Hey strangers

The danger of not posting regularly is that all those bloggable moments build up so when you do, finally, get a chance to use the family's one computer* you have to cram two weeks of material down into one post that's too long for anyone to read.  Or I could, ya'know, start writing regularly again and catch up but that would make too much sense.
*Parts for MY computer have allegedly, if belatedly, been ordered.  My absence hasn't all been Matt's fault though - too many Saturdays and late nights at work lately. 

~ School.  Ah, yes - school.  This will require a separate long post.  I did write a snarky piece about a semi-official email that lacked some necessary possessive apostrophes but I was just being mean & my fear of said post being found by said official conscious got the better of me.  The short version is that we're struggling.  There are unprecedented tears in the classroom (my girl's, not mine, though I've been close), the grammar police are shocked - Shocked! - by recent crimes against the English language, and I've decided we need to do more on our own but paying for private therapy is...ouch.  We'll hopefully soon be able to look back at this as a (painful) transition period but it's a mess right now.

~ On the other hand, my boy seems to be doing pretty well.  Though his teacher is all over him about his handwriting & cutting/gluing skills. Which I understand from the fine motor skills perspective, but she clearly hasn't seen either one of his parents' handwriting. "Messy scrawls" would be generous.  "Illegible scribbles" is probably more accurate. The poor kid is doomed. 

Also, he has a new friend who goes to after care with him & they are having such a grand time there together, he has actually rejected a couple offers to be picked up early.  This is such a tremendous relief.  He didn't enjoy summer camp towards the end and nothing triggers crushing mommy guilt like sending your kid somewhere he doesn't want to go because you don't have other options.

Side note:  I haven't yet met his new friend but when I was picking him up one day a little kid ran up to us and chatted for a second before running off again.  I asked if that was New Friend but he said no, New Friend has brown skin.  Awwww.... we live in a WHITE suburb and I've fretted a bit about the lack of diversity but here my boy was proving we didn't need to move.  I relayed this to Matt who has met New Friend, and he started chortling. New Friend, apparently, simply has a summer tan.  Oh. wow.

More asides:  I'm not too sure what to make of my reaction, above.  Isn't it reverse racism to be pleased about my son's choice of friend, sight unseen, just because he might have had "brown skin"?  Hmm.

Last aside:  I was telling my SIL this and she told me her (other) nephew had told his mom one of the girls in his class was from Africa.  Not African-American, "from Africa".  She was horrified, presumably launched into a civics/social/language lesson, only to find out the kid really had moved here from an undisclosed country in sub-Saharan Africa.  Funny!

And one last boy story:  He was playing one day and had spun a whole story about a hardware shop that also sold pies made by special machines and he was running in & out of my room picking up new machine tools and delivering pies.  On one of his trips he announced he was leaving to visit his mom at work (um, hello?).  "So who am I?"  "You're grandma."  Yesterday he told me I have old hands.  Oh. wow. Way to cut where it hurts, buddy - Yes, I get it. Too much worky-worky lately, time is fleeting, and now you're grounded. 

~ My BEST story (In Real Life dates!  Half Marathons! Elvis dancing!) deserves its own post but the kids are currently occupied so I'm going to hit publish and keep writing.  Nothing for two weeks and two posts in one day?  I have awesome time management skills!