in pursuit of wild things

This week seemed to take forever, until it did not.

My job interview went just fine on Monday and I will start once my drug and background testing is completed. I was not anxious about doing well so much as being considered over-educated for a position. I’ll be working part-time at the local Kroger in the ClickList department. I am simply delighted not to be stuck behind a register. I do not move around much at home so I am happy to have a job that requires movement. I think it will be a good experience for me and I am looking forward to working outside the home again.

My mother was supposed to arrive on Tuesday morning but she put us off until the next day. The kids were disappointed so we just did a couple of subjects, poetry breakfast and watched a documentary. My husband left on a business trip that morning and did not return until late Wednesday night. I know that he was not gone very long but I very pathetically missed him. I stayed up late binge watching Star Trek Next Generation episodes hoping that I would be too exhausted to suffer nightmares. No such luck…

I let the kids sleep in while waiting for mother to arrive on Wednesday. The day was okay but I kept myself busy while she watched movies and played games with the kids. he wanted to take the kids to lunch. Sparkles started getting sick after the meal so we went back home. She felt bad that she ruined the outing but I really just wanted to go home too. My stomach was bothering me too but I knew my pain was from anxiety. Sparkles did ask for a note book so she could start keeping a food journal each day. We figured it was the chocolate milk that hurt her at the restaurant. Later, I spent part of the evening listening to Taj Mahal and writing while my mother played video games with the kids.

My mother was supposed to leave early Thursday morning but she decided to treat the kids to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and stayed until the afternoon. I went to bed after she left and took a nap. Middle Boy hung out with me for a while and worked on his math. Littlest just kept hugging me so I would feel better. My stomach and anxiety did not settle until Saturday morning. My friend Camie texted with me for a bit. We are going to read a book together and…well I am looking forward to reading something she wants to share.

I was hoping to get a full day of school in on Friday but awoke to no power. The electric had been out since the wee early hours. The sun was hiding behind rain clouds so we did not have even enough light for read aloud time. So much for our school day. The plant would not allow anyone inside so my husband brought us some sausage biscuits for breakfast and a much-needed hot cup of coffee for me. He is truly wrapped in gold and covered in awesome-sauce!

I spent about an hour with Littlest working through the reading assessments for his new first grade curriculum. He loves all of the flash cards and the little boxes to check mark his finished pages. Unfortunately, the assessment is on page 300 in an appendix. He just fell apart because 300 does not follow page sixteen. I tried to explain that an appendix is separate from a book but he had several (logical for his age) arguments about work pages needing to be presented in proper order. We ended up skipping most of the assessment because he stared complaining about his chest and neck hurting. He was trying not to cry and at the moment appeared to be the poster child for anxiety. I’m not sure that he inherited any of my good traits. We ended his school time by working in his calendar book and charting the weather. I do not find it terribly exciting but he loves the calendar book. I’ve decided to make tomorrow his first official day of

first grade.

My husband spent the weekend working on a new book shelf for the school room. After some trim work and painting it will be finished. Oldest helped him work on the shelf. I think their next project is to build some special shelves for Oldest’s lego mini-figures and a lego storage shelf for Middle Boy.

I did write a poem this week and post it to Instagram. I plan to get it up on here in a few days.