We missed Thanksgiving. Jo spent the holiday chilling at a resort in a coffee plantation in Coorg with her husband and kids instead of masticating turkey with her family in Nebraska, and it was my fault.
It took us ages to get rid of jet lag. For days, various members of the family would drop off into stupor at 4 or 5 in the evening and wake up at 3 in the morning. Poor Evan was the only one who had a regular schedule and it sucked to be him. The three weeks between then and now have been a blur. I'm blaming it on my body muddling up its melatonin.
Evan finished the term and had a very nice winter concert (these things are usually hell to sit through but this year was actually much better). He did have trouble with his teachers towards the end of the term. It is almost impossible to get him to do anything that he doesn't want to, and we can beat him while his teachers can't. So we all counted days till the end of the semester and left it at that. I thought he did a wonderful job on the self-portrait collage from stuff in the recycle can, and that's got to count for something.
Evan's popcorn from the Boy Scouts arrived and Jo and I were mollified to see how pitiful they were. Here is a can of chocolate covered popcorn. The can is small. You open in a find a smaller mylar packet inside. Once you empty it out the popcorn fills less than half the can. That will set you back by $25.
So we apologize to the neighbors who had signed up for popcorn. Almost everyone succeeded in hiding their disappointment at being gypped (sorry dear Roma people - am I insulting you and coopting your culture simultaneously) by the Boy Scouts of America. For his troubles, Evan got a bracelet with a compass that broke in less than 5 minutes.
Vivian's first semester of homeschooling ended well. I mostly enjoyed teaching her math and immensely enjoyed my walks with her. She did some interesting projects with Jo - on Amelia Earhart, women from the civil rights, and propaganda under Hitler. If you are looking to introduce race in America to a nine year old, do consider this book about Claudette Colvin.
To round out her education, Vivian babysat Zizi occasionally (aren't they so cute - leafing through the Tiffany's catalogue together), and wrote with Karen often. Coincidentally, at a time when about a quarter of this country is reeling from having just discovered that another quarter is composed of hypocritical immoral and irrational lowlife, it seems like people are drawing closer to those they trust.
Here they are. Evan, Vivian and Ava, pretending to be mannequins outside a GAP store.
It took us ages to get rid of jet lag. For days, various members of the family would drop off into stupor at 4 or 5 in the evening and wake up at 3 in the morning. Poor Evan was the only one who had a regular schedule and it sucked to be him. The three weeks between then and now have been a blur. I'm blaming it on my body muddling up its melatonin.
Evan finished the term and had a very nice winter concert (these things are usually hell to sit through but this year was actually much better). He did have trouble with his teachers towards the end of the term. It is almost impossible to get him to do anything that he doesn't want to, and we can beat him while his teachers can't. So we all counted days till the end of the semester and left it at that. I thought he did a wonderful job on the self-portrait collage from stuff in the recycle can, and that's got to count for something.
Evan's popcorn from the Boy Scouts arrived and Jo and I were mollified to see how pitiful they were. Here is a can of chocolate covered popcorn. The can is small. You open in a find a smaller mylar packet inside. Once you empty it out the popcorn fills less than half the can. That will set you back by $25.
So we apologize to the neighbors who had signed up for popcorn. Almost everyone succeeded in hiding their disappointment at being gypped (sorry dear Roma people - am I insulting you and coopting your culture simultaneously) by the Boy Scouts of America. For his troubles, Evan got a bracelet with a compass that broke in less than 5 minutes.
Vivian's first semester of homeschooling ended well. I mostly enjoyed teaching her math and immensely enjoyed my walks with her. She did some interesting projects with Jo - on Amelia Earhart, women from the civil rights, and propaganda under Hitler. If you are looking to introduce race in America to a nine year old, do consider this book about Claudette Colvin.
To round out her education, Vivian babysat Zizi occasionally (aren't they so cute - leafing through the Tiffany's catalogue together), and wrote with Karen often. Coincidentally, at a time when about a quarter of this country is reeling from having just discovered that another quarter is composed of hypocritical immoral and irrational lowlife, it seems like people are drawing closer to those they trust.
Here they are. Evan, Vivian and Ava, pretending to be mannequins outside a GAP store.
