Feedback (Ba Dum Bum)
Well, in addition to the Mystery of the Blocked IPs, we now get to add the Mystery of the Wonky Feeds on Bloglines to this week’s blog drama. It seems some Bloglines users are finding that when they click through from my feed in their reader, they wind up at Old Bonny Glen (Typepad) instead of here at New Bonny Glen (WordPress). As best I can figure, this is the result of my having accidentally and for two minutes only reconnected the Typepad blog to my Feedburner feed, which blunder I discovered immediately, because suddenly a six-month-old Typepad post (the one announcing the launch of this here website) reappeared in my Google Reader.
It’s all very strange. I didn’t actually reconnect the Typepad blog to the Feedburner feed for this blog—what I did was create a new Feedburner feed for Old Bonny Glen, but for inscrutable and maddening reasons, Feedburner ignored the new feed and hooked the Typepad blog back up to my original Feedburner feed instead. And so I changed it right back and said argh a lot and have been scratching my head in befuddlement ever since.
But none of it matters because this post is so boring all my subscribers are going to unsub in disgust anyway. It was lovely knowing all of you, really. I’ll miss you.
Meanwhile (she says, speaking to the empty room), life! is! so! busy! And these are supposed to be the lazy days of summer? Ha! Appointments, appointments, appointments. ‘Tis eval season for my boy: OT, PT, you name it. Speech therapy resumed yesterday after a two-month hiatus. He receives it through the local public school district (but not OT/PT; I’m going through medical for those), and the schools here started back up on Monday! August 18th! They didn’t let out for the summer until late June. Which was last week, I’m pretty sure. The calendar claims there was something called “July” in the middle but I didn’t see it, did you?
So anyway, it’s appointment season for my lad. And for me: all the OB stuff. (I miss my Virginia midwife, sob.) And Jane: Jane is getting braces. Probably next week. So that’s kind of exciting. Today is x-ray and tooth-molds day for her. (See how clever I am? Scheduling it for back-to-school week? When, for once, the orthodontist has no other patients? OK, fine, it was a total accident caused by my procrastinating all summer, but if I HAD planned it this way, I would be a genius.)
A nice thing that has been happening lately is we’ve got our read-aloud groove back. For the past year, the Rilla-and-Wonderboy combination has made peaceful reading aloud, um, challenging. I have missed it! I gnash my teeth in jealousy in the quiet evenings when the little ones are asleep and Scott stretches out in the cool, breezy sunroom with a bevy of eagerly listening girls for uninterrupted reading time. OK, I’m not really gnashing my teeth—because I know, now, what my parents paid for the braces that made them nice and straight.
About which, by the way: um, thanks for that, Mom and Dad.
But anyway, recently I got it into my head that I wanted a return to happy readalouding (hush) of my own, so we’ve been working on it, working out ways to keep the little ones happy while I dust off all my best accents for the big girls. And it’s working, sometimes. Enough of the time. I’m satisfyingly deep into Understood Betsy with Rose and Beanie—Beanie was two years old last time we read this book aloud, so it’s new for her, and of course Rose is right there hanging on every word, because how can you not be? It’s one of the best read-alouds ever, and I don’t say that lightly. And you already know about my Austen revels with Jane. (Jane and Jane, ha!)
Nothing could be more delightful, to quote Jane the elder.
Sarah says:
How I love “Understood Betsy.” We just had a very satisfying read aloud session with “A Little Princess.” So delicious.
On August 21, 2008 at 7:41 am
Penny in VT says:
LOL! You are too funny!
I’m deep in read aloud heaven as well – my favorite part of the day by far… I’ll put UB on the list next!
We schedule all of our “stuff” for after school starts. Once we even had an entire zoo to ourselves…
On August 21, 2008 at 11:57 am
JoVE says:
Top homeschooling geek tip on the orthodontist. If they have digital x-rays, ask if you can have a copy. Ours gave us one and explained everything and it was pretty cool. You could show all the other kids about adult teeth and baby teeth…. Oh, I suppose Jane has all of hers.. We ended up with an expander at 10 to make sure there was room for all that other stuff. Not up to any “real” braces yet.
On August 21, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Stephanie says:
For what it is worth, it looks like my Google Reader switched my subscription back to typepad as well. I am glad that you posted about this so I could re-subscribe!
On August 21, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Sarah N. says:
I’m glad you posted too because my feed had reverted back to the typepad blog. I’m resubscribed now and it seems to be working fine.
We’re having a good run of read-alouds and I put Understood Besty on our library list. I can’t wait until my girls are old enough for Jane Austen. That will be so fun.
On August 21, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Jennifer says:
Google Reader sends me to Typepad too. And I didn’t get this post there. I’m so confused. But I’ll follow you anywhere.
I’m actually a little happy to hear that your read alouds have suffered (aren’t I a great friend?) – no, it’s just that I couldn’t/can’t make it work with only TWO children. My son makes the biggest fuss when I read to my daughter. It’s a challenge. I’ve been keeping Lucy up until 10:30 some nights just so we can squeeze in a chapter after beds. But we’re getting into a decent rhythm now – four years later.
On August 21, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Melissa Wiley says:
Yes, Jenn, I bet in some ways it’s actually easier for me to finesse read-alouds with five than for you with two–because I can assign one of my older girls to entertain the littles while I read to someone else. It doesn’t always work, certainly didn’t work well for much of the past year, but is finally and gradually becoming easier now. WB & Rilla are at a stage where they get very excited to have a big sister showering them with attention. If I time it right (full bellies, well rested, etc) it is often, but not always, working out really well right now.
But that’s this week. 🙂 Next week could be a whole different ball game.
On August 21, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Melissa Wiley says:
Oh, and re Google Reader sending you to Typepad instead of here, try unsubbing and resubbing. That seems to have worked for a few other people.
On August 21, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Sarah N. says:
We’ve had ups and down in my ability to do read-alouds with two girls (almost 5 and 16 months). I often read to my older girl while my baby is napping in the afternoon but recently, inspired by reading one of Melissa’s post about pegging (attaching something you want to do to something you always do anyway lke eat a meal), I’ve started reading at lunch after I finish eating and can usually get in several chapters before my girls are done. This doesn’t work every day, but often my little one is content to linger for awile in her seat especially if she gets a little extra milk and some graham crackers.
On August 22, 2008 at 2:36 am
Meredith says:
We try and do lots of read alouds at lunchtime while the littler mouths are full and not interrupting 🙂 I find that we’re doing so much reading aloud all throughout the day though that for the most part whoever wants to listen will stick around and others go off and play. I also really enoy having my older two read aloud to me while I knit, usually during naptime!! No problems for me with google click throughs!
On August 22, 2008 at 7:17 am
Jennifer says:
Upon your recommendation I just checked out Understood Betsy from the library and can’t wait to read it aloud to my kids. I was in the mood for a new read aloud and we are all excited to start it. thanks!
On August 22, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Jackie says:
It is such a relief to read that I am not the only one who struggles with read-aloud time. It seems like such a no-brainer, if you do nothing else for your kids “read to them” right? Nope. Wrong. It is so difficult to read aloud with little ones interupting or climbing all over or crying. I never thought of reading duirng a meal–that might really work for us.
On August 25, 2008 at 8:44 pm