This ‘n’ That

I got a new phone on Wednesday.  The Corporate Prince loves his iPhone so much that he wanted to get me a similar android phone.  Since our carrier doesn’t support the iPhone, I now have a myTouch.  And, guess what?  It has a book reader on it!  I will never be bored again!  Ok, at least not while I wait for CP to run some errand in some tech-geek place and 10 minutes turns into 30.  I can always read now, where ever I am.  It’s like carrying a public library in my pocket!

I am two books shy of reaching my 35 books read goal for the year.  I think I should come up with a different goal for next year.  Instead of quantity, maybe I should focus more on quality.  There are many of the classics I either haven’t read or don’t remember (a couple knocks on the head will do that to ya).  With Kitty soon to start High School (junior high is through 9th grade there), maybe I should brush up on things that she’ll be reading.  Then I can encourage her to read more of the classics in general.  This will be made even easier for me with my new phone!

Dude is on a field trip today to an art museum and then Oregon’s historical museum.  I am a little worried about how he’ll do.  His last field trip was in 1st grade, before the ADHD diagnosis and it was a nightmare.  While he’s doing better, the field trip opens up a lot of scenarios for disaster to strike.  However, I need to have faith that he is more capable of managing his behavior and that his teachers are equipped to head him off at the pass before he can cause any real disruptions to those around him.  And, I didn’t want to deprive him of such a great opportunity.

We attended Dude’s school conference last week.  He is doing very well.  We discovered that he has some anxiety with test taking and that we need to work on his test taking skills over all.  Until this year, Dude has never taken a math or spelling test.  So, if he gets stuck on a problem, he will stop and work on it until he solves it rather than skipping it and coming back to it at the end.  He is improving though.  At the beginning of the year, Dude would have 8 math problems out of 100 done on a timed test.  Now, he’s up to 53.  He still needs reminders before the test that it’s ok to skip a problem and then later go back to it.  Dude is so linear in his thinking that this is a concept he struggles with.  The teacher gave us some worksheets for Dude to practice taking timed tests with, so I’m sure that will help in the long run.

My mother and my in-laws are coming for Thanksgiving.  They have never met.  My in-laws have never been to my house.  Ever.  Not even while traveling and visiting here in Oregon.  It’s not that they’ve not been invited.  Rather, I think it’s more that they’ve been uninterested.  I’m a bit nervous and stressed.  

My mother has been to visit here in Oregon.  She hasn’t been to this house yet.  I’m excited to be able to show it off to her and show her around town.  There’s a spinner’s yarn and craft store I know she’ll just love to visit downtown.

I’ve decided that I can’t live with the green that looks like Kermit was massacred in Kitty’s room.  I’m sure in part that this is because my in-laws are coming and they’ll be staying in her room.  But maybe part of it is that it’s such a bright color and Kitty has a habit of changing her tastes every couple of months.  So, I’ll be repainting once again.  This time we’re going for something a bit understated with a hint of Hollywood Regency.  The colors were decided based on a “use what you have” decision.  Besides, she’s just going to clutter up the walls with posters and show ribbons anyways and it will be a color decision I can live with.  (Hmm… guess I’m turning into an old fuddy-duddy!)

Getting anxious about finishing up the barn and getting Casey moved home.  We’ve decided to use the hanging hardware from the goat stalls to make a sliding door and single stall in the barn vs. one giant run in shed.  This way, if someone gets hurt or needs to be isolated, I can stall one of them.  Also, it makes feeding them separately easier.  Essentially, the barn will be two stalls, but you’ll have to walk through one stall to get in and out of the barn.  The horses will still have free access to come and go, but we’ll be prepared just in case we need to stall one or both of them now.

Now that winter is approaching, we’ll be shifting our focus on improving and re-doing the inside of the house.  Painting, flooring and new counter tops are on my wish list.  We’ll be starting with painting.  There’s a lot of house to paint so it’ll take some time.  

Well, that’s what’s running through my brain today.  What are you thinking about or planning for the near future?