So I started making calls. Orthopedic office made appt for another ESI (epidural steroid injection) and told me to go back on Neurontin and take oxycodone for pian. I made a long overdue appt with a new family doc too.

Thursday I went in for the ESI. The staff and doctors at Advanced Radiology really are wonderful. The injection hurt and really did feel like they had poked “Steve” in the eye.

After the numbing wore off though, things got worse. I had a horrible headache, my leg hurt even more and my back was aching. Friday I was able to get to the Amish and to the Planetarium but I was crashing… on a Friday (visions of another ER trip going through my head).

After a few phone conversations, and the help of a friend, I was back at Advanced Radiology with the diagnosis of a spinal headache. The doc was wonderful at explaining things.

I agreed to go with a “blood patch” to cover the spinal leak caused by the ESI. Basically they draw some of your blood and inject it into the same space the ESI went into. Wholly beejeebers!!! The blood draw didn’t go well and the injecting… That was nearly more pain than I could take!

It’s now Saturday. I felt pretty good when I woke up. Pain at a 2. But after about 5 minutes of being up that pain was at a 5 and didn’t go away when I lay down. essentially I am back where I started pain wise. Frustration.

With a little luck, the ESI will kick in this afternoon. Barring that the increasing Neurontin should start helping. Barring that the Oxycodone should knock me out. Depressing.

I hate to end on a downer note so here are a couple really great things that happened this week:

The kids are still loving the yoga so there is some great good coming from it. They are getting really good at arm balances and backbends. It is cute to see their faces light up at doing things they thought beyond their level.

At tea time this week, Jessie read poetry aloud for the first time. Very cool! Afterwards she even wrote her own.

And if that isn’t enough goodness, I’ll close this post with a quote from Jessie: “Thank goodness you have family and friends to take care of you. ”

Indeed!

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Took Sam to get his hair cut, stopped by Petco, took us out to lunch, took the kids skating. Afterwhich I was took-ered out.

Came home and got the kids going on their lessons for the afternoon.

Sam is zooming through the first few assignments in Singapore Math 6a. This is his first open foray into Algebra. Though I pointed out to him that he’s really been doing algebra for a while. it is only that no one called it that until now.

Jessie did another sight word lesson. We took time to review yesterday’s words by gluing the paper strips onto a sheet of paper. She remembered all of them. Then she continued drawing new words. Tomorrow I think we’ll do a word building exercise.

All their lessons and chores were finished I’m time for electronics hour. Yay!

By dinnertime I was completely wiped. Thank goodness for homemade soups in the freezer!

My upper back is now in a yelling match with the ruptured disc in my lower back. But meds are all onboard and I’m waiting for them to take effect.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Okay. Trying posting from my iPhone thru Posterous to my WordPress blog…

If the picture shows up, you’ll see a picture of Jess who was very proud of the words she spelled today.

We’ll do more tomorrow. By way of review I was thinking to have her glue the word strips to a paper.

Okay, here goes… Hrm… The app crashed when I hit send. Gonna try once more…

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Beyond that leme tell ya briefly about something I’m gonna try with J tomorrow for reading… Got the idea from a recent SCM newsletter (Simply Charlotte Mason).

So I’m gonna take the first paragraph of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” poem by Nancy Willard. It is a story that J and I both like. The inside flap has a shorter poem form of the story. Sort of a prelog.

I’ve printed it out using StartWrite. Two copes. One is cut into individual words. The other left complete. First activity will also use the Banamagram tiles too.

First I’m going to pull out a cut word and ask her to read it. I don’t expect her to have much trouble with this group. Assuming she can, I will then hide it and ask her to spell it with tiles. If she has trouble I’ll show her the card and have her spell it while looking. Third part of this exercise will be to find the word in the complete passage. We’ll go until she finishes or until 15 minutes is up.

I’d really like to add pictures and links but it isdifficult or impossible with the iPhone and this interface. And I am outta time.

Off to take the evenings pain meds and hope for a good night’s sleep. Tonight will hopefully be the third in a row. Tomorrow I meet with the orthopedic doc to see what the next step is now that I’ve had the MRI and epidural steroid injection.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

1. basics/drills
2. kata
3. sparring drills
4. weapon
5. kicks

I’ll admit #5 was a grasp for straws but it is an area I need to work on.

Okay so there’s your random thought for the day.

Going camping this weekend with the dojo. Lots to do tomorrow to get ready. We’re all excited. Bob does Hospital Hill on Saturday. (Go Bob!) I hope he can make it camping for Saturday night.

Told Sam today that if we do 2 more regular weeks of school work, we can start summer break a week early. He’s excited, so is Jessie. I think we will sit down that first week and the three of us decide on a daily schedule. It may fluctuate but I hope it will give them some experience in time management. *crosses fingers* And keep us from floundering through the summer.

One thing I’ll be doing on those “off” weeks is detailing out the first quarter of next year. Have all the books and have planned out the quarter so what I’m really going to be doing is planning out the lessons I hope to cover in the first quarter.

Will be continuing to use the modified workbox system. For some reason, not tieing every lesson to a time has helped. Rather I’m just listing an order. Somehow it all gets done faster. Weird! Some things, like 4H, have a time but others, like Latin, are just done that day.

I’m really excited about next years curriculum and can’t wait to start using it. The kids are too which is a definite plus.

K. Nuff rambling. Time for bed. G’Nite!

I need to work on the low stances in fukyugata ichi and my turns into them. Also need to look a little more intense during presentation. I’m coming up neutral. That’s not bad, but intense is better. Intense “sells” you to the judges. I feel funny doing it that way but will do it.

Did quite a bit of sparring. Amazing what a workout that is! I don’t realize I’m even breathing a little hard until I hear “break!” I’m “boxing the ring” well and hitting targets consistently. Yay me! Wish I was more conscious of it. But in this context “just doing” is better than thinking, no?

When sparring with Sensei I feel like I”m waiting for that other-shoe-to-drop. ‘Cuz I know eventually he’s going to ramp it up and really make me work. I gotta figure out how to block and counter his hook kick! Something besides punching his backside.

Felt more comfortable in the ring. Even weathered my first “injury”… a fat lip. (no mouthpiece yet) Sam got to watch and according to him I look quite fierce even though I swear I was smiling… not fiercely… just an I’m-having-fun sort of smile. Maybe that will work to my advantage in two weeks if I can manage it there.

So, I’ve got things to work on and I’m looking forward to them.

I finally picked up a copy of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrara and it has shed some revealing light…

I’m not doing an effective job teaching Latin. :\ Or not thoroughly according to Sam’s worksheet answers. But if you have him translate the chapter in the book, he can do a pretty good job of getting the jist of it. He can certainly memorize the vocab easily enough.

So, as I type this, I am thinking it is perhaps a case of not enough practice exercises utilizing the chapter’s focus points…? There is something I can do to be more effective anyway…

Loosing my focus now. Barb, of Harmony Fine Arts fame,  had some good information on creating rubrics in her recent blog post. Mebbe that will help.

Enough of that for now. Off to make pancakes! Did you know it is Pancake day?