In Like a Lion

I know. It's all over the news. March is roaring in like a lion. So cliche. I hate the spring and the weather in the Midwest. I still like weather, but I don't like living with it. I used to think that it would be really cool to see a tornado. Well, yeah. I still think that but you sort of get side-tracked when protecting your family. We haven't been shooed to the basement yet but it is coming. This year we are more or less prepared. All the flashlights, with working and backup batteries, candles, and lollipops (must always feed children) are stored in one convenient place. Our backup shoes (because who wears them to bed or wants to grab them after being awakened from a dead sleep?) are currently on loan to preschool for their shoe store. And there is never a cell phone in reach when you need one. But for the most part, we have what we need. This year we created a sitting area decorated in our best dormitory decor. Plastic Adirondack chairs, anchored by an area rug and unused coffee table, partitioned from the rest of the cavernous basement with silk trees that should have gone to the dump years ago. Should there be a strong overnight threat, the kids will sleep on the rug and Andy and I get the mattress from the sleeper sofa. This is so much better than moving everyone at 2:17AM. And the arrangements are none to soon. The sun is rising as I type and the sky has a eerie glow. It's not tornado green and it's not rainy gray and it's not sunrise pink. I can't really name the color but everything has a surreal aura about it. I'm quite certain that a picture wouldn't do it justice.

In other news, third grade seems to be the year to have teeth extracted. Ellen will be joining the ranks next week, if the dentist's child ever gets well so she can come back and see patients. Ellen had one cavity in the center of a tooth that was cleaned out and filled. She is among the 50% of cases where that treatment fails. So, they are taking the tooth out since it wouldn't come out on its own for another few years. In the mean time, knowing that the 3 members of our household who precede her had teeth removed at about age 8, I moved up her orthodontist appointment to see what they thought. If she is having multiple teeth yanked, then I'd like to do them all at one time. Yup. The orthodontist thinks it would be a good idea to remove 4 more to accommodate the many crooked permanent ones. Crooked is a bit of an understatement. They are more like sideways. And there is one that they think will erupt in the roof of her mouth, behind the others. Ellen is thrilled to be the fifth kid in her class to have teeth extracted this year. I think I'll go back to school and study dentistry, a lucrative business. Maybe I'll specialize in orthodontics, since after the teeth come out an appliance goes in to hold the space.

Going out on a limb, I am going to report that Megan can read. She is not fluent, but she gets it. She can sound out almost all short vowel words. She still has a few digraphs left to learn but she gets it. She sounds them out one letter at a time and knows what she reads. Attached to the preschool calendar for March was a letter stating that it is Read Across America month. So that's what we are doing. We're hoping that with 15 minutes a day she will move to long vowels and multi-syllable words before April. Now, all of this means that I am rethinking private school since my primary reason for looking was reading. I still like the private school better for a variety of reasons but fewer of them are academic. And it's a lot of money. If I invest the tuition now, it could pay for a year of college later. Someone please pray that I get some wisdom on this decision!

And can you feel it? It must be March. Some mighty fine match-ups this week and more to come!