faire le ménage ou apprendre quelque chose?

One small layer of my brain says I should be cleaning - I'm doing some laundry - I should be baking more madeleines because I'll eat them, but there are no eggs (except under chickens) as they were all boiled and fed to dogs.   Instead I'm practicing my French to Spanish, because I keep reaching 'through' the French to get the Spanish from the English... and that is just how my brain is set up.  I will be doing my Russian lessons later, as well, but for now, this seemed to be the rubber-band effect I needed in my brain.

Spanishdict.com : using that for 'blind' retrieval of Spanish words from English - and that is hard - spelling them and not grabbing the French word.  When I consistently keep reaching for the French, I've been writing it down on a list of things to practice, to connect the three angles of the triangle (French--English--Spanish) a bit better.

Mark made me the extra colors of the pushpin magnets I was asking for - the red for French a week or so ago, and now the blue for Spanish - and I've been putting them to use this morning putting up the words I have a hard time grabbing the Spanish word (blue) for from the French (red).  And as I was reaching through this brain network I sat down and drew a little map of some of what it feels like where languages are stored.  Of course, the more I work with a language recently, the more it takes up more space and connects in with other things.  That 'pool' of blue for Spanish isn't completely a good thing - because it is pooled there half isolated and hard to retrieve.  But there is always the base of French, ASL And English that were there in my infancy.. wrapped and flowing through everything - and everything else gets connected and shoved in and around it like a big squishy purse or drawer where the files are not well organized.

(separate thought : perhaps Latvian shouldn't be such a tiny dot, I recognize and can insert words on Clozemaster far better than I do many of the others - although I get 10/10 on French there, and 9/10 on Spanish, getting 7/10 on Latvian, which I've barely studied, is nothing to sneeze at, and I do a pretty good job on BaltoSlav languages on Latvian words and Ba ba dum has Lithuanian that is closest, flag striped yellow/green/red : I have played a bit more on Bern Istaba as well, the children's site for Latvian similar to the English site Starfall Esme used to play on)

But I have swept and put the rugs in the laundry - I'm afraid perhaps the valve is leaking again, but we have to pull everything out to look at it, take the screws out of the wall and shut off the water - I've cleaned the floors in several places, looked in the fridge for anything to chuck out and so forth... with the truck not easy to get to town in, I don't want to get into a plumbing job or other major project.  If the valve is leaking, it is a tiny trickle that I have only barely noticed from a low spot in the garage floor that holds the water there if it gets there...  So many more things need to be dusted and cleaned, it is neverending.  And this is my first day off that didn't automatically come with 'ten other things' planned for me to do, so I've been sort of drifting from one thing to another and not held fast onto any one big thing I have to do today.  I haven't done a shred of art in a long time, well maybe a sketch or two, and the language map above probably counts in some way.

I did go look at the garden - everything has been very wet and is wanting warmth and sunshine, maybe even some fertilizer.  I pulled some weeds, fed the chickens, gave them fresh water - and Mark and Esme are doing things with the greenhouse plants.

Mittens with picture and quilty bits

 The new pink and brown mittens.. they fit, but are not very tight in the wrist.

I put the card with her hand tracing in her baby book with the date on it.. it shows her hand size against my hand size, which is worth keeping for the future.

 She asked for me to take this picture, too - without the mittens.

Playing with the telling time book and a clock we made from a coffee can lid.  She saw a clock at the library today in the toys section and was interested in it again.

We asked for a child's library card today.  She has been reading fairly well and we have read four books a week from the library the past few weeks.  I had asked her a few times before and she wasn't ready - but today, we did it. 

We also met up with a friend at the park today for a little while, fed ducks, ran around with feathers and then had to go home in a rainstorm.  We stopped for ice cream treats on the way home and she had a big red spot on her nose from the star bar she ate that Daddy noticed when she got home.  

Little bit of quilt I made up last night - thinking about what to do next with it.. all of the pieces in it are scraps from clothing I made for Esme.  If she settles down for a bit soon I'll get back to working on it.

bit before I sew

Esme told me all about the big alphabet and animal book she gets to read now at school - she passed the letters test to get into reading instruction.  I'm very proud of her, which in a way seems a bit silly because I knew she could do it at the beginning of school.  She said she did not know her alphabet at the beginning of school (which, she did) and now she does, so now she can learn to read.  This is better than saying she could not read at all, when she can.  Good steps - and we will see how that progresses.

She told me about blue and gold hairclips with ribbons that the other girls have for blue and gold day.  I put yellow ribbons up in her hair around the tops of her braids and then braided them together.  I hope it lasts the day.  I need to get to the table and make some more clothes - the need-to-wash pile just keeps becoming more than the available to wear.  One of the two tshirts I bought as school clothes has already come apart in the sleeve, so I had to pull one of her handmade dresses out at the last minute when I saw it.  I have fabric set aside, and a new dress pattern that came in the mail that has a clever option between raglan or regular sleeves.  When I saw it, I had to get it... if you are a sewer a pattern that can choose regular or raglan sleeve construction is a head-tilter.. how did they do that?  I'll show you how.. it was actually fairly simple and elegant.

I should also go out to the garden today and check on the items that are left - lima beans, Daphne beans, Hopi String beans are starting to produce, cowpeas are producing in multitudes, the indian corn, the cucumbers and peppers... eventually we will need to mow much of it down and seed vetch to enrich the soil for next year. 

Adventure day

All ready to leave for the morning! With her 'best friend' Tigger the tiger (her cake top decoration) who came along in her coat pocket.

There was a story hour at the library. Half-way through the circle time they started the singing, and she froze up and came and dived into my lap saying she was scared and wanted to leave... I told her if we left we were going home. She did not like that idea. Eventually she decided it wasn't so bad and she went back into the circle and cooperated for the rest of the time. When we used to go to the story hour none of the children were as young as she was then (age 2-3), and she did not fit in well.  Now, most of the children are under three and there was only one other one her age... very strange dynamics going on!

We went to the Chinese restaurant after that, and while walking on the sidewalk the bell began to ring at the courthouse. She grabbed her ears and said that sound was going all over the world it was so loud - and she wanted me to make it stop. When it stopped she couldn't stop talking about how it went all over the world - into every town and it was still going in the air.  She did about as well as can be expected for her third 'real' restaurant experience ever, and maybe under ten occurrences of 'eating in' anywhere at all... I had to encourage her to eat anything that didn't look normal, ask her not lay down in the booth and put her feet in the air, not say the food was scary and cry we had food at home why are we here etc etc..  But she did like the umbrellas and the red ceiling.  I am sure if I do this more often with her (and more places like this that are not 'milkshake and french fry' places ) she will figure out it is not so bad and cooperate with that idea more.

"curious george smile" after she climbed up and did it well...

Another girl came along and showed her how to spin down on this pole - which she did finally get but she was being a rightful scaredy-pants about it as it was six feet up in the air.

She had a big story about being a 'drinkman' at the counter (shown behind in this picture) and I would give her five cents, or one cent, or a quarter - and she would give me drinks and be the drinkman. She went up in the bridge over several 'days' going to sleep, bringing the drinks, selling them to 'farmers' and their cows and other drinkmen, and then going back to her house to go to sleep at night. Eventually, she decided she was really a drink lady, and she would marry a drinkman, and they would give out drinks together at the counter.

This is the 'Paris' park, with the mini Eiffel tower in it.  I asked her 'pretend you are in Paris;, which got her to give me a 'huh what do you mean' look...

Swinging

Esme's attempt at using the camera, since this was the lightweight older one we had put away for a while... not too bad of a job!

We went to the Robertson's decorating center after the park to look at things and describe them - smooth things, mirrors, chickens, statues, beds, chairs, couches.... she loved the idea you could go up the stairs and walk all around in a circle.  As we came out the bells in that town, McKenzie, were ringing for noon and she looked at me and said 'See, all around the world.  I told you.  Just like that.'  I nearly fell over laughing and she was a little upset that I did... but I told her that was very funny.  She bought a basket and I bought a yard of cotton upholstery fabric there.. then we went home.

notes// She is working at drawing her thank you card to her Aunt Dot, and I will ask her to draw something else later.  She has told me she wants a giraffe and a spaceship for her Santa List.. but I have told her she will have to sit down and write that letter soon so she should decide well what is going to be on it.

bits of a Monday off

We had a good night's sleep last night - Esme was in her room with the lamp on, and she stayed there (as far as we know) all night and was still asleep in her bed at 7:30 am. We went to the store this morning to get Grandma milk and bread and a few other things. Esme had talked to me last night about wanting a DreamLites unicorn she saw on TV - but I told her I couldn't find that at the store, but we would look. They didn't have it but we found a bear in the toy section that has a light-up belly - and she said that would work.

I have worked on the winter quilt a bit more, and cleaned up the linen shelves in the bathroom and our bedroom area. With Esme's linens in the black rolly cart in her room now, there is more room in ours - and a LOT to sort through in general. Because of all the moves and changes my sewing area is a wreck, but that happens on a regular basis, so it will be something to sort out later.

I am about to go see if I can coax her down for fish sticks. She is watching cartoons with Grandma after delivering the milk and bread. I am hoping for a better mood for the rest of today, but we will see. I work at ten tomorrow.

//Alarm clock// I bought Esme an Elgin analog alarm clock as part of the order with the chair and bookcase. I put it in her room last night and she saw it immediately, and took it to her bedside table. I told her how it worked and that I would set it for 8 am and it would beep. If you push the button on top the nightlight comes on so you can read the time. She had a grand time with that, but I think she altered the time as well playing with it. She was already up and in the bathtub when it finally went off this morning at 8:30 bathroom-clock time. She pushed the snooze button and turned it off for four minutes. Then it came back on and out she comes from the bath again. I reminded her to turn the alarm 'off' on the back of it - and she did. But, she came and told me that specifically that she pushed the button and it went off, but the 'brown bears and zombies' made it beep again, and by turning it 'off' they couldn't make that happen again. *roll eyes*

talking bit

This morning at 5 am the puppies were howling downstairs in the basement. Esme gets up and puts on her shoes, walks past our bed and downstairs and proceeds to have the following conversation.

'I can't sleep. You go away, run away, go away scram. You be quiet. You are loud. I am so tired and I can't sleep! I do not love you, no, go - I do not love you anymore. You go sleep. You go run away. Mama and Daddy are sleeping, you be quiet! etc etc.. It went on for several minutes. The kicker? Silence. All of the puppies went away for about five minutes. That was about as much time as it took for her to come upstairs, take off her shoes and get back into her bed. And then, of course, the yelping continued.

When she woke up later in the morning she came to my bed and said 'Mama, you stand up, it is morningtime, you stand up, stretch and yawn and stand up and go downstairs get me food, yea, you get me food, downstairs! You get up stretch and yawn like this, see?' And then I remind her we need to get ready to go to town with Grandma today. She told me we had to bring Grandma a Monkey Esme, Grandma needed a Monkey Esme that could talk. Uh huh. Then she started 'checking' to see if I was ready (which obviously I was not) - and tells me the thing she sees missing are socks. Hey, wait, I need socks. I get socks. (she got her own socks and shoes and put them on). Mama needed a lot more than socks - like non-pajama pants! We went to town and took a few hours buying groceries and other necessities.

We just got back, and I have the fabric washing for another new dress. There are a lot of things I want to do - and lots of cleaning that needs to be done. I hope to have pictures of finished projects maybe later today or tomorrow? It has been hard with the mid-day schedules I've been getting to take any pictures... After today off I will have five more days 'on' of varying schedules again, right up until a few days before Christmas.

I ordered more beans from the Little Ragamuffin (See sidebar links) - King of the Early Bean and Hutterite soup beans. Both look very interesting. I had to fight Esme to wash her hair again last night - but it wasn't quite as hard as it usually is. After the initial water dousing I was able to convince her to pour half of the water over her own head, and have her sit still to get most of the rest poured over her. I told her she had to be a 'strong' girl and do this herself, brave and strong. She said she was 'big and strong' - but when faced with the fact that I can do that without crying and she can't - she was willing to try and be 'brave and strong and big'. We're making some improvements... I am so glad she is reasonable, at times.

//dressing note: She was able to do most of her own sweater buttons today and undo them without trouble. I did have to help her with her 'frustration' problem to slow down and try again on the buttons - and to try the third one again while holding the hole open instead of just shoving at the button. etc etc.. She is really coming along, now, at least with the huge buttons that are on that sweater. The only thing she has to have us help with is putting on or taking off is her dress with the back zipper. Front button dresses will probably be something on my agenda in a few more years - but for ease of making, taking care of etc... the back zipper and back-ties are still a better choice.