Because little of it connects to anything else, but it's all connected to the family.
Act 1: Saturday: The Charity Fair held on Saturday morning at AISC was a success. Over a few hours, it raised Rs97,000, over $2000 (including some direct cash donations). The truly impressive thing is that each game token sold for Rs10, less than a Quarter. My kids had a blast, there was so much to do and they did many of the activities over and over. Lisa, who came up with the idea and organized the insanity, kept it simple. Kids paid out tokens to win a bottle of hot sauce, a tube of chapstick or a jar of pickles. They paid tokens to throw wet sponges at their friends, and have kids throw wet sponges at them. P.E. teachers might hear groans for having kids repeatedly shoot soccer balls into a net. Kids willingly handed over tokens to try again and again. The cake walk was a success, with cupcake winners at every turn. I've been told I'm getting roped into helping next year. Ah, little do they know we'll be on vacation right then.
The day turned into evening and our home turned into a wretched hive of scum and villainy. No? Ok, it was Poker Night at the Hoppers. Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy the start of the evening. At the Charity Fair Katherine had cajoled her way into visiting a friend nearby for a couple hours. Ian walked her over and chatted with the mom for a bit before letting me know that the 7 p.m. return time had been stretched to 8 p.m. Eight came and went. So did 8:30. Katherine called to see if she could stay later. No. I strode off down the road to meet her and her friend at the other end of the Madras Club. Nine came and still no kid, so I walked to their house following directions from Ian over the cell. No one answered their door, no one answered their cell phone. I turned back and waited. Finally 9:30, Ian calls to say she is home. I meet up with Friend Mom along the way back, who is shocked that everyone was so concerned and how her daughter had been hoping Katherine could sleep over.
Answer: No.
Oh, and Ian won the pot, all hail Ian.
Act 2: Sunday: A regular church Sunday, but this time we meandered upstairs after Mass to check out the organ. It's in quite a state of disrepair., a sad sad thing for so regal an instrument. Goodness knows the music program could use a lot of help at the Basilica.
It's common for the kids to swim Sunday afternoons. Unfortunately, the pool is an assortment of accidents waiting to happen. This time involved a row of tiles jutting from the side. Tiles have razor sharp edges and as Nicholas was pulling himself out, hid foot slid along, sliced part of the pad and split directly into his big toe. True pain is not accompanied by loud wails and gnashing of teeth but by sudden gasping and mask of fear. The blood wasn't plentiful, but the gash was deep. He'll be OK and I think he'll keep the toe.
Act 3: How common, or should I say normal, is it for a 6 year old to have headaches? And for those headaches, when he gets them, to last hours, even days. Yup, Nicholas again.
Act 4: Wednesday: The girls started after-school activities this quarter. It really does make for a long day when we don't get home until nearly 5 and there's still homework to finish and dinner to get on the table. Since the boys are not in anything and there's no bus to bring the girls home, it's easier for me to spend a couple hours at the school on Wednesday afternoon to catch up with teachers, drop off library books and let the boys play on the playground. Katherine said ballet was fun, and Rebecca had a blast making marbleized prints that will become a cover for a book they're making. The activity director was a little frustrated with extra kids that had signed up and over-filled the class. That's why there is a cap, people, so the leader doesn't run short on supplies and get annoyed the very first day.
With my time between the end of school and the start of activities, I spoke with the teacher who taught 5th grade reading last quarter. Katherine is a book worm, so it was a surprise when she received a C on her report card. I asked her homeroom teacher about it and she thought it must have been an error. Katherine couldn't figure out anything that would cause such a drop in grade, so I was leaning towards an error as well. Come to find out that Katherine's reading is just fine. It's her follow-through that is subpar. The teacher had a very basic program called Reading Bingo where various subject matter (animals, history, biography, mystery) laid on a Bingo grid and the kids needed to read at least 3 books, write a paragraph on each, and turn in the pages all within a set time period, say two weeks. Reading three books and completing the assignments earned a B, more books were encouraged to complete Bingo and earn the A. Out of the 5 or 6 Bingo pages, Katherine turned in one incomplete with only 2 books, and another section she didn't turn in at all. The times she did complete the assignment, she earned As and Bs, so those two poor grades pulled her down some. What nailed her was her tardiness to class. The teacher noted that she was late 5-10 minutes after break to practically every Reading class. So when she was determining grades, a B could have squeezed itself through if she had shown an -interest- and true -effort-. But because she was lazy and didn't think it would matter, she received the C.
And I'm glad she did. I know she didn't think those few late minutes would count against her. I know it didn't cross her mind that being in her seat when the bell rang had any significance. I know she was having fun and figured she could get by. I told her as much, and I told her that she deserved the grade and that teachers pay attention to these things and they -do- matter.
She assured me that she'll earn an A this quarter. I believe her.
So, I took the boys to the playground: the big kids playground with the monkeybars and the seesaw and all that stuff they don't get to use. One kid there screamed everytime he went down the slide which nearly drove me mad, but we hung around finishing the milkshakes from the snack bar and digging in the sand. Then Nicholas fell off the seesaw. And he covered his mouth. And there was a stunned panicked choking sound. And blood. Nicholas was getting off but the other kid wasn't, and the seesaw flipped up and met the front of Nicholas's face and a tooth that was previously there was gone into the sand at his feet or possibly even swallowed. The tooth was a baby tooth, relief #1. And it was a front, ever so slightly wiggly one that was destined to come out in the next 6 months anyway, relief #2.
Some tears, more panic at the blood seeping from his mouth, a good rinse, pressure from biting on tissue, and he was OK. Gappy McGaps-a-lot.
It's been a rough week for Nicholas, and didn't get any better when he lost at poker that evening and just broke down in misery.
Act 5: Thursday: So the good things from the week.
Today's Assembly at AISC was a lot of fun. In preparation for next week's India Week, the school brought in dancers from a local troupe showcasing dances from different Indian states, and High Schoolers gave a fashion show of, well, fashions throughout India.
I managed to get some scrapbooking done. Hopefully I'll finish off 2003 sometime soon. The scrap calendar I received from my parents for Christmas is way cool. Each day is another piece of scrapping paper. Fitting that last week's design was cards and poker chips.
Thanks to an on-line friend I have a source of inexpensive cotton play dresses. Who knew that Oriental Trading Company carried clothes, and cute clothes at that? Check out these adorable outfits and see if you don't buy some for your own little girls. I've been told the sizes run a tad small, so get the next size up just in case.
And to top off the bits of goodness, another on-line friend has a Girl Scout daughter. A boost from us put her at 100 boxes sold (she was close, really, we didn't buy -that- many). I'm looking around for other friend vendors who are willing to toss some cookies in the mail. They freeze well and we like them a whole lot! Anyone need a boost to reach a goal?
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