Laryngitis

I have a really bad case of laryngitis. I have never had it like this before. Usually I call it laryngitis when my voice sounds really bad or it hurts to talk. This time it is just gone. I mean, nothing is coming out. It doesn't hurt much. Doesn't even feel very scratchy. I think it is some kind of a virus, because my temp has just been barely above normal. I don't really feel bad, although I was pretty tired this afternoon. I cut Peanut's school day short and we watched an "educational" video while Junior was sleeping. And I managed to doze off during the video, which I don't usually do.

I have been whispering to the kids all day. It is very hard. When I want to say something to them, I always forget and try to talk, which doesn't work. Then I snap my fingers, like that is loud enough. Then I have to go get right up to their ear to talk to them.

Junior doesn't understand. Well, neither one of them do, but I think Peanut kind of gets it a little. She knew that I was hoarse on Sunday and Monday, and it got worse. I had not thought of explaining it, I just said my throat was scratchy. I guess I said something about losing my voice, because tonight Jr. said, "Did you lose your voice?" I said, "Yeah." He goes, "Well, where is it?" I almost thought he was teasing, but his face said he wasn't. Then he said, "Did it go down into your stomach?" Hee hee. Bless his heart. I tried to explain it, then I told Todd he better talk to him tonight. I am not sure he is hearing me that well. He also told me that someday he will lose his voice too. I wonder if he thinks I will never talk again?

I found some extra Tang Tea. It tastes good, but doesn't seem to help so much. I am trying some "ginger tea" which has a little more of a tingle to it. And I've taken a lot of vitamin C. I am hopeful that tomorrow will be better.

Peanut and her AWANA club thing...

Did you know yahoo will remind you to update your blog? It will. So it has been reminding me and I've been ignoring it, but I decided I ought to update today. We have not been doing anything new and different in school. Peanut went to Awana's tonight and finished up learning the books of the Old Testament. Pretty good for a little first grader. Yay Peanut! I taught her the "Let Us Sing the Books of Moses" song, I was pretty surprised that she was able to finish tonight. Next thing for her is to memorize the 23rd Psalm, which she learned last year, so she will just have to review.

Junior had to stay home tonight, though. He had a stuffy nose this morning, but acted like he felt fine. Then he woke up grumpy from his nap, which is normal, but this time he did not get better. He was just having a really hard time, but I had already promised his teacher that I would help with his class. So Peanut and I went to church and he and Dad stayed home. I figured he would have already gone to bed, we didn't get home until almost 9:00. Nope. When I walked in his was singing and giggling in the bathtub. He was acting like his old self! But he probably needed a Wednesday night break. Sometimes you just do.

New Drawings

Table with Flowers and Violets
This is a new drawing that Peanut did. After this, I gave her a nicer sketchbook so she can draw without the background lines. I notice today she is still drawing in a regular lined notebook, but I guess she will get used to it sooner or later.

The Big Bad Wolf
Here is another that she did in the same notebook, but I cleaned it up on the computer. I think this reminds me of something in a book. Maybe Maisy, but I can't remember. He looks a little bit crazy, anyway.

Monday

Here is a little toy that Peanut made for Junior the other day. She heard him crying because his mean mom made him take a nap. She felt sorry for him and made him a toy for when he woke up. The heart box has some of her bubble gum inside. Sweet.


I am training her as a "prep chef" in the kitchen. She knows how to peel carrots and then run them through the french fry cutter.



And Junior is actually learning to read! I sat him down the other day and showed him how to read "AT" and "CAT". Today he was tired of those and said he wanted to read "RAT", so I showed him how to read that. Boys!

Face paint and stuff

Peanut bought a face paint kit last weekend and the kids had fun with it. I think the idea was that she was going to paint Junior's face, but of course that's not going to happen. So for both pictures he is "A dog with a moustache."





By the way, face paint comes out of carpet very easily with Fantastic and a dry cloth!

Here is a sample of Peanut's spelling test for this week. I'll try to put these up every so often to show her progress. I told her I was proud that these letters are all standing on the floor instead of hopping around up above the lines. She thought that was pretty hilarious. I have no idea what that is a picture of above the words. She wants to illustrate her spelling list. I let her do that earlier this week, but you can't do it every day. It would take all afternoon.




For dinner tonight we are having Chicken Divine out of Quick Cooking Magazine. And some kind of salad I made up with broccoli, cauliflower, and cheddar cheese -- all from the leftovers from Summer and Dan's wedding. I have used that stuff so much, and I think it is multiplying in my refrigerator!

Starting back to school

I don't know why I never get time to update this thing, but now that we are back in the school routine, maybe I will get better. We started back to "real school" on August 1st. Peanut had been asking me pretty often when we would start back, even though we were doing some reading and stuff like that each day. But I think she thinks "circle time" that we do at the beginning of the day is "real school." So we started back on a schedule.

We are doing Sonlight curriculum, and it is very interesting. Peanut likes all the books that go with it, and I catch her "reading ahead" all the time...grabbing the books that are for later this year, and flipping throught them. Other stuff we are doing:
Language: Explode the Code - Book 2
Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears
Math: Singapore Math Primary 1a
Spelling: We are going through a beginning phonics program and using their word lists for spelling words. We are getting Sonlight's Language Arts I next week. LA II was too hard.
Science: We just bought the Usborne Book of Science Activities Vol II and it has some little demonstrations and activities for us to do. Haven't started that yet, I just got the book a few days ago.

Final Cake Pictures

Here is my final cake from my class. It was a lot of work, but I am happy about the flowers.

Here is a view of the flowers on top of the bottom cake.



Here is the whole thing put together.



This is also made with the new, good-tasting, homemade fondant. Never use the Wilton stuff out of a box.

Another Cake Picture

Here is my cake from decorating class last night. It is the first fondant cake I have made, and it was very easy. I was surprised. I hate the color, it looks like Pepto-Bismol. But now I know not to use too much color paste in the fondant!

My Cake!

This month I took a cake decorating class. It was fun and not too hard, just a lot of work. It was the Wilton II course. Tonight was the grand finale. Here is my completed cake:

The little birds are icing too. I say that because Todd couldn't believe that part.

I think I am going to take Wilton III next month, because there is a big discount for July.

I know I haven't been updating this very often. Since the sun has been going down later and later, the kids go to bed later. It is just too hard to settle them down if it is not dark outside. But that means I don't have a lot of time between their bedtime and mine. For some reason wake-up time has not changed!

Now I have to go clean up my icing covered kitchen!

Birthday Party Pictures

Junior's birthday party with his little friends went well. He had a lot of fun. Here he is with the "Pin-the-Banana-on-the-Monkey" game we made.

We also had a monkey cake.
And here is his car cake from last Saturday.