Saturday Weekly Review

I decided to try to keep up a short daily journal and publish on Saturday (today). If I wait till Saturday I never can remember what we actually did.

Sunday I talked for a long time with Clare on the phone, up in Oregon with her brothers and dad watching Sean do his football camp.   In the evening it hailed with great ferocity and there was thunder and lightning.  It scared the flying squirrels in our roof and so two more adolescents were scampering around. We spent about an hour trying to track one down and return it to the office closet from where it apparently issued.   It finally found a hole in the wall and disappeared.  Presumably it is back with its mother now. 

Monday I vacuumed, then took us over to Paddy's piano lesson.   It used to be Wednesdays but we've changed for the summer.  Kieron entertained Aidan while I was with Paddy.  Kieron did a little schoolwork, and we watched a few episodes of an anime cartoon series.  At almost midnight Kevin arrived home from Oregon with Brendan, Clare and Sean.   Brendan had gotten a stomach bug or a mild food poisoning, and Sean had what seems to be costochronditis, and Kevin had driven for over 10 hours, so it was a rather pale looking bunch.

Tuesday Aidan had been told we would celebrate his birthday when his family got home even though the actual date was last week so he woke up wildly excited.    He spent the day moving me from one objective to the next. ... making the cake, going to the post office, wrapping his presents.   He wore himself out and took a nap in the afternoon!   In the evening we had the celebration.   He got a board game, a new cooler that he chose himself (he loves coolers), some tops, and a remote control Lightning McQueen that his Dad bought for him in Oregon.   Lightning McQueen appears to have vanished.  I hope he is not under our bed.   Birthdays are always hard that way.  It takes a while to integrate the newcomers into the house and everything seems to get scattered in the first couple of hours of enjoyment.  

Talked to a friend long-distance while Aidan and the crew were playing.   .  

Wednesday   I spent most of the morning writing, which I have been doing recently.  It is a common thing in early June because school is trickling to an end and I am planning next year, which means a lot of ruminating, apparently.    The kids played board games and Aidan played with his birthday toys.  He wants to go to the Post Office to see if his last gift (a puzzle) actually arrived yet.   Kevin filled out forms and gathered information for the rental application we are making for an apartment down in town.   He would come in periodically and consult with me and bring me coffee.    Aidan would come in and try to get me moving.    I'm getting sort of excited about next year with no charter school obligations and have started writing notes.

Homeschool planning, I realize, is a creative process like writing a story.   It involves not just logic and organizational skills but also a kind of poetry, or influence from a Muse (figuratively speaking, of course).    So I'm trying to use the kind of patience and open-ended thinking that I use when I'm writing or cooking a more ambitious meal or sewing a customized outfit, or playing music.  There's a form, but the technical form is not sufficient.   Such were my thoughts.

We spent the afternoon down in town applying to rent an apartment.  It was hot down there.  Then we shopped and came back up, and almost immediately got some news that threw the apartment rental idea into doubt.  Long story.   Well, at least I got to spend some good time with my husband talking about plans and things in the car, and I am reminded that God has things in His hands.   Aidan did get his puzzle. 

Thursday.   Bright and sunny outdoors, though still chilly inside the house.  I am aware that I should snap back into my normal pattern of getting things done in the morning around the house instead of writing.    Kevin has been trying to restore Brendan's computer which seems to be deathly ill.     The kids are still playing lots of board games.   I love the intent quietness punctuated by an occasional gruff teen voice and the click of game pieces. 

Kevin and I talk more about plans for the future.   We go to the Post Office to get mail.   Kieron makes his Most Excellent Peanut Butter Cookies.   They disappear fast.   I sit with Clare by the fire for a long time and we talk about a lot of things.   It is very rewarding to have a grown daughter.    Tacos for dinner.   I only spent moments here and there with the boys, so tomorrow I intend to be more in tune with them.  But they all seemed fine doing things together.   Brendan brought his computer back to his room so I guess it is fixed.

Friday  I make a sort of Peanut Butter Protein Bar for a late breakfast.    The boys play more board games.   Kevin and I have to drive down the mountain to the pharmacy.  I ordered Aidan's anti-rejection meds last week but there was a glitch with the authorization and so I had to pay for the interim meds.  But now they've gotten the new authorization. The problem is some kind of complication where our primary insurance is supposed to pass the request on to a secondary one he gets from the state because of his disability, but the secondary one took several days to respond.   Reminder:  don't assume that the pharmacy will do this ahead of time, I will have to be more proactive next year and get them moving  a week or so ahead when the authorization is about to expire.  That medication is expensive, and bureaucracy can move slowly!

I do some tidying and quite a few loads of laundry.    Clare has been working on getting her college things unpacked and put away.  Between the extra gear brought home, Aidan's birthday and the number of recent journeys and transitions around here, the house really needs some serious work (again!)    Things that aren't usually lying around are now in evidence, so it's like having a large group of rather ungainly guests hanging around in your house.    I like real live guests much better. 

Clare asks if I want to watch  The Young Victoria with her.  So that is how we spend the afternoon.   The boys go outside to play catch on the street.   It's the first warm day we've had this year. ... in the 70's. 

In the evening I hang out with Paddy since I haven't seen much of him lately.  He starts telling me about how he is dividing the remaining gulps in his water bottle up into fractions.  He keeps using the word "quarters" when he is actually describing 6ths and 12s but I stop trying to correct him because I realize that other than that he is getting all the complicated calculations correct.  So "quarter" is acting as a placeholder word to describe fractional denominators in general.

Saturday

That brings us to today.  The weather has turned warm and nice this week and most of the snow has melted.   I will probably start going out and working on the yard    I feel like we're in a transition time which always makes me move slower than I think I should.  Something to pray about.   I think I'll make hamburgers and sweet potato fries for dinner tonight.   I haven't used the BBQ for over a week now because of the rain and cold. 

Summing Up:
 
I read a post by Katie at CM, Children and Lots of Grace where she talked about  blog commenting and how it worked.  For some reason along with the Poetic Knowledge book club this made me think of blogging in a different way.   I've been blogging since 2005 but I don't think I quite understood the idea of comboxes.  Hard to explain... but I've been trying to reply more consistently to people who comment on this blog, and also do better about commenting on other peoples' blogs and then even going back to see if they answered me in their combox!    And it has been really interesting and made blogging seem richer!  

And to apply that to "real life" -- I've noticed the same thing with my family.  If I spend some time with them talking or doing things together it increases richness.  I may think I am "spending time" just by being in the same house and responding to them when they talk to them, and trying to do things for them, but there is some other factor that comes into play when I consciously try to go a little past that.    It has all sorts of effects.   I suppose I unconsciously somewhat avoid that because it leads to unexpected places but at the same time it makes life seem richer and more connected to those around me.   So this is something I want to remember -- I'm probably not putting it into words very well but maybe enough so that I can be reminded of what I was talking about when I wrote it at least.  ;-).

I notice that this is what I remember at the end of a day, too -- not getting X or Y done or just working hard, but actually using the work as a way to engage in things.   I suppose this is a Poetic Knowledge insight that is slowly working its way inwards.