Thursday. But a nice one, right? Except the new insect battle of the year. Last year, we warred against ants, claiming big victories by plugging various secret entrances to our house. This year, skirmishes have started with those nefarious carpenter bees. One of the most annoying insects on the planet. Now don't get me wrong: I like bees. Ye-Ye and Nana are actually beekeepers. It's just that when any small creature - I don't care who you are - attempts to drill holes into the side of our house, I am not going to react well to that.
So Madison and Daddy and Mommy went out to the porch, Daddy armed with his little cans of spray that shoot instant bee death twenty seven feet. Our roof is pretty high, and Daddy's initial goal was to avoid fatalities, and simply saturate the existing holes with enough poison to discourage a repeat visit. Apparently this was not enough. These bees are determined, and as this is war, the time for negotiations was at an end.
Despite the bee battle in the back, the house is looking so nice from the front. Our lawn is mowed, a healthy and well-watered green covering. The mulch looks great too, with all the flowers planted by Mommy in different flower beds on the sides of the house, and in front too. We were at Wal-Mart today, and there was a tremendous deal on flowers and plants. Mommy walked away with A LOT. We saved a ton of money, she said. But Daddy is not one to have any clue about the value of a geranium or even a tomato plant. Regardless, we have it all. We have vegetables in the back yard, and we have flowers in the front. In the back, there are peppers and tomatoes and even peas. There are cucumbers too - this gets us excited about the cucumber water we like to drink towards the end of the summer.
The rainstorms have been passing over frequently too, so everything is nice and lush. Mommy and Daddy took time to sit out on the front porch, reading and just relaxing in the shade.
When Madison got home from school, she was still excited about school. We had speech therapy to go to this afternoon, which was actually our second meeting of the day with speech therapists. Earlier, we met with the ones at the school. The ones at school had just found out about our visiting ANOTHER speech therapist outside of school, and there was that hint of "are we not doing enough here?" Mommy and Daddy avoided the obvious answer of NO, opting for the argument that every little bit of help we can provide for our daughter's speech patterns will help out. Still, there was this slight feeling as if we were cheating, and seeing someone else on the side, not staying faithful.
Anyway, we had speech therapy this afternoon, and we've been pretty pleased with the progress since Madison has signed up with this new program. Madison is enjoying it too, actually. We did our traditional stop beforehand at RaceTrack and got ourselves some slushies, and then Madison was off doing 'r blends,' words like 'drain,' or 'bricks' or 'prize.' Another thing she is learning is inflection, when to raise your voice or lower it in a sentence or question. At school, one thing they are proud of is 'stretchy speak,' where everyone talks slower, and as a result, smoother.
Our school is not bad, so don't misinterpret the judgment on the speech therapy there. In fact, the school system of Forsyth County was just this week ranked 19th in the nation. So take that you uppety Northeastern school systems with your looking down on all of us in the South and our means of education. Mommy read that ranking to us earlier today, and of course we're wondering how the ranking is determined. Hopefully based on something to do with actual education, right?
Common Core is still very much a part of it all, although we haven't seen too many more things that leave our jaws dropped on the floor. We just have to remain vigilant there, as I suspect many other suspicious parents are doing. The teachers are hearing from us collectively, and attempting to balance things out, injecting a little much-needed common sense into Common Core. Because there are a lot of flaws with it right now. Seriously, this is coming from someone with an education background: it is far from perfect. Really far.
Speaking of far from perfect, we've got SO MUCH left to do for Summer Xtreme. Daddy has to get back to work for that now, more writing to do. Lots and lots of writing. But that's what we do here, right?
Goodnight!
So Madison and Daddy and Mommy went out to the porch, Daddy armed with his little cans of spray that shoot instant bee death twenty seven feet. Our roof is pretty high, and Daddy's initial goal was to avoid fatalities, and simply saturate the existing holes with enough poison to discourage a repeat visit. Apparently this was not enough. These bees are determined, and as this is war, the time for negotiations was at an end.
Despite the bee battle in the back, the house is looking so nice from the front. Our lawn is mowed, a healthy and well-watered green covering. The mulch looks great too, with all the flowers planted by Mommy in different flower beds on the sides of the house, and in front too. We were at Wal-Mart today, and there was a tremendous deal on flowers and plants. Mommy walked away with A LOT. We saved a ton of money, she said. But Daddy is not one to have any clue about the value of a geranium or even a tomato plant. Regardless, we have it all. We have vegetables in the back yard, and we have flowers in the front. In the back, there are peppers and tomatoes and even peas. There are cucumbers too - this gets us excited about the cucumber water we like to drink towards the end of the summer.
The rainstorms have been passing over frequently too, so everything is nice and lush. Mommy and Daddy took time to sit out on the front porch, reading and just relaxing in the shade.
When Madison got home from school, she was still excited about school. We had speech therapy to go to this afternoon, which was actually our second meeting of the day with speech therapists. Earlier, we met with the ones at the school. The ones at school had just found out about our visiting ANOTHER speech therapist outside of school, and there was that hint of "are we not doing enough here?" Mommy and Daddy avoided the obvious answer of NO, opting for the argument that every little bit of help we can provide for our daughter's speech patterns will help out. Still, there was this slight feeling as if we were cheating, and seeing someone else on the side, not staying faithful.
Anyway, we had speech therapy this afternoon, and we've been pretty pleased with the progress since Madison has signed up with this new program. Madison is enjoying it too, actually. We did our traditional stop beforehand at RaceTrack and got ourselves some slushies, and then Madison was off doing 'r blends,' words like 'drain,' or 'bricks' or 'prize.' Another thing she is learning is inflection, when to raise your voice or lower it in a sentence or question. At school, one thing they are proud of is 'stretchy speak,' where everyone talks slower, and as a result, smoother.
Our school is not bad, so don't misinterpret the judgment on the speech therapy there. In fact, the school system of Forsyth County was just this week ranked 19th in the nation. So take that you uppety Northeastern school systems with your looking down on all of us in the South and our means of education. Mommy read that ranking to us earlier today, and of course we're wondering how the ranking is determined. Hopefully based on something to do with actual education, right?
Common Core is still very much a part of it all, although we haven't seen too many more things that leave our jaws dropped on the floor. We just have to remain vigilant there, as I suspect many other suspicious parents are doing. The teachers are hearing from us collectively, and attempting to balance things out, injecting a little much-needed common sense into Common Core. Because there are a lot of flaws with it right now. Seriously, this is coming from someone with an education background: it is far from perfect. Really far.
Speaking of far from perfect, we've got SO MUCH left to do for Summer Xtreme. Daddy has to get back to work for that now, more writing to do. Lots and lots of writing. But that's what we do here, right?
Goodnight!
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