big time catch up

Thanks everyone for your emails and phone calls -- I'm sorry to have worried you for being absent here for so long, but I've literally had no time for the computer, have been barely (and not very efficiently or thoroughly) keeping up with emails, so just haven't had time to sit down here and write a post until now.


Most of that is because The Map Man hurt his back while dealing with the big dead horse, and our last week and a half has included a dramatic call to 911, an exciting (for him anyway) ambulance ride to the emergency room, and a WHOLE lot of my time consumed dealing with critters, kids, and a bedridden husband. It wasn't all bad (love you honey!), but it was 100% time consuming and just downright exhausting.

Good news is it's just a strain, he's healing well and is back to work this week (went for a full day yesterday after a couple of shorter days to start the week), and will hopefully be discontinuing his meds this weekend -- he says he's feeling really good, it's more just sore and stiff now than excruciatingly painful like it was for most of last week. Should be a full recovery without any lasting effects, which is great. Now, to try to change the way we do things around here a bit so that he's got no need to overexert himself like that again....


Anyway, it meant a "lite" week of schoolwork for the boys last week (and a multitude of canceled activities/classes/lessons), although I did manage to get J to all of his dance classes/rehearsals. For schoolwork we mostly just played place value card games and worked on handwriting and math skills. It left the boys a lot of time to play on their own, and they got creative with some of their games and toys. In this photo, they created a house for the "tax collector" to live in on their Monopoly board. (They like to pretend they are the characters in the games they play.)

Here they built an electronic UFO launcher (it really worked!) and a bunker to conceal it in/launch it from, with a combination of their
Snap Circuits set and some Keva planks. They also built a working AM radio, which was really cool, but I didn't get a chance to take a photo of if before they took it apart to build other electronic projects. It was a week heavy in self-directed science explorations.

Unfortunately J's dance schedule picked up a bit. He's performing in a number with a professional Modern Dance company at the end of the month, which means additional rehearsals in preparation for that. Rehearsals for the spring show with his ballet school begin this week as well. We're going to have to drop the Friday sports class -- he's just too exhausted by the time he dances on Friday nights -- which is just a big bummer for me, as it was a really important social and exercise time for me. Ah well, there are always hard choices to be made!

Meanwhile, Zoo Boy turned 8. We celebrated by attending a dance rehearsal (wee, fun) and J's chorus rehearsal (ditto) and going out to dinner at the restaurant of his choice (he picked Friendly's). He was OK with it all, he had his new DS to fiddle around with at the rehearsals, and pretty much thought it was the best day ever. (I did let him sleep as late as he wanted to, he got to open his gifts as soon as he woke up, got to watch a couple of Scooby Doo episodes on TV, and The Map Man managed to stay upright long enough to make his favorite breakfast -- pancakes -- so between those treats and the restaurant meal, we pretty much hit on all the things that Zoo Boy covets the most.)

Don't worry, he's not missing out on our traditional way-over-the-top and too-many-guests party -- that's this coming weekend. Because it wouldn't be a birthday in my family without total beat-your-head-against-the-wall chaos.

And that pretty much catches up up! We wrapped up our Monday Homeschool classes semester (including our really fabulous Spanish conversations class) this week, and attended another wonderful Homeschool Day at The Children's Museum in West Hartford, CT. (J took classes on Geology and Biology, Zoo Boy had classes on Astronomy and Ecology, and I got in a lot of socializing time with other Moms.) I'll post later with some schooly type stuff that we're working on this week.