MONDAY MINUTES

[Harriet]

Good morning!

Oh, thank you, BookSaver. Yes, Fay is a happy chick today. Her new sisters are scared of the door to their ramp (lifts upward rather loudly) and so she hung back with them until they were ready to trust it. Such a funny, since she has always torn down the ramp like a race car.

Our only concession to the holiday is that dd is wearing my Taz (Tazmanian Devil) sweatshirt, just in case anyone teases that she should have worn something for the day. I doubt that we will have any trick-or-treaters and sort of doubt that she will want to go - we'll see.

She has a meeting with a teacher today that she dreads. She has about half good news and half bad news on the requests the teacher made of her and says this teacher only notices negative things (which dd may deserve today), but when she gets past that she'll be okay. I replenished her lunch account, which went negative on her the other day!

One happy piece of news is that she achieved a "100" average in English the first quarter, highest in the class. She is still immature enough to show extreme favoritism to the class/teacher she likes, I think, and I need to work with her on keeping each class equally at the forefront. Maybe I need to suggest our village idea and have a nightly "Round Robin" of 15s through all her classes' notebooks/assignments to be sure nothing is slipping through the cracks. She does agree with me when I remind her that, "We can do anything for 15 minutes." (P and P) and she likes Round Robins in general.

I've already raced out to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription that needed getting a day or two ago. Sigh. Morning Daily Card is finished. Desk Day for our household is Next Up.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I've had a successful hour of jumping from task to task and tidying up some loose ends as a result. All of my Sunday chores that I'll do (I'm skipping laundry because there isn't enough to do) are now done so my chore list is focused on today. And I've got a couple of those chores done too, including flipping calendars and filing some receipts I'm saving for warranty purposed. I need to go through that binder and toss the receipts for items well out of warranty (i.e. VCRs!) but that can wait until another day. I have to purge from the filing cabinet next to my desk too.

[helia]

Good morning all! Just a run through.

No dress up for any of my kids for Halloween at school today. Actually, dd16 is home sick; she was running a temp last night with a sore throat. She has yet to appear this morning, and yes, it is 11 a.m. I think dd13 is planning on going trick-or-treating with a friend and Pepper for whom she is making a sunflower "costume" (apparently, just petals to attach to her collar). If I find the time and can get organized, I might try to post pix here on the creative thread - not sure which one specifically but I think I can figure it out.

Congratulations to dd13, Harriet! I'm curious, how does she know it is the highest in the class? Does the teacher tell the kids? The kids aren't told such things at our middle school here. Not thinking either approach is necessarily bad or good, just curious how it is dealt with at your middle school. I hope the meeting with the one teacher goes well. Maybe it will be all good news and no bad news.

Harriet, you have inspired me to check my own kids' grades on powerschool. . . . All is well. After a rough start this fall, dd16 now has 2 very high B+s which she will want to bring up if possible - just b/c she wants to keep all As. Our view is that would be nice, but we don't want her to become obsessed or to beat herself up over non A grades. . . . .She has been able to bring her one AP class up to a solid A, which is good. The semester ends mid-January so there is still time for grades that will appear on high school transcripts to rise and fall. . . . Ds is fine. Dd13currently has 99-103 in all her classes, 3 are 100% or higher. Actually, her advisory is a 98 - but I'm not sure what that means for a non-academic class. We take the middle school scores here with a grain of salt. . . . We are skipping P/T conferences.

a.m. routine is done. Devo. time is done. Menu plan for the week is started.

PODA
-finish menu plan
-go to groc. store
-Study Hebrew
-make sure we have Halloween candy in case we get a trick-or-treater
-Study Hebrew
-take the opportunity of the holiday to sweep the porch and move the bikes on it
-Study Hebrew
-simple and early supper: pasta, homamde tom. sauce, salad, bread
-say good bye to dh who is heading to Calif. tonight for a meeting and returning late tomorrow night.
-study Hebrew
-review ds' early action app. essays if needed and help him send them off!!
-study Hebrew

Did I tell you that I need to study Hebrew today? My midterm is Wednesday. I need to be able to translate and correctly parse all verbs and classify all nouns and verbs for the book of Jonah. All 48 verses. Doesn't sound like much but it feels like a lot.

[Elizabeth]

Happy Halloween Y'all!!!

The Halloween party is done and the house still looks like a party. The yard still looks like a party. Someone lost the lock to my shed as they were decorating it. I have done some house cleanup, but it has been too dark for yard cleanup. Today I have an appointment with a financial advisor. Divorce is a PITA; it takes forever to separate everything. If you are thinking about it, take my advice and DON'T. If you have a choice, that is, I didn't, he wanted it. XDH is having trouble refinancing the house to buy me out, too. I want all these complications to just go away, but they won't. I would like to go to sleep, but that is probably a bad idea since I am at work. Still working on the document proofing.

I should buy Halloween treats, too.

[Nancy]

H. is off to work, it rained in the night but has been windy so things are dry and it's up to 51 here already this morning so it's warm enough for him to paint the trim on that job.
BS was up so no breakfast for me today. Coffee is done.

We did not buy candy in a bag this year. Dgkids will not be by they went to gatherings at a church. We do not dress up I like to but h. is not a fan of it thinks its a Holiday for toddlers. Dgson wears his dirt bike riding costume for the school party. We are not going to turn on the light or pass out candy it's just not a good idea to keep it around here bc we just eat it and not worth the temptation or chance me getting ill from that.

My list is made and progress is under way
s2s x
bed is made
I'm defuzzed

next up
dump trash x
exercise x

[DeeClutter]

I'm still "minute-minding" as I pack and clean. Not doing a thorough cleaning as I know I'll have to do it again in the spring. So why do it twice when nobody will see it -including me! DH will be back a month before me anyway and we all know what happens to a 'bachelor pad'.

Going to do up a few dishes in a minute and then I have the bathroom to pack up/or put in storage.

I'm off!!!!!!!!!!!

[Emptynester]

I don't have to worry about Tricks and Treats here. Everyone is over 65 - some in their 80s.

I'm up, cut my hair (did DH yesterday), breakfast and meds and S2Crocs. I have the last load of laundry in the washer - soon to go on the line (unless I decide to do towels).

We have a new pet in our yard. While DH was sitting out last night a tame pigeon flew in. He walked right up to DH and cocked his head as if to say - "Feed me". We don't have any bird seed so DH got out some of my steel ground oatmeal. The pigeon loved it - he was also thirsty so was given water. He spent the night in the rafters of the shade house. He has a red band on one leg and a blue on on the other. He is very used to people and doesn't move as we walk under him and around the shade house. (Well, we don't walk directly under him - you know what I mean)

Not sure what I will do next - hang out the laundry of course - but after that. There are things that need packing but can't be done until Tuesday night - Other things that will wait until the 2nd load. I can't pack them up as I need the boxes from the first load.

To answer a question from yesterday. We will be keeping the lot for a year or two. There are 5 for sale now (out of 22) so I don't think ours would sell. It will be a nice place to stop as we go to Yuma or Quartzsite. So we will see. IF we would get a great offer - we wouldn't turn it down.

Off to hang up clothes.

[Harriet]

dd13 doesn't know it, helia - teacher mentioned to me this morning that dd "will have a 100 in my class, the only one who will reach that this quarter". There's a possibility she wasn't supposed to say that to a parent! This was during my drop-in thank-you chat with her for allowing dd to get credit for reading one book that was not on the school's AR test list by writing a book report on it. I don't believe students here have a clue how other students are doing, unless they divulge it among themselves. I know you are feeling a "Woo Hoo!" today for dd13 - what a well-rounded student! (All three, actually) We have not yet gotten report cards here, but I'm pretty sure dd will have to wait until a later quarter and hone some study skills if she hopes to see an all-As report! Hope dd16 feels better soon.

Elizabeth, smart move to have a financial adviser consider your needs during this transition time. The detritus of the monsters, aliens and princesses is still around the house, huh? That's how you know you had a good time, right? (ducking and running!)

Kathryn reminds me it would be bright to go change the on-view (decorative) calendar in the DR to Nov today. The children tease us if we don't get that done! We have been known to sit down to family Thanksgiving turkey with the October page still on view. (Slightly sidetrackable couple here.)

[DeeClutter]

Going to shut down so dh can load this in the car. I'm getting awfully close to being done. Will try to connect in our hotel -probably tomorrow night.

Take care everyone! See you down the road.

[helia]

Ooh, Harriet, that means more when the teacher tells you. Will you tell dd13? Thank you for your kind words to me. Honestly, I'm not sure the middle school classes here are challenging enough for a lot of the kids. I could be wrong, but I bet there are a number of kids here walking around with very high class percentages. It's hard to know though b/c kids are all so different and they grow and develop in different areas at different times and rates, and dd13 tends to befriend those girls who are more similar to herself. . . . Fortunately, dh and I have both been happily surprised and impressed by both the rigor of the high school classes AND by teachers (middle and high school) who care a lot about teaching and love their students.

Why am I rambling about this??

I always enjoy hearing about critters you encounter, MT. I wonder if the pigeon is a tame one?

Are you heading down to FL, Dee?

I never made it to the groc. store. I DID have lunch, updated laundry, finished menu plan, chatted w/ dd16 who is up and says she does not have a fever anymore. Just a sore throat. I'm struggling with IGAD syndrome, which is a delusion. I do NOT have all day; there are things I need to get done before I go to bed.

Fighting the delusion, I'm off to the groc. store.