I keep leaving things half-written and unposted...

[altarflame]

The Good:
-I have a big old pot of italian soup and a whole hot pineapple upside down cake ready for tomorrow, with my kitchen still semi-clean even
-we found our first lychees of the season today and ate them together on the deck, followed by watermelon
-Ananda and I took a nice long solo walk and talked a lot, and it was good.
-she burned through two different Kumon math assignments like they were nothing
-I got Isaac to "get" counting by fives and thus, he can count his nickels AND pennies in a quick and effective way now
-lots of time digging up potential leads for NYC accomadations
-lots of time with Aaron looking at wasp pupas he extracted from a dead hive; researching double yolk eggs as a phenomenon on the internet; cooking and talking together in the kitchen
-found out the local roadside farmer's stand sells gorgeous local tomatoes for FIFTY CENTS A POUND

The Bad:
-it was (is) almost unbearably hot outside
-nobody I call is home, nobody I email replies, and most of the NYC leads are dead ends for one reason or another
-getting Aaron to do schoolwork was seriously worse than pulling teeth this evening. It involved things like him crying because he just can't focus and me trying to teach him breathing techniques, and giving him shoulder rubs while he works, and sitting right by him as I chop and grate to try to urge him on, and _)#($)(#*$_!@#(+_!)!!!!1!
-it's another night when Grant doesn't get home before 3:30 am, thus ruining our chances completely of getting up even somewhat "for us" early tomorrow as well as leaving me feeling lonely and dissapointed, and our arguments about whether or not he really needs to wrap EVERYTHING up before he goes (he's on salary, and nobody else there does) have no resolution in sight
-possibly related, there is no possible way to get these kids to go to sleep at night. Like I put them to bed at 11, they are up til 2:30 in their beds, screaming, fighting, playing, making messes, getting hurt (this is the three younger ones; Ananda and Aaron just read and talk). I got pissed enough to go in there like a serious Mean Mommy and now I feel guilty but also bitter like, well, maybe now you'll take me THE SLIGHTEST LITTLE TINY BIT SERIOUSLY when I say "stay in your beds!"

*pulls hair out*

*rubs face frantically*

*digs into soup and cake*




I asked permission!

From JUMP Orlando:

Aaron and Timmy with (Dance Empire alumni, last season's second place on So You Think You Can Dance, and as seen several times recently on Glee) Brandon Bryant...they all see Brandon as a superstar.



"Bring Em Out", high gold winners and on their way to NYC :D




From stage rehearsals and backstage at the (sold out) company show at the Colony Theater on Lincoln Rd:







From stage rehearsals and backstage at the Dance Empire recital last Sunday:







Top center - she was IN LOVE with this costume.
















She's third from the left :)


Also, and still taken by others and tagged on facebook, these are from the company party I wrote about us going to awhile back...


This is my new favorite picture of Aaron. I can totally see him at 18 months and 18 years here.


I REALLY hope Ananda makes it into company later this summer when auditions go down...I really think she is ready for it now, she has come so so far this past year and is stretching every day so she doesn't "lose her splits" over the summer.


Typed Last Night:
We tend to do more intense amounts of daily sit down schoolwork during the summers because, A. IT'S TOO DAMN HOT TO GO OUTSIDE, B. we don't have nearly so many activities competing for our time, and C. I realize I have to get through the most recent grades' curricula in time for Fall when we start another relatively laid back year :p This works out pretty well for us. We are not unschoolers, but I really love the idea of unschooling and think they use their unstructured time very well. It definitely pays to let them have it as much as I can, and year-round school helps with that a lot... Today it's been a lot of synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, addition with carrying, counting by fives, words with strange rules for pluralizing (knife to knives), 3 digit subtraction with borrowing...Isaac is in the transition between "doing some paper style schoolwork sometimes" to "doing a couple of paper type things everyday". All of my (and their, really) favorite kinds of learning happens outside, around the computer, in our or the public library, on field trips, and in bedrooms late at night (where we have major discussions). I am really impressed with Isaac's speed and enthusiasm for sit down work, though - and really LOSING. MY DAMNED. MIND. about motivating Aaron to do things like math problems.
/old crap.

I have to go cook a big lunch in time for it to be ready before Grant leaves so I can go take the kids and get a flat repaired in time to hopefully still make it to the bee farm before Aaron's hip hop class at 3, as they know we're coming and ordered the tire...then we'll take Ananda to Borders to use her birthday giftcard since we're already up the road. SO MAYBE tonight I can write about all kinds of crap I've been thinking, after I do more Usborne sales stuff (I have a table at a book fair reserved and some home shows in the works) and NYC cooresponding for accomadations stuff (got it almost narrowed down to a Craistlist thing or a genuinely nice looking hostel) and send something out to a different agent (probably the childrens' story), and get them all working on school O_O These days, Grant is ALWAYS at work and we are still sitting up late into the night working on budgets...well, and watching Weeds.