Sunday Sundries

[lunabee34]

1. Fiona started Pre-K! She is thrilled. On the very first day only, the school allows parents to park and walk the children in to their classrooms. I asked Fiona if she wanted me to walk her in or drop her off at the car-riders' line like I'd be doing the rest of the days of the school year. She said, "I want to do it by myself." She was grinning when I let her out and grinning when I picked her up. She doesn't have an ounce of anxiety about anything in her. I didn't even have time to tear up at all; I bawled like a baby when we dropped Emma off for kindergarten. I think some of that is because it's a second child, but mostly it's because Fiona was too happy and chill about it all for me to get a tear in edgewise.

Emma started high school! At orientation earlier this week, we were both flummoxed at her schedule which had her taking Advanced Band (without ever having had any kind of band whatsoever). We asked to have her moved to a different class, but I didn't have much confidence they'd do so. The middle school forced her to take the same exact class with the same exact content two years in a row and forced her to take chorus when she has no interest in it, so I was worried we'd run into the same thing. Fortunately, they switched her to Intro to Health Care. Georgia has a handful of career paths they make HS students choose; naturally, none of them map on to what Emma wants to do. There's art, agriculture (which is the one she chose; there are a couple classes in it that seem like they might be at least tangentially helpful or related to the marine biology she wants to pursue), health care, and a couple more. The health care one is really cool because if you know you already want to go into that field, when you graduate HS you will have a certificate degree (like an LPN or something like that) that will allow you to immediately work. It's just weird to me that they don't have a separate college prep track and that they force the kids into these tracks they're not going to use. Oh, well. It's not advanced band. I hate to be That Parent, but I didn't want her stuck in some class that's guaranteed to lower her GPA. (She's probably not going to be Valedictorian, but she *could* be, dammit.)

2. One week with onions and no problems!!!! Now I'm getting antsy to try something else, but I will be good and remain committed to my two week trial period for each new food.

3. Josh's physical therapy is going well. I think he's feeling a lot better.

4. Screw you, pants! I am having such an issue with pants. So, my weight has stayed constant since February, but I've lost another 1/2 inch in my hips since about March. This means that in dresses, I'm in a 10 (even an 8 in one notable case!), but pants continue to elude me. 12s are way too big, but I feel like 10s look too tight on me. IDK if they really do look too tight on me or if my perception is skewed because it's been years since I wore anything with a button and a zipper. I know that it took me multiple times of wearing the jeans I purchased to feel comfortable in them; I am so used to an elastic waist and nothing being tight that they *felt* too tight while not actually being too tight and looking perfectly fine. I also have the additional issue that my waist is way smaller than my hips, so when something fits me in the hips, I can stick a fist or two into the back of the waistband. I'm starting to think that I'm just not going to wear pants. Which is mostly fine but probably cold in winter. IDK

5. Finally, Downton Abbey is looking up!

Robert starts out this episode being an ass, but I am so glad he finally relents when forced to confront his own flirtations. That's why I can't help but like him in between his bouts of assholery. So many times, he does the kind and generous thing. Mary is most certainly her father's daughter in this respect: bouts of assholery followed by kindness.

Mary's hair is exquisite, but the way she's so mean to Edith totally overshadows the look for me. Mary has lost the love of her life; I cannot understand why she has so little empathy for her sister finally discovering the truth of Gregson's death. I'm starting to suspect that Mary and her rival are going to be friends. They seem cut from the same cloth.

I'm glad Mrs. Patmore extended the olive branch to Mr. Carson and invited him to see the house. That rare moment of honesty when Carson says he envies her future and Mrs. Hughes admits that she thinks it won't really matter in her case because she'll be dead was fairly gutting. I loved Carson suggesting that they retire together. Their relationship could not get more Remains of the Day if it tried.

I am so glad Edith is on her own with her daughter. She's inherited the publishing company, so she can live without any of her family's money. Good on her.

I had been seeing the farmer's wife as an unreasonable obstacle, but her genuine pain when Edith takes Marigold makes me reconsider. I can't help but think that all the anguish on both sides could have been eliminated if the wife had just been told the truth.

So Thomas has been trying to cure himself of homosexuality. I still don't like him, but I feel very sorry for him. And how wonderful and kind is Baxter?! I hope she and Molsley get married. I love the two of them. I was also very impressed that Mrs. Hughes just asked her if Lady Grantham knew her story and left it at that.

Molsley was so wonderful this episode. He's such a favorite of mine. I loved him helping Daisy because he wants to make sure at least one of them gets away. *oh, my heart*

The Dowager about broke my heart this episode. She clearly still loves the Russian prince and he loves her and none of that matters. She looked like she was about to cry when Isabel said she'd decided to marry again.

We now know that Bates did not kill Mr. Green. May that story line now die as quick a death as Mr. Green.

Finally, what's wrong with Isis? *worried*

Comments

[rydra_wong]

OMG you can have onions yay!!!!

[lunabee34]

I know! I am so happy. :)

[zulu]

Awww, pre-school! And getting to walk in all by yourself: the ultimate independence. Lucky Fiona! :D

Glad to hear the onions are giving you the nod.

[lunabee34]

I am so proud of her. She's a good kid. I think she is just going to flourish at pre-k.

I am so happy to be eating onions. It opens all these doors that were closed (like some soups in a can and tater tots).

[the_rck]

For many years, I wore stretch pants under dresses and skirts during the winter. I found it an advantage because I could wear normal socks and sensible shoes/boots and not worry about nylons.

The high school stuff sounds kind of weird. The high school Cordelia will attend doesn't have much in the way of practical career stuff compared to the very small school I went to in the 1980s. That school had about 500 kids total, but still had drafting classes and woodworking classes and autoshop and, for juniors and seniors, the option to spend half of each day going to 'the Skills Center' which did training for accounting, paramedic work, and a bunch of other things I've forgotten. The Skills Center was meant for kids who either knew they weren't going to college or who expected to have to do college part time while supporting themselves. Doing it meant missing out on a lot of other things those last two years, though, because the three class periods they actually had at the school were filled completely by required classes.

[lunabee34]

Yeah, I think most places have dropped the vocational stuff. As far as I know, shop doesn't exist at this school. They do have at least one Home Ec class although they call it something different. Emma's in that class for this semester.

[the_rck]

Shop and Home Ec were both required in middle school, all three years, but completely elective in high school. I found Home Ec a waste of time because I missed sixth grade which was when they taught sewing machines. I already knew how to follow a recipe, so the cooking part wasn't all that helpful, and, somehow, making latch hook rugs never came up as a useful skill later in my life.

Shop was challenging because they charged for wood past a certain amount, and you couldn't actually make anything useful without coming up with money for more wood. I made a spice rack in seventh grade that was too narrow to hold a spice bottle and a bookshelf in eighth grade that couldn't stand upright if it had books in it because the shelves were too shallow for any sort of balance. I could use it for paperbacks if I tilted it to lean against the wall at just the right angle.

The main thing I learned from Shop is that a room full of sawdust gives me allergy trouble for an hour or two after.

[lunabee34]

We could take a semester of each in middle school. My dad was the shop teacher. It was called industrial arts and was a real class. Home Ec was a joke. I don't remember learning anything in that class. I don't think we ever cooked anything. We did put on makeup samples one time. LOL

In high school, you couldn't take those classes if you took college prep classes.

[jackandahat]

Awwwwww, baby in school! I can't believe how old she is now.

I hear you on pants - I accepted I can't possibly be the size I was wearing considering I could remove them without unbuttoning. But the next size down feels tight, so. I think after a while of wearing one you get really used to it.

[lunabee34]

I know! Time is just flying by.

That second paragraph is exactly how I feel. Stupid pants. LOL

[monanotlisa]

Oh, God, the way the makers of pants assume one standard-size body drives me nuts -- I have the same...no, wait, it's not a problem, because you and I are not the problem: We merely have a narrow waist and wide hips, which really isn't that uncommon. Dressmakers like Karen Millen tailor exactly for that body type; why don't the makers of pants??

[lunabee34]

INORITE?

I have found some pants over the years, usually marketed toward "curvy" women, that have fit in the hips while nipping in at the waist, but they are few and far between.

[chelseagirl]

School starts at the beginning of August where you live? Wow. It's after Labor Day here.

[lunabee34]

Yeah. It seems to start earlier and earlier, too. They'll get out in May, though.

When I was in school it always started the Day after Labor Day.

[umadoshi]

Sounds like Fiona's gonna rock Pre-K. ^_^ And I'm glad Emma's school was willing/able to switch her classes!

ONIONS! That's so exciting!

[lunabee34]

So far, this semester is off to an awesome start!

:)

[torachan]

That's really weird that they assign electives. It also seems weird to me that band is a class you get graded on and not an after-school activity, but if the school wants to do it that way, whatevs. Putting someone in advanced band when there's no indication they play an instrument, much less at an advanced level, is pretty ridiculous, though.

[lunabee34]

It had to have been an accident, so *whew*. I'm sure getting the schedules of 800 kids straight is not easy. LOL

I hate that they assign electives, too, but I know why they do it. It's a rural school without the wealth of classes that you get in bigger school districts. They just don't have the classes to go around. If everybody wants to be in PE and Art, there just aren't enough of those classes to go around.

[executrix]

If everybody wants to take art and nobody wants to take Poultry Husbandry, it has *got* to be easier to send Ms. Wilkerson to an in-service course to teach her to teach art than to make 50 kids a semester stare at eggs.

[lunabee34]

Oh, come on now, Executrix. We don't use logic or reason when we structure our children's education. All sensible plans are immediately quashed upon voicing. Sheesh. Get with the program.

LOL

[torachan]

I guess that makes sense, though they could do it like colleges where it's first come, first serve and then you have to pick something else.

I went to a small private school, so there wasn't a lot of choice in electives, but there also wasn't a lot of students so the problem of classes being over-filled happened very rarely.

[lunabee34]

I went to a relatively small school as well, and we just circumvented that problem by having virtually no electives to take. LOL

[archersangel]

i didn't go to pre-school (or pre-kindergarden), it was very rare when i started going to school. i think only one kid in my class had gone.
but i vaguely recall getting to meet my teacher & check out the classroom beforehand.

[lunabee34]

I didn't go to Pre-K or kindergarten. They didn't have either in public schools in MS when I was that age. I just went straight to first grade.