an update

Rebecca and I finally went back to school.  All is fine there.  This weekend I went to a preschool teacher's conference with some of my fellow teachers (the last of my trainings this year!  Hooray!) and learned a little bit about how to teach preschoolers about science.  The girls were jealous because it was at our local science museum, which they love (and where we haven't visited in at least a year because we are no longer members).  Rachel and I will actually be there Ina little over a month for a Girl Scout sleepover.  Rachel's first sleepover.  At a big, huge museum.  I'm not really looking forward to sleeping on the floor in a big giant room of girls, but the girls are looking forward to it.  I AM looking forward to visiting the new planetarium, though, which has just reopened.  I went there years ago when it first opened, but it closed soon after, due to lack of funding.  Now it's open again and we get to go.

We've had our first sickness sweep its way through the family.  First it was Rebecca, who had a horrible sore throat and fever, and I thought we were heading toward the flu, but it turned out to just be a cold, and she's almost over it.  Next came my husband, and he is still fighting his off.  Then came Rachel, though hers has been pretty mild, and just a little stuffiness.  And today I woke up with a sore throat, and all day I've been feeling it coming on.  While I still felt okay this morning I made some chicken broth and chopped vegetables while the girls played outside in the snow (today was another snow day).  I'm glad I did it this morning, because this afternoon when it was time to put the soup together, I felt considerably worse.  All I had to do was put it all together, which was much less work.  So now I have chicken noodle soup to nurse me through this cold.

I also upped my daily intake of elderberry, which I've been taking since the fall (it's supposed to boost your immune system) and started using the essential oils I got for Christmas, in hopes to shorten the life of this virus.  We'll see how it goes!  I figured it can't hurt me, and it might possibly help.

The girls have spent their snow day playing nicely together (unlike a couple of weeks ago when they spent it fighting!).  They played with their American Girl dolls, played in the snow, played school, and now they're playing Legos, which they've been doing a lot of since Christmas.  It's nice to have entertainment for Rebecca, who usually begs me all day to play with her while her sister is at school.  

We also had to make an emergency trip to the dentist for Rachel.  She had this really weird thing going on with one of her teeth that we needed to have looked at, and we didn't notice it until last night.  Turns out it was a baby tooth that needed to come out, but she hadn't wiggled it, and the tissue behind it started pushing down through it.  So strange, but the dentist said it's actually really common in kids who don't like to wiggle their teeth (which Rachel doesn't.)    Rachel was terrified, so it required laughing gas, which calmed her down really well, then a shot, which she handled well (because of the laughing gas) and then pulling the tooth out, which was quick.  She did great, after the initial tears and panic.  I'm happy to have it over with.

a new year

There's not a lot to report on in our little world right now, but since I haven't posted anything in awhile, I thought I'd write something.  School started back up last week, only it didn't....at least not for Rebecca and me!  We only go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and both of those days were snow days!  So I have yet to go back to work after the holidays.  Tomorrow is my first day back, and I know I'll be up late tonight watching the big game (Go Bucks!) so it's bound to be a long day....but I'm also anxious to get back into the swing of things.  And Rebecca is looking forward to seeing her friends at school.  She cried last week when she found out she couldn't go to school.  

Rachel did have school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of last week.  She's happy to be back and is enjoying herself.  The days she was home for snow days were just one long argument between her and her sister.  Ugh.....I couldn't decide which I would rather be doing--teaching three year olds or dealing with their squabbles.  

Rebecca and I have been working on her writing her name.  She's never shown an interest in drawing, coloring, writing, or any pencil and paper activity, like Rachel always did, so she's not as far along as I would like for her to be before kindergarten next year.  But yesterday at Sunday School she did this paper and wrote her name by herself.  It shows progress, so I was happy to see it.  We keep working on writing her name with lower case instead of all capital letters, but if I'm not there to remind her, then this is how she writes it.

She'll get there.....