That's probably too harsh really. January was a pretty good month overall. It's just that it ended with a bit of a whimper. Last week a piddly snowstorm of less than 6 inches had the kids out of school for 3 days.
It wasn't just the snow that did it... the ice, the power outages, it all played together.
Last week was mid-term exam week at the high schools. Those have been rescheduled for this week. All that reviewing and preparing out the window after 5 days at home. Katherine jumps right into French and History mid-terms and is home by lunch time. Each exam day is a half-day. And (*cue sarcasm here*) even better, Thursday is a teacher in-service to pull together report cards. All the kids are home again on Thursday.
So last Tuesday I picked Katherine up at 10:30 a.m. after mid-term #1 because she wasn't feeling well. Wed-Fri no school. Weekend. Mon-Wed are half days. Thurs no school. Friday school. Another weekend.
What complicates all this is that last weekend Ian came down with the flu. He was out of commission Sun-Thurs. I got it Tuesday and was useless Tues-Fri. When I say useless, I mean useless. I didn't even get up to feed my children a meal. Thank goodness they can forage for themselves and that on Tuesday when I'd picked up Katherine we went to Costco and bought a bunch of sick foods... crackers, apples, canned soups, apple juice, iced tea, bread for sandwiches. I saw it coming. I prepared.
Here it is the start of a new week, and tomorrow starts a new month. I have a massive pile of laundry to catch up on. I have a To Do list a mile long, all that stuff that piled up last week I simply couldn't get to. I still have my cough, headaches and earache, but even without them how much can I get done between 9 a.m. when the boys head to school and noon when Katherine returns, and some storefronts don't open until 10? I'm still only running about 75%, basic tasks take me longer because sometimes I forget midway what I was doing in the first place. I do eventually remember, but it would go smoother if I didn't stop and consider why I was in the basement in the first place. Was it to do the next load of laundry or did I just need a new roll of paper towels for the kitchen? After coming back upstairs I realize it was neither, I needed hand sanitizer. Back to the basement again repeating over and over what I'm going for.
Some of my errands/to-dos are time sensitive. Katherine's birthday is Saturday. Enough said.
January started off well. Katherine participated in All-County Band. We received the CD and listened to it twice yesterday. She wants it burned to her iPod.
I've received roughly 600 prints for scrapping. Should I get these all done, I will be caught up from mid-2009 to the end of 2010. Then I just need to do Togo and India. Easy. Right. Provided it doesn't take me a year to do the photos I just got.
By far the most time-consuming activity this past month is the boys' basketball league. Both boys are playing thanks to my folks who registered them. They play on different days but unlike swimming with its 3-hour practice times 5 days a week and 6-7 hour weekly meets, the 1-hour basketball games a few times a week are easy. When Ian goes he manages the clock or the score card. When I go I manage the mandatory play sheet. Nicholas's teams won their first 2 games and have lost the next 3. They have a good amount of talent but the coach doesn't play the ones who aren't "stars" nearly enough (in the last game Nicholas played 3 of the 8 periods, the minimum required by the league, while other kids played 7. It's hard to get better when you have 9 minutes of play time in a week). Jonathon is in the Novice league so they restart everything at half-time. Basically, they play 2 games in one hour and no one is really declared winner or loser. Weird system.
Katherine is preparing to be a teen leader at the Confirmation retreat in March. She has weekly meetings for 2 months to review rules, design skits, write talks, etc. The day she came back from her retreat last February she said she wanted to be a teen leader, it made that much of an impact on her. This year is Rebecca's turn to go as a Confirmation candidate. She'll go in April. I didn't want either of the girls to feel the other was watching them.
The only other big thing on the horizon (besides Katherine's birthday, did I mention that?) is Ian's trip to India and Sri Lanka. He was tasked a few weeks ago to accompany, oh somebody, and now has a 2-week trip scheduled mid-February. We'll miss him. I can't think of anything to have him bring back.
Katherine received her PSAT scores. I guess this early year is to get the kids accustomed to the format? Her scores are compared to sophomores taking the PSAT. She was average for reading, a little above average for math and quite a bit above average for "writing" (there's no essay so I'm not sure what "writing" actually refers to... I should probably look through the test booklet). She always does well on standardized testing. The PSAT though... college really is around the corner. There's even a binder floating around the house labeled "Katherine-College" for test scores, report cards, her high school resume', college information/applications and whatever else comes down the pike. It's hard to believe we'll graduate both our girls at our next post in Amman.
I think I've caught up. The boys are off to school and the clock is ticking to Katherine's return. I have to get at least a couple items checked off my list this morning between coughing up a lung and getting that next load of laundry done.
Bring on February.
Actually, hold that thought... I remember last February all too well.
Can we just skip to March?
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