Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Proud

We received Eli's report card yesterday. I am so proud of him! He's doing really well in school. All 4s and 5s for effort (which is the mark I care about most), except one 3 in Communicating in French (he's graded on a scale from 1-5 with 3 being "grade level"). I was even happier to read his IPP (Individual Program plan) which stated that he met and exceeded his goal for attention and calling out in class and did not require further strategies at this time. This means that, although he has ADHD, his attention and focus is that of a typical 7yr old within the classroom. Yay!! He continues to require enrichment for the gifted portion of his IPP and has been asked to prepare a verbal presentation in French that incorporates the areas which need enrichment (reading, math, science, language). I can't wait to see what he comes up with!

Update on yesterday's post... You'll be happy to know that I've actually accomplished something today. I am nearly finished my paperwork (I WILL finish this week!) and cleaned out the spare room closet, both kids' closets and... *drum roll*... MY closet..... I managed a full orange bag of garbage and two blue bags of clothing... Woot!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I NEED to get stuff done!

I came back from a trip to Denver yesterday (more on that to follow) and realized that I need to put my damn knitting down (it's only being sworn at because I love it so very much) and get some stuff done around my house. My house is clean, mostly, but there are several jobs that I've been putting off in favor of knitting and/or spinning (which I now do when I'm a bit tired of knitting, thereby compounding the problem). I thought that if I mentioned some of my jobs here, they might get done.... the pressure of public knowledge or something..... so here they go.

1) I NEED to get my paperwork done. It should have been finished by the last week of December and it NEEDS to be done NOW...... Most of the easy parts are done, but I've got a lot of the nitty gritty left to do.

2) My closet.... my closet is a nightmare. It needs to be purged and organized. The purging needs to continue onto my dresser and my makeup/lotion area of the bathroom.

3)The Kids' clothing needs to be sorted and bagged and dropped off at my friend's house, who conveniently, now has a daughter and two sons, so I don't have to split the stuff up.....

4) My "office".... office is in quotation marks because I don't do my own bookkeeping any more... I hate it and the office just sits there unused and messy. I need to get rid of the computer down there, take down the desk and make it a more usable room.... usable for what?? I don't know... It currently holds all of my craft stuff, but I wouldn't use it as a craft room, just storage....

5) General deeper cleaning needs to be undertaken on all levels.... this is a big job that needs to be taken on by room and I should really pick the rooms that are used less to do first......

Phew..... The list could actually go on and on, but I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed and wanting to knit.... must.not.knit!


OK... now that that is out of the way, my trip to Denver was AWESOME. My friends were excellent hosts and the kids had a lot of fun (Chey stayed with Daddy and Aunty, she was too young and we would have needed to rent a vehicle if I had brought her). We visited the Butterfly Pavilion, The Aquarium, The Zoo and Estes Park which is the location of the Stanley Hotel. This hotel was made famous by Stephen King as it was the inspiration (and later the location of the movie) for the book "The Shining". It is also one of the most haunted places in North America (or so the literature states). We didn't see any ghosts, however, and Eli was rather miffed about that...... Here are a few cuter pictures....

At the Denver Zoo... showcasing Eli's tremendous acting abilities....



The Stanley Hotel, a ghost-less shot, unfortunately....



The Aquarium.



Meeting "Rosie" The tarantula



The Butterflies loved Eli's orange sweater....