That's life

Sometimes life is a little yuckier than you would like and that doesn't make for terribly nice blog posts. But even in the middle of the yuck, there are still good things to be found. Such as...

• L, G. and K. formed a band and gave us a concert this afternoon. K. was playing (and I use that term loosely) piano, G. was on drums, and L. was guitar and vocals. (Her guitar was the little played 'unitar', which is actually a stick unicorn turned upside-down. There was a good attendance at their concert, since L. convinced everyone, including TM and P. to attend. I hope she uses these powers for good later in life.
• Gretel has taken it as a personal affront every time Midnight tried to use something inappropriate as a scratching post. Midnight starts to scratch and Gretel's hackles go up and she lets out a rather menacing growl. It's enough to stop the cat, but she never does anything more. I appreciate that.
• Gretel is also feeling a little under the weather today and I'm wondering if I should take her into the vet. (I'm a little gun shy about taking animals into the vet these days. You'll understand why I hesitate.) But, it could have been she overdid it yesterday playing sled dog with TM. Evidently TM was on a scooter and Gretel pulled him up and down the block. And up and down. And up and down. You'll remember that Gretel is really not very good at knowing when to stop. This is what comes of teaching your children things.
• We received our official immigration approval for both Y. and R. We are now working our way slowly through the remaining immigration/travel approval steps. These are pretty much uninteresting busy work, so I won't bother to explain each of them to you. I'm not even sure I could explain why I'm doing what I'm doing... I'm following directions and assuming I get to the end.
• I cut out dresses for G. and L. and am almost ready to cut out a new top for H. I'm quickly reaching the point, though, where I'm going to have to involve the little girls a little bit more in the decision making process. As I was cutting out the dresses, L. comes up and asks what I'm doing. I show her the fabric and tell her I'm making her and G. and dress. She looks and say, "Meh." I'm forging ahead, because I still reserve Sundays as my day to pick their outfits.
• All the younger people in the house have been on a huge Calvin and Hobbes kick. J. has read one complete book to them and is on another. We both see eerie similarities between L. and Calvin. It makes me wary of giving her a cardboard box anytime in the near future.
• TM has Für Elise by Beethoven nearly completely learned and is doing a fantastic job. You can tell I love the boy because I'm teaching it to him. I'm a piano teacher and have a firm stand against the piece normally. All anyone every plays is the easy first page and when it gets hard they quit. TM has not quit and really only has the arpeggio section left to really learn. I'll see if I can get him to play it once he secures it while I take a video.
• G. came to me today with a library book and announced, "It says, 'Pop'. It's about bubble gum. Read it to me." I think the phonics lessons are working.
• M. found her winter coats in her apartment, so I can stop worrying that I gave them all away with the latest pile of stuff. In my defense, all things stuffed in garbage bags look alike. But I didn't give them away. Phew.
• In looking for M.'s winter coats, I came across a very nice Italian leather jacket that seemed to have been spawned by the pile of coats in the basement. No one recognizes it. And it fits me. Guess I have a new coat.
• We had a brief moment of D. thinking he wanted to audition for Master Chef Junior which is going to be holding auditions in a few weeks here. Then we watched an episode. He has decided he would rather continue honing his cooking and baking skills in the privacy of his home and not have to worry about being a slightly smarmy child actor at the same time he is cooking. Plus, he wouldn't have been free for the filming as he has a fairly big role coming up that he is committed to. Maybe I'll just let him cook dinner for a while. For the practice, you know.
• K. watched the episode with us and was incensed that there were 9 year olds cooking. He is 9! Why isn't he cooking? Oh, I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that every few minutes he feels compelled to throw himself on the floor. Or wave things around. Or hit things together. Handing a knife to someone with these habits does not seem wise.
• D. is doing NaNoWiMo (National Novel Writing Month) and is over halfway to his goal, word wise. He has been writing for at least an hour or two consistently for a few weeks now. I should have him write this blog as well. 
• If I have D. cook and write for me, I might be able to catch-up on the laundry. Again. I'm always catching up on the laundry. All it takes is missing two days and I'm behind again.
• TM and D. and I are still working our way through the Swallows and Amazons series. The book we just finished was We Didn't Mean to go to Sea. It was very good and very exciting. We all recommend it.

So there you go. Some of the news from the past few days. It's good to look for the good amidst the hard.