Making a Cave

Today was an interesting one!  It started, well, poorly is am understatement.  Pretty much, my back decided that I wasn't looking after it and decided to spasm right up, starting at about 4am.  So the first night in forever that Levi slept in and I was up at 4am.  One of these days the sleeping patterns in this house will sync and that will be a miracle!  I know that pretty much, the best option for back pain like mine today is just to take pain relievers and try to do normal things. I had so much planned for the day there wasn't a big chance to sit around and sitting was pretty painful anyway! By tonight I am feeling much better and am not counting the minutes to the next pain reliever! I think that I will be much better tomorrow and maybe fixed entirely.  I figure that if I believe it strongly (?blindly) enough, it will come true! 

So after the standard Sunday morning homework session, we made crystals.  There were a bunch of experiments that came in an over sized test tube from Scholastic at school.  One of them involved making up a paper Christmas tree and putting it in water with dissolved crystals in it.  The water is pulled up and then the crystals form on the branches.  It starts off as white paper but Levi decided to put food coloring into the water, which is an even better effect because the tree goes blue but the crystals stay white over the top!

Then Levi went to Ty's and I worked on his party again.  This time I worked on the cave.  We are doing cave paintings.  So I put up newspaper in the crawl space wall and then spray painted it brown and red brown.  On the day of the party I will hang something on the air conditioner to hide it and then it will completely be a 'cave'.  I have painted three canvas' and will put them over the spray painted wall for the kids to do their paintings!

Levi is having fun with writing now, after all that time of me worrying about if it would ever happen!  He wrote this sign for the outside of our door.  I am loving that he is getting better at spelling faster than even I could have hoped for.  I am loving that but at the same time I am going to be a little sad when he starts to give me notes that are correct in every way.  I am going to miss 'parswerd' instead of 'password'.  True to form the password was 'explode'.  It really makes you think about how exactly that you say things, because the spelling of everything around here is very phonetic and very sound based.  I better be careful!

Home Alone

I am starting to realise why I have been dragging the last few days. I am sick now, coughing and my body I think, has been fighting it for the last few days. I went to work this morning, not to see any kids (who don't have the immune system to cope) but to work on the computer and get some stuff done that way. When I got there the computer also failed. I think someone was trying to tell me something! Anyway I came home again, but at least Levi had gone to school already. Levi has this thought that is impossible to shift; he believes that if I am home, he should be allowed to be as well! Think I'd get a rest then? No, I didn't think so either!

The causeway is still flowing over. It isn't dangerous by any stretches of the imagination now and depending on how well I am feeling, I might take Levi down to play in it tomorrow. 

Yesterday I got my painting.  I chose this picture:

So this is the painting:

I really like the painting.  Ross is slightly off and I can't quite put my finger on it.  Other than that though, I really love it!  Actually the one they really caught was Evan I think!

Junior Picasso

Today was a cleaning day for me.  I am trying to get this house looking good again, but more than just looking good.  I am tired of not being able to find anything!  So this afternoon, Levi went to Ty's house and I cleaned.  I cleaned through the toys and culled out the too young ones and took them to the recycle house at the dump.  We have a shed at the dump that you can leave stuff that other people can use.  Levi has a bike that is the next size up waiting for him that we got from there!  Anyway I cleaned and cleaned and I'm still not done!

This morning I read a story to Levi about Picasso.  By 10am, Levi wanted to paint plates the way Picasso did like this.  He wanted to paint plates but settled for paper plates.  Then he wrote on the plate where they were to go.  One for home for me, one for work for me and one for Jo. 

Weekend Painting and Parties

This weekend was an exercise in extremes for me. Levi had a quiet one and went painting one afternoon with Jane and Sally. We went to dinner with a family on Saturday as well,and the kids there got along so well, I didn't leave until 9. Consequently Levi missed swimming again, This time because he was so sound asleep that he didn't wake after I put on the lights and shook him. Then I decided if he was really that tired, I probably should let him sleep. At least he woke up for soccer and had a great practice, right up until he was found lying on the ground behind the goal by the coach. The coach asked if he was OK and he said that he was just really tired. It was a great weekend!

However in the background of all of that, I knew that one little girl that I look after at work was really sick in the Children's ICU. I would love to be able to fully support parents in this situation, but I also don't want to intrude. Of course, it breaks up my sleep with thoughts and memories of when I too stood over my child in multiple ICUs over that year. It is hard to not think about her and worry about the next night for her and the one after and the ones after that. I am sending you healing thoughts and prayers little one. Lots of people love you!