Lazy sick day

I'm having one of those wonderful days when I'm home alone and in a position to do exactly what I want all day long. I love days like that.

Accordingly, I've read e-mail, played Settlers online, and had oatmeal with apples and cinnamon for breakfast, and a cup of tea.

I've also decluttered large parts of Elizabeth's room, orange-oiled her dresser, dug up and put to use a little heart-shaped china basket as a hair elastic holder (I believe it started life as a dollar-store teacher gift), sorted her clothes so the summer ones are in the bottom drawer ready for packing away, and the middle drawer is nice and neat, organized my regifting box of baby clothes (mostly things that were out of season when Elizabeth grew into them, and a few items which are very masculine, so she never wore them), folded and put away her laundry, did a load of adult laundry and generally cleaned up. I don't do these things on the weekends, when everyone is around; then, I spend as much time as possible doing absolutely nothing. No, I do these things on a day when I have a perfect excuse to do absolutely nothing!

What's more, I persevered and continued to do these things through a sinus headache that has me wondering when the tylenol will kick in so I can go to bed again.

I'm just nuts.

Naps, or lack thereof

Sunday it was jackhammers.

Yesterday it was work.

Today it's outdoor phys.ed. classes.

I'm certain it's an anti-nap conspiracy.

Connections :)

For the first time in many years, I've just been able to use a Salvation Army connection to my advantage.

About two weeks ago, I emailed THQ (territorial headquarters, in Toronto) about music theory books. I went shopping for some kind of music theory resource, and ran into two serious problems. First, no publisher puts out music theory books designed for school use. The ones they have start at about $10, which is way outside the price range of an elementary school. Second, music of any kind is excluded from Cancopy licenses. It is illegal to photocopy music of any kind, so I can't buy for music the kind of photocopiable resource book I would buy for other subjects. They don't exist. (This, to my mind, is a very silly law. For the sake of music theory, there should be reproduceable resource books available for classroom teachers, so that the purchaser is permitted to copy pages for their own classes. They're shooting themselves in the foot to not allow that; people do it anyway, on the sly, and the publishers lose money on it. But I digress.)

I got an email back from the guys in the music department today. I went to music camp at Jackson's Point with one of them, maybe both, but they didn't recognize me by my married name. I dropped a tidbit about who I'm related to, so they'll do some checking and come back with, "I remember you from Jackson's Point in 1991!" They did, however, recognize the married name and connect it to Piet's family. The Salvation Army is a very small world.

I was rather surprised that it wasn't my cousin who ended up answering my request. I believe he works in the music department. My uncle (whose name I dropped) ran the Music Department for about fifteen years.

The music theory resource published by the Army for use at Music Camp costs $3.50 per student book and $8.95 per teacher's edition, plus a buck or two for photocopiable tests. I think I can talk my principal into that; it's less than the math notebooks we just bought, so it's a definite possibility. And it's legal. I like doing things the legal way.

So, there it is. A connection I've had all my life just paid off big-time. How many other teachers have access to books like that? (Answer: all of them, if they knew who to ask, but they don't.)

I'm quite proud of myself.