The Challenge

Huddle up peeps, this is kind of neat. Word Savvy KC and I have been talking about

having another blogging challenge in April. We're going to post each day about stuff we read.

Sure I'm nervous. I don't read that much, but we're interpreting the notion of "reading" fairly liberally. I mean we could be blogging about anything, when it comes right down to it. But we're going to try to make it about reading. Pronto Pup might be joining us as well. I haven't heard the final low down on that. If you would like to join us with this literacy blogging challenge, we would indeed cheerfully and sincerely celebrate you as a member of the #1 blogging team in the midwest. If you're not a blogger, always, always remember that you can be a commenter. And your friends and kin can also be commenters. So, read every day in April. Comment as much as possible. Support literacy.

The Grinchiness

I had a day of fairly bogus inservice today. For hours I chatted with other unfortunates about how to use an agenda for meeting facilitation and how to give and receive feedback. Stuff that could have been discussed in 3 minutes stretched out to 93 minutes. So of course this got me in a stupid bad mood.

I need to stop being a crankatoa and take one day at a time.

The Weeds

We're enjoying WEEDS Season 5 on our netflix. Nancy Botwin does not make good choices. But I like this show anyway.

The Kinder

A kinder came up to me today and said, "Mrs. Dr. H., I need to get into a different reading group. I want to be with Matthew."

"I'll see what I can do kiddo."

His teacher walked by a bit later and I asked her quietly, "Did you tell that kid I was

in charge of the reading groups?"

"Sorry," she told me, "He wanted to switch so I told him you were the only one who could make changes."

The End

Not sure how I'm going to get back into gear tomorrow. But it has to be done and I'll think about that tomorrow. For tonight, I'm lazing about, obsessed with the health care bill. I'm camped out in bed, watching on tv and reading tweets online. It's exciting. I hope it passes.

The Therapy

We all had physical therapy today. #1 son was the guy who actually had to do the exercises and feel the excruciating pain, but Husbandman and I had to sit and watch, which was probably almost as bad. #1 is already doing great with bending his knee, but he can not yet straighten it out. PT Professional said that if he can't straighten it out the doctor will have to straighten it out surgically. That's a disgusting thought. It's really pretty horrible. Way to lay on the pressure, PT Professional.

The Knee

It's good to be home after a long stretch of time at the surgery center. One kind of gross thing I saw today was a truly discolored foot belonging to someone who was also about to get surgery. The foot was sticking out from behind a divider curtain. I wonder what happened to that foot today. The rest of the day was a combination of moods ranging from sombre to anxious to relieved. I love when doctors are done with surgeries and they praise themselves with such abandon. "Everything was fantastic. It couldn't have gone better. I was able to do everything exactly the way I wanted to do it!" They actually seem fairly buzzed. I have no problem with that. Way to get the job done, Dr. S. And thanks for cutting open #1's knee and grafting a piece of his hamstring into the damaged ACL position. I could not have done this without you!

The Help

Once again I tried to help others today, with mixed results. Husbandman made dinner products for some wonderful pals tonight. My contribution was carrying one of the fine dishes from the car to the front door. I tripped on the front steps causing the pyrex dish containing the delicious entree to fall onto the limestone porch, exploding into 1,000 shards of glass. Husbandman had made two dishes so he turned around and went home to get the other and I helped sweep up. I'm still mortified about the entire fiasco.

On the good side of the day, Nance and El baked us a peach pie! How awesome is that? I was terrified I would drop it on the way home, but it's here safe and sound.

The Quest

Poor #1 son has an injury from lacrosse. When he was a wee #1, he tore his ACL and has had leg problems since then. The recent lacrosse hit has caused him to be limping in pain for days. He had to have an mri today and we'll find out on Friday what to do next. He may have surgery or he may not. Husbandman also has maladies and this morning he got a needle shot into his knee, delivering a curative medication.

Obviously I needed to step up to the plate and try to lift up the team. This was my plan. We would drive into our local state park and soak up some sun as we take photographs along a forested path encircling a lovely lake. Then, and here's the crux of the plan, we would drive into the old fashioned neighboring town and have PIE in a charming eatery. Husbandman volunteered to walk into the eateries to inquire about pie offerings. We were sad to find only one kind of pie available. Peanut butter pie. Obviously that was not acceptable. After a noble search, we settled for a "HOME MADE COBBLER" at an "ice cream" shoppe. Sadly, the cobbler had a nauseating toxic taste to it that really left us feeling unsatisfied. We headed home, but on the way we veered off to the local bird platform. There were many duck like birds there and Husbandman and #1 son patiently waited as I tried to identify them. So, I did my best to help others today, with limited success. Tomorrow I will try yet again to lift up the team. If anyone has any ideas about where to get the best pie, please let us know asap.

The Podcast

Even though spring break's been a complete capital D for DRAG so far, I did read a great book, Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, and today I even felt well enough to make a podcast about the book. I didn't feel like going into plot details but I do raise some interesting somewhat related points during the podcast and if you click right here you can listen to it if you want to.

The Break

So far, spring break has been not that great. I stayed in bed all day, blowing my nose over and over again. Watched a bunch of stupid tv and napped and watched more tv. Then we rented a movie and watched that. Here's my plan: Sleep tonight and then wake up tomorrow completely well, happy to be alive.

The Break

I'm home in bed and the break has started off well. Got up here to find Bourne Identity on television. Starting break with a bang.

The Waiting

6 more solid hours of hard honest labor and I'm on spring break. Everyone's going on traveling trips, but we have no plans. I'm going to just live in the moment and make every second count.

If I can get through tomorrow in one piece, I'm going to live life to the fullest for the entire break. I've been kicked out of the compound. To save $, they're not allowing us in to the site over break. I have some insecurity about not being able to go into work. But maybe I can adapt. I think they could have let us in for one day.

The Literacy

I finished a podcast with the little 3rdies today. Click here if you want to listen to it. It's not the most exciting podcast on the planet, but it's not absolutely the most boring podcast either. I enjoyed working with the peeps, at any rate, and they did feel proud of their work. I hope we get a few comments.

The podcast is 7 minutes long, but it's worth it in a way. I mean, I know you'll never get those 7 minutes back, but think of what you'll gain. Think about what you'll gain and then tell me if you actually gained anything.

The 3rdies

Today I recorded kiddos reading their scripts for our podcast. The podcast is not that thrilling, but we soldier on. I have about 4 more to record. For some odd reason I'm letting them each pick a sound effect to add after their talking. We have an odd assortment of bells, bubbles and barn doors closing. Whatever, i'm just trying to get this first one done. I have super low expectations. Except it bugs me when it's not good. Anyway, one kiddo today went off script. He does that all day long. Poor guy talks incessantly. The kid babbles. And people are constantly hushing him and rushing him back to where he belongs. I let him ramble for awhile but then I told him we needed to edit because of time concerns. He said, "It's kind of like jazz though. You add a little saxophone and it can really make it better." I laughed out loud (lol) and he did too but he added, "It's true!"

"You're right, it is true," I told him, "But let's finish up and you can pick a sound effect."

The Podcasts

Here's another podcast about a book. Our fave literary critic Husbandman makes another brief appearance. Click here if you want to: A Year of Mornings.

UPDATE: JW and I just worked on a podcast about the Young Hoosier Picture Books. It's pretty good. Click here if you want to: Young Hoosier Picture Books. I almost feel ready to make the third grade podcast about literacy. 16 kiddos to record tomorrow. May the force be with me.

The Arts

Last night I saw Shutter Island. It was creepy through and through. Today I heard Bernard Woma. He brought his cool music to the school site. The whole school was dancing. I danced with a little kinder for awhile. Bernard Woma was rocking the house. And tomorrow I'm going to see the quilt show. Trifecta of the arts.

The Visitor

We had a visitor to the school site today. After grilling me for a long time he complimented our literacy program. I thought the compliment was really nice, but the grilling could have been toned down a bit. It actually got on my nerves quite a bit.