Believe it or not, it was another crazy week.  My mom, who had been off work for over two weeks while sick, came home to find that her electricity had been shut off.  This sent her into a tailspin, understandably.  It's pretty sad that someone working full-time (and she's always the type who signs the overtime sheet if it comes around) is so close to the edge of financial ruin that a bout of sickness can cost them basic utilities.

Luckily I was able to scramble around financially and scrape up the money to get it back on.  Besides the obvious inconvenience of no electricity she had no heat, which isn't feasible.

So that was very stressful, as well as cutting into our schooltime because when we were at her house we were sitting in darkness by five o'clock (thank you, Mitch Daniels). 

Then, of course, we lost Terry.  I can't even begin to describe the depths of this loss.  I can't even think about it full-on.  Mostly I let my mind wander to the fringes of Life-Without-Terry and then I retreat. 

Still, throughout it all, we managed a pretty good week:

London:

On top of everything else, London was battling a virus. 

For Reading she began reading both People of the Longhouse and an abridged version of Oliver Twist.  I was going to have her read the original but the language was just too dense for her so I settled for a quality abridged version.  She's been reading about the Industrial Revolution in History and, really, what better book for that subject? For 'her' reading she finished Twilight.

She did lessons 42-45 in grammar.  She got a 100%, again, on her SWR quiz.  We're still not full-steam-ahead with SWR and I'm hoping to take the week of Thanksgiving to get us caught up on reference pages and stuff.  Still, the change in her spelling is palpable.

She did a lesson in math (MEP) every day except Friday.  I don't believe she got to LOF this week.  She finished up the unit on the Industrial Revolution for history and the three kids finished a lab for science.

For Latin she and Alex completed lesson 2 in Lively Latin.  I'm really loving Lively Latin.

For Writing--we just fell apart and skipped it.

Alex:

For Reading he began reading a novel about a little drummer boy in Abe Lincoln's army.  I try to keep free reads in the same time period as they are learning in history but the Civil War is a special interest of his.  Together we're reading a version of The Canterbury Tales.  We made it through the Prologue, The Knight's Tale, the Miller's Tale, and the Nun's Priest's Tale this week.

He did lessons 48-52 in grammar.  He didn't do quite as well on his spelling test, missing four (four?! They were silly mistakes, though).  He learned about Knights for history and did the science lab with the others.  I already reported how he did in Latin.  He did MEP all week and also multiplication flash cards.

Holden:

We read "Cornelia's Jewels" and three chapters in Paddle to the Sea.  We read a chapter in the Burgess Bird Book (woodpeckers).  We fiddled with a lesson from reading a-z (I'd like to finish it today) and he read a short book from their website.  He did a lesson each in MEP and in Rightstart Math (we usually do this at my mom's house while London is at dance class, so that kind of fell by the wayside).  We read three chapters in Little House in the Big Woods as well as two of Aesop's fables.

Sergei had his last Kindermusik class (well, for that session.  We're going to sign him back up).

All of the biggers also started learning how to type this week.  I'm a very fast typer and I judge people who hunt-and-peck.  They're using a Spongebob Squarepants computer typing program.  I'm not a huge fan of Spongebob but they're already learning finger position!

I've mentioned several times the issue of Holden and his tremors.  I wanted to update that his tremors are nearly gone.  We think that this has to do with the Feingold diet, as the only other variable has been that he has been bumped to the high dose of seizure medicine (which would, if anything, cause more tremors).

It's pretty exciting, though, as it was such a source of stress for me.  Even so Carrie, his OT, is going to order him some hand weights.  I think they are like the braces my mom wears for her arthritis only weighted to help his shakes. 

He loves Carrie.  Callie, too, who is his speech therapist. 

We are still have issues and all.  Last night after his dance class I took him to the library while London was at her dance class.  They are renovating the children's area of the library so it is crammed into a meeting room--shelves of books, computers, kids, whatnot.  Holden wanted to use one of the computers so I browsed while he played a game.  Another little boy around his age sat down at the computer next to his and Holden freaked out.  He was terrified and didn't want that little boy to look at him (the boy, for his part, was terribly confused).  I finally worked his grip around my neck loose and coaxed him back to his computer where he went back to playing.  What was that all about? I'll probably never know.

He's asleep now.  Anthony, who is battling a raging ear infection, needed to drop off a half dozen prescriptions to the pharmacy and Holden fell asleep while we waited for them to be filled.  He's been asleep ever since--a couple of hours now.  His neurologist made it clear that he needs plenty of rest so that's great.  Still, it's unlike him to nap and for so long.

I miss you today, Big B.  I miss you every day.

(Pictured is my brother at the spot where my uncle died)