@Critterfixer-- hoping the back pain's subsided. You sound extraordinarily busy. Today I tried to do as little as possible and mostly succeeded. A little wonderful thing happened: the Economist's "Style Guide" arrived. It is so much fun to read! Here's a little example, as well as I can render it given constraints of the forum editor: "Fractions are more precise than decimals (3.33 neglects an infinity of figures that are embraced by 1/3), but your readers probably do not think so. You should therefore use fractions for rough figures: 'Kenya's population is growing at 3 1/2% a year.' 'A hectare is 2 1/2 acres.' and decimals for more exact ones: 'The retail price index is rising at an annual rate of 10.6%.'" I don't know, just makes me happy.

Today was fairly successful, though we are In Process with gingerbread houses which is taking a surprising amount of time. However. The base houses are now assembled & drying; icing is ready to go; and the candy decorations have been unearthed. So tomorrow should be all the fun bits of gingerbread-house making. Tonight: straighten a bit & grok out tomorrow; get clean; tuck boys in; watch something with DH, hurrah! Tomorrow I'd like to focus on more doing as little as possible and a good deal of exercise. We're getting some vaccinations (flu, COVID booster) and DH and I have date night, probably on the heated patio of a place in town.

Happy Day-After-Christmas. 🙂 This week the goals are: lots of family time; get plenty of exercise; begin to recover the house from the depredations of the holiday season; generally do as little as possible.

Merry Christmas! 🙂 Hope the lake has been wonderful. & this ongoing thread has been a wonderful gift to me. My very best to y'all & yours.

Yay! hope she's even closer to 100% today. We Got Stuff Done. The house is getting messy; stuff needs wrapping; the fridge needs cleaning; tomorrow is our grocery run. Whee!

Evening! I'm sending Good Thoughts to you & your dog, Critterfixer -- glad you have her medicines on hand, and I hope she recovers soon. Today we got a chunk of stuff done: some very very minimal school, boys & DH made a run to the dump, I did holiday stuff & got some exercise. Tomorrow will see some last-minute Christmas errands and an hour or so drive to catch up with some of the friends who would have been at our Christmas party -- they live several hours away, but happen to be much closer for an afternoon in the park tomorrow so the boys & I will have a chance to see them.

Yay holiday break! This week is pseudo-holiday break. Today I cancelled our Christmas Tea party b/c of omicron realities; and need to get exercise, do holiday prep, clean house, stay sane and joyful.

Afternoon! Exciting day here; lots to do for holiday, and I need to get some exercise to hammer in my sleep + keep migraines at bay -- this is the first week in months that I haven't had one, and I'd like to keep it that day. Essentials: Joy! project holiday joy. Exercise for me! so's I can sleep. Holiday prep! hurrah. House cleaning, brine chicken for tomorrow's dinner, prep veggies if I can find the time School -- work on fleshing out next week. We're taking off from Christmas Eve 'til New Year's. <bracing breath> I need to gear myself up for getting back to being hardcore.

Evening! We are here, hurrah. Plus another day of migraine averted, yay! Tomorrow: Math all around; Latin, Greek for younger; poetry memorization all around; something I'm forgetting right now ... poetry proper? Literature/Shakespeare? Shopping, few errands Fitness for boys: run + walk the dog, DareBee Fitness for me: yoga, strength, aerobics, some evening yoga for sleep Work in house, work on school planning, request/order copies of newer Sappho translation + Sophocles translation I want, find Herodotus

Evening! Today went well enough; we ended up focusing on "Santa's Workshop" art kits, which served purposes, so that was good. Fitness is happening; I kept a migraine at bay; and my sleep is gradually improving. Hurrah! Left for the evening: boys watch some videos; I exercise & drop a line to a friend. For tomorrow: history, perhaps, plus basics OR I may run some errands; fitness as usual; PM piano lesson for younger; pasta for dinner, either alfredo or with some sort of creamy butternut squash sauce.

You know, that sounds wonderful! Today has nearly gone: we got essential stuff done. Most of it. Well, some of it 😉 Tomorrow: Latin, math, music, some English for younger; history all around. Fitness for everybody, including some strength & yoga for me (plus aerobics) House, holiday work School, other planning.

Morning! Baddish migraine today, which was intended to be a quiet get-stuff-done & catch-up-on-exercise day; DH and the boys are out of the house for several hours. New goals: cycle through migraine management protocol, bit of cleaning, bit of school, bit of strength training, nap.

Argh! we need hair cuts too! But I don't want to do them. We'll see how shaggy the boys get. Today: basics; some stuff to do with work to be done in the kitchen; fitness with boys; dinner with DH. We're all watching Star Wars at night these days, which is pretty great.

Oh, my. I'm going to miss you so much. How's the fall/early winter coming? Today has been migraine management, basic school, some holiday prep. This evening is migraine management, RPG, and some holiday/house work.

Well! we made it through the day. Yay! Dh's travel schedule is picking up: he's gone through Sunday, boo shame. But despite him traveling + life, we all got in fitness today; I managed a run while boys did afternoon dishes & had some computer time; younger had a successful piano lesson (no tears! he felt pretty good about it!); and we had a Real Dinner (not just pasta) & greens with Real Dressing (not just raw broccoli & carrots). So there is, probably, hope. Tomorrow is a sort of half-day. Kick it off with our group read-aloud (LotR) and an hour of work, then grocery shopping + lunch in town + couple of errands, then bit of PM school. Getting to bed on time will probably make all that go better. 😉

Yay! for NaNoWriMo + !!!! double Yay! for boosters! 🎉 <---- general party noises today, here: basics. Migraine prevention/treatment (mild one this AM); engage school for boys, troubleshooting as we go; fitness all around; engage our "French eating" goals (some of which are quite fun, like having delicious food); date night with DH. DH is having a hard time lately. So I'd like to be an uplifting presence. Gonna do my best.

Well, I'm sure that there are many reasonable perspective on the use of BCE/CE (including SWB's, which in her History of the Ancient World is that "using BCE while still reckoning from Christ's birth seems, to me, fairly pointless") but as I pick up reading THotAW I wanted to toss out a concern I have -- and a request for adjustment in future editions -- as a sort of public letter open to comment & disagreement. SWB's point is one my [secular humanist] husband has made himself: really, if you are just relabeling stuff and continuing to track dates from around the birth of Jesus, then what is the point of swiching from BC/AD to BCE/CE? And generally I have found that mainstream Christians, orthodox Christians, and many secular folks share this sentiment. If the labels were BJ and AJ for "before Jesus" and "after Jesus," then the argument would hold. "Jesus" is our version of the name of the Palestinian Jew who came to be at the center of the Christian faith. However. The initials used are BC and AD. They mean "before Christ" and "Anno Domini" (in the year of the Lord). Neither refers to the name of a historical person. Both refer to messianic titles bestowed upon a historical person by those who believed he was the Jewish Messiah. So while my Muslim friends have wonderful conversations with me about "Jesus" they have never once had a conversation with me about "Christ": "Christ" is a Messianic title they don't apply to Jesus. Even less would my Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist friends be comfortable labeling the historical Jesus as their "Lord." So, by using the abbreviations for "Common Era" (CE) and "Before the Common Era" (BCE), we allow observant followers of non-Christian religions, and the more carefully-spoken secularists among us, to use speech that is plain and honest. We do not press them into calling "Christ" or "Lord" a man who is neither to them. Thanks for reading, and considering these things!

No shop??

You know, this is HUGE. I think most of us find one of these comes more easily, but both are needed to educate a child.

You know, I just came across a very interesting -- and quite old -- post on Physics Forums. The sort of thing I like: opinionated, experienced & erudite. Won't work as-is for me (or probably for anyone else!) but I'm pulling some of the resources for us to try -- the Gelfand Algebra, for example, which I found as a free pdf. Anyhow, might be fun to look at.

I'd be grateful for book ideas for my older fellow -- 16. He has thoroughly enjoyed stuff in the title (Westerfeld's Leviathan but not so much the Pretties/Uglies; Meyers sci-fi fairy tale retellings but not so much her other stuff; McCall Smith's Ladies Detective Agency) as well as: Calpurnia Tate books humor by Dave Barry good books on space, rockets, esp. Russian space program What If? and to a lesser extent xkcd Soonish Raymond Smullyan's logic books And he is studying Russian this year (entirely voluntarily!) but is not, of course, literate in that language. Thanks in advance for ideas. He's a harder fit than my younger one. So far, I've got a few more of the Ladies' Detective Agency books on my list + a Raymond Smullyan.

If the children enjoy beautiful books: I like the Everyman's Library children's classics. I often look for titles I want used at AbeBooks. Unusual books with excellent writing in high-quality bindings: New York Review Children's Collection. NOT classic, more for thread-readers than the OP: for some fun reads for children, look at Sonlight's summer readers. (It seems to me that there really isn't a lot like The Hobbit. 🙂 I mean, folks (including me!) can make lots of suggestions. Lean fantasy-ward, look for wonderful authors. But the Hobbit is just phenomenal.)

briefly: WHOO-HOO!!!! ☕ <--- cup of tea or coffee or maybe an Inspirational Tisane

Evening! Would like to dabble in yoga tonight before bed. Kicking it off tomorrow: bit of morning yoga; look over holiday stuff I'd like to get done this week, plan a quick trip by the grocery store for some veggies & dip for Game Night, and maybe some cheese so we can add a Cheese Course to dinner. !!! It's a goal of mine, will have to be super simple. Probably start with mozzarella 🙂 .

Evening! Well, pies got done in time for Thanksgiving; we spent it with a wonderful family we're friends with and see only rarely; and today the only shopping was the weekly grocery run -- which DH did with the boys so I could spend some time doing not much of anything at all. The kitchen here isn't clean yet, and we didn't even do the whole meal. !!! Tomorrow will see us, good Lord willing & creek don't rise, picking out a tree. And I need to keep going with migraine prevention; and, of course, clean & prep school. Plus just read some: I'm craving that.