Mirthful

mirth·ful (mûrth f l). adj.  Full of gladness and gaiety

This weeks Inchie challenge was the word "mirthful" there are so many directions you can go with this fun word. But being my mother's daughter, food came to my mind. After celebrating Grace's 16th birthday this week, I am probably just praying this inchie is true, they do say birthday cake is calorie free! Just not sure who 'they' are. Be sure to check out the Inchie link and some beautiful inchies. Happy Inchie Monday!!!!!!!!!!!! 

16!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE!!!!!!!!!
I think Grace had a great birthday, started with roses and confetti before she even got out of bed. Got surprised at school  with balloons, cake, cupcakes, and gifts that included some oddities such as ketchup and goldfish ( not the crackers ). Ended with pizza with great friends and family.

almost 16

I can hardly believe my girl is going to be 16 tomorrow. I honestly forget I'm not still 16 some days.
Grace has a research paper to work on in English, although it'll be a ton of work her teacher had a great variety of topics to choose from. They were actually topics the kids were interested, not your average " uniforms in school" type of topic.... Grace chose the Zodiac Killer.she's all into the dark side of things lately so this will be a good topic for her, i remember when he was around it was a scary time around here, as we're not far from the area he was.
Homework was light today, Grace had 3 tests today. Have a great evening bday pics tomorrow!!!!!!!!

Maudlin Inchie

Here's my Inchie for this week #4   the subject was Maudlin......I had to look up the definition for this one as I wasn't sure I had a grasp on it. It means  tearfully or weakly emotional; foolishly sentimental. I'm not sure my interpretation actually fits the definition. I hate  the fog, in fact we're home this morning because it was so foggy when we woke up that we couldn't see past our front yard. Not only is it a pain to drive in, I just hate the winter days that we get without sun at all. The high foggy, white skies are depressing after a time. I'm far from a sun worshiper, but a little ray here and there is so nice after days of fog.

Poem by Grace

Stayed home today, Grace was experiencing some back pain. Pain & sitting in her chair all day just don't mix.
But since we were home Grace finished writing all her poems to turn in tomorrow. She graciously said I could share one with you.  Happy Thursday...........the weekends almost here  :0)

In those last seconds, he didn’t see it coming

The rushing steel charging at him.

In those last seconds, he didn’t hear it coming

The tires screeching, the glass shattering.

In those last seconds, he didn’t feel it coming

The pain of the impact, the jolt of the sudden stop!

In his last seconds, he was texting.

Poem Project update

I decided that I needed to speak to Grace's teacher today. She was very understanding ( makes me wonder why she wasn't as understanding with Grace) and said she didn't want Grace to stress out over the project. I told her that it was evident that the entire class was stressed over the project, but it was exhausting Grace and no school project was worth risking her health.
We agreed to have Grace turn in all the poems Friday and work on the remainder of the project over the weekend to turn in Monday. Grace has most of the poems written, I think she just has one more to do.
I'm thankful that things worked out smoothly. Thanks for the thoughts & suggestions on my Fb page. My feathers are all back in order again. :)

To Speak or Not To Speak

There are days I don't appreciate being at school, I try to stay in the background and let Grace tackle school problems on her own. But some days it's difficult to judge when to pipe up and when to wait. Today was one of those days.
Grace has a poetry project due tomorrow, she was absent when it was assigned therefor didn't have the first week to work on it that the other students did. She also wasn't assigned her poet to write a biography of and analyse a poem of until last Thursday. Today she asked her teacher for some more time, explaining that she's having some trouble keeping up because she was absent. The teacher's response was to let her think about it. OH MY!! I felt my pin feathers start to ruffle, at the end of  the class the teacher asked Grace how much she had finished and asked her to try to turn it in Friday so she could grade it over the weekend.
I understand it's not the teacher's fault Grace was absent, but on the other hand Grace didn't ask to be sick all week either. She also didn't ask to have a medical condition that tires her out and makes bouncing back from a cold take longer than the average bear.I believe the school district policy is to give students two days to make up missed work. Not sure if that is two days per day absent or just two days period. But I don't really care what the policy says.
Grace has an IEP that states she can have extra time to complete work, and that she has never abused this privilege. That is just for a regular day, not a day she's missed. Grace is convinced this woman hates her, and doesn't want to see her succeed. I'm sure that isn't true, but my dilemma was weather or not to show the teacher a copy of Grace's IEP and explain it is a legal agreement between the school and the family.
 For now I will leave it alone. Grace will probably be finished with the work, she worked for two hours tonight. Either way she shouldn't be marked down for turning it in Friday or Monday.I know Grace isn't afraid to speak for herself and I have to weigh what I would do if I weren't at school with her every day.
 I also think I need to speak to someone concerning what teachers do and don't know about Grace's situation. She's going to have a life time of explaining and standing up for herself ahead of her. I guess this is as good a time as any to see how she handles things. Guess I just need to let her know that I'm available to do my part, of course after I've counted to ten,  taken a deep breath, and smoothed my feathers.  Cluck!

Caring Inchie

It's Inchie Monday
Today's topic is "caring", it's surprising how hard a single word can be. I come up with several ideas, but I am not talented in the areas i want to be. i never learned how to draw, and i honestly think there's a gene that was skipped in my generation. So I scrapped all my ideas, I spilled some food coloring a while ago and decided not to waste the chance to make some unique paper out of it. Some little pieces are in this inchie.

The Ticket to Caring is Love

Today is also a MLK birthday holiday. Miss Grace has a ton of work to do today. She's trying to catch up in English, she has a poetry unit to complete, which includes writing poems, analyzing poems, a biography on Oscar Wilde, an autobiography. I know she has some photography, math and history to catch up on too. We're going to be tired after all this school work on a day off...

Long Weekend

Glad that week is over, Grace has missed so much school already this semester that she'll be playing catch up on work for a while. This is a 3 day weekend. Which will be nice, except for the homework and studying. She had 2 tests yesterday on topics she missed most of the teaching on. Thankfully her history teacher is excellent at making sure the kids have all the info they need, so a little review is all they need, and her math teacher is generous with her after-school time. Grace finds herself in her room asking for mini lessons when she's missed class time.
For some reason all Grace's teachers had subs yesterday, i think they were rotating in and out something to do with training at the district offices. was interesting to have a day of substitutes. One in particular keeps showing up in pictures in facebook, interestingly only on boy's posts. You guessed it she was young and beautiful. Probably the only time those boys ever paid so much attention to a sub.
Well, it's time to get cracking. Have a great weekend.    I think I'll work on  my inchie art,,,, beats homework hands down!!

feeling Mean

Dear School
Most days I don't mind you at all, but today you sucked. I'm just not that into poems, reports, analysis, right angles,  natural selection, Willie Wonka, Stalin ,photographers, yearbooks or much else you had to offer . Too much homework makes a fat old woman feel mean. Now stay outta my way  'cause I'll be back tomorrow to kick your butt. Oh Yes school watch it!
 Now I  feel better. Good Night All.

Wednesday

Good Morning, Wednesday morning and I'm waiting for Grace to feel like she can handle getting out of bed. Some days are harder than others. We managed to return yesterday after a week home. We both came home exhausted. poor Grace has tons of work to catch up on. Missed two tests, has 3 others to prepare for this week. Also, has a huge poetry unit to work on that is due  on the 19th. Feels a bit overwhelming. I was sick last night, & not wanting to pass anything on to Grace didn't get too close after my husband got home. So we didn't get much homework done. Teachers will just have to be understanding, they usually are.
We have a meeting today with the county inclusion specialist. She is Grace's voice on many issues. Since Grace will be 16 later this month, we need to have a special IEP ( individual education plan) set up to plan for Grace's transition after high school. So I guess today is when she'll get to decide what her plans are. She has just recently changed career plans, so it will be interesting to see which field she actually decides to go into.
Am curious about the Amazon Kindle, Grace has trouble holding a book close enough to see small print well, books  can also be too heavy for her to hold. I'm thinking a Kindle would be a good solution for this. She enjoys a good book, but I am curious about putting textbooks on one also. Seems like this may be the future for reading. Someone needs to create a Kindle with an "old book smell" opp. There's something about flipping through the pages of an old book that Grace likes. The thought of not having a book smell like a book makes her a little sad. So, anyone have experience with the Kindle???

Pain & Love

Looks like we'll be home again today. It's partly due to Grace's still stuffy head and partly her hip. She spends a few months in the winter with hip pain. Today it's pretty frosty out. Nothing like most of the country endures through, but for us it's cold, I think the weather contributes to her hip problem. She has screws in her pelvis/hips from a rod that is in her back. When you look at the x-rays, it's amazing how long they are. Please keep Grace in your prayers. So hard as a mom to see your kids in pain, doesn't matter what type of pain or how old your baby is.

Today is Inchie Monday week #2. The prompt was "powerful". Was a hard one for me to narrow an idea down to just an inch. I finally settled on the Power of Love, as it encompasses so much power and covers just about everything.
My sister said she doesn't understand the Inchie thing, I figure she's not the only person that wonders what the heck is going on and why I include it on my blog about school. It's a hobby for me, the Inchie Mondays sounded like something fun to participate in. Since this is my only blog, and I needed a place to post my Inchie Art , this is where it gets put. There are some wonderfully creative artists involved, if you check out the link, it might make more sense than I'm making. Happy Monday!!

Isn't she cute

So, we stayed home again today. I think Grace is feeling better, she slept until almost noon thanks to the advice of many of my facebook friends, I gave her honey/lemon to help with her cough. It wasn't easy as she accused me of trying to poison her. My husband said she was probably afraid to cough for fear I'd give her another dose.
Anyway, I emailed her teachers to get some work she could work on while at home. Her history and English teachers both responded with sections from their text books that she could read. not hard at all. Her geometry teacher apologized that Grace was missing work pages that weren't in the text, but suggested Grace read in the text book and try to do Friday's work. Oh, isn't she the cute one! You have to understand Grace a bit. School usually comes easily to her, with the exception of math. She needs step by step instruction and examples to begin  grasp the concepts at all. Most subjects she can read and understand but math has to be shown to her. Another problem with math is the fact that I do the writing for her, so she doesn't have that second "act" of actually performing the physical part of math, her poor brain must be so annoyed at this. Math is the only subject she has actually prayed for a "D" in. (Having a type A personality, that was a tough prayer for her) Now being a math impotent parent she passed my math expertise many many years ago. We looked at the book, shrugged, laughed and will try to get some extra help tomorrow.

Integrity

This probably isn't the way to start the new semester, Grace is sick. She has had a cough/cold for a few days but woke this morning saying her chest hurt and she couldn't breathe well. Always a scary comment from someone with her pneumonia history. Thankfully she wasn't in distress, I checked her oxygen saturation level and it was good. I checked her lungs and didn't notice any raspyness ( I know this probably isnt a word). Took her to the doctor and he agreed her lungs were OK, probably sore ribs from all the coughing. He gave her an antibiotic because he felt she was trying to catch more than the virus that she has. Will play it by ear for school the rest of the week.
Now I must be a "mom" & brag a bit. Even with feeling badly and being exhausted, when we came home from the doctor Grace asked if I'd help her try to figure out the math that she missed today. We did a little before getting stuck and then  worked on some biology. I'm proud that she keeps at it, feeling sick or not, she stays on  her work. I would probably be too lazy or feel sorry for myself if I were in her place. I think she can teach us all something about integrity.

Ready!

I'm up early and ready to tackle Teenville. I shall conquer the raging hormones, the after Christmas gossip, and yes, even the new semester homework!!!
I'm actually just experiencing a little insomnia, have been awake for a few hours and would love to return to bed, but alas, it's just too late.
 I'll be doing good if I can pry a protesting 75 pound sophomore out of her nice warm bed and convince her that YES!! It's actually morning. Wish me well.

Last day of Freedom/ First Day of Inchie

Back to school after the winter break tomorrow. I think Grace is looking foreword to seeing her friends on a regular basis again. I would rather sleep in, but there is something reassuring about being back on a regular schedule regardless of how exhausting it seems at first. We didn't do much on our time off. Grace's wheelchair ( I'm thinking of naming it the Antichrist like the car in The God's Must be Crazy), is once again having trouble. It needs a new joystick, which seems to be a chronic problem, we are supposed to be having one rebuilt, have been waiting since before Thanksgiving. Last year Grace was out of school about 2 1/2 months waiting for a repair. Hope it doesnt die before it gets fixed. At this point she's barely rolling or rolling full speed for about 6 feet intervals. Guess if there's an emergency at school I can kick it into manual and push her to a safe spot. Not an easy job for long periods as it weighs around 500 pounds.

Today was also the first Monday of 2011, which was the first day for the Inchie Monday group I'm involved with..... had to make an inch of art. I took a stab at it several times without much success, just couldn't come up with an idea until I started taking down Christmas cards. I decided to cut face parts out of a few of the photocards we received and make my inchie a person. She's not too pretty and probably would be hard to figure out who's parts I used, although Grace knew the smile had to belong to a certain family she loves. It's surprisingly difficult to create something in the confines of an inch..... but it was fun. Check iout the link on my page to see some beautiful inchies.