• On The Courts

    Long weekends suck. At least when the weather is crappy and you have nowhere to go. St. P’s annually stretches out President’s Day weekend to build some snow make-up days in the schedule before spring break. Since we’ve had no snow days this year, we’ve been lucky enough to have a five-day weekend. When the temps have been stuck below…

  • Not A Routine Start

    Today is school day number six of the new calendar year. Thus far, we have had two normal days. Four times we have had two-hour delays, thanks to a combination of snow (last Tuesday), extreme cold/iced over roads (Wednesday and Thursday), and just ice (yesterday). Today we were back on normal start time, but C. is home with me sick.…

  • Holiday Cheer Notes

    Nine days out, the holiday tension is getting thick at our house. Shortly after our tree went up, the girls began making presents for each other and putting them under the tree. They were mostly paintings and drawings, but everything was placed into a gift bag or wrapped in a box so they looked like any other gift. They decided…

  • Fun With Editing

    Over the weekend C. brought home a story she had written in class with instructions for the weekend. We were supposed to read it with her, then rewrite it to take out grammatical errors so she could record it in class on Monday. Which is a good thing. Her story, which was based on the Nutcracker, featured one very concerning…

  • Some Kid Stuff

    After that two day, mini-week to begin the school year, we’re diving right in this week. Five full days of school. An athletic event every afternoon or evening. In the next five days we have two kickball practices, two kickball games, and one soccer practice. We could add another event, too, as we’re still waiting to hear when L.’s soccer…

  • End Of An Era

    St. P’s kicked off the school year today. The alarm went off at 6:30, the girls were roused,1 uniforms were donned, bags were packed, and off we went. Drop off was easy. M., as is her custom, quickly dismissed me so she could start digging through the box of supplies sitting on her desk and chat with her friends. C.…

  • At Last…Summer

    Three quick hours this morning, apparently to satisfy the state of Indiana, and now M. and C. are finally done with school.1 It’s been a long few days, as the district we live in wrapped up their school year last Thursday. So while the neighbors have been swimming and going to parks, we’ve still been on a normal school schedule.…

  • Weekend Notes

    A few things about a few things. After our endless winter, we finally got a blast of hot over the weekend. It pushed well into the 80s both days, with a healthy dose of humidity to make it feel a tad uncomfortable. I swore not to bitch about the heat after the months of cold… This is the Midwest, though.…

  • Of Bears And Lego

    This weekend was L.’s turn with her class bear, Baxter. If you’re not familiar with the concept, many classes send a bear or other stuffed animal home with kids for a weekend. They usually come with a book in which the adventures of the bear are recorded. When it’s your family’s turn, you take some pictures, write down the weekend’s…

  • The Lost Week

    From January 25-27, 1978, the Indianapolis area got over 15” of snow, which came on top of 5” of snow from a few days previous. The winds howled at over 50 mph. Snow drifted to between 10 and 20 feet. The wind chills were below -50. People were trapped in cars on the highways. Amtrak trains were stranded on their…