bravery

On Monday I had to assign my students scenes for their final. I asked them if they wanted to pick and they all said "no - you pick for us"

So I did.

To one pair I assigned the opening scene of a play about a woman who has lost her child. In the scene she is folding the boys cloths to send them off to the Salvation Army. Her sister is in the scene and needs to tell her she is pregnant.

My student, who is probably in her late 30s, came up to me and said, 'I lost my son three years ago." I immediately offered to change the script. She wanted to read the play anyway.

I sent her and her scene partner another script right after class.

I received an e-mail from her today saying that she wants to do the scene. She gets it and wants to do it.

That is bravery right there.

while the hubby is away

The husband gone for the week. He travels a lot, so we're used to it.

The kid and I fall into a bit of a different routine. It's not totally different from our regular routine. I will probably get her out of the house anywhere from 15mintues to 1/2 an hour earlier than I do when the spouse is home. Her pre-school is 20 minutes away. We pay for her to be there from 7:30am-1pm. We get her there usually at 9... But, when the husband isn't home, I like to take advantage of the 90 minutes. So, we'll leave the house around 8, instead of 8:30.

I also plan more activities. Perhaps it is just me not wanting to be just stuck in the house without another parent, but there will be more playdates and activities.

While the husband is away, we miss him terribly. But the re-entry is always tough - especially when he's gone for more than a couple days. As he likes to point out, I act as if he is in my way. And he's right. I'll get into a pattern and there is a little annoyance (which is not completely hidden) when that is interrupted.

books and bed

The bedtime routine with my daughter has altered lately.

At 7:30 she goes to Kiki's boutique to "buy" her Pjs. Yes, she gets her purse and fake money. Then she sees 'The fashion guru" aka the husband to show off the outfit.

The fashion guru takes her to brush her teeth, go potty, feed her fish, pick out three books for mommy to read, and mark the day off the calendar.

I read the books to her and together we turn off the light (leaving the fish tank on until I go to bed).

I then lay with her until she goes to sleep. A process that can take 15-45 minutes. A process that sometimes makes me fall asleep too.

Bet ya don't have to think to hard about the part I need to change.

calendar

My daughter and I have a routine at bedtime. We cross a day off the calendar.

Last night, she wanted to look at all the months coming up.

When we got to December, I said, "And there's mommy's birthday and then the fairies come and the Christmas."

And her little voice said, 'And then we die."

I stopped, looked at her and said, "Why do you think that?"

"There are no more days."

"Oh honey, in December we'll get another calendar that has the next year on it."

"Oh"

Wow.

librarys

Just spent an hour with a friend looking at her library. Amazing collections of books that need to be organized. Fun.

So why do we organize our books? why are certain titles okay for the livign room and others relegated to the bedroom?

I have fiction in the living room. Older books under glass. Non-fiction is all in my home office. I will admit that the home office library is very anal. I have a theatre section, a film section, a feminist section, history, religion, philosphy and science.
I have books based on certain research projects huddled together. It makes sense to me...

I have started organizing my daughter's library. She's four. Every three days or so, I put everything back. That way she (and I) can find what we're looking for.

Maybe I have just found a good outlet for my OCD.

take 2

Okay let's try NaBloPoMo again.

After I was off to a decent, okay five posts, start last month. everything seemed to hit the fan.

My sister got diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. A month later and she is doing better, still on the road to recovery, which will take some time. I am quite proud of her. She is working her ass off in physical therapy. I took her to her neuroligist on Monday and watch them basically shock her nerves to see if there was any improvement - and there was... Yippee...

Then the plague hit. Husband first, then child, then me. I got out of bed all of 2 hours and even then was barely conscience.

Then giving a final.

Then a TA who couldn't get her shit together to get me the 75 grades she was responsible for.

Then the e-mails from students who were not happy with their grades.

And all the while trying (in vain) to work on a script...

Oye...

Let's hope the theme ROUTINE is better than Heros... Although there are still many heros I wanted to talk about... perhaps I will just talk about their routine.