Life Lately: A Dumb Computer, Pio’s Cough, and Dennis the Menace

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A Dumb Computer

Our laptop died awhile back, and we replaced it. But the new one is All Around Worse. We’ve adapted to the slowness and general decrease in functionality, but one area in which we haven’t figured out a work around is pictures.

When I try to upload pictures from my camera, the computer just spends a lot of time thinking about it before calling it a day and heading to the bar. David did some research and concluded it’s the program Microsoft has for photos, and it’s buggy for everyone.

That’s all good and well, but it means that I can’ t easily upload pictures, which means I can’t really blog. To stay a part of the Homeschool Review Crew, I need to post at least once a week. So I decided that if the images are what’s holding me back from blogging, I’ll make a generic image to use for whatever post I’m working on. We’ll see if that helps.

Pio’s Cough

We just can’t catch a break. Pio’s had a cough for a little over a week. We popped in at the pediatrician’s office to have a listen, and she said he sounded fine. Well– he sounds terrible, but his lungs are fine. We’re just supposed to watch for labored breathing and a temp of over 100.4. So we’re waiting it out.

What We’re Reading

We got this book from the library two days ago, and I’ve read it to Bea…probably about 10 times. Good thing it’s pretty short.

We finished this one as a read aloud. I requested it as an inter-library loan back in December, since it’s a Christmas book, but the kids still enjoyed it when it finally arrived in January. I appreciated how helpful the children in the story were. As a poor family with a widowed mother, the older girls played a big role in keeping the family afloat. But they weren’t resentful of their situation. A lesson for all of us!

This board book from 2002 was snagged at a library book sale when Cee was little (it was dated even then!), and it’s logged a lot of miles since. It’s Mateo’s new favorite. More than any of the other kids, Mateo likes to sit and re-read a book in the same sitting. When we finish a story, he likes to repeat it right then and there. Thankfully this one is also short, so I can “read” it upside down or when I can’t even see the pages.

Dennis the Menace

We’ve been enjoying old episodes of the 1959 TV show Dennis the Menace on hoopla. (It looks like it’s available on Amazon for those of you with Prime.) Although Dennis does model some negative behaviors, overall it’s a wholesome, slower paced show with lots of humor. Our library offers six hoopla “rentals” per month. We’re down to two for the remainder of January, so we have to pace ourselves.

I’ve taken to staying up after Pio’s 2nd night-time feeding to get things done. It’s a small window, but a window nonetheless of quiet time before everyone else is awake. Now that window is closed for the day as everyone wakes up, so that brings an end to Life Lately!

Check out my latest post for BookShark, How to Handle One Science Experiment with Multiple Children.