I'm Not Crying: It's Only A Cold

I've had a cold this week. Stuffy head, runny nose, sore throat…you know the drill. In an effort to pretend I wasn't sick and that the Man wasn't heading out the door again for another eight weeks, I've been hiding with some well read book-friends any time I wasn't actively engaging my family. Text messages have been unanswered. Emails have gone unread. Cleaning has taken a backseat. And I have been back in the world of New Moon and the Aunt Hill. Now that L.M. Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott have shamed me into getting off my rear and back to work (and the Man has packed up the jeep and hugged us all good bye), I'm going to blow my nose loudly and buckle down. Again.

And no: I'm not crying. It's only a cold. See above title.

But a few thoughts first:

• Uncle Alec in Eight Cousins did unschooling before there was unschooling. However, Uncle Alec's version of unschooling is a legitimate educational option unlike most of the stories I hear coming out of the unschooling phenomenon.
• Brown rice takes a ridiculously long time to cook. Just wanted to share that. Yes, I realize this has nothing to do with the rest of the post.
• I saw the first budding tree of spring yesterday. I was more than a little excited, probably because I was in the middle of the L.M. Montgomery phase and she loves to wax poetic about all things green and growing.
• The Man bought me an old childhood favourite before he left, The Ordinary Princess by M. M. Kaye. It came complete with the wonderfully rendered original illustrations but some idiot had the cover redone about ten years back for no apparent reason. It's a travesty. Still, I loved my reread.

In closing, these next eight weeks had better go by quickly: