Hey, all! I'm back!

Hey, all!  I'm back!  (I think.)

 

It's been a wild couple of weeks.  About two and a half weeks ago, just as we went into the countdown for Rod's sister's arrival, Rod and Jack got a case of food poisoning.  Jack shook it off pretty fast, but it took Rod out for just about a week. Since I never got the slightest indication of illness, my best guess is that it was something that Rod and Jack ate out in the world, but they're better now, so I guess it doesn't matter too much. 

 

As an aside, we really do have to ramp up our kombucha efforts...we make two gallons at a time, but but it's always gone a long time before the next batch is ready.  That may change in summer, though, when the house is warmer.  Kombucha was the one thing Rod could keep down first, and nothing tastes better when we're under the weather.

 

Anyway, when Rod was so sick in the countdown to Karen's arrival, it meant that I was pretty much on my own getting everything ready.  That left little time for anything else.  (Amazing.  Even after two visits from Purple Heart, the house is still cluttered and still doesn't stay clean and tidy for more than a few hours.  Obviously I still have work to do in getting rid of non-essentials.)  The Karen was here for one blissful week.  Have I mentioned that Karen is one of my favorite people?  She manages to spread sunshine wherever she goes, and she was sweet enough to ignore the chaos "behind the screen" and keep Jack amused while I went to work and poor Rod convalesced.

 

 Anyway, a few days after Karen arrived, Rod was able to get up and about again.  However being unable to eat or keep even water down for so long triggered a case of gout that has been hands down the most painful and longest lasting he's ever had.  The poor guy NEVER complains, but this was so bad that he actually moaned much of the night for several nights.  He was completely incapacitated with the pain, and unable even to get down the stairs for a day or two. 

 

That and being pretty busy at work meant there just wasn't any time to blog.  I didn't even do very well at keeping up with my e-mail.  

 

That doesn't however, mean that I wasn't thinking.  ;) 

 

One thing on my mind has been gardening...it's nearly Ostara (this weekend!) and I am getting eager to get my little plants started.  Rod gave a seed started setup to me for Valentine's day.  It turned out to be a lot less expensive than the things I had been eying, and a lot better set up for out house, too.  I am also going to be working with Linda, who knows a lot more about gardening than I do, but doesn't have any real gardening space to work with right now.  We have an acre, and she has the expertise, so it seemed like a really good trade.  (Speaking of which, it looks like I may have quite a bit of seed or baby plants to trade if anyone is interested. I'll let you know what when I'm done getting mine started.)

 

 This is indeed where our dinner comes from.

They're cute and they taste divine!

(Thanks to FFC for the photo)

I also wanted to congratulate my brother and sister in law on the birth of their sixth grandchild.  She's gorgeous!

 

I also wanted to thank Emily and Andy of Scrapbook Haven, both for their years of service to the Ann Arbor crafting community, and especially for making time for me to come in for one last card making class last weekend.  As always, I had a lot of fun and learned a lot of new ideas.  Now to dig out the crafting table (which is currently buried under all the stuff that shouldn't have been in the guest room) so I can put some of them into practice.

 

On Wednesday and Thursday evening, Rod studies music and those are my evenings with Jack.  Last night, we had a blast!  I pulled out a bunch of books and exercises and we played school...Jack amazed me with all that he knew about ancient Egypt, we explore the map to observe details he hadn't caught yet as I read to him while he put together a vocabulary exercise and then stenciled and coloured some Egyptian symbols, and then he chose they Eye of Horus  for both his tattoo and to decorate his Egypt Unit folder.  When I closed the book and said we'd move on to another subject after finishing one chapter, he interupted me to say that "actually, I am quite enjoying this".   *heh*  We moved on to finish the biography of Papa Hayden, anyway, since it was due back at the library, but it was nice to hear. 

Tonight, perhaps we'll read a little more about Egypt, and then study some Latin by making phrase cards for the phrases we want to learn this week and next.  We've decided to make it a family exercise -- we'll choose some related phrases and learn them together, so that it can be conversational rather than simply memorizing.

So -- we're here.  Rod's on the mend, and other than Rod's gout we're fine.  We're still homeschooling and we're still having fun.

 

And maybe now I can find more time to take photos and post.