I have a burning desire to live for a year somewhere very remote. Like Alaska, or the Scottish Highlands, or an island in Wisconsin - where I'd have to buy food in bulk for the winter and homeschool my kids. I'm sure I'd go crazy, but still.

It's a busy day here at Chez Petri. L has scarlet fever (basically strep gone bad - kid has a HIGH pain tolerance and doesn't know when he has strep) I have strep, M & A are going to the doctor this afternoon, cuz I'm thinking they have it too - I don't know how they swallow with those tonsils. Husband has doctor's appt this afternoon - he is not getting better either. (He had the real live flu a week and a half ago, went to Calif. for work for a week, came home with a double ear infection and a hacking cough. )

Soooo. I spent the morning with a bottle of spray Clorox cleaner. My house is spotless from about lightswitch height down. I need a bug bomb for strep...

I do know that I am lucky. My kids seem to get one huge illness about twice a year. I have friends whose kids are sick every week. And no one has asthma.

I really thought I'd be down & depressed, but it's so ridiculous it's funny. Although, everyone MUST get better soon - I'll never get anything together for Xmas or A's b-day (on Friday) if they aren't at school.

How can it be December? I mean, really. According to my last post, it was just October.

Well, it's been an interesting day. I don't know if I'll have any hair left next week. My husband leaves for San Jose tomorrow until the 8th, and M has been a holy terror today. She drew on her face (and other things) with red marker, that wasn't exactly permanent - but difficult to get off. (I tried alcohol, which got it off the couch, and the TV, and the carpet, but not her skin.) Then, while I was in the shower, she cut off half of her hair. (she doesn't have much to begin with.) My other two children NEVER cut their own hair (or anyone else's!) Then, this evening, she & A were in the big bathtub splashing around and my husband came running up yelling something about the water. Turns out, the water they had been splashing was dripping down the light fixture in the kitchen (right underneath the tub).

ARRRRRRGGGGH.

It doesn't help that my husband has the cold that I had two weeks ago (Hello! I cooked Thanksgiving dinner feeling JUST LIKE THAT) and he is a big fat baby about it. Ok, well not exactly a baby, but he is sleeping while all this other stuff is going on, and it makes me crabby. I have no patience for sick people. I am a very nurturing person at all other times in their lives, but when they are sick, I can't handle it. (awful, huh?)


I started a Yahoo!Groups for the middle school discussion, but no one is saying anything on it yet. (it's viamontessori) It'll happen eventually (both the discussion AND the middle school) - there is just a learning curve, and I have to invite more people, come up with something intriguing to say and then...

I'm still on the Sharon Shinn bender - I read more of the Samaria series, and a Twelfth House book. Verry nice. I put down the Jovah's Angel after my last post & can't find it. (Ack!) I read an awful T.A. Barron, but it was his first, so hopefully they get better. And L & I have been listening to Sabriel by Garth Nix. Something about the snow that makes me want to read that book again and again.

Well, I'm working on a paper discussion the various options for a Montessori Middle School, so I should get back to it. If it works well, I might post it. Everyone is asleep, so it's quiet here, except for the hum of the portable heater, drying under the bathtub.