getting ready for the university

Since Bill will be moving to his dorm next week at Ball State, this weekend we are very busy getting ready for his move. We went furniture shopping today. We had gotten Steven's room all ready a couple of weeks ago, but had not gotten a chance to finish Bill's room. So today we bought him a very sturdy futon with a thick mattress, a dresser, and a little bedside table. He was happy to have a bed again, rather than having to sleep on a box spring and mattress on the floor.

We bought the furniture at a little furniture store just to the west of Saline, so we stopped off at the Tim Horton's in Saline and bought a bunch of croissants and doughnuts on the way home for breakfast tomorrow.

Anyway, Bill's room is nearly ready; tomorrow we will finish it up, then finish up washing his dirty laundry, then figure out what (if anything) we need to buy for him before he moves. I already know he needs a stereo! His roommate will be providing the microwave and refrigerator; Bill will be providing a TV (the old one we rarely watch down in the basement) and a stereo. But we will pack his clothes and personal stuff (like his electric razor). I suspect he needs a couple more pairs of jeans, and I know he will need a winter coat, but we can figure that out tomorrow.

We will be moving him down to Muncie on Wednesday; Dan and I will be spending two nights there. The first day we will move him into his room; the second day we will pick up his textbooks and school supplies and any little things he might need (a bag of socks, notebooks and pens, shampoo, etc). We can also do that on Friday morning if we need to. And then he will be officially at school...

Dan has been quietly freaking out and really starting to get the empty nest thing going. I went through a lot of that last summer and throughout the last school year (this will be the last time I see Bill play soccer...this is the last time I will see him wrestle...this is the last time I will pick him up or drop him off at school...etc.) so I am actually handling it better than Dan is (for the moment anyway).

Steven and we have decided to go the home school route for his major subjects; he will be taking band and perhaps art at the middle school, so he can still spend time with friends and participate in sports. We will follow the basic school calendar for the year, so will get started again later this month.

I am exhausted but cannot sleep tonight. There is this huge full moon shining right in through the blinds. It is lovely, but it does make it difficult to fall asleep. I just took some benadryl, and hopefully will be out cold soon.

long week

It is only Wednesday, and it is already a long week.

The cement people finally turned up on Monday and they have been here early the last three mornings. The big truck in particular makes a lot of noise. And now we cannot use our driveway for at least a few days. I only hope it will make cleaning & using the driveway easier in the winter, as Dan claims it will. I am worried it will only make the driveway even icier.

Monday I had to take the Jeep in for an oil change and a routine checkup before work. So most of the early afternoon, my most productive time at home, was shot.

Yesterday Dan and Stevie and I had a meeting with the high school principal about what to do for next year. The school district really wants him at the high school, and at least one of the high school coaches in one of Steven's sports preceded us in meeting with the principal.

In this ultra competitive world, no one seems to understand that our son wants one more year of childhood - and one that he should be able to get, as he does not want to have to be an adult at age seventeen, like his brother.

Pushing towards college and sports as fast as you can seem to be more important than finding your own pace and place in life.

After the meeting we went and visited one of Steven's friends, who had a horrid accident on his little dirt bike last week and who was badly hurt and was in the ICU and had to have some serious surgery. He had come home, and we went to see the poor kid. Concussion, broken collar bone, broken arm, messed up jaw, shattered face. Poor kid. He enjoyed having Steven there, so I left him there and went to work (with the understanding that Dan would pick him up). I'm glad I did, as Steven coaxed his friend out for a walk, and helped him with the walk. And the poor mom was still so wound up and upset over everything that happened (the ambulance had gotten lost on the way to their house, among other things).

And then, of course, there is work. That never ends. Mine, Dan's, Bill's.

Someday I hope to able to retire. Get a pickup truck and one of those campers that sits in the truck bed. Go to the mountains and the canyons for a month at a time. Take lots of pictures. Watch wild animals going about their lives. Spend time outside in the sunlight to counteract spending so many years already spent two stories underground in the afternoon and at evening and at night and having to miss part of every morning sleeping. Actually see the dawn. Get caught up with the big pile of books that I want to read. Have time to write stories and poetry. Not be surrounded by sickness and pain and death every five days out of seven. Lie on top of a mountain and watch the stars. Dance naked with a snuggly man in the light of the moon in a mountain meadow, near a rushing stream to provide us with music for our dancing. Laugh. Laugh. Laugh. Laugh. Laugh.

productive day

Worked all day. Did numerous loads of laundry (the last is drying now). Did a big load of dishes, though the sink is full again and I will have to do more tomorrow before work. Cooked a huge dinner. Kept Dan (who is absolutely miserable after a particularly back breaking day of work) supplied with cool drinks. Have fed and watered and brushed the pets (though that is a joy rather than a job).

While I would have rather been doing any number of things other than housework, I still feel good about how much I got accomplished. I want to get the house in good enough shape that I can get Bill off to Muncie with nothing to worry about other than getting him set for school.

I even sorted out a lot of the books in my "To Be Read" stacks. They are a lot more organized now, though I might not get to many of them for awhile.

And I have picked out some classic works for Steven to read if we do decide to do the home schooling thing. Also some things that might not be classics, but are just plain fun to read.

the decapitation of Dmitri Young

Yesterday morning started out very strangely, with the decapitation of Detroit Tigers designated hitter Dmitri Young in our family room. Not the real guy - Steven's bobble head doll. Bill did it while Steven and I were still asleep. I got up, and there was the doll standing in his normal place, with his head on the shelf next to him!  Bill says that he just bobbled the head a little bit and off it came flying.

The experiment in home schooling is over for now. Steven says he prefers it to real school because he learns more and because food at home is better than food at school and because when he got really tired that one morning, I let him go lie down for half an hour for a nap. I think it is a heck of a lot of work. I am not a teacher by training or natural inclination. But I am willing to try it for a year if it comes to that. Nothing could ever be as important as my children! We have a week to make the final decision.

Yesterday we went on the last fun full family excursion we will be able to have for quite sometime, as Bill's departure for college comes ever closer. We headed into Detroit to eat at Greektown and go to a Tigers game.

We had planned on eating first, and got off the Lodge onto Jefferson two hours before the start of the game. But we had not known that there was going to be a huge political rally and parade in downtown Detroit yesterday afternoon. There is a huge Muslim (with Arabic roots) community in the Detroit area- supposedly the largest in North America. So there was a huge rally and parade to object to what is going on in Lebanon right now (and who could blame the people for being concerned, when so many of them have relatives who are endangered right now?) We sat right there on Jefferson near Hart Plaza for about 45 minutes in stopped traffic as thousands of people carrying Lebanese flags crossed the street to march up Woodward to the government buildings. I explained to the kids that this was democracy in action, and that the people marching are the ones that are working within the political system to use their rights to freely assemble and freely speak to try to bring about change.

An important lesson - whether you personally agree with their views or not.

But it did delay things enough that when we could finally move we found a nice free parking spot about halfway between the ball park and Greektown, parked there, and headed to the park.

The game was a lot of fun. The Tigers got way behind in the early innings, but came back and won it in the bottom of the eighth inning. Jones got his thirtieth save of the year for the Tiggies. As with every Friday (and Saturday) home game, there were fireworks following the game.

And we got Steven a Pudge (Ivan Rodriguez) bobble head to replace the one that was decapitated that morning.

After the game we walked to Greektown where we had a delicious dinner at the New Hellas Taverna. MMMMM. Flaming cheese!!!

Today Dan and Bill are off working. Now that the weather has moderated (we have the windows open and the house is deliciously cool), people are free to use their major appliances at will. During the heat wave the authorities asked people not to run their laundry or dishwashers, so as to try to not overstress the electrical grid. So I am trying to get caught up with the laundry this weekend. That is my major project - we're talking three or more loads washed, died, sorted, and put away each day. Not one of my favorite things in the world to do - but it has to be done.

glorious cool night!

The cold front finally came through with a bunch of storms this morning. Oh, what a blessed relief!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I spent the morning working on school work with Steven, then spent the afternoon before work at the doctor's office with Bill. He was getting his pre-college physical. Poor kid had to get three shots - his tetanus booster and two that the college wanted him to get which are not required for public school students in this state - meningococcal and hepatitis A. I realized later I should have gotten him a pneumovax too, but maybe I can get him one at Christmas with his second hepatitis A shot, and maybe a flu shot as well. Anyway, Bill is doing very well. The doctor is very happy with his post-wrestling weight gain, and says he is the perfect weight for his height. The doctor reassured him that the jitters he is experiencing right now are perfectly normal for someone about to have a major life change.

I will mail the forms off to the university's health services tomorrow, and then there is only the packing and moving. Even though he is anxious right now, I think that Bill will be very happy as soon as he has made the initial adjustments.

It is a glorious night. I drove home with the windows down and let the wind blow in my long hair. It is about 65 degrees, simply lovely!  If Dan were still awake I would drag him out on the deck to dance with me in the glorious cool air!

It is the weekend now! And tomorrow night we will be able to go to the Tigers game! Life is very good today!

feeling better

I am feeling a bit better today, though the heat will not abate until tomorrow when a cold front moves through. I made a point of drinking a gallon of water and some large glasses of juice before work, and drinking more water and some iced green tea while at work. I think I have been dehydrated since at least Saturday (when I started feeling rotten) and all of the water definitely has helped.

I even snuck in watching a movie this morning. I watched Casanova, starring the ever handsome Heath Ledger. I was surprised that it was rated an R, as I have seen more naked flesh and raunchiness in PG-13 movies. I will never understand how they come up with some of these ratings. It was actually a cute romantic comedy set in 1700's Venice (which was gloriously lovely).

dangerous heat; an experiment in homeschooling

I am still not feeling well today; I went home halfway through my shift at work last night. I do not know if it is my allergies being out of control, or the horrible heat and humidity getting my asthma going. When you step outside to let out the dog or put some mail in the mailbox, the heat and humidity make you gasp and wheeze in pain; at work the hallways are air conditioned, but when the elevator opens you are blasted with a wave of painful heat. I am drinking as much water as I can stand to (I even broke down and drank a huge glass of nasty Ann Arbor tap water last night - oh the horror!) but it doesn't seem to be quite enough.

We started the experiment of home schooling Steven yesterday morning, and continued it this morning. It is only for this week, and we do not have an appropriate math book, so we are not doing math this week (we will obviously add it if we do this for real). But for social studies, we are doing the American Civil War, for literature The Iliad, and for science astronomy. We are trying to integrate other things into the curriculum - for example for The Iliad we included a map study of the area where the war took place, and discussed why the war might have happened (such as Troy commanding trade routes). For the Civil War I have him reading a novel Gods and Generals as well as a factual book on the war. If we end up doing this for real, we will add classic movies on what we are studying, as well as well done tv factual specials and mini series (such as Cosmos and Ken Burn's Civil War) and add art and music appreciation. We will go to plays and concerts and maybe even an opera or a ballet and plenty of field trips to area museums and botanical gardens and the like. I have warned Steven we will work him harder than he has ever been worked in school in his life. To see what we are doing:

http://journals.aol.com/stevenfrommilan/my-home-schooling-record/

I am actually letting him take a nap right now. He has done all of his reading (the civil war book, Gods and Generals, The Iliad, and astronomy; and he has answered the questions on the Civil War, though he still has to answer the questions on the other readings). The heat is draining him and making his asthma act up, as well. So I sent him off for a nap in the air conditioned bedroom.

Bill is anemotional wreck this week. He is driving us (and himself) up the wall. I think is stress and fear of the unknown, with him going off to college in two weeks. Hopefully he will settle down quickly once he gets there.