School

This is Alina celebrating the end of her first hundred days of kindergarten. There are only around 40 days left now, for which I am happy and sad. I hate getting up in the dark and waking up sleeping children. Waking children up just doesn't seem logical when it is so hard to get them to sleep in the first place. Alina likes school and so does Alyona and it keeps them both busy and out of trouble. Alina has learned to read and Alyona can finally read and actually made honor roll. I would never have believed it a year or so ago. Alina doesn't eat much at school because her brain can't take in all the lunchroom chaos and eat. She forgets to drink, also, so comes home dehydrated and "crazy". She runs around like a crazed monkey then collapses and cries and then does it all over again. It is not a fun way to spend the afternoon on a rainy day like today. Alyona tries so hard to be good at school that she uses all the good up, comes home with a headache and no "good" left. With Salvador, Elijah, Anya, Maria and Raymond at home sleeping late and staying up late and Alina, Andrey, Alyona and Igor at school and getting up early, it is like a factory on two shifts and I work them both.
One more event of the last two weeks that I forgot to mention in my last post was the death of Priss, the pig. After 13 years of carrying out scraps to her and watching her snore it is very hard to look out the window and not see her pinky-white bristly self up there on the hill. I would have posted a picture of her as a last tribute but after all these years, would you believe I don't have even one? The older I get the more stuff like that bothers me. I must be getting old.

getting some sleep

It seems to be a common theme around here, no one can get enough sleep. Some people (and cats) can sleep anywhere anytime but the rest of us either have insomnia or are kept awake by those who do. So much has happened since the last post, so much water under the bridge that I can't even begin to write it all. For anyone who reads this and doesn't keep in touch any other way, 2 kids have been back in the mental hospital for a few days. A. is doing well and isn't on any medication right now. S. is just beginning to show the tip of the iceberg that is his post traumatic stress disorder or anxiety disorder or whatever it is. He is just chillin' at home and trying to get in to see the counselor and taking some medication that doesn't seem to do much good. In the last week we have had two 18th birthday parties(Raymond and Igor) a trip to the aquarium in Atlanta, a trip to the Foxfire Museum, a small circus that came to town and two boys finished their Eagle Scout rank. They just lack the final review board and ceremony. So much happens so fast around here that I can't keep up. Rick goes back to Alaska after the 5th of April, Sergey will be at OTP for at least another 3 months and Ferns wedding in June will be here before I know it. Cori's little girl, Cora Beth, will be born in July. Aimee will close on her new house on Good Friday, maybe we can have the big annual Easter egg hunt in her big back yard. I will be 51 in May, Wallace will have been gone 4 years in May. "Life comes at you fast" is what the insurance commercial says but I never would have dreamed it would go this fast. With all the good and bad that I live through every day, with as much as I have enjoyed my life and hated it, too, I am ready for Jesus just to get on back down here and fix it all once and for all. I've seen quite enough trouble ...