January 26, 2007

We have had a very eventful week. The ant farm turned into a disaster. Mike had some trouble getting the ants into the farm, and so we got all freaked out trying to catch the "escaper ants". Oh boy. Yes, we did stomp on a few of them in our desperation to contain them all. Luckily, the kids were already asleep and didn't witness this. The next day, we all got a huge kick out of watching the ants in their new home. Lily asked me how come we put aliens in there. I explained to her that they were ants, not aliens. She then called them spiders. Goofball! ;-) Unfortunately they didn't live very long. Not even a week went by before they all died. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it may be temperature-related. We had placed the ant farm in front of our window, and even though it's winter, it still gets pretty warm in that front room.
Mike insisted on purchasing another family membership to a gym. The nice thing about this place is that it is far more humble than our previous gym, and this one is family-owned, not a huge national chain. We like that better. Oh, and it's much closer to our home. On Saturdays they offer special aerobics classes for kids. How fun! We checked them out last Saturday, and the kids had a blast. Mostly the girls, since Christopher got pretty tired towards the end. I checked out the gym's childcare facility, and briefly talked to the woman in charge there. When I mentioned to her that we home school, she smiled and said that their childcare will surely fulfill my children's need for socialization. That had to have been the dumbest comment I've heard from a person so far re: homeschooling. I would certainly not send my children to a gym's childcare and consider them properly socialized from then on! What a joke! I smiled back, and let her know that we get plenty of socialization already.
On Sunday I took the children back to the UU church. It was a dreary day, cold and rainy, and I was under dressed, so did not feel very comfortable. After the service, we had to wait for Mike to come and get the kids. I stayed behind, to take that 3-week membership class. It was fun, in a way, and I got paired with an older man named John to talk about our religious histories. John has been involved in developing and setting up ESL (English as second language) programs at international schools, and I'm a former ESL student myself! We have both done extensive travelling, so we felt we had some things in common. Still, I have to say that I'm doing this more for the kids, and not so much for myself. They LOVE attending Sunday school, and I think it would be helpful to belong to a bigger community, not just the hs and LLL communities in Arizona. Who knows where this will take us. :-) I'm thinking of signing up Annika for the church choir. She loves to sing, and it's FREE! I'll ask Christopher if he's interested, but I know Annika will want to join it.
I had my last iron treatment at the hospital on Tuesday. Mike stayed home with the kids so I could go by myself. It's a bit odd knowing I won't go back, since these hospital visits have been a weekly part of my life for nearly 3 months. And the nursing staff was so friendly and accommodating when I had to bring my kids with me. I'm on my own now with making sure my hemoglobin levels stay within a normal range. I don't know what they are now that my treatment is done, so I will need one more blood test to find out. I will make an appt. today.
The kids had their Aikido class last night. Christopher seems to be doing rather well. Still, I sat there with my notepad and pencil to jot down notes about the different exercises he will need to know for the test in February. He doesn't know the Japanese terms, and so I scribbled down short explanations so that I can help him practise more efficiently at home. His sensei doesn't require an understanding of Japanese, but still.... It's the perfectionist in me, and I really want to help Christopher succeed. He will be so proud of himself for earning the orange belt.
After Aikido we went to an ice cream parlor to celebrate our friends' youngest son Asher's 2nd birthday. We ate a late dinner at home afterwards, and consequently (I'm sure) overslept this morning by a good hour! The children's hs program Casa Vida begins at 8:30am, and when I sleepily turned my head to look at my clock it was 8:25. Oops! I figured there was no rush at that point, so I calmly went to wake the kids. I explained the situation, and even though they were bummed out at being so late, they got themselves ready. I helped Lily get ready, and we left the house without eating breakfast. I stopped by an Einstein Bagel's to get a couple of cream cheese bagels for the older 2 kids, and a cookie for Lily. The older 2 also got to each pick a chocolate milk. I had considered just going to McDonald's for their breakfast, which would have been more convenient and quicker since we wouldn't have needed to even get out of the car. But just thinking about the extremely unhealthy ingredients in their food made me change my mind. We had gone through the McDonald's drive-through the previous week, and I strive to keep those visits few and far between. So on to Einstein Bagel's we went, and the kids had a far more nutritious breakfast that way. I let them have their breakfast in the car to save on time, and Annika spilled her chocolate milk all over her jeans and shirt! Yikes. So I turned the car around and drove back home so she could get some clean clothes on. I figured there was no point in stressing out about it, and I had called Julie (the program director) letting her know that we were late. I had to sign them in at Casa Vida and got to say Hi to the teachers, which is always nice. I love the laid-back atmosphere at Casa Vida! The children are happy there, and there is no pressure on either the teachers or the students. Being that it's a program for home schooled children, every child is at a different level and that is perfectly acceptable. Lily and I walked past the library on our way out, and there was a teacher with her class (Casa Vida shares its space with a local public school) talking about her expectations regarding book reports. She stood in front of them like a drill sergeant, and the kids were still so LITTLE! I'm happy my kids don't have to experience that. We do book reports at home, also, of course. But not "drill-sergeant-style".
I went to my allergy clinic for my shots after Casa Vida. Lily busied herself with a phone book that kept her attention focused for at least 10 minutes. Amazing. She likes to page through books. She does the same thing at church, during the early part of the service when children are still with their parents. I wished I would have brought my latest knitting project with me. I will next time. I should start going twice a week, so I can get put on the monthly schedule faster. Now that I don't have to go to the hospital anymore, I should be able to do that. I started a new dilution today, and didn't have much of a reaction. No itchy injection sites for me today! That's always a good thing. I just have to remember to take my allergy meds before the shots, and then I'm fine.
I'm a knitting fiend these days! There are so many patterns I want to try, and new yarn I want to work with. I ordered some really good-quality wool to make a wrap for myself, with some of my birthday money. I can't wait for it to get here. I also just started a very simple project making place mats for our family. The colors are beautiful and don't really match, but that's part of the beauty. I saw them featured in a catalogue and just had to have them for our home. I will also crochet napkin rings to match the individual place mats. That will be hard for me, since I don't really crochet. But I can always ask my friend, who crochets for a living.
We are also working on completing our altered books, and need to get started making valentines for our valentines exchange list.