the gentler breathings of April
Apr 23rd, 2008 by willa
Title courtesy of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brronte.
A few bits and pieces about our life up here in the Sierras, since I probably won’t have time to blog regularly today:
Aidan had a clinic appointment yesterday at the therapy unit in town and then we went shopping, stocking up on groceries to the tune of a few hundred dollars. But our pantry and freezer aren’t bare anymore and we can probably last out the month!
Today Aidan has testing at the school. He had a meltdown this morning about something seemingly unrelated, but I could tell that he had been stressed all morning. We talked, and he confided that he hated the testing. I tried to reassure him that the end was in sight, that I knew it was hard, that he should just do the best he could etc. This is a bit of a milestone, that he was able to talk about his feelings. One habit of his is to put his feelings on a sibling, “Paddy cried…. Kieron is in BIG trouble….” and he did this a bit but was also willing to discuss his own feelings and I saw a lot of tension go out of his behavior after that. I hate the testing too.
Very cold this week. We’ve had the fire going daily.
Clare and I made peanut butter oatmeal cookies with butterscotch and milk chocolate chips (the BEST!) and are going to have a girl time this afternoon and watch Becoming Jane together.
Sean is almost finished with the chapter on Quadratic Equations. This is one of the few things in the Algebra book I don’t remember how to do, but reading through the chapter in order to “teach” it gave me some insight into how Sean feels whenever a new concept comes up. Then yesterday, Clare needed help with her Geometry, and she was trying to explain to me the AA congruency principal, and once again I realized how difficult it must be to sit and listen to what seems completely outside of one’s own experience and almost completely arbitrary. Good reminder for me!
I really really need to sit down and plan a bit for next year and also for the last few weeks of this year, especially for Kieron and Aidan. Sean’s classes are just about in line for the rest of the year; he’s been able to keep going on his own momentum even this week when I haven’t been around much.
There is an April Page here with lots of poems, quotes, farmers lore etc. Of course, April is almost over, but still….!
Paddy goes down with Kevin and Sean this evening to play with his little cousin.
Aidan playing in the long jump pit at the High School on Sunday.
Aidan “reading” to Paddy on Monday.
