Time just seems to fly by sometimes. This week has been so busy, with Brenden’s broken finger and things here and there and everywhere. So much has happened. I’ve gotten things accomplished, if not the same things as last week. I fell down skating on Sunday, and so I’ve been horribly sore all week, every muscle aching. Still, I kept going. I went to Foster on Tuesday. I did shopping on Monday for the Vikings feast even though it ended up getting postponed. I skated on Sunday and Wednesday. I got the girls started on ninth grade math and reading.
I started doing Circle Time again with Jarod and Kender. Kender just loves circle time. I decided to start using my main altar candle for Circle Time, instead of separate candles for them. We bring my candle to the table and light it, sing our songs, and when we close, instead of blowing it out we move it to my altar, and I do my regular devotions at that point. This works well to give them a real flame, to connect them with my altar, and to give me a concrete reminder to spend this time with them. What I would like to do next is find a way to incorporate calendar work into Circle Time in a way that Kender can access. All the Braille calendar systems I’ve found are so expensive, but so far I haven’t found anything better. I’m open to ideas, though.
I’ve also started reading to Kender again, and after a couple of days he has started sitting still for it and even trying a bit to read along, feeling for the Braille again like he used to. I hope that keeping this a daily habit will get him relaxed and happy around books again, and maybe we can move forward on language and reading skills. If not, it’s still cuddly time in my lap, and that works, too.
I did a pretty good job this week of cooking dinners, working with things that were in the cabinets and the freezer, getting creative and keeping the shopping to a minimum. I’d like to keep that energy going and see how far I can stretch it, but hitting payday sure made getting some convenience food awfully hard to resist!
We’ve been working on getting our two remaining cats to stay inside. That way, if we get a new kitten, hopefully we won’t lose it outside the way we did Darwin. It’s hard to do this because the blind folk can’t tell if they’ve let a cat out, but we keep trying. We’ve gotten more catnip toys and spent more time actively playing with the cats, instead of just petting them. We’ve also gotten out more treats, and anytime we can distract them from the door or get them to come right back after dashing outside, we give them treats. The sticking point seems to be the litter boxes. Max and Teddy Bear are convinced they need to go outside, and refuse to use the litterboxes. I can’t decide whether to keep fighting with them over it.
On to the weekend, with a cake to decorate and more planning to do.