Cough, Hack, Cough, Cough

Woe is me! I'm still sick and can't seem to shake whatever this is. Finally, finally the weather is above freezing and is actually feeling a bit like spring, and I really can't enjoy it. It just sucks being sick! My youngest still has a runny nose too, but surprisingly my oldest (Miss Ill herself) is doing just peachy. I guess she's built up an immunity after battling everything under the sun as an infant.

I took the day off on Monday and tried to rest under a pharmacy of drugs. The pink eye appears to have cleared up at least and my sore throat is gone, but I still hack and hack through the night. Last night (or this morning, I should say), I woke up shortly after my hubby left for work (around one something) and couldn't go back to sleep. Finally, at around two, I picked up a book and started to read. Damned if I couldn't put the book down. It's absolutely wonderful! A birthday present from a coworker, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (a southern writer, no less). The dialogue, the imagery and the humor are just wonderful. She also discusses a lot of social issues. I really had no idea what the book was about before I picked it up this morning. I didn't even read the back cover!

Now, for the first time in a long time, I'm reading two books at once. I used to manage up to 7 novels at a time, when I was working on my Masters. I still don't know how I kept that up without getting all of the characters confused. I really miss that time of my life, now that I'm older. I really just miss being in school. I hope that I'll be able to go back again.

The other book I'm reading is Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith. It is one of several books from the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series he's writing. (This was one of my late birthday presents from my hubby.) It's truly an enchanting series and somewhat extraordinary...not because of the writing per se, but more so because of the author: a Scotsman writing about the life and times of African women in Botswana. The voice he uses is amazing to me in that he's definitely a man's man, but he captures these women and their strength so beautifully. Reading his bio, I imagine that the women who surrounded him as a child must have made a lasting impression.

I've been working with the Babe on her spelling this week double-duty, simply because the approach we've been taking hasn't been working. Each night, I've been having her write them, rather than verbally spell them back to me. We've also spent a lot of time on her letters and understanding her phonics a bit better. I hope it makes a difference. She's also done well with her reading, but the phonics thing has her a bit stumped. I hope this new strategy works.