Read Across America 2026

I love celebrating Dr Seuss week at school. His books are amazing, creative, and so engaging for kids. We got to wear fun items like hats, silly socks, crazy hair/clothes, and school colors. Nothing else of note happened this week at school. I took Monday off from work to catch up on editing, snuggle Josie who wasn’t feeling well, and get my salads for the two funerals this week for folks in my ward. It was busy. I almost went in once all the emails went out in the morning saying 7 teachers were also absent and my classes would be absorbed into the other 3 specials. I also got to sew a cute newborn visor and a onesie for a baby gift. There are two teachers expecting babies in the next month. I embroidered the other gift at school much to the student’s interest. Their minds were blown that I was drawing with thread. I also got another stem wave treatment on my feet and elbow. Imagine a knife made of sound waves penetrating inflamed tissue, that’s essentially what Dr Stan did to my feet. Evelyn had a sports physical so she can play tennis this year.

Phillip had a choir and then band concert on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Justin took the girls to strings lesson so I could go to the choir concert. Evelyn was especially upset about that arrangement. Justin did an awesome job taking notes and coming home with pertinent information. Josie is going to play Rubber Dolly instead of Swallowtail Jig. Andrew placed new violin tapes like 4 times before he was satisfied with the tone. Emma said Josie’s new violin is a vast improvement. Hooray. Josie has quite the challenge to memorize her music. Evelyn is doing much better because she has all her songs memorized. Phillip played drums for two songs and sang with his choir. They sounded quite good! 

Justin and I went to the band concert on Wednesday night. Phillip had a solo part on vibraphone the last for a few measures. We never really get to hear him play, so that was nice. A lovely rain storm poured down outside adding an intimate vibe to the concert. Justin used his gimble to record the concert. I was so impressed with Mr Sene’s concert band rendition of Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. The three local HS came to perform their festival songs before competition. 

I stayed until 8 pm on Thursday at work to get my hours in, I scheduled some Dr appointments Friday morning not realizing it was a work day for me. Josie had her first well-child in about 2 years, she is still in the 25th percentile. She does not have scurvy as a result of her picky eating habits. Josie’s heel wart is now a flaky mess of ecexma, good news, the wart rubbed off.  Everett got two warts frozen off, his huge knuckle wart was quite painful to get frozen. He had another wart on his palm. Getting bandaids to stay secured on those spots is quite tricky. All the kids then had dental cleanings…surprise, surprise…no cavities. No rest for the weary! Next Phillip and Everett went to see Austin. I picked up some used snap circuits I found on FB Marketplace and went to Target to find hash tag blocks in the dollar bins. Target had some super darling dresses for Spring, snagged two for Amelia’s missionary outfits. Phillip and I dropped of Everett for tennis practice. We went grocery shopping. Phillip got some new shirts and pants for band/choir. Then back to pick up Everett after tennis. I was crawling through the door after another loooooong day. 

Justin is working to save the NAS external drive. It is in a constant booting up mode and he was worried about all the files I would lose. I am so grateful he spent time backing up files and moving the ones that can’t be backed up on Amazon Photos to another terabyte drive we recently got. He is hoping to fix the NAS drive as prices for storage devices is quite high right now. 

It was time to clean the dang loft again. It was a disaster. We were all thrilled Justin pitched in to help out. He helped sort through our box of cables and cords. The next natural step was to help the girls manage their room. So frustrating! A few hours later both spaces were habitable again. After some editing and laundry, Evelyn and I tackled her Greek history project. She made Athena’s temple using cardboard and styrofoam. I helped her cut and glue out the pieces. She has to get it painted and decorated before Thursday. 

Amelia got her passport application submitted. She learned how to get money orders, read the small print (like debit cards won’t work), and be patient with the government processes. That was quite a learning curve. 

The dogs are still being knuckleheads, rather Fergus is being a knucklehead. We don’t know what else to do.