Poor Matt

Matt is the only child in the family who had to go to school today. The elementary schools all have school but the middle schools and the high school got the day off (methinks the day off is for conferences. I will spare you the rant I have regarding post-elementary-school conferences. You're welcome). He is (understandably) miffed. He's hoping for rectification of this gross unfairness someday soon.

The other three got to sleep in monstrously late (I was busy enjoying the quiet and did not want to kill the mood by having teenagers wandering around the house, ignoring my orders) but are now finally among the living, just in time for lunch.

As per my personal code of conduct as a parent on days off school, I assigned each homebound child a job that needs doing that I don't want to do myself or that I have been putting off doing until a day off school so I can assign it out. Hayley picked "scrub the tub," one that she seems to like to do, Paul picked "scrub the inside of the fridge door." Other Jim was stuck with "wash the shelves in the fridge." He was last one up so he got last pick.

I joined in the fridge-cleaning "fun" and washed the drawers and the bottom of the fridge. I found that listening to "Pierre Lunaire" by Austrian composer Arnold Schonberg contributed positively to my fridge-cleaning mood, although I'm not sure how. It's definitely weird, being in the Sprechstimme style, but I was intrigued by it thanks to my Humanities class (and thanks to one of my musical friends who lent me the cd with the complete piece on it! Thanks, Jeannine!). It was only given a short paragraph in my text book, but I wanted to hear what "spoken singing" sounded like. And I didn't wander off while trying to get my job done, so thanks to Sprechstimme, I was able to concentrate on one task for more than five minutes.

Yesterday, I threaded up my sewing machines for the bathrobe! I knew that I'd encounter problems with threading because both machines are still unfamiliar to my hands and brain, so I planned only to thread them and didn't even think about beginning the actual construction of the bathrobe. And it was either knowing myself REALLY REALLY well, or it was self-fulfilling prophecy because I encountered problems with both machines. The serger had tension problems, which I finally diagnosed as the thread for both needles going down the wrong slots, and the sewing machine had bobbin winding problems, causing me to unwind the WHOLE &*!@^)!# bobbin BY HAND and rewinding it on the machine after fiddling with how to thread the machine for bobbin winding. I'm glad I hadn't expected to start sewing otherwise I would have tossed one of the machines out the window into the snow. But today is a new day, with a fresh attitude, and fresh promise of lounging around in a bathrobe all day by next Wednesday!

Time to check my list of things-to-do (and time to add "blog" to the list so I can cross it off) and get something else done.

Comments

Jenni said…
I can just see him stomping off in the snow muttering to himself. I applaud your efforts in both cleaning and sewing!! I hope things get better between you and your machines. It is a bit daunting at first.
Jeannine said…
I think it is hilarious that you were cleaning to "Pierrot Lunaire". It would be a total distraction for me.

I have a friend who used to turn on the Saturday Metropolitan Opera broadcasts while she and the kids cleaned. She's a classically trained singer and enjoyed it, but the kids (all grown now)hate opera.
Jen said…
I could have sworn I commented on this post, but I don't know what happened. Maybe I thought the w.v. went through and closed the window when it really hadn't been accepted.

Just when I thought we were all healthy again after Mimi's barfy day, now Annie's up with coughing, sneezing, sniffling and wheezing. She's doing another breathing treatment right now. Does it ever end with the kids being sick?!?!?!?

That's no fun for Matt to see his older siblings get to remain in bed while he has to trudge to school. Of course, it sounds like your eldest son prefers to be at school even when he is made to stay at home;) At least your kids that are home are doing something productive.

Ugh, I hope you get your machines figured out so you can get that dang bathrobe finished.
mastubz said…
We must have pics of the infamous bathrobe, when finished. I found a vintage Vogue pattern for a lovely housecoat (think dolman sleeves, tie belt and dropped back waste). It begs for sewing up in silk. Hmmmm - someday.