Life Does Get Better, But Right Now, It's Looking Pretty Good...

The Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri picture I told you guys I would dig up.

Aside from the fact, I'm feeling a bit under the weather. If I was smart, I'd probably go to the doctor, because I've probably been developing a doozy of a sinus infection for a month or so, but, well...what with physical therapy and a few other doctors appointments on a fairly regular basis, I value my days when I don't have to drive myself somewhere, alone.

Anyway, back to title. I had no where I had to go today until my Irish dance class at 7 pm. So I got up at 1 pm (yeah, late to all you folks out there, I'm sure, but I just wanted to not set an alarm for once this week, and that was when I got up without an alarm. I went to bed at 10-ish last night.), did some school work, folded laundry, did some laundry, pinned down some of the batting on Reese's quilt. Then, I went to dance, and I had Mrs. Judy all to myself, because none of the 6 or so other people (who woulda thought this could happen?) were there. So the technicalities of dancing got way more than the once over. They were nit-picked, inspected, and repaired to the best extent possible. I don't mind, but my legs probably will come tomorrow. So, I had a good workout.

Then, I came home and finally gave in and bought the English release of Tokio Hotel (album called Scream, released 05.06.08) off of iTunes, since there's a backorder on the Best Buy version, which will take 1 or 2 weeks. And I couldn't wait that long. I wanted my Bill Kaulitz. So, I bought Scream , and will be getting the uber version from Best Buy eventually, which has DVD extras. And I am now listening to it quite happily. So my world is pretty good right now. Things are calm, there's no turbulence, I'm not "running through the monsoon" (Tokio Hotel allusion, from their song, "Monsoon"), so life is pretty good.

We're making tentative plans for various things throughout the summer. We're going to a feis just outside Memphis at the end of May. I'm headed to Colorado in June for a photography summer studio. Reese will be staying home with me all summer, and possibly the school year depending on how the summer goes. Speaking of which, any suggestions for roughly K3-K4 level workbooks, teaching materials, etc. for us for the summer and/or fall? Since Reese wouldn't be as exposed to the teaching aspect of things being home than being at the school's summer fun program, we're trying to remedy that. She's known her ABCs since before we got home, but she can now identify them, she knows her name begins with an "R", so anything that starts with an "R" is her name right now, she can count and identify up to at least 15. She knows all her shapes and colors. We just don't want her to lose that. If anything, we want her to build upon that. And if she stays home with me this fall, we're really going to have to look into things. I'd really like to encourage her reading. She loves being read to, when she feels like it. She loves going to the kids area of Barnes & Noble Booksellers. I'd really like to work on her phonetics, letter-sound association, and recognition of basic words this summer, to where maybe she could get through Level 1 books with some assistance, if not alone by the end of this year, if not the fall. I know not to compare she to me, but at her age, I was frustrated by being unable to read on my own. She's learned a lot over the last 11 months, I don't care if she can read by this fall really. I mean, she's learned a whole new language over the last 11 months. But I want her to have whatever stair steps to reading I can provide her with, so that when she hits that point where she wants to read independently, we won't be having to rush through her frustration at being unable to read to get her to that point. It's a lot easier to learn when you're excited about where you've gotten to and consider it a destination and not just a hurdle on the way to something bigger that you'd rather have. So if you have any ideas for K3-K4 curriculum choices, educational ideas, etc., please comment on here, or email me. Thanks!

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