Not much going on here

Welcome to Rachael and Lindsay from Australia. You may have gathered from the comments that Lindsay is Rachael's dad. She writes lovely poetry, plays guitar, and sings professionally. The only word that comes to mind about Lindsay's blog is "eclectic" and he's probably tell me that isn't it at all. I never know what I'm going to find there.

We have an extra child again tonight. Nothing unusual for this house.

My kitchen sink is finally fixed. Turned out to be a pipe on the roof which was clogged. I'm terrible at physics but evidently it's the same principle as having to poke two holes in an evaporated milk can. Probably falling leaves in the pipe.

Can you let me know who can and can't see the blog roll and other sidebar info? To me, it's way down at the bottom (by the earliest post), some can see it just fine and possibly others can't see it at all. Very strange and I don't know if anything can be done. It seems to have slid downhill on its own.

I made it to the vigil tonight with Rochelle. Not for quite the entire hour but almost. Rochelle and I walked home (five short blocks) looking at the Christmas (Holiday?) lights and counting squares of sidewalk (stepping over the cracks of course). We should do it more often. She wants to learn a peace song to sing at the vigil so maybe next week we'll work on that. I have quite a collection from the olden days.

Our attendance is holding up even with the colder weather and we seem to be getting support from passersby.

I came in around 5:30 and threw together tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Tomorrow, I'll cook but this is one of the girls' favorites and I'm fond of it myself. No fuss, relatively nutritious, and tastes good on a chilly night.

I think we'll get the tree up this weekend while the girls are home. We put the lights on and then just stand back and let them have at it. They've outgrown flinging clumps of "icicles" (you may call them tinsel - seems to vary state to state and certainly country to country). at the tree, possibly because I stopped purchasing them. They're worse than Easter basket "grass" which I'm still finding in December. I stopped purchasing that as well.

Icicles (at least in central NY where I grew up) are the long, crinkly, shiny foil things that come strung over a piece of cardboard (about 500 or so to a package).

Ray's asleep, Rochelle and Elcie are asleep, Rebecca and friend are quiet. I'll check on them in a minute. Our "boarder" cat is asleep on top of the refrigerator. Not sure where Spunky is but I'm sure by the time I'm ready to retire, she'll be on my pillow.

I forgot to mention that Elcie's class went shopping yesterday for Toys for Tots. She said they bought a lot. I asked if she needed cash and she said no. I'm not sure where the money came from; maybe they gave up a field trip or it may just be something their Parent Teacher Assn. does. She had a wonderful time and has fallen in love with Target.

She said it was just for the orthopedically handicapped kids. There is another class at the school for kids that can't be "mainstreamed". Elcie goes over daily to read to them and otherwise help out. Physically, Elcie can mainstream; she's in special day classes to help her with her reading and math difficulties. It's hard because she's right on the edge. She was mainstreamed for years; sinking further each year. Maybe one more year of special day and she'll be able to transition with just some resource help. We'll see. (I know many of you have heard this but some are new here.)

It has been a quiet day. No homework on Fridays. Rochelle and Rebecca have their "winter" program next week and are practicing. This is a year of "lasts" for me. Last winter program, last flag pole assemblies, last visits to John Muir, at least to see my gals. Next year, middle school for all.

I'll miss John Muir. We've had a few issues but overall they've worked hard and the school has been good for the girls.

It's almost 11:00 p.m. and I think I'll be sensible about bedtime.

Good night all.