Fun with friends.

We had a good time this evening when one of the homeschool kids had his 16th birthday party.  It was a basketball party primarily but some of us who don't play basketball had a good time talking and playing games.  It was so good to get to see everyone.  I've kind of had a tough week and getting to talk to everyone made me feel so much better about life.  One of the best things about homeschooling has been finding this homeschool group. 

Slowly but surely.

So we set our school start date as August 26 and we started that day, though the week before we had had a crazy busy week and we did not feel like starting.  We sat down, made a few plans and did a few things.  It turns out that the kids really enjoyed the world history book that I had gotten them and read several chapters in it.  They did not do math because my husband was at work and he wasn't here to get them started.  They did chores. They did PE.   We worked on the schedule a bit.  Then yesterday we babysat and after that, we worked on the schedule some more and did a few more things on the list.  Now it seems that we have it all in place for today, except that the spelling book hasn't arrived yet.  It should get here tomorrow.  I like to think our method this year is similar to a new teacher being hired at the last minute. (Although I have no excuse but lethargy for not having it all in place sooner!)   It takes a little while to pull together a plan but we'll get there.  It's a collaborative effort between the 4 of us.   I have to go over Kentucky's graduation requirements.  These are technically, legally optional for homeschoolers here, if they are not attending college, but if the kids do attend college, then their high school transcripts will be looked at with more scrutiny by the colleges, so we are following the recommendations.  Then, I make a list of subjects.  Then we choose books or DVDs or Youtube videos or digital curriculum or whatever.  Then, we divide what they need to do by the number of days they have to do it in, roughly 180 and then we come up with a number of lessons that need to be completed each week.  Then, the kids make a post it note with each one, for example there are 5 Algebra 2 post it notes for my son.  Each lesson of Algebra he does that week (Teaching Textbooks), he will move 1 note from the wall to the schedule paper they have taped to the wall.  It's their system for the last few years and it works.  At the end of the week, all the post it notes need to have migrated from the wall to the paper.  Then, Monday, we start it all over again.

In this picture (excuse the mess), you can see the post-it-note system in the lower right corner.

It's our weird little organizational system, but it works.  Every now and then I update my attendance and grade records and at the end, I pull it together into a transcript, also using the Donna Young site which I cannot praise/recommend enough.  She's put together a wonderful resource for homeschoolers.

What I decided about the world history clep, etc.

I said a week or two ago that I might want my daughter to do world history as a CLEP or as a course in Straighterline to get college credit for it, but I spent some time looking at course requirements for local community colleges and I have decided that the best course to take first would be a freshman composition course, since pretty much everything requires that.  So if we do start her doing college credit, I will recommend that she does that first.  We'll have to see what she wants to do.  Her college plans are not determined at this point.  She doesn't know what she wants to do. 

A glimpse into our process.

So I got over (mostly) feeling sorry for myself this morning and did get some dishes done and some work done and we started school.  School started with using a form from Donna Young's collection of homeschool forms to tally what my youngest son has done and needs to do.  I already had one mostly done on my daughter.  She only needs a few things to finish, geometry, health/PE, English, foreign language and world history.  My youngest has been doing a lot of work along with his sister and is ahead of where he should be.  Since he has dysgraphia/dyslexia, he needs to do some work on literacy so that will be his focus.  He's got to do Algebra 2 and world history, foreign language, English, health/PE and a few other things, but it won't be a problem trying to fit them all in in the next 3 years.  At all.  He might finish next year.

Anyway, so for right now, we have started.  I've got a spelling book coming in the mail and they are designing their own world history study based on the world history timeline book I bought a few years ago.   It was funny when we had our meeting, I told them to clean up the living room and my daughter asked if, when I went to public school, if I had had to do cleaning.  Yes, as a matter of fact, I do remember helping clean the classroom at the end of the year, beating erasers, cleaning the chalkboard and even sweeping out the bus.  So I told them if they want it to be like public school, expect cleaning and also promised to bully them a little bit later, if they want.  They didn't. 

So.

We've begun.

Stressed doesn't even cover it today.

I tell you, this middle aged thing is not for wimps.  My son moved out again over the weekend, my house is a mess, I've got to work, my daughter's sick, my aunt called and wanted to talk to me about how much worse my mom's Alzheimer's disease is getting (leaving me in tears, again), I need to do lesson planning and we need to start school today.   It's not even 10:30 a.m. people.

I'm just going to do one thing at a time.
First, I'm going to eat a chocolate cupcake for breakfast.  Another thing about middle aged-ness is that no one can stop me from doing that.
Then, I'm going to work for a while and while things are transmitting and downloading, I'm going to work on the lesson plans/list. 
The kids will get up pretty soon and I will, at the very least, get them to do chores today and get going on how they want to structure their school work.  My daughter being sick will kind of put a different spin on the first day of school.  Sigh.
Later on, I will go over to mom's house and try and deal with her mail/bills, etc. that my aunt is all worried about, call my brother, do a bit of agonzing over what to do about my mom and when I come home, I am going to watch the funniest thing on TV I can find. 

Over the weekend, we watched the Cosby Show episode where Cliff is dreaming that he and all of his sons in laws are pregnant.  That is so hilarious.  A little hilarity goes a long way.

The launch.

The oldest son is on his way back to Mississippi.  He planned to leave this morning at 6:00 am, but due to circumstances that always happen when you have plans like that, he left around 7:00 am.  I don't know if he packed everything.  I guess we may be mailing him some of his things later on.  I made him a mini-pantry with some of the things he'll need for the recipes I gathered for him and got him some snacks for the road.  It's a long trip.  I always am a little nervous when he's driving it.  He has promised to call me every time he gets gas, so that will help.

I didn't have the world's best night's sleep.  My son had asked me to get up and make him coffee, so of course I did.  I woke up naturally at 3:30 and thought, hey, while I'm up, I'll make the coffee.  He's going to get up at 5:00.  So, I made the coffee and laid back down in the living room so I could be aware when he was leaving and say goodbye and all that mom stuff, like drive carefully and all that.  So then my husband got up at 4:00 to go to work and he was working on getting the GPS ready for my son.  That made some odd binging noises and woke me up.  Then, as my husband was leaving for work at 5:00 he woke my son up.

I was awake, ocasionally dosing off while he was packing.  Some time during that time, my younger son's alarm clock went off and I had to get up and turn it off, because youngest son didn't budge.  Also during this time, Max decided he needed to go out and I had to do that.  Then, when the boy was ready to leave, I was able to say all my things.  Call me every time you stop for gas.  If you feel sleepy, pull over and stop at a rest stop.  You know.  All of that stuff.

He went out to the car.  I got up and went to bed.  A few minutes later, he came back in.  There was something in the car's cigarette lighter that he couldn't get out and he needed to plug in the GPS.  So we worked about 15 minutes getting a knob of some sort out of the cigarette lighter.  (We suspect youngest son!)  Duct tape was what finally worked for this extraction.   I thought he was leaving, went back inside and went back to bed.  A few minutes later, he's coming in the back door.  He'd forgotten something.  Then I thought he left again and then I hear knocking at the front door.  He'd decided to come back in and change pants because the ones he had on wouldn't be comfortable to drive in and he'd locked his keys in the house.

Finally, at 7:00 he left.  It's 10:00 a.m. now and he hasn't knocked on the door in a while, so I guess he's on his way.  I hope he calls soon and tells me he is in Nashville or someplace like that and the rest of his day goes really, really well.

Update:  He just called from Tennessee and the GPS had quit working.  While I was googling the directions so he could write them down, he found another cigarette lighter thingy in the car and the GPS was working again.  

Another update:  He made it.  He's moving things in.  Whew.

Parenting thoughts.

Yesterday, when my daughter was babysitting, the baby cried and I immediately got up and went in there and I ended up holding the baby for a little while.  (She's so darn CUTE, this is almost irresistible). Then I asked my daughter if she could handle it and she said "I don't know, you always come in here."  Yes.  Sometimes I am a helicopter parent.  Eeek.  So I went in my room and did my medical transcription and let her handle it.  Once when I came out of my room for water, they were both sleeping in the recliner, which was very cute.  The next time I came out of my room for lunch, my daughter was just finishing changing her first dirty diaper.  The next time, she was feeding a bottle.  She has it all down.  There is no need for helicopter parenting. 

Now tomorrow when my oldest son leaves again for Mississippi, I will again have to practice my new, improved hands-off-let-them-make-their-own-mistakes kind of parenting.  In some ways of course, it's easier but in some ways it's harder now than when I had to dress them, wipe their noses and all that stuff.  It certainly takes longer to get ready to go anywhere with everybody all grown up and independent and needing to shave and all that.  :-P

Thoughts.

We went to the state fair again yesterday, as vendors.  It was a little tiring, but not as bad as I had expected.  We had a comfortable place to sit and we could get up and walk around.  We had a cooler for food. (I made one of those salads in a jar and we finished making this tablecloth to use for the display table so my Pinterest score went up by 2.)  The worst part was the boredom.  It was a Wednesday at the state fair and school is in session so it was not very busy.  My daughter sold a couple of crocheted bunnies almost as soon as we got there and then about 2 hours later, sold 3 dish cloths and then that was it.   We sat there for about 4 hours after the last sale because we had been forbidden to leave, lest we never be invited back.  (not really that much of a threat, I think.)  I got a lot of reading done, my daughter got some knitting done and we chatted with our fellow 4Hrs.  Also, my daughter taught a couple of people how to knit because they were interested in what she was doing and wanted to learn.  

Today, my daughter is babysitting, I am working and the boys have not gotten up yet.  The oldest is heading back to Mississippi on Saturday and so we have to adjust again.  That's life, I guess. Adjust,  adjust again, and here's your new normal, for a while anyway. 

What's the opposite of a day of rest?

That was yesterday, when we went to the Kentucky State Fair.  We walked and walked and walked and didn't really see all that much.  I was disappointed in the fair this year.  We couldn't find a place that sold fudge.  The shows we saw were just okay and then, the straw that broke the camel's back, there was something structurally wrong with the stadium we usually see the concerts in and they had what they called "turf seating" which means flimsy folding chairs on the artificial grass of the football field.  There were a couple of things that I didn't like about it, one was that we could barely see the stage.  We got there an hour before the concert was to start and we were 3/4 of the way to the back and with no seats being elevated, I didn't think we'd have a great view.  Also, the chair itself was uncomfortable and it was strapped to the chair next to it and I'm not a skinny person, so I was crowded up against my daughter in an uncomfortable way as well.  We sat there for about 15 minutes and then came home.  My oldest son was disappointed and now that its the next day and I'm no longer completely exhausted, I am too, but the younger 2 also wanted to go home.  They aren't fans of concerts because they always think that they are too loud and they didn't like the seating either.  I do think it would have been a pretty uncomfortable concert, but once the music started, I probably would have enjoyed it.  It's hard to make decisions like that when about half your brain is occupied by how much your feet and your shoulders hurt after walking around and around the state fair for hours carrying a large purse full of supplies.  We are supposed to go back later this week, but as workers, sitting at a table, and we won't be able to walk around a lot.  Thank goodness.

One really good thing about the fair, my daughter's crocheted bunny won best of class.  :-)

Day of rest.

We pretty much took the day off today.  We cleaned the house a tiny bit and I worked, but other than that, not too much.  Well, except for the girl, who is preparing to sell things at the state fair and has been crocheting like crazy all day.  She's made 7 dish cloths today.  She said she was quitting because she was out of yarn and I offered to go get her some, cause really I'd kind of like to get out of the house.  That's my problem with days of rest - I tend to want to go do something.  :-)  I mean outside the house, not housework, just to be clear.  It's so rare not to have anything on the calendar.  I told the kids this is the last free day pretty much until next Friday and that's the day before my oldest goes back to school, so he'll have packing to do that day.  It's going to be a busy week, so I should just relax and enjoy the day. 

But I want to go someplace. :-)

Whew.

It's been kind of crazy-making busy around here.  I am kind of glad the kids haven't started back to homeschool and in another way, I wish they would because I miss their homeschool related chores being done.  My daughter has been working like crazy making things to sell at the state fair.  Next week is the state fair and we will be there 2 days, one day attending and the other day selling.  Also, my daughter starts her baby sitting job next week, my son leaves for college next week and we will be attending my mother-in-law's birthday and I am in charge of a hymn sing on Sunday night.  My son needs a haircut and needs to go to the dentist and wants to get contacts before he goes back to school.  He also needs to get his books and mail some things he has sold on Ebay.  I think mom's work camp and getting my gutters cleaned out is going to be postponed.  Again.  :-(.    I'm sending the boy to get as much of this done today as possible because our free days are really numbered, like, today and tomorrow and that's it.   I desperately need to work today and I'm out of work.  :-P.   

I paused in my typing to think and heard the song lyrics coming from the other room, 'everything, everything will be all right"  and hopefully it will. 

The good news is my son got an additional 2000 dollars in scholarship money and his roommate decided against moving off campus and so, hopefully things are falling into place.
 
I'm just tired.

Choosing to Homeschool.

Here is a really great article on homeschooling to read this morning.  Really, it's one of the best things our family has ever done.    This article is by Laura Grace Weldon and it is certainly worth a thoughtful read.  Here's a link.
 and a quote:
 

"What homeschoolers are doing is working, no matter how we define success. One study shows that homeschooling students graduated from college at a higher rate and earned a higher grade point average while doing it. Another researcher who followed homeschool students noted that they’re more likely to vote, volunteer, and start their own businesses.

I want to nurture my children in such a way that they define success on their own terms. I hope that means they craft a life based on integrity, one that brings their unique gifts to the world. Homeschooling, for my family, gives us the freedom to go beyond narrow roads to success. This is the way young people have learned throughout time. I’ve come to trust the way it works for my family."

Feeling stressed.

I guess stressed is a nice word for it.  Crabby is also in the running.  I haven't felt good.  I've had a ton to do.  I'm worried about my mom and I'm worried about my son and I am feeling overwhelmingly busy and none of that goes well with feeling bad.  We had an outing with the home school group yesterday that was nice, kind of a little oasis in the stress, but then when I got home, I still had to work and I still had to dread going today to take my mom to the pain clinic.  So .... crabby.

Yeah.

That's the word.

August-y things.

I have not been feeling well, but I have figured out that a lot of my issues are related to asthma, which I have had for years, but it has not troubled me for a long time.  Also, I'm running one of my mysterious fevers, so I went to the doctor today and convinced her to give me an antibiotic because having a fever at the state fair next week, does not sound like fun to me.  It just saps my energy and makes me really unable to tolerate the heat.   We're kind of getting ready for the fair, making plans, inviting people to go with us, etc.. We've picked up all our tickets and got a parking pass.  I wonder if it is too late to buy the discounted ride tickets?  Oops.  It probably is. 

Also, we are doing a tiny bit of panicking about my son's financial aid, because it's not showing up on his college portal.  We called down there and I had a very funny series of conversations with the switchboard operator, because my call kept being returned to her.  Someone in financial aid is supposed to call me back.   Also, there's been a little dorm drama.  He was trying to get into a different dorm and he thought he had it all lined up, but today his roommate told him that he, the roommate, might live off campus because it would be cheaper.  This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, since the housing there is so very inexpensive, 1500 dollars a year.  I mean really, where can you live for that?  Also, we haven't heard about work study yet and he really needs it this year.  Sigh.  It's always something, isn't it? 

As for our homeschool, we start the week after the fair, after my oldest son goes back to school and we will probably start very slowly, with just the basics and add things in as we go, so as to make it easier on me.  :-P

Some recipes so far.

Here are some of the recipes I've discovered for my son to use in his dorm room.  He's kind of picky and this is very personalized, so it may not be useful to anyone else.   All of the recipes can be made with only a microwave.  I've ordered him a little microwave cooker and it comes with a cookbook, so probably this is going to be all he needs.  We'll see when it arrives, how I need to modify the recipes to make them gluten free and dairy free.  Note:  I just jotted these down for my son.  I did not edit for spelling or even to see if it makes sense.  If you have questions, please ask and that will help me figure out what I might have left out.;

Bread:

Single serving bread

1/2 cup rice flour

1 tsp tapioca starch

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup soda water

Microwave 3 minutes.

Cornbread

1/2 cup rice flour

1 tsp cornmeal

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup soda water

Microwave 3 minutes.

Soups:

5 cans and a jar soup

2 cans chicken broth  (check label for gluten).
1 jar mild salsa  (I'm assuming a small jar, maybe 10 oz).
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney bean, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, rinsed and drained
1 dash hot sauce
1 dash lime juice
Mix  warm up and eat with chips.

5 can chicken tortilla soup

1 can chicken

1 can chicken broth

1 can ranch beans

1 can hominy

1 can tomatoes and green chilis.

Mix, warm up and eat.

Cowboy stew

1 pound browned hamburger (can go to burger king and order a couple of plain patties).

1 tsp dried garlic (if you don't have it, leave it out.)

1 can tomato sauce

1 can diced Italian seasoned tomatoes

1 can corn, drained

2 cans sliced potatoes

1 can tomatoes with green chilies

1 can Ranch Style beans (with the baked beans in the grocery store)

sliced jalapeno peppers for garnish (optional)

Mix and eat.

Cabbage soup

4 cups cabbage (coleslaw mix at grocery).

3 tablespoons butter

1 onion (or you can buy frozen bagged chopped up onions or there is a carrots, onions and celery mix that they sometimes call mirepoix mix in the frozen veggies).

Green onions

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

2 cans chicken broth

1 cup milk

Melt butter. 

Add cabbage, onions, green onions, etc. and microwave 5 minutes.

Add broth and microwave for 15-20 minutes.

Add milk and microwave for 4 minutes.
Enjoy.  (I love this stuff).

Taco soup 1

If you are making it all vegetarian you should put in 2 cans of everything or only half the pack of taco seasoning. 

2 cans black beans

2 cans kidney beans

2 cans pinto beans

2 cans rotel

1 package taco seasoning mix (old el paso is gluten free).

If you add in the 1 pound ground beef, only use 1 can of each vegetable.

If you just go to burger king and buy a couple of hamburger patties, sub them for 1 can of beans.   Otherwise, the whole pack of taco seasoning will make it all too salty.

Taco soup

2 cans rotel

2 cans ranch beans

2 cans corn

1 pound hamburger

1 package old el paso taco seasoning.

Or, as above, if leaving out the meat, double the veggies to help absorb some salt or only use half the packet of seasoning mix.

Desserts:

No bake cookies

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup margarine (this is 1/2 of a stick)

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup water

Microwave these 4 ingredients for 2 minutes.

Stir.

Microwave 2 more minutes.

Stir in 1/2 cup peanut butter and 3 cups of oats.

Drop onto aluminum foil.

Cinnamon rolls

4 tablespoons flour

1/8 of a teaspoon (eyeball it) baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons of water

2 tablespoons butter.

Stir up and microwave for 1 minute and 25 seconds. 

Put on icing.

Eat.

Kind of a failed field trip.

We planned to go to Mammoth Cave.  We had gone last year, took the 4 dollar per person self guided tour, on a Thursday and had a lovely day.  So this year, we set out on a Thursday, thinking we would do the same thing, but it turns out that budget cuts have eliminated the 4 dollar self-guided tour and now the least expensive tour is a Ranger-guided tour for 12.00.  We decided to just take a free looksee at the cave entrance and go on and do some other things we had planned to do in the area.  It was disappointing and one of the park rangers was very rude to me and I was pretty angry with her, but after we left there, we had a good day.  Tiring, but good.  We went to the Mystery Fun House, one of those things where the floors and walls are all crooked and water runs uphill, then to a really great salvage grocery store and then out for pizza. 

What's going on.

There's always a lot going on around here.  Yesterday, we paused Mom's Work Camp due to my daughter's birthday and took her out to eat.  She chose to go to Moe's and Red Mango, with a stop in between at Bath and Body Works.  Her main birthday shopping is going to be another day, not sure which, maybe next Sunday.  The big boy will celebrate his birthday again in another state and so we are thinking of things we can send him.  He's fortunate to have a lot of friends who will take him to his favorite, Mellow Mushroom.

This all leads me to a little thought about diet issues.  If you've been reading the blog for long, you know I'm gluten free.  I am almost 4 years gluten free and have said a thankful goodbye to most of my fibromyalgia symptoms, headaches, aching legs, brain fog and extreme fatigue.  However, the last few months I have been struggling mightily with joint pains.  I went to the doctor and had rheumatoid arthritis ruled out and just continued to suffer.  (not silently!).  Then a few weeks ago, a fellow blogger posted a recipe for a gluten free, dairy free, nightshade free pizza and I had to ask, what is a nightshade and why don't you eat them?  Turns out, they are tomatoes, potatoes and peppers and she doesn't eat them because they cause joint pain.  Eeek.   I thought I'd give it a try and I have been mostly nightshade free for a couple of weeks.  It's tolerable, I guess, though most of what I usually cook, I can't eat.  :-(  The peppers are the worst.  Anyway, yesterday we were at Moe's and I was feeling very good so I split an order of nachos with my son.  While we were eating them, I tried to stay away from visible tomatoes and peppers, but today, everything HURTS.  So there's my sign I guess.

Sigh.

It's home-grown tomato season, you know. 

Also, related to food, I cleared the first recipe for my son's cookbook.  It's no-bake cookies in the microwave.  Comfort food.  Here;s the link to the recipe I used.  Since he's dairy free, I used water instead of milk and margarine instead of butter. 

Today, I'm going to work on a quick gluten free bread recipe for him to make in the microwave.   I enjoy cooking and working on recipes for special diets (this surprises me!)  I just wish I had someone who would come and clean the test kitchen.  :-)

All of the posts today on Facebook are about kids starting back to school, even homeschoolers are mostly starting back this week.  We feel kind of left out.

And grateful. 

LoL.

17!!!

Our girl is turning 17 today, can you believe it?  I seriously can't.  Happy Birthday to the world's most wonderful girl.

My challenge.

My son has challenged me to write him a cookbook of things he can cook in his dorm room when he goes back to school.  He is lactose intolerant and stays mostly dairy free, though he can tolerate small amounts.  I generally use water instead of milk in recipes when he's home though and really I may just start doing it all the time because no one can tell the difference and milk is way more expensive than water.  Anyway, he wants a cookbook full of foods that are gluten free and mostly dairy free, of foods that he likes, that he can prepare in a dorm room with only a microwave.  He has a fridge that he can store things in too.  So that's my challenge.  I've set up a Pinterest board to keep up with my initial ideas before I put them in some sort of book.  It may just be a binder with printed pages or I may get fancy and publish it on Kindle or Blurb.  Not sure yet.  He gets the 2 meal a day plan from the cafeteria, but he has been glutened there and is a little leery of eating much besides steamed veggies and grilled meat, besides, the cafeteria closes at 6 p.m. and he's still up to midnight most nights so he gets hungry meanwhile. 

If anyone has any recipe suggestions, I'd love to hear them. 

Starting to think.

We really need to think about the school year.  The oldest has to go back to school in 3 weeks and that means the younger 2 will be starting school as well.  I have a lot of things I'd like to do with them this year - my daughter's last year (!) of high school but I don't know how much I will get to do.  As usual, we pretty much don't have a budget.  My daughter only has a few subjects she still needs to take - this years English, Geometry and World History.  I'd kind of like to do something like this.
Notgrass Exploring World History

I also could enroll the girl in the Straighterline World Civilizations course, help her with it and involve the boy as well, make it into a unit study, but it feels wrong that he'd be following along and not get any college credit --- though I could excuse him from the writing assignments that she'd be doing.  I don't know.  See, I go back and forth, back and forth.   Also, we could study it and they could both take the CLEP.  That would be less expensive. 

The focus for her needs to be finishing up high school and possibly starting college and the focus for him needs to be literacy since he is dyslexic.  He is ahead on both high school science and math but needs a lot of work  in spelling, grammar, etc.

I'm glad we put off starting school until the 26th, because I really need to think on this some more.

Cautiously optimistic.

Today my heart hasn't been doing any flip flops and I am feeling pretty good.  I am cautiously optimistic that maybe this episode is done and I can wait a year or two for the next one.  :-P  In not so good news, one of the boys is still down with the summer cold that they caught at VBS last week (the youngest is better) and the now the girl is down too.  With each person being sick for about a week (going by the youngest), Mom's Work Camp is not looking all that good for Monday.  :-(    I hope these 2 recover quickly.  I've got a lot that needs to be done around here.

We let the kids have unlimited screen time when they are sick and my youngest son made 2 comments regarding this.  First off, last night, he got up off the couch, said he felt better and said that he felt "too well to have unlimited screen time".    Then today I asked him if he'd taken any cold medicines for his cold, since he hadn't asked me about any and he said no, "just food, fluids and plenty of comedy"  (meaning the unlimited TV).  LoL.

I saw a phrase the other day somewhere on the web that applies to that boy and I may have to make it into a  T-shirt for him.    It would read "High functioning bookaholic."  =)

My computer stopped working on Sunday or Monday and my husband with a tiny bit of help from the technical support at the company I work for, got it all up and going again by last night.  A record, I think.  :-)