Spicy Dragons & Dinosaurs

Listening to all those who tell me to take care of myself, I had someone clean the house today. It was a mess and I intended to straightened before she came over. Then, it snowed and I had to retrieve the snowblower from the fix it shop. But by the time I got home with the snow blower, two of my neighbors had shoveled my walk and all I had to do was the drive way (Yes, I live in the best neighborhood!). And so, I also blew another neighbor's walk because . . . well, that's what we do.

Back to the house and cleaning. The cleaner, Sharon, put things in piles -- books, articles, toys, coloring books, pens and pencils, folded laundry, dusted, vacuumed, and mopped. The bathroom is clean, and the floors in the halls are lovely. And she will come back in two weeks.

I wonder, just a bit, of my inability to even do the straightening up before cleaning. I just could not make myself do it. There was/is always something else to do, if only to read to Julia or write here. I usually do this well. I needed this caring. The clean that I did not have to do myself made me feel good.

And she will come back in two weeks.

I scrubbed the windows that Julia and her therapist, Ellen, painted. Since we are just across the street from our school bus stop, I had quite a few parent comments about these windows. Some liked them, some cautioned me that it would be awful to clean, one told me she'd never let her kid make that kind of mess. Well, Julia and Ellen did not make a mess. They painted some beautiful pictures which not hard to clean at all. Oh well, a bit harder than if the pictures were not there but totally work the elbow grease involved. I took pictures of two, only because I had tried to take pictures when they were first painted but the late fall outside washed out the paintings. I thought about a background of snow only after I had cleaned two of the windows and so . . .

Julia, the complete artist, is falling asleep next to me while "hiding" her small sketch book under the comforter. She said she wanted it there so she could draw first thing tomorrow morning. Whether she gets out of bed before she draws is my only question. And she told me that she was hiding the book -- I don't know how it is hidden if we both know about it.

I love that kid.

More often than not, when I come to get her after RE class, she is sitting with Erin, her aide, and a few other kids. I think they are the same kids. At least one is a boy who tells Julia how great her drawings are. And there is a little girl who seems to like Julia.

Please god, let her have friends!

Julia is now using numbers 1 through 20 with ease. Last summer, I worked on 1 through 6 with her, and she didn't always get it. She could count to 10 but did not always use from 6 to 10 practically.

I marvel at the opening of this mind. How much work with how many people, and still I consider it a miracle.