Seven Quick Takes, conferences, trips and such

Seven Quick Takes

1. 

I haven't done my 7 Quick Takes in a while. So here it goes!

2. 

This week was conference week at school. Long story short, all kids are doing well. Max's teacher seems to really like Max and feels for him more than she lets on. She talked about how the first month was very stressful for him and she could see it in his eyes. She said there were times she wanted to hug him and tell him it would be okay. I initially didn't like this teacher very much at first, because on my first and second meeting with her, she didn't come off as very warm and friendly, but this time she won me over. I guess some people aren't warm and friendly naturally, but that doesn't mean that they don't care. Anyway, she has given him many "outs" that I didn't even know about (for his sake because she could see that certain things were too stressful for him), and Max tells me that she always takes the time to zip up his impossible jacket with the impossible zipper. I don't even take the time to do this--because the zipper is pretty much broken. So all these little things tell me that even though she can't be at Max's side all the time during the day, she is still keeping her eye on him. 

3. 

Lucy is doing well too, but I was surprised when the teacher told me how behind Lucy is. I always thought of Lucy as being "ahead of the game" because of her love of learning. With this school, they have a different system in finding a base-level for the kids; they give the end of the year tests to the kids at the beginning of the year; this way they learn who is "ahead of the game" and needs more of a challenge, and who could use more help with the grade that they're at. So of course with these tests, they don't expect the kids to understand a lot of the stuff since it's a grade higher than where they're at right now. This explains why Max came home those days very upset exclaiming, "Those teachers are giving me tests that I haven't even learned yet!"

Anyway, Lucy is slightly below the other kids but the teacher isn't worried because she sees that Lucy has the interest to learn.

4.

Luke is also doing well (it's Kindergarten, how can you fail that?) but he isn't recognizing a lot of the letter sounds, so the teacher asked permission to put him in a special reading group where they work one-on-one with kids who need it. The other concern is that they say that Luke gets emotional pretty easily at school over little things--over a ripped piece of paper, something that doesn't go right, or if someone hurts his feelings. In other words, Luke is the "sensitive kid"! He doesn't show that side around here at all, though sometimes he does tear up easily. Hopefully it's just a stage because you don't want to think of your kid crying at school. 

5.

Other than conferences, we also took a one day trip to Superior to visit Dennis's mom. She's about a month out from her heart surgery and is doing well. She has a large scar going up to her sternum and is still a little sore. She said she can go back to work in a few weeks. She also had cut her hair short (of which I have to confess, I didn't notice until she pointed it out. But her hair grows so fast it never stays short for long.) She said that it was all the way down to her waist, and on the day of her surgery, she had her sister cut her hair so that it wouldn't be a rat's nest after the surgery. So as they wheeled in the gurney to get her, there they were, cutting her hair. She donated the hair to "Locks for Love", a place where you can donate your hair to make wigs for people who can't afford them. Wasn't that nice? 

The kids did great with the ride up  to and from Superior. I was especially happy with Henry, who hardly fussed at all. And when he fell asleep, the kids were so good about being quiet without me having to shush them at all. 

6. 

The other day, I made a chaplet of St.Philomena with a medal that has the second-class relic of St.Philomena. I posted about it on my other blog, Roses for Mary, and it sold the same day! I was pretty happy about this--this is the reason why I have that blog, to do my advertising. The woman who bought it said she saw it on my blog. It makes me wonder if the other rosaries that have sold were from readers from my other blog; this is the only reason why I want comments on that blog, to get to know my readers, otherwise, I'll never know if my blog is working as advertising or not, unless the person says so.

Jerry, you asked how the "rosary business" is going; well, here's a little more in-depth answer for you: it's going better than last year, and I thought that last year went really well. However, when I looked back over the stats of sales and page views, it actually really didnt' go that well at all.  It didn't bother me at that time because I was thinking of my Etsy more of a hobby than as a business. Now, I think of my Etsy more as a business because it's become my goal to use this as my part-time job and get paid at least part-time wages. I was feeling discouraged this year that my Etsy is still not quite at a part-time wage level, but it's not too far off either. My sales have doubled or even tripled over these past few months. I've definitely learned a lot about what you can do to expose your business and improve your products. I have a lot of new ideas of what I'd like to do with my rosaries, and my hope is that by next year, I will be able to call Etsy my new part-time job!

7.

Speaking of Etsy, do you remember when I asked you what you thought this was?

If you guessed a rainbow octopus, you are wrong, but I can see why you would guess this! It is actually furniture. That's right, furniture! It's sold in Europe in an Etsy business. And yes, this person makes a lot of money! You're supposed to arrange the "strands"in whatever way you want to make a chair, couch, bed or whatever. Weird, but effective.

And last, but not least, here is Max's first essay from school, in his own words:

Toy Store

I love toy store. The toy store is the best store in the universe. I hear people saying I want this and I want that. There are big kids and little kids and medium kids and grown ups. When I eat snacks I think about toy stores. My body feels so excited when I go to the toy stores and I smell toys. I love toys!

The teacher was very proud of this essay. And yes, he does smell the toys.

Ok, I'm going to attempt to make Apple Sin Bread. I will let you know how it goes! Visit Jen at the Conversion Diary!