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Monday

March 9, 2015

6:32 am

Good morning! Should I start out with one of the old and typical complaints? It would be an absolutely spectacular morning if when I came downstairs I hadn’t found a stinky pile of poop and puddle of pee. I’m sure you can figure out who is/are the guilty party(ies). Still, Amena didn’t miss the bus in spite of her very long shower and Cedric found a pair of socks to wear to school.

While I’ve been gone (from journaling), I’ve read several good books. Some of them I’ll tell you about in the other blog but one of them you get to hear about here. Lucky you!

Garlic is Life by Chester Aaron is an excellent book about, of all things, garlic. If you even like garlic a little or at least a good story, you should check out this book. I would love to meet Mr. Aaron but will most likely have to be content with reading this book again (and perhaps looking for other things he has written) and trying my hand at growing garlic. I’ve read about it in seed catalogues and other books about gardening but in spite of the fact that I love garlic, that was never enough to make me want to plant some other than very briefly in passing. Part of my reluctance in the past was the fact that it needs to be planted in the fall. In the fall? Are you kidding me? And not see the fruits of my labors for almost a year? You’ve got to be kidding. However, I’m willing to do that now. In fact, I looked up garlic festivals and found that there is one in Orange in September that I plan on visiting. I might look into selling soap there as well although it is a Saturday/Sunday event and I won’t sell soap on Sunday so we’ll have to see how that goes. Anyway, excellent book; I highly recommend it.

Wednesday

March 11, 2015

6:16 am

The goal for this morning is to actually finish something for today and then to actually post it. Let’s see how that goes.

Yesterday was a busy day. Seth, Joseph and I went out and about. They needed to look at Legos at Walmart and Paul left coupons for a free donut and free muffin from Price Chopper so we went there as well. I needed to pick something up from church so we went there and then came home because I decided that I would not go to Staples.  While we were at Walmart, I saw Mockingjay Part 1 and of course had to get it so when we got home, we had an early lunch and watched Mockingjay Part 1. Just FYI, I hate the way it ends and I need to add those books to my list of books to read. Again.

Amena did not go to school yesterday because she woke up not feeling particularly well. She had a stomachache and a headache. With the decision to let her stay home made, I turned my 5:30 alarm off and proceeded to fall asleep which is something that I almost never do. I didn’t wake up until almost 6:45 when I discovered Cedric still asleep in bed. Fun times.

Cedric and Seth had scouts last night and Amena wanted to get registered for track. That was also fun because the boys needed to be at scouts at 7:00 and registration for spring sports was from 6 to 8 at the middle school. Joanna had taken Joseph with her to go shopping because it’s boring, she said, to go alone and on a ‘date’ which Joseph thought was strange but I thought was cute. Paul got home early from work because Blair had been installing or upgrading software and Paul’s computer at work didn’t work after so Blair sent him home to work from home. Once he got home, the computer here wouldn’t work either. I guess I should say the software for work wouldn’t work because I don’t know that it wouldn’t work at all. Anyway, end result is that Paul was home and we left him home after we ate. We all went to drop Cedric and Seth off at scouts and once someone had arrived with a key to get in, Amena and I left for the middle school. I was pretty sure we would arrive by 7:30 but then we got stuck behind a car that would not drive more than about 35-40 miles an hour. If it had been doing more than a heavy mist, I would understand that. Or if the roads were icy I would expect to go slow. Or if it was snowing. But none of those was the case.  Still we got there a couple of minutes before 7:30 and it didn’t take long to actually get her registered once we figured out that’s what the people in the cafeteria were there for because we thought we were supposed to go to the high school gym.

On the way home, we got to the corner where I could either turn to go get the boys or go straight to take Amena home and because it was 8:00, we turned. My thinking was that I could take Amena home and then I could go back but I would most likely be a bit late and I do not like to be late. We got there at 8:10 or so and I went inside to give them some money for a couple of campouts and deposits for the two boys for scout camp. There wasn’t anything to do at that point because all the adults were busy with the boys so I went back out to the car.

I have to say that I really like Amena. She drives me crazy sometimes but she’s a one-of-a-kind keeper and she’s growing up. Anyway, she was telling me about something that she overheard on the bus Monday. A boy who lives was relating the incident and he heard it from his mother who works at the school sometimes. It seems that there either was a fire drill or someone pulled the alarm. Amena said someone pulled it, Cedric said (I asked him about the whole thing on the way home) that there was just a drill. At any rate, when everyone was outside, a boy accused another boy of pulling the alarm. The second boy, who Amena described as a one with special needs, denied that he had done it but the first boy kept saying that he did. Finally, tired of the badgering, the second boy hit the first so the first hit the second. At some point, the second boy ended up on the ground and lost either two or four teeth and ended up with a very bloodied nose and face. Wow. My response? Where were the teachers or other adults? How could this have happened? Regardless of if it was a fire drill or someone pulled the alarm, where was the order? Seth and Joseph are not going back to school.

Amena was also telling me about the troubles with girls at school. Girls just never change, do they? There is always drama and stabbing people in the back. I really am glad that my girls are who they are and manage to avoid this stuff for the most part and at least don’t take part in it. Amena did, it seems, say something that could be construed as backstabbing, I think, but I also think it was done unintentionally and it seems to have been worked out. At any rate, she was friends with these three particular girls and for a time wasn’t able to speak to any of them because of things that have happened that seem to mostly have been instigated by others. One of them sent her a message last Wednesday about it being Daniel’s birthday and how she just wanted Amena to know that she was thinking of her. That started a conversation and it sounds like that friendship will be salvaged and I am glad.

In other news, there is a lot of other news. That’s about all you will get for now, though, because it’s almost 7:00 and there are many things that need to be done. Have a fantastic day!