Elena 
1. We started back to school this week a little bit at a time. Since we didn’t have co-op I was able to start everyone with math and some reading and then ease back into the rest of the curriculum. Noah was probably the hardest hit since his ACT writing course with Bravewriter started on Monday as did his Latin course. By Monday we will be into school work all the way.
Interestingly, my daughter with the reading problem is BLAZING her way through geometry. I was the exact opposite in high school – I was a very good writer and an excellent reader, but only pulled in As in math by doing lots of extra credit! It’s funny how things work out. I wonder if it’s a right brain/left brain thing?
2. Another interesting thing I noticed after the break – Izzy is reading quite a bit better. I wonder if having a break from structured reading time did something to physiologically help synapses connect and learning patterns to form in her brain? I remember that sometimes as a student if I left something I was working on for a while it was easier when I came back.
We did continue reading over the break as in I read to her (from the Witch of Blackbird Pond) while she followed along, and she also listened to The Scarlet Letter (sometimes while reading along and sometimes just listening while she painted).
Whatever it is, it was gratifying to have her reading more fluently this week.
3. Mr. Pete and I have been thinking about tipping our toes in the real estate market to do something with some of the money we have sitting around in the bank earning next to nothing.
It’s kind of a scary thing to do but I’ve been reading a lot about it and I looking at what’s available in our area. Wednesday we are going to our first property auction of an abandoned warehouse that would be big enough for Mr. Pete to move his business into with another room left over to rent out to other small businesses. If nothing else, it will be a great learning experience.
4. Our parish choir is going to sing the Lenten parts of Handel’s Messiah in 10 weeks. The choir directed asked me if I was interested in playing IF they needed a flute. I haven’t heard back yet if they need one, but I went ahead and bought the flute score and thought that would be a good project for me to learn the second and first flute parts – just in case!
5. I did get a very nice comment about my playing in an e-mail this week, from a woman who heard us play on my Youtube channel:
That was nice.
Now, I should balance that with this story. A few years ago I was at a church social function and I sat down next to this lady I didn’t know. We chit chatted for a while and then she said I looked familiar to her. After discussing it a bit, we discovered that she went to the same mass that I play for.
“Well, I play flute with the Praise and Worship Ensemble at 11 o’clock mass,” I said.
“We have a flute?! she exclaimed.
I was chagrined.
6. Rosie loves our new parochial vicar. He’s a young priest and very accessible to the teens and the little kids. He mentioned that he liked Batman so Rosie decided that she would come up with a Christmas Card that would put his two heroes together
And my pastor was kind enough to put that on his blog this week.
7. Long time readers might remember my bloggings about a “Special Loved One” aka SLO. In fact she was the topic of one of my Quick Take points here and here. See also here and also here.
I didn’t go into a lot of detail about SLO and her battle with breast cancer because she wanted to keep it very private and very few people outside of the family were even aware of it. She toughed out chemotherapy and radiation and missed very few days of work or days of riding her bike.
But today, five years after diagnosis and being declared cancer-free by her doctor, SLO announced it to her facebook friends, so I guess it’s okay now to blog about it.
SLO, is my little sister – and I’m so very proud of her! Congratulations Sis!
