updates on various topics

I have thirteen minutes to pound this out before I have to pick up Annabelle at ballet.

Sleep or lack thereof: I've been doing a better job of being up and ready for the day before AB wakes up. Five out of seven days she would wake me up by appearing at the side of my bed and asking for breakfast, telling me a fact about Elana of Avalor or where her rag doll is and how she had her water bottle, lost it under the blankets then found it again. She wakes up ready to greet the day with all the enthusiasm and energy of a five-year-old/energizer bunny. My greeting of the day could not be less different.

Me when I wake up every morning

For the last several days I've gotten up first and as much as I hate to admit it because it means less sleep, it has made the mornings easier to get up on my own terms. Tuesday I had to drag a sleepy Annabelle out of bed so we could make it to the homeschool group on time. I was doing her hair and singing a really superb song about how we needed to trim her nails next. She sighed very loudly and said, "Mom, it's too early for all these shemanigans." That's exactly how I feel every morning! Too many shenanigans from the child of the house. Have a taste of your own medicine.

School: We attend two homeschool groups- a Classical Conversations group on Tuesdays and a regular homeschool group on Fridays. It took several weeks for me to start liking the CC model but it's started to grow on me. I have no idea how to make what we learn on Tuesdays into an entire curriculum and I wish it was MUCH more hands-on, but Annabelle has learned quite a bit and enjoys going. She gives a presentation to her class every week and unlike her mother, there has never been any hyperventilating or tears before she gets up. Every few weeks a CC family has to stand in front of the entire group and tell a little about themselves. The mom who did it this week said, "We also have a son named Samuel, but he's in the classroom right now because crowds and people looking at him make him very uncomfortable." ME TOO, SAMUEL. Our turn is in March and I'm already planning on being sick that day.

Weather: it's reached a brisk 42* at noon this week and the entire town is acting as if the sky is falling and we're all about to die any second. Three separate people told me that this is supposed to be the coldest week of the year. I didn't bother saying we're only 23 days into the year so that doesn't take much, but I tried to be outwardly sympathetic. Inwardly I'm all but putting up a billboard reminding people that January is winter and this is all totally normal. Nobody panic. 

BRB. I have to go retrieve my child.

Still alive: our angel tree. It's the Christmas tree that refuses to die and I refuse to throw it away while it still has so much life left to live. It's been up for six weeks now which I think is long enough for a phone call to the Guinness World Record people. 

Researching: the current situation surrounding the royal family. If you've got questions, I've got opinions galore. Christopher has tried to participate in my Sussex family conversations and I truly appreciate the effort, but it's become clear he has not been paying attention. I was giving a lengthy soapbox speech about how they're leaving the country of Harry's birth and not even going to live in the country of Meghan's birth. They're up in Canada where the national snack is a weird dish of french fries with cheese curds and gravy. (Obviously, I'm not knocking french fries. I always have and always will love french fries. It's the cheese curds I object to.) Christopher said, "Well, she is Canadian so that makes sense." I was flabbergasted. Speechless. Has he learned nothing from me in the last several years?! She's not Canadian. Didn't he read all the headlines that said "American princess"? Was he not paying attention when I told him two and a half years ago that Lian's son went to the boys' version of the college prep high school in Los Angeles that Meghs attended? I would say I won't share any more of my royal thoughts with him but we all know that isn't true. I'll be back at it tomorrow and there's nothing he can do about it. It should have been written into our wedding vows. "In sickness and in health. In war and in peace. In times of royal gossip triumph and royal disdain." 

To sum up my thoughts on the current Sussex situation, I'd like to borrow a word from AB. It's a bunch of shemanigans.