Crappy Cake Week

So this week was the busiest I've had in months.  I like busy.  Busy makes me happy.  But this was stressful busy. There was a lot of unnecessary tension and by Friday afternoon my staff was practically cowering in the corner (and my secretary was literally in tears). Why do so many lawyers create their own emergencies?  Procrastination is not your friend.

In the middle of a phone call came from my mother informing me that she was on her way here (again), and that they were expecting to amputate her leg. It has been infected since before her multiple surgeries last year, and the infection just won't go away. She has been in the hospital on IV antibiotics for weeks, which suppress the infection while she is on them, but as soon as she goes off of them it comes raging back. The infectious disease doctors told her there is nothing more they can do.

Of course, the surgeon is another matter.  He's saying maybe they can just open up her leg and clean it out.  Yeah--they've already done that once and it didn't work. I think that plan will just delay the inevitable. So we don't know for sure what's going to happen.  But she's here and there's no telling how long she's going to be here. And her husband is supposed to be here for 6 weeks starting next month for a bone-marrow transplant. So, yeah, this is gonna be fun.

And then I got a 14-page order denying my 12(b) motions.  Was it really necessary to take 14 pages to tell me that my arguments sucked? That was just the icing on this crappy-cake week.

In happier news, the kids seem to be back on track.  The twins have B's in math and A's in everything else, and are slowly earning privileges back. SS has received a ton of compliments about how much she has improved in volleyball since last season--which is the first time one of my kids has ever shown any athletic prowess. It looks like this will be her "thing". And TT is doing great with the flute.  It is so much easier to get her to practice than it was with the violin, and she seems to really like band.  So maybe we've found her "thing," too.

Kids and Math and Life

So after a week of tough love, the twins are passing math again. We spent many hours at the table doing makeup work.  I've also learned that they do not know their multiplication tables. Yes, it does make me a failure as a mother that my 6th graders don't know their multiplication tables.  And since the work that their doing now is all about factoring, it is a major handicap for them. So this weekend we are taking the guerrilla approach to memorizing multiplication tables.  It will be all flash cards, all the time.  I made them make their own.  And when they don't know one, we do a little chant, so that we can assault all of our senses in the quest for memorization. I don't think there are a whole lot of things in this world that have to be memorized, but the multiplication tables are on the short list.

PS is having her own struggles.  I don't think she was prepared for how much harder high school was going to be. We leave the house at 7:30 in the morning, and she's staying at school until 6 for robotics most nights and then doing homework until about 10. The poor kid hardly has a free moment.  I've pretty much eliminated her chores, and bumped the twins' allowance for picking up the slack.

We are now well into the fall frenzy--where our weekends are filled with the kids' activities. I limit how many activities they can participate in, but with 3 kids, it still adds up to a lot of running around. The twins had girl scouts last night, PS had to be at school at 7:00 this morning for robotics, and the twins have conflicting softball practice and volleyball games this afternoon, followed by volleyball practice tomorrow.  It's ok for now, but if there is a wrench thrown in, it will be hard.  I've heard that my mother might be coming back, but she hasn't bothered to actually tell me this. So for now I'm just holding my breath and hoping for the best.