The Tyranny of the Urgent

I tend to get a little stressed out in April and May of every school year. Some mom’s get stressed this time of year because they start thinking; the kids, they are going to be home all summer with nothing to do!

Me? I am thinking the kids; they are going to be home all summer with nothing to do! I can’t WAIT! By the time we get to the end of the school year, I am overwhelmed with meeting all the deadlines and expectations of other people.

I was reading over Sally Clarkson’s Educating The Wholehearted Child today and I thought what happened? THIS is how I meant for our homeschool to look and feel. This was my aim. How did we suddenly find ourselves so far off the mark?

All the things that sounded like such a good idea when we signed up for them in September have become an evil and unbending taskmaster. Every class my kids are enrolled in at co op is having some sort of year end event; science fairs, plays, term papers, end of year parties, award nights, daddy-daughter dances, class projects, you name it, we’re a part of it. How did this happen? We were so careful!

All those things are getting done, but sadly, nothing else is. We’ve not had a decent meal in a week. The laundry is piling up. The house is a mess, Mom is frazzles. Nothing I want them to do is getting done because all the things others want them to do come first.

I don’t like this. I did not sign up to homeschool my kids only to have the schedule dictated by others. And yet, here we are.

I know it is the time of year. Everything does not necessarily start at the same time, but it is all ending at the same time.

I need to reread this post in September when I am signing my kids up for classes and church activities and remember I don’t like how it ends! I want to educate my children, ME. I want to set the tone and schedule.

I don’t want to find myself here in April and May next year saying things like, “no honey, we don’t have time for a story, you’ve got to get x y and z done for Mrs. So and So.

I’m learning. By the time they all graduate, I’ll have this homeschooling thing down pat!

Let us consider...

This was the quote of the day on my igoogle page.

I have no idea who this guy is, but what a hilarious observation! This totally cracked me up.

I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.
- Mitch Hedberg

Music and Stuff

Go check THIS out.

It's free worship music, and BooMama Says it's good. BooMama knows her music stuff!

Don't Be That Guy!

How to make the punishment fit the crime when the crime is just being a jerk?

I love my kids, really, with all my heart and I take my job as their mother very seriously. I like to use reality discipline whenever possible. (Actually, I like to use no discipline, but we don’t live in a perfect world, and sadly my offspring did not come out of the womb obedient.)

Yesterday Will and Bob went to guitar lessons and then to the Wal-mart to pick up something for the Momma because I was too lazy busy. While they were running this errand for me, Will treated his brother like a jerk.

There is really no other way to say it. I was very disappointed in Will. I was sad. Why would he do that?

I told him that was crappy and he was acting like a real jerk (yes, I used the words crappy and jerk! Those are 4 letter words around here and the girls’ eyes bugged out of their heads when Momma said Crappy and Jerk!)

I told him he was not ‘that guy’. Don’t be ‘that guy’.

Sigh, disciplining teens is hard. I feel like he needed to be thunked in the head while I yelled ‘what were you thinking’ at him, but I don’t think that would be appropriate or effective.

So, how does one discipline for jerk-like behavior? I was thinking of making him take Bob to a movie Saturday night instead of going to the youth group function, but if his attitude stinks about it, it is kinda like punishing Bob. I could just go the old fashioned rout and ground him, but that seems to just instill bitterness in him.

I want a contrite heart. Any suggestions? Other than military school in Mongolia, cus we can’t afford that.

Cookies Make The World Go Round.

Well, it looks like I am going to be on the Children’s Sunday School committee, because clearly I am insane. I should be on medication. Can anyone say glutton for punishment?

Why oh why won’t the Lord let me run and hide? Why do I have to be on a committee with people who have hurt me in the past? People who’ve shunned my child because of her allergy?

And I don’t really like committees. I am a worker bee. Give me a job and I’ll do it, but I don’t want to plan and organize and recruit and tell others what to do. I don’t like to be the leader. I am a total follower.

I think the Lord is trying to grow and stretch me. I don’t like to grow and stretch. Sigh.

The first committee meeting is in two weeks. So I have two weeks to fret.

Sir D suggested I show up at the first committee meeting with cookies. In Sir D’s world, cookies solve all problems. I think I might actually do it. You know, buy them off with sweets. Sounds like a good plan to me.

(Anyone else see the irony there? Buying off the SS committee with snacks because they won't stop serving snacks in SS? hehehehe)

Pet Peeve

Today here on the hilltop we’re going to discuss a pet peeve of mine. We’re not going to talk about the fact that the lady from the Children’s Sunday School committee didn’t show up for our meeting. We’re not going to talk about how frustrated I am that I can’t seem to get anyone’s attention, and that Ann’s safety is of little concern to the powers that be at my church. We’re not going to talk about that fact that I have admitted temporary defeat and Ann and I are just going to stay home for a few weeks until I stop simmering and can come up with a solution that does not involve me constantly shadowing her everywhere for the rest of my natural born days because my church thinks Jesus goes down better with snacks, or her throat closing up resulting in her dying in Sunday School.

Nope, not gonna talk about any of those things.

What we are going to talk about is the fact that my debit card won’t let me put more than $75 worth of gas in the Mother Ship at a time. At $3.37 a gallon, $75 does not fill up the Mother Ship.

I want to stop for gas as few times as possible, but my debit card won’t let me fill up. And yes, that is the card that takes my money directly out of my bank account, that is mine because I (Sir D, actually) have earned it and it is not a credit or a loan from anyone, but my very own money in my very own account.

But somehow the Visa Company still gets to decide I can only have $75 at a time at the gas station. Weird, because they allow me to spend 4 times that when I’m in the grocery store, but outside at the gas station attached to the grocery store I can only spend $75 of what I may have mentioned is my money.

Thank you for listening to my peeve about Visa Debt Card policies…and stuff. Please feel free to leave me a comment telling me what your peeve is, it is quite cathartic to get it out.

Tiny Bubbles...

Oh, Please say it ain't so!

Apparently, the bubble is back.

Can you believe this? This is from Chadwick's!



And this from Nordstroms.


I am so sad and scared.

I think I wore this exact dress to some sort of dance/prom thing in Junior High School.



Do we learn nothing from our past mistakes? Are we always destined to repeat them?

The Bubble Skirt, really?

Twins?

I had a nightmare last night. I found out I was having twin girls.

It was one of those weird sort of dreams that happens in flashes. First I was telling Sir D we were going to have twin girls.

Then I was HUGE pregnant.

Then I had these two babies in car seats I was trying to carry everywhere. Their names were Elinor and Margaret. We called them Maggie and Elly. (Too much Jane Austin perhaps?)

From there it was one scene after another of me trying to hold two cute curly haired, 6 month old fat babies on each hip and grocery shop, and teach my co op class, and school the kids, and go to church, and cook.

I woke up exhausted.

The funny thing is, where in the heck was my family? I remember the other kids in the dream but none were helping and Sir D was absent from the dream altogether except for when I told him we were going to have twins.

Hummm?

Perhaps I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with life right now? Sir D is working LONG hours with his new position. I didn't think I was that overwhelmed, but let me tell you, a pair of 6 month old girls, no matter how cute, would most definitely send me over the edge!

I can't tell you the relief I experienced when I woke up to my house of NO TWIN BABIES!

Salmon Says...

I have a meeting this Friday afternoon about Ann and Sunday School. It’s going to be a tough one I think. At least it is at Starbucks. Disappointment goes down a bit better with a frappuccino.

We’ve had trouble with Ann and our church since she was 2. It has been a long road.

For those of you new to my little piece of the World Wide Web, Ann has a fatal allergy to all dairy. It is kinda of a trick to keep her safe when apparently, God’s Word can not be taught without a tasty object lesson of some sort.

For the last year there has been a wonderful lady on the Sunday School committee who had been my advocate. She tweaked some things so Ann’s class would be safe for her. And if she couldn’t, she’d simply email me in advance and let me know what weeks there would be food and we’d stay home that Sunday and do home church.

She has moved on to other ministries. Sigh. We’re back to square one.

I am hoping the lady I am talking too on Friday will be sympathetic, but I’m not holding my breath. I could jump in, join the committee and do it all myself, but there are some reasons why that would be hard and awkward. I won’t name them all, but it’d be a bit like being the single republican at a democratic caucus. I’m not that brave.

I have to admit that a large part of me wants to give up. It has just been SO hard at the church we attend. I know every church has problems because every church is made up of people, and all of us people have that darn sin nature, but something in me thinks that this issue would be easier elsewhere.

The problem is that we have two teen boys who LOVE church, they Love their youth pastor and consequently I do too. He is a great man with lots of Godly wisdom. I don’t want to pull the boys away from that, but I am not sure how much more I can take with Ann and the allergy situation.



I feel like a salmon swimming up stream. I’ve been doing it for 7 years and I’m a bit tired.

Beware the 1st of April!

I thought you all might like to know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth.

My parents were here visiting this weekend, then on Monday I had to drive Ann and her carpool downtown to the Scottish Rite Dyslexia Lab School. When I came home and could finally blog, no Internet access! UGH!

We had some big bad storms blow through, typical Texas spring day, but it threw out our Internet.

So, the storms are gone, the Internet is up, I have a sort of quite minute (the kids are in the back room playing a geography game) and I have really, nothing to say today, except...

Watch out! It's April Fools Day Y'all, and that day is just downright dangerous in this family.

I feel a bit like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.