Updates
September 2020
It’s Labor Day but I’m up at six thirty as usual. It’s nice to be able to sit at the computer in a quiet house and write. Sophia and Anthony are going to take Basil, Jonah, Xenia, and Justin to Hurricane Harbor, the Six Flags water park, for the day, and Mike and I plan on playing Arkham Horror the Card Game together. I’ve worked hard all weekend to write my chapter one tests and assign homework and make lesson plans for chapter two in all three of my classes. Everything for the next three weeks is entered into the webpage for the headmaster and the kids’ parents to access, which is a week ahead of where the headmaster wants the teachers to be. I can breathe and enjoy the day.
My wake up song made me want to watch Rocky again. I failed to interest Basil, but he was willing to watch Rambo, another Silvester Stallone movie. He enjoyed it enough to ask if we could watch the second one, and I was so thrilled to be spending time with him, we made it a marathon. The thunderstorm going on in the backyard through the window behind the sofa we were sitting on in the office gave the movie explosions surround sound. A couple of times I grabbed for my phone to open the ROCU app and fast forward through a scene, but each time Basil put his manly hand over mine to stop me.
He said, “Mom just accept it. You can handle this.”
He was right. Eighties movies are much easier to watch than today’s films.
Sometimes in Rambo First Blood but even more in Rambo First Blood II Basil kept on calling out the lines before people said them.
I told him, “Basil you are really good at knowing these movies.”
“No mom,” he said and smiled, “They are that predictable.”
Sophia and I have also been spending our one-on-one time watching movies together. We are on a Cinderella Story kick. My favorite so far has been Not Cinderella’s Type. I love the way the prince consults his therapist father to get Cinderella the help she needs. I feel so bad for today’s youth who feel like they need to take on the very adult problems of their peers.
Jonah and Justin have pulled out my mahjong set and started playing with me again. I slipped a mahjong card into my laptop cover so that I can play online when the chance pops up. It’s great playing with the boys, but I miss the fellowship of the ladies in the neighborhood mahjong group, which was closed down by the pandemic.
Jonah is showing signs of puberty starting. He’s our altar boy when we have church in the living room and my child who likes hugs the best. He also alternates between singing soprano and something lower. He’s becoming a sweaty boy with a short fuse and this week he’s been grunting.
One morning last week we were running late because a power outage had reset the kids’ alarm clocks. As I left Jonah and Justin’s bedroom, I heard this conversation.
“Justin, up!”
Justin peeked from under his blankets on the top bunk and said, “I am up!”
“Justin, down!”
Justin spends much of his afternoons on the phone with his friend Addie. He wanders around the house and yard face timing his second-grader friend and they also play Minecraft together.
Xenia is my most middle child these days. I keep trying to find something that she and I can do together but haven’t found much. She is bored with the puzzles we have already put together, and I am over the adult coloring books. She wanders around the house and yard listening to audiobooks. She has been spending the most time with Sophia. I’m glad they are drawing closer before Sophia leaves for college next year. I most often see Xenia in the evenings when she comes downstairs for sympathy and a snack to calm her upset stomach. She loves her teachers though and this is the first year of school that she has enjoyed from the beginning. She feels like her fourth-grade teacher really understands her.
I get texts and an occasional phone call from Esther. She and Joshua seem to have settled in and are enjoying college.
That’s all my updates. My books are close to publication if I can just watch the videos and relearn how to format them. Maybe now that I’m caught up on schoolwork, I can focus on some of my other interests this week.
The kids are awake. Jonah needs a swimming shirt. Xenia needs a water shoe, and Justin says it’s his turn to use the computer. Time to get the rest of the day started.
September 2020
It’s Labor Day but I’m up at six thirty as usual. It’s nice to be able to sit at the computer in a quiet house and write. Sophia and Anthony are going to take Basil, Jonah, Xenia, and Justin to Hurricane Harbor, the Six Flags water park, for the day, and Mike and I plan on playing Arkham Horror the Card Game together. I’ve worked hard all weekend to write my chapter one tests and assign homework and make lesson plans for chapter two in all three of my classes. Everything for the next three weeks is entered into the webpage for the headmaster and the kids’ parents to access, which is a week ahead of where the headmaster wants the teachers to be. I can breathe and enjoy the day.
My wake up song made me want to watch Rocky again. I failed to interest Basil, but he was willing to watch Rambo, another Silvester Stallone movie. He enjoyed it enough to ask if we could watch the second one, and I was so thrilled to be spending time with him, we made it a marathon. The thunderstorm going on in the backyard through the window behind the sofa we were sitting on in the office gave the movie explosions surround sound. A couple of times I grabbed for my phone to open the ROCU app and fast forward through a scene, but each time Basil put his manly hand over mine to stop me.
He said, “Mom just accept it. You can handle this.”
He was right. Eighties movies are much easier to watch than today’s films.
Sometimes in Rambo First Blood but even more in Rambo First Blood II Basil kept on calling out the lines before people said them.
I told him, “Basil you are really good at knowing these movies.”
“No mom,” he said and smiled, “They are that predictable.”
Sophia and I have also been spending our one-on-one time watching movies together. We are on a Cinderella Story kick. My favorite so far has been Not Cinderella’s Type. I love the way the prince consults his therapist father to get Cinderella the help she needs. I feel so bad for today’s youth who feel like they need to take on the very adult problems of their peers.
Jonah and Justin have pulled out my mahjong set and started playing with me again. I slipped a mahjong card into my laptop cover so that I can play online when the chance pops up. It’s great playing with the boys, but I miss the fellowship of the ladies in the neighborhood mahjong group, which was closed down by the pandemic.
Jonah is showing signs of puberty starting. He’s our altar boy when we have church in the living room and my child who likes hugs the best. He also alternates between singing soprano and something lower. He’s becoming a sweaty boy with a short fuse and this week he’s been grunting.
One morning last week we were running late because a power outage had reset the kids’ alarm clocks. As I left Jonah and Justin’s bedroom, I heard this conversation.
“Justin, up!”
Justin peeked from under his blankets on the top bunk and said, “I am up!”
“Justin, down!”
Justin spends much of his afternoons on the phone with his friend Addie. He wanders around the house and yard face timing his second-grader friend and they also play Minecraft together.
Xenia is my most middle child these days. I keep trying to find something that she and I can do together but haven’t found much. She is bored with the puzzles we have already put together, and I am over the adult coloring books. She wanders around the house and yard listening to audiobooks. She has been spending the most time with Sophia. I’m glad they are drawing closer before Sophia leaves for college next year. I most often see Xenia in the evenings when she comes downstairs for sympathy and a snack to calm her upset stomach. She loves her teachers though and this is the first year of school that she has enjoyed from the beginning. She feels like her fourth-grade teacher really understands her.
I get texts and an occasional phone call from Esther. She and Joshua seem to have settled in and are enjoying college.
That’s all my updates. My books are close to publication if I can just watch the videos and relearn how to format them. Maybe now that I’m caught up on schoolwork, I can focus on some of my other interests this week.
The kids are awake. Jonah needs a swimming shirt. Xenia needs a water shoe, and Justin says it’s his turn to use the computer. Time to get the rest of the day started.