Broke out in a rash all over yesterday morning. Stupid antibiotic. Kept me up all night, scratching the itchy. I didn't take last night's antibiotic dose or this morning's and the itching just now relented (about an hour ago). Even when I was taking antihistamines. Large doses. I bought even more seeds a little bit ago. You should see my winter sowing containers all lined up. I figure what's six or eight more containers since I won't have to tend to them anyhow. If they all germinate, the entire neighborhood can have plants. Son is finishing up his common application and FAFSA for universities online today/tonight. University is getting closer. I mailed off his letter and chevrons for his letterman jacket, and ordered his high school senior annual. I can't believe he's so close to done. Oh, I found out my sinus condition will keep recurring if I don't stop gardening and working on my old house. Guess what my hobbies are? You got it, gardening and remodeling. Sigh. Better find a new hobby or two!

Kath...sleep deprivation + work, tell me about it!

MS.....your a good sport to just hang out.

rob....hope you sleep well 2-nite!

I have these renters that are moving out tomorrow. I drove by and sure enough, there's a rented moving truck backed up in the driveway. When they moved in they backed up to the front door, parked on the lawn missed running over the sprinkler system & sewer clean outs. :0) So I thought I'd better check up on them. We should be able to start repairs tomorrow as planned.

I had big plans for today. For one thing, I always wish I could stay home all day and get some work done. So, since Jody's truck is in the shop, he took mine....so I had to stay home, and I did basically nothing, except feed the animals. I did go for a walk back in the woods to Mrs. Swenson's place. I haven't been back there in at least a year. Mrs. Swenson had a home site on our property and lived there in 1900. There is nothing left of her house. There are giant oaks but all kinds of trees have grown up around them, so it is very heavily wooded. I had a bad stomach ache and was glad to get back to my house. Jody came home and helped feed the horses. Now he has gone to take Jodi to feed her horses....which he does every night. I am getting ready to go to bed early....like I did last night.

Rob333, hope the itching has gone away completely. Marilyn, sorry you were feeling bad today. After eating Lauren's omelet we played Monopoly Deal for the next 3 1/2 hours! We just finished. Getting ready to go to bed soon, hope I can sleep tonight. Working dayshift the next 3 days.

Today one of the clubs I belong to got together for their monthly meeting. We went to the next town over, and ate at the senior center. We lucked out as it was their Thanksgiving meal today. Then we went to the mini mall. After that we went to the nursing home where on of our members is now. We had a real nice visit. Then I came home and made supper. I am going to bed soon too since I didn't sleep much last night.

I didn't do much today....had to get a chest X-ray after which I ran a few errands. I stopped at Home Goods and was thrilled to find two bowls that match six others I bought over 5 years ago. They're red ceramic that I bought for onion soup or chicken pot pie. I have 8 coming for lunch in December and thought I would make chicken pot pie with a side salad. I couldn't believe my good fortune!

Rob you should call your doctor who can change your antibotic. Your describing an allergic reaction that could cause a worse reaction and affect your breathing. Besides you obviously need an antibotic or one wouldn't have been prescribed. Ok I'm done playing mother hubbord Lol.

Oh I forgot to brag while I was here. I had my parent teacher conference for both boys today. They both have all A's so they are doing very well. Tim had a notation on his report card next to the A in math... O for outstanding. I'm very proud of the boys and their hard work.

I'm thinking of a way to reward them. I just think something even small as incentive.

I was not feeling well for most of last week- a virus that turned into bronchitis which is very hard on me because I have asthma. All is well enough now, so I am back to gabbing away at the KT. I missed everyone :-)

Rob, I had a terrible itching reaction to a sulfa drug many moons ago- it's awful. I hope you feel better soon.

Kath, Four hours at the dentist?? My mouth aches for you. Yuk.

Mama pinky, Aren't great parent teacher conferences the best things ever? There is nothing better than seeing your child meet his potential.

I am going to offer a bit of unsolicited advice, because I learned this lesson a bit late in my parenting journey- I hope you don't mind.

Carol Dweck from Stanford suggests we only reward effort and perseverance- never outcomes. A lot of bright children hardly need to study to do well in the young grades and are used to being praised for their results. Once they reach a stage where they need to study, they have not developed very good study skills and their self image is tied up in being a good student, so they are a bit stuck and often give up.

Dweck popularized this theory when it was too late for me to learn from it. You should have seen the auditorium full of parents of late elementary/ middle schoolers when she spoke about this. We were all devastated at not having done a very good job.

If I were you I might consider a special dinner or dessert with a "toast" to how well the boys stayed on top of their work and turned in their assignments and add anything meaningful you know about- like when Chip or Tim helped some one else learn, or struggled and learned something, etc. Motivation is a tricky thing.

Here is a talk Dweck gave at Google about promoting a growth mindset for anyone who is not tired of hearing me go on about it:

Rita, Thank You for posting this video. I am watching it a bit at a time which reminds me of last year when Tims school was getting ready to start the PSSA testing. The teacher started telling the kids about it months in advance and continued mentioning the importance of this test. About two weeks prior to testing the kids were advised to go to bed earlier, and to eat a healthy breakfast...they were told this test would not determine if they would advance onto the next grade level but it will show the school, the government and the parents who is really smart and who needs help. Tim was a nervous wreck over this. Parents recieve test scores over the summer and while I imagine many kids take the test and forget about it Tim questioned me every da y over summer vacation if I received the test results yet. No third grader should be so focused on this. I'm still irritated about how this teacher handled this. I intend to make sure it doesnt happen this year.

Thoughts??

First thought, don't bother trying to get the teacher to be more constructive. While those scores don't matter to the children's future, they do matter for a lot of teachers and schools.

Maybe it would be helpful to discuss why the tests are administered- how they help the government identify schools that are teaching particularly well, so that they can be recognized and emulated, and schools that are struggling so they can receive additional support.

It would probably be good to remind Tim of what it was like the first year he took those standardized tests- the worry he felt about the score- and how everything turned out just fine. How the tests are something we prepare for all throughout the year- that every time we take a test, we build that test taking muscle.

I might even ask Tim about how he thinks the tests affect the other children in the class (Tim surely knows that there are children who struggle in his class and nothing comes of a poor test score.)

I am not sure these are good answers. I will start Googling around and noodling around and see if I can do better.

Rita no you said it well and I understand I Thank You.