(no subject)

[the_rck]

Washing with baking soda and a pre-soak got the smoke smell out of Cordelia's coat and snow pants. I did have to wash them on the normal cycle in order to get a pre-soak. Neither of them seem to have been hurt by that.

Scott's Babylon 5 game met last night. Scott has given my character an npc child to look after. It's meant to be temporary, but who knows? My characters in games often end up with a string of npcs following along. I've avoided it so far in this game (we're traveling on a spaceship of limited size, so adding npcs isn't done easily). Scott knows he's got me (and the rest of the player characters) with this one. The npc is four years old. I'm supposed to find her father, but what we know of him makes him sound like a really poor choice to take care of her.

I did my stint in the library this morning. Everything was pretty much as usual except that both classes had projects for which they were supposed to check out specific books. The fifth graders were assigned to read a book, any book, by someone who has won the Newbery. The second graders are writing reports. Most of them are writing about animals, but a couple are writing about dragons (and finding usable books for them was a real challenge for the librarian), and one boy is writing about Apollo 13. More of the second graders found books for their assignment than did fifth graders. I'd say about a third of the fifth graders didn't even bother.

Cordelia's Girl Scout cookie orders are due tomorrow. Scott and I have to decide what we're ordering, and we're waiting to hear back from my sister (she says she'll pay postage) as to what she wants. Scott collected a few orders through Facebook, so Cordelia's not going in completely empty handed. She was too afraid to go door to door. If we'd had more time, I would have tried to work her up to it because it's bad for her to keep giving in to fear.

Cordelia's trying to talk me into letting her stop seeing the social worker. She really resents missing school. She says she doesn't care if she can't ever spend the night away from home and that her anxiety isn't a big deal. I'm going to keep pushing. I don't want her to end up like the college freshman I heard about who didn't even last two weeks away from home-- She couldn't bear to be separated from her parents, so she left school entirely.

Comments

[sorcycat.livejournal.com]

You could make stopping the social worker a "reward" after she spends a night away from home without you. That might prove motivating, if she dislikes it as much as it sounds. :)

[the_rck]

I may offer it. I just wish I thought she was learning to deal with her anxiety in general. Her everyday routine is very safe, though, so we're not running into the stuff that would scare her. She has some concern about middle school, but it's school, so the anxiety isn't too bad.

[sorcycat.livejournal.com]

I don't know that this is any help at all, but I thought of your situation when I read it. Seth Godin is a marketer, but sometimes his posts extend way beyond his field. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/01/how-much-does-it-cost-you-to-avoid-the-feeling-of-risk.html