess is intellectual, it's a measurement of something. You can't seem to just have fun with it, you have to be up to it and know all kinds of advanced techniques with all kinds of names. It isn't for regular people. I'm sure this isn't true, but I can never go into a chess-playing situation believing that everyone is taking it as just an enjoyable pastime. Now I'm thinking that maybe it is more like some of the games I've been addicted to over the years--that you can just play around with it, work on some new tactic, and not get hung up on some idea that this is a reflection of your most basic abilities. My kids have also always shied away from chess because people make too big a deal of it--it can improve your math, it can make more brain connections, it has repercussions for school performance. Give me some plain old Monopoly, they'd say. So hopefully we can just start to have some fun with chess, even if we just play among ourselves. Like maybe just let chess be chess.

We're deep in "The Secret Garden" right now. It is such a lovely book, and the copy we're reading from has beautiful color illustrations. Frances, Walter, and Rutledge (who isn't listening to the book) have been drawing walls, trees, and secret gardens while I read, inspired by the pictures in the book. I guess I still find myself surprised, though, at how little happens in the book. The themes are carried through nicely, but it takes forever for even the smallest thing to happen and there's so much dialogue and description of sobbing, melancholic children and a lot of repetition. I find myself longing for some doing!

I am doing so awful on my running. The snow pretty well ground my training to a halt, and I'm having trouble getting motivated again. I haven't run for about 2.5 weeks! I was a little behind in my training even before the snow, so I was a bit relieved to have my "long group run" snowed out that first weekend. But then I did nothing during the snowy week that followed. In fact, it took me about 6 days to realize that I could be going to the gym and using the treadmill; it honestly didn't cross my mind. I just assumed that at least no one else was training. Oops! So now here I am, with another week gone, and I can't imagine going out and exerting myself when it's cold and the roads have no shoulder because snow is still there. Plus I've had headaches for the past few days. It's getting really old. Hormones, barometric pressure...not a good combination. For the first two days, I was able to control them with Excedrin Migraine. Yesterday I felt the warning signs and had taken some ibuprofen, but I didn't want to be a person who takes a lot of medication, so I didn't take Excedrin at the beginning. By the time I ended up at Starbucks to do some tutoring, I felt like I was going to die. Having none of my prescription medicine with me, I went ahead with the Excedrin. It helped some. Then I had horrid, horrid cramps by the time I got home, caused by my dear Aunt Flo and exacerbated by all the caffeine. Eventually I gave in and took Maxalt, which always makes me feel bad. Then I had to take something to fight off the Maxalt side effects. It was hideous. Good news: headache gone. Bad news: it came back later this afternoon. I took Excedrin again, but it wasn't much help. I just simply refuse to take more Maxalt right now. I guess if I'm miserable enough tomorrow I will. But I just took a big pile of Advil again. I hosed my nose and sinuses with saline. I used the dreaded ear candles, which claim to help with headaches. I've rubbed on head on. I've had more caffeine. Not a lot of change. I think the only hope is to get out of this weather cycle.

I do still love the snow, though. This morning we had another half inch or so, just enough to whiten up the stuff that was looking gray and dirty. We may have more snow on Monday, Tuesday, or next Saturday. I truly hope we get some of it. It will be more inconvenient this week, since it's tech week for Little Prince, and this weekend is the show, and we don't want snow during the show because then people won't come and Frances won't have her big debut. But a little snow early in the week, the kind of snow that gets cleared up from the roads so they are safe, would be fine.

Well, we got the more snow. Today was a minor disaster for our county with their snow cancellation--they didn't make the call until high school students were already in school and elementary students were already at the bus stops. Then they called for a 2 hour delay for middle and elementary schools, then quickly turned it to a full cancellation. So no Valentine's party at preschool because there was no preschool. And no math class. It was all fine with me--we wanted to finish our book, the boys got to play for four hours with a friend from another neighborhood, and we got all of our math and then some done. It was a productive day. And Frances still had her piano lesson and her dance rehearsal, and I was able to go out and get a chicken for dinner. Then tonight the boys had their library book club (they were the only ones there again...feels kind of odd to have the private Clendenon book club, but they love it!) and Rutledge and Frances got to go swimming and then we all had hot chocolate and ice cream by candlelight before Frances read to Rutledge and then we started reading "The Secret Garden" in a lovely illustrated edition. After that, the boys and I read "The Dead and the Gone" for a little over an hour, but it got so bleak and disgusting and disturbing that we had to stop and push the reset button by watching a little bit of "Mantrackers," which is an amazingly stupid snow. It saddens me that even the Science Channel and Discovery have stooped to reality show level. Now I flip past my favorite stations for late night TV (History, History International, Science, Discovery, Military) and they all have these static series that don't interest me at all. Swamp Loggers, Survivorman, Pawn Stars, and all kinds of other things that I don't want to see, or I watched them once or twice and had enough.

I feel like we're at a bit of a crossroads with things like math and even vocabulary. I'm not sure that Walter is able to go much further than he has already gone. Or we may have to slow things way down and I'll have to modify my expectations. It's hard to understand--he's always been in the very top percentiles in math since we started testing, and he even scores in the high 99th percentile on independently given, high-ceilinged achievement tests, but it's like he has lost all ability to problem solve and think and manipulate information. He seems to not understand very basic English words--not just in a "I can't think of how to describe that meaning in other words" way, but in a total misunderstanding of the entire idea of the word. It is painful beyond what it feels like it should be, and I feel very guilty about it, that I am possibly going to have to let go of some of my dreams for him--maybe even something like college. I hate that I have such a narrow vision of "success" and what best situates a person for a happy and productive life. My whole life I've been surrounded by people who have valued higher education as pretty much the only path, and I've been surrounded by people who were doing pretty well in the system. Some of them didn't always put forth a huge amount of effort, but I guess lying in wait was the possibility that if or when they wanted to get something, well, then they'd just apply themselves. I didn't know people well whose possibilities were more limited. And I kick myself because I feel like I'm not being very thoughtful and have my eyes on the absolute wrong prize here. The most important thing is that my children find ways to be happy, to feel productive, to have good lives where they have satisfying relationships with other people and hopefully contribute to wherever they live. Getting into a "good" college is probably more about making *me* feel successful. And after all, part of my motivation in choosing an alternative mode of education was that I didn't want my children to feel confined to the one little box of success with the path that I saw and pursued with more regard for the path itself sometimes than for actual learning. Still, I have to be honest and say that I still feel out of my element. I get the traditional path; I feel more like I'm wandering in the desert when we're far off that path.

Our days seem to go like rollercoasters. Yesterday, Ollie really liked math and it felt easy. Before that, he was getting more wrong than right. Then today he was back to confused.

Then there's our dear little Rutledge. Hmm. Big conundrum. Most people I know have "smart" kids. He's well within the chronological age to go to kindergarten next year--isn't one of those dread summer birthdays or anything, is solidly within the middle of the pack--and yet he probably would not be able to handle it. He's not just socially and emotionally young, but he's academically clueless. He doesn't seem to consistently know the difference between letters and numbers. He can't write his name. Or say the letters in it. Or count past 12. Or say all of the alphabet. Or write any letters. Or hold a pencil correctly. I don't know how this happened, and he's not very open to learning these things. He actively fights me. He makes little progress. I feel totally and completely responsible for this, a likely result of him playing so many video games when he was young. I wonder if I have permanently atrophied his brain connections. Frustratingly, he doesn't truly test as having any developmental delays, at least not right now, he may just be plain "slow." I question whether he is going to be able to catch up to his peers at some point, or whether this is a continuous issue we'll deal with.

One kid getting into any college whatsoever. That's what I'll settle for for now! Or one kid who will be able to leave home and be self-supporting.

On the plus side, he was on a maze kick today, after I bought him a new maze book this week. He did, I think, 110 or more mazes today. 84 in one book and about 25 in another. And he's quick. He even looked at the pictures in the front of the book that explained how to correctly hold a pencil, and he was willing to give it a try. I couldn't get him to put the heel of his hand on the paper to help control the pencil more, but at least he was doing better than his usual, and his lines weren't as shaky. Then Frances got him a pencil gripper, and that was the end of it. He was holding the grip all wrong--it has these wings that stick out the side and you put your fingers inside them. He was grabbing the wings from the wrong direction and then holding them, not the pencil. I was worried that if I pushed a correction on him, he'd never do another maze or anything involving a pen, pencil, or marker ever again. Sigh....

For many years I have not been the primary dinner-maker, but for a variety of reasons, I'm finding myself suddenly in this role. It is important to me that we eat at the table and together at least a few days a week, and I had realized that over the past few months, we've rarely even eaten at all. I was feeling awful that the kids were getting hungry at all kinds of odd hours...and it was because we had forgotten sometimes not just one meal, but two in a row, leaving people kind of fending for themselves. I hate cooking and I'm really bad at it, mostly because I have little interest and my attention gets diverted so easily that I forget things or time things all wrong. But I'm making it my particular project lately to improve and to prioritize this. I'm also trying to step it up on the home projects and maintenance and with the dogs. Hokie is looking just awful lately--so thin and bony, not absorbing his food well at all. Kerry doesn't think the vet can do anything and doesn't want to spend any money on him, but it's been more than 3 months, and I think he needs to be checked on again. We don't need to do a lot of diagnostic tests, but maybe there's something we can do to keep a little weight on him. There was a time in his life when he was 48 pounds (yeah, that was overweight), but now he is probably about 16 pounds. His ideal is probably somewhere between 32-34 pounds. Bilbo, meanwhile, won't stop stealing cat food, and he's a porker now, which is its own problem. And he's getting less housebroken by the minute. I feel responsible. It is my fault, and if I'm bothered, it's my responsibility to do something about it. If there was money I could throw at it that would make a difference, I would, and I'd risk any wrath to do it. But I just don't know. What I think would help is if I could get out and walk him several times a day and implement a positive reinforcement program. Long ago, about a year and a half ago, our vet suggested boiling up some chicken to give him when he goes and to use the crate and take him out regularly. I'm not doing that. I'm distracted. I. Must. Stop. Being. Distracted. I feel like here I am, doing something, since I rarely sit down, and I get a lot of reading done, but is anything else getting done? My front steps and walk are an ice slick because I kept meaning to get out and clear them but kept forgetting. My family is suffering because I'm not managing our life very well. I fear I'm just not cut out for keeping track of everything to keep a family and life running smoothly!

Believe it or not, there is more snow possible in the upcoming week. Though I do still welcome it, I get nervous as we get closer to The Little Prince, which is next weekend. It goes without saying that our families aren't going to come. Already Kerry's sister has said they can't make it to the show, and I didn't expect my Dad to come, but I doubt Kerry's parents will want to drive if there is even any residual snow anywhere on the grass. I wonder if there will be a DVD of the show that we could get to share with our families. I'm just so excited for Frances, who is so very excited and is always leaping and grand-jete-ing through the house now. She is even doing a lot more gymnastics lately--splits and back handsprings on the bed and cartwheels. It's very cool.

I'm bummed that we're not getting more snow. I'm jealous of DC. I know not a lot of people who are actually living there can understand this, but I love snow, the more the better, and as long as we have power, I'm just rather happy. This week has been just plain confusing--to cancel classes if local school districts do, or not? To make up missed classes, or not? When? I've already made some other plans for some of our "breaks" that were already scheduled, so I have to think long and hard about taking them up now. Tomorrow there's a vague chance we could get ice on roads, so who knows what Chesterfield will decide come morning. I love their 5:30 a.m. robo-calls. I guess we're on the list because Rutledge goes to SpongeBob School.

We are working hard at finishing "The Loud Silence of Francine Moon" before tomorrow, and we're poised for a morning completion, with only 35 pages or so to go. It has been enlightening and has generated a lot of good discussion, though it certainly isn't for readers much younger than we are. Probably the ideal reader would be 13 or so--a little closer to the age of the protagonist--the questions of rebellion, the suicide, the strained parent-child relations make this a true YA novel, but I'm eating it up, and the historical and political context is one that we needed to open up anyway. My kids didn't come in with a lot of political or cultural savvy--don't really understand the variety of what is referred to in terms like "liberal" and "conservative," only know but so much about political repression, don't know about the regular functions of many government agencies, don't always have a full timeline of 20th century events.

We also finished "Sarah Whitcher's Story" this morning. And a William Wegman "Little Red Riding Hood" and a very short chapter book about penguins and two books about bears in North America.

I'm also on this poetry memorization kick. I personally haven't memorized much myself and generally lament my horrible memory, but I do believe there are real benefits to having a little storehouse of poems in your head that will always stay with you. To that end, I've had everybody but Rutledge memorize Blake's "To See a World" and now "In Flanders' Fields" (does it have an apostrophe?). We've been cycling through them each day, and I'll add a new one when this one is pretty down pat.

Walter and Rutledge got haircuts today. Much needed. And baths. Much needed.

We made our reservations for Great Wolf Lodge for next month. And I got two new fish today, which I hope are doing okay down with our meanies. The fish store guy suggested putting in more than one, turning out the lights when the new ones come in so that they all get the signal to "go to bed," and feeding them all right away. So we have a new yellow tang and a coral beauty angelfish, which is a type we've never had before. He seems very personable--and he and the tang came from the same tank and seem to be good friends, hiding behind the rocks together for now. I could tell the coral beauty really wanted to come out and taste some of the food, but he was too afraid to do it without the tang's permission, and the tang wasn't giving it. I hope they emerge a bit more tomorrow. It was a chunk of change, though. Cha-ching. I hope they don't croak as quickly as our last ones. Since we had our protein skimmer fixed this week, hopefully we'll have fewer problems.

I'm tired of my messy bedroom. It's supposed to be a sanctuary, but it looks like a schoolroom has exploded in here. Portable whiteboards, big people books, little people books, American Girl doll beauty shop chairs, photos of former President Bush's dog, a toy safe with a ringing alarm, inside-out size 110 European pajamas, drinks, bottles of No-More-Tangles, library books, snowman crafts from preschool, a knitting project no further than the cast-on stage, four towels, a mancala game, and three decks of oval playing cards, all mixed up and probably all a little short of 52. Sigh.

Have I mentioned just how crazy I am about the librarian who runs the middle school book club at our local library? Her picks are absolutely spot on every single time. We haven't had a dud yet, and better yet, every single one becomes practically our favorite book ever. We're always a bit behind the 8 ball in getting the book, so we're frequently binge reading on Monday and Tuesday before the meeting, but good grief, this current book is awesome. I only wish that I had had a relationship with someone who could have directed me to great reads when I was my kids' age!

This month's book is "The Loud Silence of Francine Green," and it is an absolute riot--very funny and smart and informational and lovable. It is about a "good" Catholic girl who befriends a more outspoken, edgy, political girl who questions authority and gets into all kinds of trouble with the nuns at her school. It is set during the beginning of the Cold War in 1949-50, so it has all the best elements of historical fiction, a coming-of-age novel, and humor. We've ready so many World War II books, so this one is a welcome step forward in time, and our chatting about the book is a distraction that we can scarce fit in because of the time crunch. I can't wait to finish it tomorrow!

With all three kids, I read a little more than half of "Sarah Whitcher's Story," which is another one of the Sonlight books that we had not been able to get our hands on. What a great little book--suspenseful, yet you know it's all going to be okay in the end, a good historical context, and characters who are likeable and show a strong sense of community. It's a quick read and is right up Frances's alley, although she is vocally starting to question why every novel takes place in the 1800s...and why there are so many fires. I guess this is what happens when you follow a book list that is themed!

Tomorrow is the first non-snowday in a long time. I wonder if we'll remember how to do our regular life?

Another beautiful snow day. I will post pictures when I get them uploaded. Oddly for myself, I didn't even set a foot outside even once today--it was cold, the wind was blowing, and I managed to stay occupied indoors. It's a rare day that I go nowhere, but if any day was appropriate for this, today was it.

Lots of reading was accomplished today:

115 pages of "Understood Betsy," a sweet little book about Vermont farm life in the early 1900s, and also a book about orphans or functional orphans.

60 pages of "The Graveyard Book," which was the 2008 Newbery Winner and the October book club pick for the Clover Hill Library book club. Ollie is loving it. My jury is still out. It is written by the author of "Coraline," a weird book and weird movie, and this is weird in a similar way. I'm just not that into fantasy, so that's my issue. I'm waiting to see how themes play out to determine if it's engaging enough for me or not--that's what will make or break the book for me.

50 pages of "The Dead and the Gone." Great book, lots to think about, but darn does it read slowly! I don't know what the problem with it is--long pages, comparatively small type, but we are very into it, read for what feels like a long time, and only 20 pages or so will have gone by. I despair that we'll never finish it as a group, but it's inconvenient to have three people vying for one book on our own.

Poor Rutty got nothing, though he was around playing DS when some of that reading was happening, so maybe some trickled in. I feel awful because I haven't been spending good time with him. I think he played computer games all day long, and that's just wrong. Tomorrow he's going to get the attention he deserves, whether he wants it or not.

We also had a poop day. Someone scooted across a toilet seat and got poop all over it, though no one claims responsibility. Then I went upstairs and nearly stepped in poop on the floor of my master bathroom. It think a dog had something to do with it. This precipitated a huge desire on my part to sanitize most of the house. Gross. I bleached the floors and toilets and tubs and sinks in both the upstairs bathrooms. I rearranged some things in Rutledge's room and did a much-needed vacuuming and evicted all items belonging to Frances, who had taken over his bedroom as sleeping quarters before she switched to sleeping on Walter's bottom bunk (why doesn't she sleep in her own room? She believes that Bloody Mary is in her mirror and will talk to her at night.). I also cleared out some things from Ollie's room, cleaned the floors, and tomorrow we will strip out the wallpaper cutouts of dragonflies and hang his college banners, something we've been meaning to do since last summer.

Tomorrow is supposed to be freezing as well, so little snow melt will likely happen. It looks like school and RES will be closed Monday, but we really need to get back on track with our writing. I think Walter and Ollie haven't finished their writing from last week, and now I want them to do two more things--one for this Monday and at least one for next. I think we'll take this opportunity to go back to the basics, as well as to introduce the six sentence openers and practice them in a low-pressure situation. Ollie read through his Latin passages today, but Walter is woefully behind. Everyone needs to practice their instruments.

Today was a big Ticket to Ride day. I lost a lot. Especially when playing with real people and not robots. I need to hone my skills. But I do think that I'm breaking my addiction to some degree. Last night I bought the Europe version, and I don't like it nearly as much yet--I wish it was exactly the same but with European capitals. It has some less-well-known-to-Americans non-capital cities, and I feel like it would be more educational for the kids if it had fewer foreign spellings and was more all-star with its city choices.

Where did my snow day go? Today was kind of a zero sum game. The snow fell for most of the day, but now it is raining cats and dogs, washing away most of what we got today and what has lingered since last weekend. Yuck. I'm a snow fiend, and this just eats me up! Tomorrow we are expected to get some more snow, but not nearly as much as the one to two feet just a bit above us. I'm jealous. It seems like wherever I move, the snow moves elsewhere. When I lived in Northern Virginia, not a single flake of snow seemed to ever fall. Though I suppose I can't complain--we've had more snow this winter so far than ever before, including the amazing white Christmas.

I've been a fan of the snow, for reasons I won't go into here. I like the enforced break. I like being stuck in the house. I like the ready excuse not to be overly social (though I've spent way too much time on the phone!). I'm happy to see some activities get cancelled, if only to allow us to catch our breath and get reenergized. And yet not everything has been on break. We've been able to keep up with our music lessons, with dive practice, and Latin class. Two dance classes were still on. But school was out on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Thursday was a 2-hours-late day. We had no RES, no SpongeBob School, two days of lost dance class. In the meantime, though, we've still stayed plenty busy.

The big drama of the early part of the week was the Big Vomit. Anyone who knows me know that I am a Class I emetophobe. My irrational, pathological fear of throwing up can rule my life, especially in the winter months. Rutledge had been coughing for about two weeks, but it waxed and waned, being bad enough to keep him out of school, then better again. He was fine all weekend and had been playing outside nonstop for two days. Monday night, he developed an especially nasty, wet cough, and he could barely control it. On Tuesday morning, I warned my friend Rebecca that he was coughing a lot, but she said to just come over anyway, and she had some Delsym (I was out of it and had been giving him either Benadryl or Mucinex). We had a great day moving furniture at her house (we're totally Lucy and Ethel) and her family room looks so awesome now that I'm jealous of all the open space. When I put Rutledge into the car, he started coughing from the jolt of cold air. He had been a coughing disaster on the way over as well, but it calmed down once he was indoors and had the medicine. Well, we hadn't even turned out of her neighborhood when he went into a huge coughing fit and started vomiting what sounded like gallons. He had been eating fistful after fistful of Goldfish crackers from the multi-pound box while we were there, and he was clearly well hydrated. And it smelled so awful! I probably could have handled the 20 or so minutes home if it hadn't smelled so rancid, but it absolutely turned my stomach. I don't know if I'm a sympathy puker or not because I never stick around long enough to find out (usually I've already flown the coop long and nearly levitated out of the room, house, state, country...) or I go dashing the second it happens. And I'm not a stranger to vomit in a vehicle, alas, either. But this was so high volume, and the smell was sucked right up to my front windows, which I had to open. Snow was piled up all along the edges of the road, so I couldn't pull over as I felt myself starting to retch. It was all I could do to get to the first open driveway, a post office, where I pulled the van to a stop right in the exit and got out and went into my panicked "rescue breathing" to try not to lose my own lunch. Poor Rutledge was sitting there in the freezing cold in his soaking wet, stinky clothes for about 20 minutes while I tried to figure out exactly what to do because every time I set foot anywhere near the van, the bile would rise in my throat again. Kerry was on his way, but it was going to take him at least 20 minutes, and the roads were rather icy because they had not been plowed well in the neighborhoods. Rebecca came back and saved us by taking us back to her house in her van (poor Rutty had to be stripped naked, though, and had to ride that way). He got bathed there, got some fresh clothes, and Kerry and I were able to go back to rescue my van from the post office. He brought Lysol and bleach spray, so we disinfected as well as we could in the dark, in the rain, at the post office. It got clean enough that I could drive it home, where I could continue the cleaning process. My phobia is tied to me throwing up, not so much other people. I still can't really be anywhere near anyone vomiting, but my biggest fear is that I'm going to do it, so even though I knew that what happened to Rutledge wasn't contagious to me or others (we wouldn't cough ourselves silly if we did get his cough...), it still made me feel sick. All in all, these incidents are embarrassing, and I always wish that I could somehow cope better and not go into a freakish panic attack. But that's who I am. We all have our things, I suppose.

The next morning, I took Rutledge to the doctor, and she said that he was having bronchial spasms, and that's why medicine like Delsym, which tells the brain to shut down the coughing spot, is not the most effective treatment. He had a breathing treatment in the office and has been using the cutest albuterol inhaler with a fish mouth mask on it. He loves puffing into the fishmouth, and it worked a minor miracle. No coughing at all, really, since he started it. It truly turned off the problem like a switch. I wish everything could be that easy.

The real reason why I've slacked about blogging this week is that I'm addicted to Ticket to Ride. I started playing online after we resurrected the game a week or so ago, and I positively cannot stop playing. I think I'm going to play only a game or two, and the next thing I know it's 2 a.m. The only thing that manages to stop me is that the Java applets go haywire now and then and the site malfunctions and I have to reboot my whole computer, and sometimes that process is enough to stop me long enough so that I get interested in something else for a while. But I've been staying up way too late. The kids now have an account, so Ollie and I have been playing online from across the room. I am always the winner, and I'm proud of my strategies. Tonight I added in the Europe version, and that is much more challenging for me. I still prefer my U.S. cities, which I'm comfortable with. But I'll get used to the new rules and map, I suppose.

We've been reading a lot this week. We finished "Strawberry Girl," which is a Newbery winner that isn't a popular now. The boys and I are reading "The Dead and the Gone" still, though I'm turning that over to them since it's long. All three of the older kids are listening to "Understood Betsy" right now, which is very cute. It's going rather fast, which I like, and it is in the same basic genre that Frances enjoys--episodic old-fashioned girl stories. I feel like we read something else, but I can't remember what. The question of the day on a large statewide homeschooling list is what people do about snow days. It's been a mixed bag for us. On the one hand, their public schooled friends are home and around, and I want them to have time with them. Hence two nights in a row of sleepovers for Frances and a sleepover for Walter and Ollie. Monday was totally a day off, but by Tuesday I wanted them to at least do math and grammar. It's been a halfway week, I guess you'd say--some work done, more reading accomplished than usual, but less studying type stuff. I suppose I've been counting a bit on having a reprieve on Monday, but our crappy snow right now probably means regular stuff is going to resume, and we may not be ready.

Ticket to Ride is calling my name again...

I feel kind of goofy getting all excited about yet another snow day and county school cancellation when my kids aren't in school. You see, when school in Chesterfield County (yes, the Chesterfield of the cigarettes--I think that every time I read the word or write it) is canceled, so are our ancillary activities. And when ancillary activities are canceled, I get a little bit of a breather. I'm liking this.

Today was a portent of things to come. I don't know what to do when my kids are busy somewhere else, and they were all busy all day long. I had no one to play with. I updated Facebook too much. I read one page of a depressing novel about a woman's ineffable grief in being the mother of a micropreemie. I played a little bit of skeeball. I ate a lot of gf brownies and coffee cake. I went on a quick grocery run because my gluten-eating family members are on a peanut butter sandwich kick and we also ate all of the eggs in our house. I was in denial that my unprepared children (I was out of town from Friday afternoon-Sunday afternoon, then we were disrupted by a snow day and kids out of school) had Latin tutoring today. I located them--and the Latin tutor's brother--in a garage on another street. I did decide that I should assume we were still on for trumpet, though I had already spaced on flute. Trumpet was sort of a bad idea, since I got stuck on the instructor's street and wondered if my non-tractionary minivan was going to leave me high and dry and I was going to have to walk four miles home...uphill in the snow.

And I can hear a stuck car spinning its wheels out on my street right now while I write this.

The roads are not good. I'm glad they're not good. And some people probably think they are good, and they do in fact look pretty good right in front of my house, but we must have some direct sun exposure, or something, since they get really bad right after you get past the house next door. Even Woodlake Village Parkway, the main road in my neighborhood, is not perfect by any means. There is a big white patch of ice right in front of Woolridge Elementary School and all across the main intersection near the swim and racquet club, where I went sliding and was glad that there were no cars coming from any distance. Tomorrow it is supposed to be rainy/snowy/sleety/icy again, which quite frankly, I welcome. I really, really like having an extended break from craziness with Little Prince week looming so close. Preschool also won't happen tomorrow, but I'm kind of okay with that, since last week there was a stomach virus going around, and any distance we get from that is probably better. Give it time to die out. As much as we love our activities, having a week off of art class and math class and dance classes isn't a disaster.

Tomorrow my poor children must return to doing some schoolwork. Today they managed to do a little bit of Latin review (we use the Suzuki Latin method wherein they read every single passage and every vocabulary word from every single lesson we have covered so far, to the point where they can practically do lessons 1-3 in their sleep and lessons 4 and 5 with little effort). But tomorrow they must do some writing, some math, some grammar, some vocabulary, and we must read some history. It doesn't have to take forever, but the endless snowday feel does need some boundaries. Tonight all three older kids are at sleepovers, and last night Frances had a friend sleeping over at our house (normally I'm not a fan of two-day-in-a-row sleepovers). They will probably all need some rest by tomorrow.

And so I am off to play Ticket to Ride with Kerry, who is a little less than enthusiastic, especially at this hour.