Sleep

I am convinced that getting enough sleep helps our family all get along and manage, no matter how much space we live in. I am so sleep deprived, and I know that there's no way I can catch up on sleep until next week when my classes are finished. Yet, this morning, after staying up late again to work on my website( 1:30 a.m last night and 3:45 a.m. the night before), I went back to be for another 1 1/2 hours. I'm still tired, but at least now I feel that I'm a little more able to do what I need to do, and I'll be a better driver later on today.

This will be my last post for a while. As soon as my classes are over, I'll be going into Christmas mode. I have a couple of co-op shifts to catch up on and a little more shopping to do. On Christmas eve, we're going to go to grammy's house and on the day after Christmas, we'll be driving to NW NY to see grandpa for a couple of days. My daughter is going to participate in a neighborhood recital and we'll have a little party to entertain kids and their families. It will be nice for the kids to get to know the neighbors so that they might play with them again when we return during the summer.

In January, we'll work on getting the apartment in better shape, doing things that we wanted to do in August and September, but couldn't. We need to organize my son's room and weed through books and toys. The bathroom and my daughter's room need to be painted. We may even paint my son's room. Every room in the apartment needs to be scrubbed, dusted and vacuumed. At some point we need to order new rugs for their rooms. My daughter still has the alphabet rug we bought when she was a baby. And then there are the boxes that sit in our living room. Most of it can probably be tossed. The hallway has grown into a nasty stacked-up storage space that must be sorted through. We have a lot to do, but I am pledging to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night during my break and to read at least 3 books before I return to school at the end of January. I also need to get a hair cut and see all of my doctors for check-ups. And then there's my scrapbooking project, which I haven't really worked on since July. I was current up until May 2006, and I still need to do my summer vacation album. I would like to order all the prints and get organized to finish the album at the scrapbooking weekend I plan to attend in February.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

To-do for school

Today, I will post the list of things that need to be done as I finish up with this semester's responsibilities.

Of course, what this means is that I have to spend a lot of time on this during the next 8 days, sitting at this desk, getting cramps in my hands and my neck and my body. Must remember to do the stretching exercises. Housework and laundry will continue to take 2nd place. My husband is complaining that he is spending too much time as a single parent. Hmmm. no comment to that -- based on my experiences over the last 9 years.

I will have to spend a lot of time getting cupcakes ready for my son's birthday. One might ask why I'm not buying the cupcakes....I make them because I have to. My son is allergic to nuts and this makes it impossible to buy pre-made cakes.

Technology of Information:
(2 more classes: 12/11 and 12/18)

1. finish website
2. finish putting together portfolio (I am afraid that there may be some issues the saving of some of the material and I hope that I won't have to go back and redo anything because it will take a lot of time)
3. do extra credit for lab #14
4. finish the blog writing
5. study for quiz #4 by reviewing flash cards for units G and H

Fundamentals of Library and Information Science:

1. (one more class: 12/13)
2. finish research paper
3. write 4 essay questions for quiz prep
4. study for last Quiz -- #3

Christmas to-do list

We still have a few more days, but I am waiting for a few packages to arrive from:

• Brookstone
• Pottery Barn
• Sierra Trading Company

We also need to wrap a bunch of things. I plan to sneak them into my mom's car when she comes over on Friday. This makes Santa's job so much easier. Usually we have to sneak all the presents into boxes and put them in the trunk of the car, with the kids watching. It's ridiculous!

Other things I still need to do:

• at co-op, buy jam for my dad and other little gifts for my mom
• buy gifts at American Girl for my daughter
• mail out about 20 family calendars to family and friends
• wrap presents and send them to my brother and my husband's sister
• prepare kid's fall photos and the karate photos of my daughter from last Spring
• frame a photo for my son's birthday -- oops (wrong to-do list)

The Mobile Office

I'm working out of my mobile office today, at Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library. Events during the week with my son's asthma led to full days of not being able to do any work on my paper, and I got behind. So, I decided that I couldn't work at home at my desk in the living room with the TV on or toys being dragged out onto the rug, sibling squabbles and the stuffy smell of the latkes we made last night. My son peeled the potatoes, my daughter grated the potatoes and the onions, they both broke the eggs and stirred. I cooked them and my husband had the delightful job of cleaning it all up.

At the library, I still notice the smell of fried potatoes and onions in the bag I brought the laptop in, and in my coat! I found a table in the art and music reference area on the 3rd floor. The last time I was up here, I was here on an emergency, probably about 5 years ago when my son was a baby and my daughter was in preschool. Her school was across the street from the library, so we were in the children's area a lot. That day, the bathrooms on the first floor were out of service, so I was sent to the 3rd floor out of desperation for a changing table, which we really needed.

So, now I'm back on the 3rd floor and a lot has changed. There's a new bathroom, and I have a new mission. I'm working on my research paper for GSLIS 701. The topic is Adult Literacy Programs in Public Libraries. I borrowed my daughter's lap top and I just think it's so amazing. There's a wireless network here, and this computer is new and fast. Now if I can only get used to the keyboard. I think I'm going to have to buy one of these!

Another amazing thing. As I was reading through my research, I heard an announcement that the friends of BPL literacy was having a bake sale here on 3rd floor. I went in and bought a cupcake and a cookbook by the Friends of Literacy group at BPL and met the woman in charge of the literacy program. This is what I'm writing my paper about. She has an office at the Park Slope branch and she invited me to stop by next week for a visit. She's there 9-5! When I got back to my table, I recognized her name in one of the books I'm reading.

The cookbook is a real bonus!

Hanukkah to-do list

We're in the middle of Hanukkah now, and most of my tasks are finished for this holiday.
I still have to do the following:

• Make sure I have enough ingredients for latkes (potato pancakes) (get sour cream).
• Make applesauce from all of the surplus apples in the fridge - use crock pot)
• Set up kids presents for each other (glove mittens).
• Make latkes on Friday.

On the first night of Hanukkah, I was at my Tuesday class, and I heard that the kids complained about receiving snow boots on the first day. Of course they wanted fun things. We have also given books, which after an initial grumble are actually very well received an appreciated. We try to give practical small gifts for this holiday, knowing that my son's birthday and Christmas are right around the corner.

My son had another doctor's appointment today and I was able to take him back to school for the afternoon. But after this morning's appointment, we also had to go to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for an antibiotic. We had to wait a long time for it, and so we went to the nearby diner for hot chocolate. By the time we got to school it was lunch time, but my son needed another nebulizer treatment. I had to fill out paperwork that is going to take a long time to get approved before the school nurse is authorized to administer the nebulizer medicine. So, until that happens, I will need to go to the school and take care of that for Harry.

Birthday to-do list

My son is home today from school again. He must remain calm, so I'm letting him watch as much TV as he can stand. In the meantime, I'm working on Quiz preparation for my 2 classes.
I missed my co-op shift today, so I'll have to make it up in early January when I return from my mini vacation.

My life has been reduced to numerous to-do lists. Today, I'll list the things I need to do for my son's birthday next weekend:

• Make 36 cupcakes for his class for Friday 12/14. (Reserve 4 for dinner later that night when my mom will be coming over to celebrate her birthday.)
• Make 36 cupcakes for his party on Saturday 12/14. (reserve 6 for my son's actual birthday on 12/16, when his grandfather will be visiting).
• Wrap presents.
• Pick up pinata.
• Wait for hideously expensive pinata filler to arrive by UPS from from Oriental Trading Company.
• Fill pinata
• Prepare gift bags.
• Consider making bags of cookies to give away in addition to the pinata junk.
• Confirm with the families that have not yet rsvp'd.
• Give final tally to karate studio -- we're up to 16 including my son. It's exactly what I expected -- about a 50% attendance, after inviting 30 kids
• Note: most of the cupcake baking will have to take place on the evening and into the night of Thursday, 12/13 after my GSLIS 701 class.
  

Avoiding the ER

It's late, but my husband is giving my son a Xopenex treatment here in the living room as I type, to help to improve his breathing. Since the age of 5 weeks, he has struggled with asthmatic problems, but there had been a gap of over a year since the last serious incident. We spent about three hours this afternoon at the pediatrician's office and may have spent the night in the ER, but I asked if we would really be seen right away or not. Usually when I go to the ER in our neighborhood, we're there for 3 hours until we are seen by the doctor. And then sometimes it's another three hours after that before we can go home. I asked the doctor if she could make a call to the ER to help us to get in earlier, and at first she said she could do that, but she's only been at this practice for two weeks, and I wondered how she might pull off a favor like that. In the end, she gave us the prescriptions and sent us on our way with instructions to give my son a treatment by nebulizer every 3 hours and to come back to the office in the morning. No school tomorrow. I hope I can get some work done and that Doug can come home early enough so I can go to my class to hand in the paper I'm still working on.

An afternoon with my daughter

The house remained messy this afternoon and the laundry piled up while I took the afternoon to spend with my daughter. She needed new lenses in her glasses, so we went to the mall in Manhattan, and yes, such a place exists. It's convenient to the F-train, which takes us right into the building and the eye glasses shop is steps from the subway. It took longer than expected, of course, to get the lenses, but that meant that we had time to eat a late lunch and to do some shopping for much-needed clothes for my daughter. We braved the outside cold and the crowds to go to the Gap and Macy's. Macy's was the most crowded and draining, but we by chance got to see the Waterford Crystal ball that will be "dropped" at Times Square on New Year's Eve. It was brightly lit in a changing array of colors. We moved along quickly due to the crowds, but it was a bonus to see it.

We arrived at home in time to greet my daughter's best friend from school who came to our house for a sleep-over. We ordered pizza and made sundaes. My son felt a bit out of sorts because he hasn't had any sleepovers with his friends yet. And he doesn't like to be left out. But he wasn't feeling well, so he went to bed, and the girls got to watch a movie on my daughter's new laptop. It made the evening a lot more calm. Until I have finished my classes this semester, I won't be the greatest of hosts!