Friday bullets, May 4, 2018

With the warmer weather this past week, I may finally be warming up from winter. It feels good.

  • A P. family child happened to be riding his bike past the Big Ugly House earlier in the week, and took a look at what was happening. The outside changes I knew about, but he was able to peek in a window a little bit. It would seem that the wood pillars between the living rooms have been painted white. He couldn't tell if the rest of the paneling in the downstairs was also painted. I will admit to feeling a little stabbed in the heart about that. I know it's not our house anymore, but I do feel a little responsible for it and connected to it still. To have all that beautiful woodwork painted over... I feel the need to go and apologize to the house.
  • D. has been extremely diligent in his learning of French over the past few weeks. He is definitely improving. He is improving so much that he has spurred me on to actually begin my own studying again, both so I can answer his questions and stay ahead.
  • L. has been growing. What I initially took to be just fatigue from a busy weekend, turned into a week long fun fest of disregulation. When all the child did on Wednesday was eat, I finally began to realize what was happening. When Thursday morning saw no improvement, I finally remembered that during her last growth spurt, I heavily invested in protein energy bars. Once I remembered that, it was a matter of minutes before I had the car keys in my hand and driving to the store the purchase some. It has made all the difference. Upping her protein intake allows her to remain calm and verbal. She even went to bed much more easily. Why can't I seem to remember this little piece of information right away, though? Why do I need to suffer through days of unhappiness before my memory kicks in?
  • It would seem that ducks don't mind being in the rain at all. The chickens, on the other hand, do. 
  • With the rain we've had for the past couple of days, we are also seeing another item we need to add to the chicken pen... a small roof over part of it. That way the food can be under a roof and not get wet, plus the chickens will be able to get to it in rainy weather. There is quite a steep learning curve to this chicken coop building-thing.
  • It hasn't just been rain we've been having, but thunderstorms. I love them, but Kenzie still does not. Nor do some of our newer children. 
  • With the warm weather, everyone wants to put on summer clothes... shorts, t-shirts, sandals, swimming suits. Which is fine until you realize that about six children need nearly entirely new summer wardrobes. A lot of people did a lot of growing over the winter.
  • Have I mentioned how much I love having a chicken-free house? No, the wonder has not worn off yet.
  • Yesterday I discovered that I had not one, not two, but three articles overdue. This is not a good feeling. In my head I had a couple of weeks left to get them turned in. I should have learned by now not to trust my memory when it comes to writing due dates.
  • The problem with telling a child over and over that her birthday is a long, long way away, because otherwise every other second of your life will be taken up with her asking about her birthday, is that at some point that birthday is not actually a long, long way away. Yes, a brief moment of panic ensued, but all is now in order. Breathing can resume.
  • I had a chance to have an unexpected visit with a friend who lives in China a couple of days ago. As we were chatting, we laughed a moment over the fact that she has to travel to multiple different grocery stores to find Western food, and I have to travel to multiple different grocery stores to find Asian food. 
Enjoy your weekend!

Comments

Amy said…
Can you share what D is using to learn French? I have a child over here who wants to learn French and I haven't started researching yet. We are also taking a summer trip to Quebec so there is even more interest about French going on in our house.
Anonymous said…
As a "bird person"...I have 2 smaller size parrots in my house, but years ago
I brought home the 5 results of hatchings that took place in the country school my children attended.
My husband was good at constructing things so he built a "lean to" coop on the side of our garage and the roof was partly covered to let the chicks eat out of the rain. (oregon)..They were our pets and we enjoyed them (their presence, not eating them) well into chicken old age.

Note to Amy: I don't study any languages, but I keep getting advertisements on my email for a program called Babbel...one must pay by the month, but if you are interested, check it out.
My best to you,
mary m, age 71
vancouver,wa.
thecurryseven said…
Amy,

He is doing a lot with flash cards and spaced repetition, as outlined in Fluent Forever. He is also doing DuoLingo on his phone and working through P.'s college French 1 text at the same time. Oh, and asking me many questions. How fun to go to Quebec!

e

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