The Sinister Scribe

To post about something more cheerful, I thought I’d share a recent book find… The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

The illustrations are gorgeous and remind me of the Art Deco style. There are lots of hidden faces in the pictures. The story, told in the form of a long poem, is a fun read. I really enjoy the poetic imagery. In this version of the old tale, the apprentice is a girl! My only criticism is that the story jumps from the cleaning up of the apprentice’s mess to the apprentice as the sorcerer/ess. Just seemed like a big leap when there was much description of the events that came before.

The last page gives a nice history of the tale, which I enjoyed learning about.

I found a used copy, from a library no less, for sale and will be reading this one again and again.

She is not looking better today and can barely walk. Her hind legs move rather oddly when she tries. I don’t think I was expecting her to be noticeably better today but the mobility problem seems like a bad sign.

I’ve force fed 23ccs of food so far today and given her another dose of Amox. I think I’m going to try for 10 to 15cc every hour or so today. Fingers crossed for some sign of improvement.

Just got back from the vet with Jocy.

She has a fever, has not eaten since Saturday, and is severely jaundiced. Vet is stumped. If she was overweight, Feline Hepatic Lipidosis would be suspected. Here is more information in it and related issues. But Jocy is very far from overweight. I should hear the results on the lab work this afternoon. I kinda got the feeling in the office that the vet would have said more if the kids handn’t been with me.

I’ve read a little on FHL and related diseases here. *sigh* I see all the drugs and tube feeding and my brain screams, WE CAN’T AFFORD THIS! *deep breath* I will try not to flip out before the vet calls.

Wish me luck. I am hoping for better than I am expecting.

Later…

Well, as the vet suspected, Jocy’s liver enzymes are very elevated. On top of the antibiotics  twice a day, she now needs to get one Denosyn tab and 60 to 120cc of prescription food (force fed) every day.

We don’t know why she is having this trouble. Vet said it could be weeks or even months before she is better. We can’t afford months! One month of the Denosyn and a/d food is going to run about $75. Not to mention having to force feed a cat for that length of time. *sigh*

Cross your fingers for a very speedy recovery!

Between all the usual goings on, Bob and I are trying to come up with new SCA names that have a Norse background. Here are my pics so far:

• Gerðr - The name Gerðr is from Primitive Scandinavian *garðior, or may be related to Old Icelandic gerðistún, “garden”.
• Arndís or Disa -dís is identical with the Old Icelandic dís, “goddess, priestess, female guardian spirit.” Arn- eagle
• Geira - The feminine form of the name element Geir-, which is identical to the Old Icelandic geirr, “spear.”
• Geirdís
• Iðunn
• Ketilgerðr -The first element Ketil- or Kætil- is from OW.Norse ketill, originally “kettle” but meaning also “helmet” or “chieftain with helmet.”
• Végerðr - The first element Vé- is identical with Old Icelandic vé, “temple, sanctuary” and related to Gothic weihs, “holy”.

I think I’m leaning towards Iðunn or Végerðer at this point. I think.

I’ve been mulling over what kind of activites/lessons to use with Jessie during next year, partly to keep her occupied and partly to take a step toward a more formal education with her. Tonight I think I found the perfect outline that involves shapes, colors, nursery rhyms and beginning word recognition.

Brightly Beaming Resources website has a “preparatory curriculum” for their Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum.  There are also Sound of the Week, and Story of the Week curriculums and lots more stuff I haven’t read through yet. But it is simple, uses books I can get from the library. Heck, I could even learn the songs on the ocarina to play while she sings. Hmmm… wonder if the Learning Poster they use could be adapted into a lapbook? Then it could be saved and read through again… and again.

Pretty excited about this find! I think it will save me some time and give me a jump start. I seem to do better right now if I have something to start with.

Here is a picture of Jessie’s latest bug find. I believe they are American Lady caterpillars (Vanessa virginiensis) and are feeding on what looks to me like Atennaria plantaginifolia. We’re going to try to keep them until they ecclose. I have no idea what instar they are in. Here are some more pictures of the larva and adult form. They are related to the Painted Lady butterflies, which are the most common butterflies from what I just read.

Found this article at The Thinking Mother‘s Blog. She also has a post about teaching spelling in general which I find very interesting and is making me rethink next year’s spelling for Sam.

I don’t think it will cause me more work but instead of teaching the words first, I am thinking I should introduce the rule and then the words. Or the roots… at some point I will do that. Haven’t really gotten my brain around how to deal with roots. We are going to be introducing latin in the fall, so he will be getting some latin roots then.

Always something to think about.

Woot and Huzzah! I seem to be back online. It was weird. I kept trying to run the upgrade script from /wp-admin/upgrade.php and kept getting the dreaded “no input file found.” So, for grins, I tried logging in and got what I was looking for… “your database needs upgrading.”

I still haven’t checked everything, but for now at least I won’t have to deal with hundreds of cache files, thousands of cache files, millions and billions and trillions of cache files. Yippee!

Bonus points if you know what childrens book the above paragraph was based on.

I am upgrading my version of WordPress. If I’m not back soon, you’ll know why!

• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup flaxseed
• 1/4 cup lavender buds

Process the oats in a blender until powdery (2 minutes in my VitaMix). Add flaxseed and process for another minute. Add lavender buds and process for another thirty seconds.

To use: moisten a palm-full with warm water until you have a paste. Gently rub over face and rinse with tepid water. Follow with cold water, aloe gel and lotion.
Notes: This has been great for my eczema. I’ve been using it for several months. The flaxseed keeps it from becoming a gooey mess when warm water is added. It also adds just enough scrubby-ness but not so much that it aggravates any eczema patches. The lavender makes it smell really nice too.