What Struck Me

The moon looked so pretty sitting up there in the tree!

Our Christmas tree ready for the Big Man in Red.

The house all lit up so the reindeer can find us!

Need a stress reliever? Try this: cityrag: 50 Greatest Cartoons. They’ve got links to all the greats. I’m watching Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century right now. I’m partial to Looney Tunes but there’s plenty of other great stuff, too, including classics I’d heard of but never seen (Gerald McBoing-Boing!). Have fun!

(via boing boing, of course!)

My back started freaking out yesterday just as was about to get the kids’ gifts wrapped. I wrenched it last week, then on Saturday it was bothering me a bit, and I guess sitting on the floor reaching for boxes and wrap was the last straw. Every move I made made caused some kind of electrical current that rendered me useless.

Great timing, huh?

I spent the rest of the day sitting motionless with a heating pad on my back. Feeling a little better today, the spasms have slowed to a trickle, but ow it’s sore! I was supposed to go help make gingerbread houses with Tim’s class today, but I can’t see sitting in those little chairs, so I didn’t go. I also planned to bake cookies and start prepping some food for Christmas Eve. Also, there’s the laundry. Oh well. Must sit and rest.

This afternoon our new dining room set is finally scheduled to arrive. Tonight I have my book club, which I will drag myself to because I need to just hang and relax and talk about how annoying the book was (Keeping Faith by Jody Picoult, not one of her best.)

Tomorrow I head up to get Andy and bring him home, can’t wait to have him back here for a few weeks!

Destiny’s not the best at posing for pictures. Usually she jumps up at the camera for some reason. I took these with a zoom. She was chewing her nails, ignoring me, and I called her name quietly just before snapping this shot. A second later she was in my face.

Thought this shot of my doggie came out pretty well. I’m going to try to take lots of photos over the holidays, take advantage of this nice camera!

Even when he was Raymond’s dad, whenever I saw Peter Boyle I’d think of this scene in Young Frankenstein.

Third grade has gotten insane. It was always the year that’s just too full of stuff. Learning cursive, learning multiplication and division, writing book reports, learning how to research…

But the amount of homework and especially longer term assignments Tim is bringing home is mind-boggling. At this moment he has a 3 paragraph essay due Monday, a project about ancestry (involving interviewing grandparents and making a giant paper doll) due Thursday, a book report due Friday, and some kind of anti-bullying thing due “in January.” Also I’ve just been told that he was supposed to bring in some kind of family recipe project today, something I’ve not seen at all, something he can’t find.

And of course there’s the weekly spelling homework. And the regular daily assignments. I honestly don’t know how families more involved in other activities than us keep track- I barely can.

Oh, almost forgot the supplies I need to send in for a holiday craft project, a book for a class holiday exchange, and items for his class play next Friday.

I’ve never been a big fan of homework. I figure 6.5 hours of school a day is plenty. I hate that most of these assignments are to get the kids ready for standardized testing in the spring, which benefits only the school’s bottom line, not my kid.

It reminds me why I considered homeschooling Andy.

Tim can do the work. But he routinely spends 2 hours a night doing homework. I’m sorry, that’s not right. Not at all. If he’s struggling in some area, of course, reinforce the lessons with homework. But all he’s struggling with is keeping track of it all. This is third grade, he shouldn’t have to plan his time like a college student to make deadlines.