Father's Day

I've been moderately sick for the past several days. It started as a cold that I recovered from pretty quickly, but then it started to feel like it was turning into a sinus infection. I spent a few days feeling dizzy and massively "thick" in my head (thank goodness that's over!). I'd had something strange going on digestive-wise all this time, but comparatively it was nothing to complain about. . . until today. I've been eating saltines and drinking as little as possible (yes, I know this isn't what the AMA recommends, but I gotta go with my gut on this one).

I've spent a lot of time sleeping on the couch this week. Karlon worked downstairs most of the week and kept an eye and ear on the kids while he worked (I am loving this whole deal about having a husband who telecommutes and kids who are old enough to practically take care of themselves).

I was vaguely aware of floating back up into consciousness when I overheard Karlon ask Jon what he was watching in my office. He said he was watching a youtube video called Dum Bass Luigi. (all one word). This brought me to full consciousness. Then he said, "Next I'm going to watch Dum Bass Luigi 2 and there's also one called Dum Bass Mario." I'm so glad my little Kindergarten graduate wasn't aware of a certain silent B.

Of course I had to watch the video for myself to make sure there wasn't anything alarming to address. It was mostly harmless, especially for a single viewing. Definitely going on the banned video list, though.

So, does Karlon watch the kids as closely as I do? No. Men just weren't built with that kind of surveillance equipment. BUT, for being a man. . . he's quite good. He actually did intercept this video which had nothing but mario-type music for sound, -- without any visual clues -- AND with it being about thirty feet behind him.

And since it's only about two hours past Father's Day and since I seem to have something against going to bed at all any more, I'll just go ahead and say that Karlon is an excellent dad.

1. He's always here.

2. He has no temper.

3. He's always ready to help.

4. He knows a lot.

5. He's a good friend.

Ashley and I are studying generalizations for language arts. I guess those snippets above were my details. My generalization would be that everybody ought to have a dad like Karlon.

And I just can't go without writing about my own wonderful Dad. I'll never forget all the trips to the park, flying kites, road-trips, funny songs we made up about all kinds of things. . . hours and hours and hours of algebra with me at the desk and you standing in front of the white board.

Even now that I'm all grown-up, you're still, "my friend, daddy."

One week down

Okay, I could get used to this sleeping in thing. And I don't think I've left home since last Friday. It's been wonderful. It's sad when staying home for a whole week becomes a novelty.

Ashley isn't quite finished with her schoolwork for the year, so she and I are still working. Teaching only one kid. . . let me just say it literally feels like I have time to breathe!

We've done some interesting project-type things this week. There was a pretty broad hint in one of the study guides that Ashley will need to know how to interpret a library subject search on the final. Even as an adult, I looked at the information on the page and thought "Huh?" for a couple of the questions. I decided it would be easier for Ashley to know where to find the information if she was the one who put it there in the first place, so we made our own card catalog / subject search using books from our own home library. It's getting really lengthy now, and since we have to cut them out anyway to put them in ABC order, I thought it would be fun to tape them to the wall and have a huge subject-search wall from ceiling to floor.

One thing that's really been easy about teaching Ashley is that she thinks and retains information the same way I do. So I can tell her "colony . . .check out the base word and the prefix: CO LONE -- they're together, but alone. A settlement ruled by another country." And we're done with that one. Forever.

Anyway, having time to do the fun projects and be creative is just what I needed. It feels like summer camp (Ashley doesn't completely agree since her brothers have nothing better to do than to watch SpongeBob and play video games).

But we'll be finished soon. And then it'll be on to house-cleaning and painting and decorating! Can't wait!