staying home sick

I had one of those wrenching mom-decisions this morning. Sean had stayed home from school yesterday (Wednesday) after getting sick Tuesday afternoon. This morning, he still looked and felt sick – had some abdominal pains. No fever, no real exterior symptoms. So I sent him off on the bus.

I called the doctor and scheduled an appointment for 10 am. The doctor’s going to refer him to a GI specialist (actually, Aidan’s very GI doctor, so that’s nice). She prescribed a muscle relaxant for the pain.

Kevin and I dropped Sean back off at school. Sean obviously didn’t want to go.

I went to the Post Office and when I came back I got a call from the school office, from a lady I know who goes to our church and is a friend. She said Sean was in the nurse’s office sleeping. He had left Geometry complaining of dizziness and stomach pain. She asked if I wanted her to put him on the early school bus but I said I’d pick him up and save him the 50 minutes of lurching and loudness.

So Kevin and I picked up our sleepy, slow moving teenage son in the van. Meanwhile, Aidan, who was in the car, was heating up with a temperature. He seems to have the cold that Sean had last week.

I don’t know — I told our friend at the school that I hated making those judgment calls. You just don’t have to do that as a homeschooler. You can let the kid have a day off. I remember that was one of my reasons for starting homeschooling. Should I support Liam’s teacher when I thought she was wrong? (for example, when she kept him in at recess because he had been too slow at finishing his class work?) Should I spend two hours in the evening with him helping him to complete homework that was essentially busywork, or should I just slough it off in order to have a bit of family time and thus send the message that homework wasn’t important?

Well, I did ask the doctor what to do when Sean got these episodes — they seem to hit about monthly — and she validated my instinct to keep him at home. I abrogated that instinct today and look what happened. But then, I don’t always want to be the one encouraging him to take it easy, either. Sigh.

I think if he has to stay home tomorrow though, the school staff won’t be surprised.

Dull Pasture, Dead Grass

I feel discontented. … everything seems to have a layer of dust on top of it, including my psyche. Probably it means I have been on the computer too much, but I think there’s more to it than that. Incipient spring, perhaps? Anyway, since it’s April maybe a good time for a poem by Richard Wilbur, hat tip to Laudator Temporis Acti:

The air was soft, the ground still cold.
In the dull pasture where I strolled
Was something I could not believe.
Dead grass appeared to slide and heave,
Though still too frozen-flat to stir,
And rocks to twitch, and all to blur.
What was this rippling of the land?
Was matter getting out of hand
And making free with natural law?
I stopped and blinked, and then I saw
A fact as eerie as a dream,
There was a subtle flood of steam
Moving upon the face of things.
It came from standing pools and springs
And what of snow was still around;
It came of winter’s giving ground
So that the freeze was coming out,
As when a set mind, blessed by doubt,
Relaxes into mother-wit.
Flowers, I said, will come of it.

Circannual 2009

It seems that every April I start thinking of blogging the days on here again. Anyway, here, right on schedule. .. literally, to the day. Let’s see if I can do this with Aidan sitting on my lap saying “Let’s head out the door!” My husband Kevin and I have revived our old habit of going for daily walks pushing Aidan in his purple wheelchair, and it only takes Aidan two days to solidify a pleasing custom into a habit. (He’s also trying to read bits of this post which is a nice anniversary indication of progress, since last year he wasn’t reading at all). But here are some things that are the same:

• Just like last year, we still have grungy snow on the ground.
• Just like last year, I am starting to think about planning for next year.
• Just like last year, I am aiming to end our Charlotte Mason term in early June.

Let me write out a typical day now as a souvenir for next April.

I’ve been waking up at 5:30 am recently, which is frustrating because my alarm is set to go off at 6 am. It always feels too cold to get up right away but half an hour isn’t really long enough to go back to sleep. I usually do anyway, though. Then I have to drag myself up at 6:15.

Then I have a routine which thankfully is almost completely automatic. I get dressed, say morning prayers, make coffee, fill Sean’s water bottle, feed the dog, empty the dishwasher, start a fire, make a protein drink, wake up Sean to drink it, start some laundry and sometimes, if Aidan’s awake, get breakfast for him.

Then I drive Sean to the bus stop. But after this Easter break he will be walking — the drive was because of all the snow behind our house. I can’t justify it when he only has to walk 1/10th of a mile down a pleasant hill in the spring. However, it will be a little sad because you know, those interventions are “collecting rituals“ Sometimes the few minutes in the warm car were the times when he’d mention something about his essentially mysterious days that he wouldn’t have mentioned otherwise.

After that I WAS riding the exercycle and reading a book for 30 minutes. I got derailed a couple of weeks ago and haven’t started it up again. Now I usually hang out on the computer with my coffee while Aidan watches a video, usually Veggie Tales, but recently Toy Story (we borrowed it from the library and he loves it).

Then I make breakfast and we start the day reading — I read to Kieron in history and religion in front of the fire. The little ones flow in and out among this, mostly in. He narrates. I give him something for language arts — either copywork, or Latin, or grammar. This takes a little over an hour usually. Then he has a break. Fairly often he takes the little ones outside to sled for a couple of hours. I usually catch up a bit around the house, talk to Kevin or one of the older kids, or whatever.

At lunch I usually read to Paddy. Kieron is supposed to read some more on his own and do math after lunch. He usually does the math, but has had trouble getting around to the reading. He reads plenty on his own but the schoolbooks are more challenging to him, I think, not as intrinsically interesting.

Then usually I rest a bit and go for a walk with Kevin, and make another pot of coffee, then start dinner in time for when Sean comes home. He has been doing track so he is not home till 6:30 these days, then he takes a shower and does his homework, then reads or talks to his siblings or watches a movie until bedtime.

I read some more to Paddy and then am usually out myself close to ten. I really need more than 8 hours of sleep.

I suppose there are a lot of little incidentals that don’t come up in that sketch of a typical day. Recently I’ve been decluttering and organizing so that takes up some time. And sometimes there are errands to run.

Sean said the other day that “school wasn’t so bad if he didn’t have to get up so early.” I was surprised by that since usually he says how much he dislikes school. Hopefully that’s not a bad sign. Anyway, summer vacation is coming up fast and then we’ll be into football season, which is definitely the main reason he is putting himself through all those early mornings.

Trial and Error

When you think your car is locking and refusing to start, make sure you are using the right key to start it with.

I’m sure there are some homeschooling parallels!

blankets of silence

Lent seems to silence me — wonder why that would be? I haven’t been blogging much at all.

Snowy today — the sky is like a downy blanket. At 6:30 I was out pushing great drifts of snow from the Durango’s top and sides. Fortunately the plow got to our driveway so that I could drive out and get Sean to the bus stop. There was no place to park the car so I drove around a bit until it was time to drop him off. He doesn’t think there will be track today.

Aidan got up when I did, ate some penne from last night’s dinner, went in the car with us and then crawled back into bed and is fast asleep again. With both the little guys asleep, the house has a deep hush. I suppose eventually it will be like that all the time, but right now it’s rare.

I spent an hour yesterday cleaning downstairs since the real estate guy is coming by this morning. It sure looks nice when it’s cleaned.

Homeschool has been going well — using Ambleside pretty much as straight as I can.

Now both the little ones are awake.

raining

It’s pouring outside and has been all through the night. So glad it isn’t more snow. I can manage rain just fine. I ran out last night at about 11 pm and covered the firewood still in the driveway. That’s when I knew that I’d better keep up my exercising. (I’ve been riding on the stationary bike for 30 minutes a day). Formerly I wouldn’t have been able to make myself run outside and scramble around a soaked pile of logs with tarps.

Sean was rather sad yesterday about returning to school today and his sorrow affected my mood. He asked about independent study. So hard to know how to approach this type of difficulty.

I just finished reading Re-Enchantment, a book about a family who moves to California and ends up homeschooling their two children. The book is tinged with fantasy — for example, the school is a bit like 21st century Roald Dahl with a California overlay. It wasn’t what I’d call a GOOD book, in the literary sense, but it was a likeable book, andthought-provoking. I read it while exercising every day, which helped me moderate my tendency to sink into a book and read it all in a day while ignoring everything else. Now I think I will read another Charles Williams book next.

new wood

The firewood guys could only bring one cord yesterday, so Aidan gets to have double the fun, expecting a second cord today.

On the credit side, the firewood is oak. The guys seemed like good guys, conscientious. Their prices were cheaper than their competitors’, and they didn’t charge a delivery fee.

On the debit side, the oak is drenched from February rains. Plus, it’s not seasoned as well as it could be. They just split it yesterday and it looks like it could use another few months before being prime firewood. Dry seasoning green wood tips here.

I spent almost an hour getting the fire started yesterday, and burned almost every box in the house. It was better today because we still had hot coals from last night, but this wood hisses rather than crackles as it heats up. We have stacked it over our central heating vents to dry out. Don’t try this at home : ).

As with other frustrating work around this house, like cleaning ashes off everything and shoveling snow, it becomes a metaphor for the spiritual life. “I have come to light a fire on earth; how I wish it were already ablaze.” Struggling with damp new wood makes me think of parenting, and my own resistant tendencies, and so many other things.

firewood

Yesterday we had loaded up the fire with branches and were just about to set it alight when we saw a small spider trying to escape the heat. Kevin and Brendan helped me to pull out the branches and salvage the arachnid, and Brendan carried it out to the garage on the end of a stick. I was just thinking about how nice it was to have my grown son and husband so solicitous of a harmless little creature and wondering if it had planted any seeds of reverence for life in my two youngest boys when Aidan came running by shouting, “We taught that black widow a lesson!” Hmm, I guess maybe we did, but the lesson was probably lost on the spider and seems to have been lost on Aidan too : ).

Sean is still sick… visited the doctor today since it is Day Four of the GI problems and she says sometimes these bugs can take a week or two to get over. His back was hurting which was what made me call the doctor, but he hasn’t had a fever and doesn’t seem SICK sick as he would if he had some sort of GI infection.

We are due to get two cords of oak dumped on our driveway today — Aidan is excited and I’m looking forward to it too — we’re out of wood so I’ve been sawing up branches that we dumped in the garage this fall. Sawing is surprisingly pleasant but the branches only burn for a few moments, and I am not used to central heat and don’t like it much.

okay, so today Paddy ran away from the second half of his cross of ashes at the Ash Wednesday service. Not sure if he thought she was done, or if he got a bit freaked out now that he’s six about the “remember that thou art dust…”

Busy day today —

Sean was sick and stayed home.

We had an appointment at the therapy unit in town for Aidan and it took almost two hours.

Then he had to get labs. Two sticks. The phlebotomist gave him two big bandages that made him look like he’d had day surgery. He was quite proud, and remembered her instructions not to take the bandages off until he had drank the soda he got at Target (we went there to get a few things for Clare’s birthday).

So we didn’t get home till almost four. Up here it has been misty and rainy and cold all day, with the huge snow piles turning icy now, but down there in town it was bright and gentle and the fruit trees were in blossom. The foothills were emerald green lightly frosted with white and orange wildflowers; a few months from now they will be their normal thirsty gold color but right now it looks like a scene from the Quiet Man or something.

ashes

Mardi Gras dinner — extra large burgers with spices and all the trimmings, and spiced fries. Kieron didn’t convince me to open a liter of soda.

It was a bright sunny day — California blue and gold — and our Sierra glistening white snow and silver ice. Even the Durango with its snow tires had some trouble climbing our driveway in reverse this morning as I drove Sean to school.

We ran out of firewood, and so I sawed branches that we’d stored in the garage for future kindling. I was enjoying the sawing and it’s a good way to warm up when the thermostat’s at 64 degrees and the fire is barely going, but I think I’ll start having Brendan and Kieron do some of it. Aidan wants to help but is limited to adding them to the stove (with supervision). No saws for him yet.

The firewood guy promises to come Thursday or Friday, though; hope it doesn’t snow.

Tomorrow we have to start singing Ashes again. My daughter refers to it as the “Phoenix song”. Sure, it’s fine to rise again from ashes and “create ourselves anew” if we’re phoenixes (and proud of it!) but for the rest of us, who don’t have a hand in our own generation or re-generation, it seems to miss the point of what Lent’s about. Actually, what life is about. Oooh, and that “the dreams not fully dreamt…!” Sugar shock on a fast day! Plus the melody is just so ….so…. SO (the last SO sung in a sort of screech when most of the congregation gets two notes above their vocal range).

But we’ll wear the ashes till they wear off, and hear “remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return”. That part of it is good. The little ones, who are bored by the silly middle-aged third-rate-movie hymns, are solemn and interested in the ashes and have to inspect everyone’s forehead in the evening after we get home.

Paddy, trying to wake me up from a doze this afternoon:

“mom, I’m hungry, hungry…. it’s time for some LIGHT REFRESHMENTS….”

remnants of older days

Kevin just drove off to his uncle’s funeral.

It was a scramble finding all the components of his suit, which he rarely wears. Hunting through all our storage for his belt, for instance, made me realize I have some work to do around here. Lent is a good time to work on the “hidden places” — closets, drawers, places where things get stuffed. I’ve very slowly been improving in this. Today’s scurrying, though, showed me I have some way to go still.

Clare, hunting yesterday for something else, found our old box of pictures. Looking through them yesterday in odd corners of the day wrapped it up in a nostalgic narrative “I remember this…! I can hardly believe we were ever….!” She put up a collage of Kevin and Aidan from almost ten years ago.

Kevin was showing the kids a video of old family movies from way back when he was a baby — the days of 3 minute reels. His brother converted them to video form a few years ago so they were more accessible. There was a shot of his uncle, the one who just passed on, looking hearty, in the prime of his life.

A jumble of thoughts and memories — maybe sorting through closets and putting order to old things is a way of showing respect to these material tokens of elements of our life and history.

I just talked on the phone with an old friend from college. We were talking about how Sean isn’t that thrilled with having to go to school every day, and she surprised me by saying she LOVED high school. I know that some people do, but I hadn’t realized that she was one of them. One of Them. That sounds funny. Now if all his family were going to school and it was just taken for granted that it was a good thing, would Sean be enjoying himself more?

Anyway, he’s home now and said he had to walk up through huge slushy snow banks that turned into puddles at the bottom. His shoes are drying by the fire at the moment.

It is pouring rain today and the trees look ghostly. Aidan and I dropped Sean off at the bus stop and I made peanut butter muffins. We are on our last batch of firewood. Past time to order more.

I spent half an hour tidying downstairs. Aidan is looking forward to when the other kids wake up and I vacuum, so he can see his old friend the filter (it’s a bagless vacuum). Even though it’s almost nine, the house is quite silent. I guess everyone was up pretty late last night.

Time's Passed

Clare’s been photoing the days so I’ll put the links:

• Friday Evening
• Music Session
• Chess

Tonight I made Sean’s three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and wrapped them and put them in the fridge, because today is the last day of this 10 day break and tomorrow he’ll be out the door to meet the bus again. So those photos feel a bit archaeological to me already, remnants of the past week.

The teens and Kevin are still on their Charlie Chan run.

Paddy and Aidan did some almost-real playing today. They set up the hot wheels on their tracks and had races, and they played a hide and seek game. This kind of interaction does not regularly happen. Paddy seems to be trying harder to be tactful in his talk with Aidan.

Still thinking upon habits. It’s like starting to clean the house beyond straightening. Suddenly you discover all these corners to which no attention has been paid for MONTHS. … plus things that don’t work or need repair. It’s a lot like that.

I talked to Liam on the phone. He is finally in the last stages of his thesis, which is due in mid-March. Then he has his oral defense. He sounded a bit weary. He describes how he writes his paper:

He loads up the paper on Open Office. He looks at it for a bit. Then he lunges around his room feinting and parrying with his sword for a while. Then he looks at it a bit more. This goes on for a while. Then sometimes he sits down and plays his classical guitar for a bit. He’s also been composing songs and just finished a story with some geometrical puzzle in it. He’s going to bring it home to read it at Easter break. He says he has more ideas for new things when he has a lot to do.

In between he does get things done on his thesis. But I think he’ll be glad when that’s over.

evening notes

Kevin and the teenagers are watching Prince Caspian. I have been in the same room with them, on my laptop, but only glancing up once in a while, so I have no idea how good or how true to the story it is. All the parts I glance up at I recognize from many, many, many readings of the book. I can say one thing — visually it’s beautiful. Isn’t that enough?

Aidan fell asleep, true to his habit of dozing off early so he can be up before 7 am. Earlier this evening he came downstairs with a strained face and said, “I need a cup. I’m going to throw up.” I took him seriously and rightly so. He threw up and then said, “That’s all. I feel fine now,” and went back upstairs. He seemed OK the rest of the evening. All the day before he was eating like crazy and acting almost giddy. Maybe that was the problem.

Brendan and I talked about history and politics. He has been perusing the Wall Street Journal every day and now knows way more about current affairs than I do. Kevin has been getting a free WSJ sub for about six months now — or did he originally get a free 6 months and then pay 6 months? I can’t remember, but anyway, it’s coming to us free right now. I’m not sure why.

Brendan also unclogged the street drain below our house which was blocked by a big snow berm the plow left. This was a community effort he wasn’t asked to do and we hadn’t even noticed it was clogged, so I was happy he took it on his own initiative. Usually our neighbor who lives closer to the drain has to clear it so the street doesn’t get flooded.

Paddy is watching The Adventures of Tintin (cartoon TV version) while I type on here. He just told me he’s hungry. And he wants me to read The Dragons of Blueland to him. So I had better wrap this up.

Looks like Neptune just showed up in PC. Did that really happen in the book? Maybe it is a river god. But it looks like a significant one. If that’s a river deity I would not want to have Poseidon himself angry at me.

I just read about Poseidon and his wife giving the British Isles to their favorite son, Albion, in Our Island Story. I read it to Paddy. Who seems SO ready for this kind of reading, I feel very apologetic about keeping him so long in picture books. Still, picture books are works of art in their own right. I took a class on Children’s Literature in middle school (an alternative charter) and it was a wonderful class.

I know I haven’t written on here for a long time. I was trying to stick closer to my main blog over at Sierra Highlands. I find it really hard to simply journal over there, though, for some reason, while my little homeschool blog over here seems to invite casual typing. So I decided to go ahead and open this up again and see how it goes. Maybe I am just the kind of person who needs 3 blogs.

Siege with Squirrels

I spent the morning working on my study of Charlotte Mason and her ideas on habits. I’ve printed out a few things to ponder and am now on my way downstairs to make waffles for the kids (definitely talking brunch since it’s already 10:30).

The kids have been playing/quarreling around me. The quarrels have been the milder ones where mom doesn’t strictly need to intervene.

We woke up this morning to icy rain. It’s supposed to rain all morning. This is Sean’s last day to walk out of his room at 8 am and to play football on the king bed with a beanie bear and with Kieron and Aidan.

Clare said she thought Prince Caspian was pretty good, though rushed in places and silly in other places where they were trying to capitalize on the success of the last Narnia movie. Kevin said he liked it, especially the place where the resistance is being besieged and the squirrel suggests storing nuts. We both had a mental picture of the squirrels who live in our roof coming to consult with us about what place in our house should be reserved for the squirrel’s winter food supply.

Our priest mentioned “the kingdom by the lake” as a paradigm for how we should think of our little mountain town and the communion of saints. Because of that and Kevin’s squirrel thoughts, I started thinking of a story like Napoleon of Notting Hill where the squirrels become our allies in some war against the intruders of some so far unspecified sort.

Off to make the waffles — Paddy is getting frantic in his hunger.