What's the Haps?

Here is a look at what's been going on in my world this past week:

--I was sidelined by an attack of vertigo that lasted several days. Although I've had the dizzy/nauseous feeling that is the main symptom of vertigo a few times in the past, it never stopped me from working and never lasted longer than a day. It hit me hard on Wednesday and by Saturday I couldn't get out of bed. The meds the doctor gave me on Sunday still make me woozy, but it is a pleasant kind of lightheadedness. The wooziness caused by the vertigo made me feel like I was falling and nothing I grabbed would help. Dealing with that for several days in a row made me feel a bit panicky.

--School is almost out! I know, most parents dread summer vacation and having their wild hooligans underfoot all day. I, on the other hand, enjoy taking one more schedule out of the mix. These won't be totally carefree days, however. This is the first summer that all of my kids have summer work packets. M's is the only one that is mandatory, but the younger kids get extra credit if they turn in completed packets when school starts. A few years' ago, I did half-day homeschooling with the kids during the summer and they seemed to enjoy it, so I don't anticipate any of them giving me a problem about completing these packets.

--There is a baby shower coming up and you know what that means: I'm knitting again. Luckily, I have that circular baby blanket that is 3/4 finished. After that's done, I'm hoping that I can keep myself away from the internet long enough to work on a few items for my sister and my BFF's babies for next winter. I didn't knit for my sister initially because I couldn't think of anything she would need in Peru's warm climate. Now she is staying and she has told me directly that she expects to get some handknits. As for my BFF Rabbit, she got a lot of handknits but the baby will have outgrown them by winter. I knit for acquaintances all the time, so I need to kick myself into gear to knit something extra special for these two.

--No job yet, and I am running out of steam. This happened to me the last time I was unemployed. At first, it seemed like there were lots of prospects out there and I was applying for everything. After a few weeks, the same jobs (or scams) popped up over and over on the job boards. So I turned my attention to making the most of being at home. My mind is so focused now on housework, health, and childrearing that I've almost forgotten that I've got to look for a job. Unemployment insurance won't last forever.

--This school year isn't over yet, but I'm already preparing for the fall. I have been looking at two family calendar systems, Cozi and Mediabee. With everyone having computers in their rooms, I thought it might be neat to have a system that is on everyone's desktop and that could also be updated online. A lot of other parents I know use Outlook or Google Calendars for their family schedules, but I am leaning towards Cozi because of the fun interface. If it isn't fun and simple to use, I don't stand a chance in getting ABM and the kids to look at it. Mediabee isn't as pretty but it seems to have more options for adding the kids' homework assignments to the calendar. My plan is to give each system a test-drive during the summer and decide on one of them before the new school year begins.

--As if I don't belong to enough social networking sites, I've started a profile on Jaiku. I resisted it for a while, but then I was won over by something Leo Laporte said about it on his Net@Nite podcast. He referred to it as the perfect URL to give your mom so she can know what you are doing. That sold it to me. One of my quandaries is deciding where to post something so that it will be viewed by most of my friends. Jaiku tracks all of my RSS feeds. This means I can post on Sparkpeople about my fitness journey, podcast stuff on my podcast page, put random thoughts on Twitter, and only give my sister one URL to check in on it all. You can check out my Jaiku feed here.