Mice and Dementors

Saturday, January 17

I can't believe another week has gone by. We are trying to get back into the old routine, but it's hard being on "vacation" for sooo long. I'm having troubles keeping track of all the things I'm supposed to be doing even though I'm keeping the extra activities to a minimum. Sydney started her big kids music class (without parents) which she was very hesitant about going to, but afterwards said she wanted to go everyday. We found Kyla's old piano books and discovered that she remembered how to play the piano. That's a relief and now she is trying to teach Sydney, with some success I might add.

I have been especially unmotivated to unpack the many boxes still in my garage. The house was so clean and empty when we got home, why start cluttering it with all that junk? First it was too rainy, then too cold, but really I want to blame it on the mice! Yes I have found evidence of their presence in my garage. While most boxes were sealed, some not so well. I wasn't going to say anything because it's just too disturbing. I was so happy to find the toaster - I brought it inside, cleaned it up and right before I was about to use it, I decided to check the crumb catcher. I found mouse droppings, there I said it. Gross! No toast that day. I spent several days debating with myself and others about weather it could be properly cleaned. I decided that no matter what I did, I could never feel right about eating something cooked in my 1 year old, wide 4-slice toaster. So sad. I don't even want to think about if mice just ran over the box or if they actually entered the toaster - ewwwwww! Now I have a new toaster, smaller and inexpensive, but so far it works great. And it's new and clean.

I also have to tell you about Kyla's homework assignment. Every week she is supposed to write a mini book report, basically just a few questions about something she read that week. Well she just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban (#3). So one the of the questions this month is "What connections did you make to the story?" She tried to answer that she didn't make any, but we thought she could come up with something no matter how small. Well she thought of something - "I feel like a prisoner when I get sent to my room." Great, does that mean I'm a dementor? -those evil, scary things that make you cold, scared and depressed. I couldn't complain because she thought of something all on her own that related to the story - darn! Well, she was having a little breakdown and doing a lot of yelling at her sister. What started out as a normal timeout on the stairs eventually led to her getting sent to her room - mostly to give her space from Syd. I just hope her teacher doesn't think I'm an awful parent.

To end on a good note, we girls spent Friday afternoon enjoying a Harry Potter movie and eating toasted English muffins with lemon curd. Hmmmm.