My mother via my sister said that I had to take tissues in to school when I was a kid, too.
But not hand sanitizer.
Monthly Archives: August 2007
Fill in the Blank
From the local paper:
Families drop by B*** Elementary School Aug. 13, the day before the first day of school, to drop off ________ and other school supplies.
Any guesses? I assure you, this was never on any school supply list when I was a kid.
The Absurdity of Religion
Father Jonathan takes on Bill Maher in this article.
If Christianity really taught that the man in the jungle who has never heard the name of Jesus is going to be damned forever to hell, I, too, would doubt.
{snip}
If Christianity really taught that God created cancer, child abusers and earthquakes to torture his own children, I, too, would doubt.
Go, Father J!
What’s one more load of laundry anyway?
Although she was doing well before our move, since we’ve been here, it has been necessary to scoop sleeping Jenny out of bed and take her for another trip to the bathroom before we go to bed to prevent accidents. Even then, there are some nights where this still doesn’t work. Wednesday night was one, and so I had an additional load of laundry to do yesterday.
By the late afternoon, I had freshly laundered her sheets, her comforter and even the mattress pad and replaced them on her bed. She helped by neatly and ceremoniously placing her various stuffed animals, My Little Ponies, and throw pillows in their proper and exact spots around the perimeter of her sleeping area.
After dinner, Pete was walking around half naked, as usual. He usually does really well with making it to the potty when he’s naked. I sent the girls upstairs to put their jammies on, and he went up too. I usually do him later, but I guess he wanted to get ready for bed, too. Katie helped him change into his night clothes – everything except a diaper. And that’s fine. He came downstairs for stories, and she told me he needed a diaper, but I knew he could wait a bit. He is only about 50% successful at remembering the potty when he has clothing on, but since we were in the living room, not doing much, and the potty is right there (gotta love potty training decorating techniques…Good Housekeeping should do a spread on ideas for incorporating kid potties in your living spaces, perhaps someone could invent an under-the-kitchen-counter pull out shelf that drops down with a stable platform to fit most designs), I thought he’d be fine. And he was…during story time.
OK, you have to see the the impending train wreck, right?
After prayers, the girls and Pete are sent upstairs to brush teeth. I linger for a few minutes to chat with Bill. By the time I get up there, my good children have in fact brushed their teeth, but Pete is standing there uncomfortably wet. Of all the places in the world, he climbed up on Jenny’s bed and had an accident.
{big sigh}
Back-to-School
Last night was back-to-school night at our local school. My neighbor invited us to go and see the facility and her children’s classrooms (grades 2, 4 and 6). Honestly, I had not the least desire to go, but somehow my excuse of Fritz’s swimming lesson (his is at 5 pm) didn’t matter much, and I ended up agreeing to bring the boys (but not Katie, my “I WANT to go to school” child) so they could see what they were missing.
The building is 5 years old, and very well done. When you walk into the center of the building, you can look out over a balcony to a nature pond below. There are cameras right inside the pond which are hooked up to computers inside the science lab which has a windowed wall overlooking said pond. Across from that is the two story glass enclosed “media center” aka library. The classrooms were warm and inviting and all had a computer center with several computers. It was really nice.
Still, though, I’ve not the least bit of regret that my children don’t go there. And neither of my boys mentioned any desire to attend (and they’re not ones to hold back on such disclosures).
I don’t have a nature pond, but Fritz did bury a can in the ground yesterday, carefully propping a large rock over the top. He’ll be checking his insect trap daily.
I don’t have a media center, but I do have a large selection of books ranging from children’s picture books to grown-up full color reference books. And our collection of classical music CDs grows every year. And we’re within walking distance of a big library whose card catalog I can access from the comfort of my home.
I don’t have a computer center, but I actually completely discourage the use of computers by my children. I’m trying to keep them in the dark ages. You know, like from 20 years ago when we had to use paper and pencil to communicate and books to learn stuff. Just call me old-fashioned.
As we walked to the different rooms, I noticed that the teachers had placed information packets on the desks. When the parents came through they collected the information from their child’s desk. We were in the late crowd – in fact, they began locking the doors as we left the building. I was struck by how many desks still had the papers on them, meaning that the parents had not stopped by. By the time we got to the 6th grade classroom, our last stop, perhaps fewer than half the parents had visited the teacher and gotten her agenda and expectations for the school year.
Sad.
My neighbor, a former homeschooler herself, would like us to reciprocate the open house adventure. My school room just needs a bit more work (I’m still a bit cluttered and disorganized), and then I’ll be happy to oblige. My school isn’t fancy, high-tech, or expensive. But we’re happy with it. And I think we’re producing a quality product.
On this Holy Day of Obligation…
A Mother’s Prayer Before Mass: Lord, thank you for bringing me here, and on time and unrushed too. I’m sorry we look so bedraggled and disheveled. I really didn’t realize that Jenny was wearing that shirt, but I should have known that Katie’s hair would take longer to detangle than the 10 minutes I had. I’ll try better next time. Lord, please help my children to be good, especially since they picked the very front row. And please help me to be patient and calm in correcting any misbehaviors. I’m very glad to be here today. Please help me pay attention to You and Your Word. Amen.
A Mother’s Prayer After Mass: Thank You.
Priorities
Well, we have started school.
It’s not going well. Today is Day Two, and I’ve threatened my boys with public school enrollment already.
Part of the problem is third trimester hormones. Excuses, excuses.
Most of the problem is my desire for my children to be safe around deep water, hence swimming lessons, hence a morning rush to get to the pool instead of sitting down for lessons. Then school is pushed to afternoon when I’m trying to get Pete to take a nap, and I’m tired and cranky and want to nap too.
Sometimes I’m not too bright.
The lessons are a good thing. A month ago, I had no confidence in any of my children around water over 4 feet deep. Family trips to the pool were in jeopardy out of concern for safety. But Fritz has turned into quite a good swimmer, and Billy is doing well too. There are only 6 more classes in this session, and I know that I will have two fewer children to stress about.
And, actually, perhaps the bad timing of the lessons was an important lesson for me. I arranged for piano lessons for the kids on Tuesdays during the day (beginning after swimming is over). That’s fine. My curriculum allows for one day of little to no work just for stuff like that. But the ladies at the chapel have been raving over the faith sharing group that meets on Thursday mornings. I want to go, but I knew it would be a stretch to be out of the house two mornings a week. No worries, the ladies said, we have a homeschool room. Oh, temptation! But my kids are too little for effective time in a homeschool room. They still need one-on-one lesson time with me – all of them. And I just don’t want to do it in the afternoon.
Now I know, thanks to swimming, how difficult it is when we don’t begin the day with school. Now I know just how grumpy I am in the afternoons, and I’m sure it won’t be any better when I have a newborn keeping me up at night.
We’ll get through this week and next. Swimming will end, and we can focus on school. I’ll stop yelling at the kids, and we’ll do our own faith formation in our own catechism class. The students and families here at this military school have been promised THE BEST YEAR OF THEIR LIVES with one caveat: realistic expectations and good priorities. Keep it simple, don’t over-extend your commitments, and enjoy life.
Okay, got it.
Simple addition
One toddler, confined to crib for nap time and fully capable of clothing removal…
Plus one stinky diaper (a post confinement occurrence)…
Equals one mess you have to experience to understand the depth of its yuckiness.
That…
Minus one nap for freshly bathed toddler…
Equals no nap for pregnant and exhausted mommy.
That…
Plus daily temperature exceeding 100 degrees…
Equals afternoon TV for the kids.
That…
Plus a dose of Tylenol for an emerging headache…
Hopefully equals a cheerier attitude, hopefully soon.
Movie Review: 300
Last night we took a break from our run of Humphrey Bogart films to watch 300. Bill had wanted to see it when it was in theaters, but that just didn’t happen. I finally remembered to put it on our Netflix queue, and it arrived yesterday.
Well, now.
It had a good soundtrack…
I had read that it was historically inaccurate, so I was not overly bothered by any of the details that didn’t mesh with actual Spartan warfare (fighting out of formation or without armor), real Spartan life (the claim of a “free” society), or real Greek culture (“God speed” says one fleeing Arcadian…God speed? Which god?).
And I knew this was based on a comic book, so I could be amused by the gravity-defying agility of the characters (gotta love computer animation!).
But I did not realize that this was a fantasy fiction…kind of like Sparta takes on the forces of Mordor. The Persian army seemed to be composed of wizards, orcs, and all sorts of amazingly deformed creatures that could only come out of the depths of hell. Heck, they even had oliphants. And what was up with that half man – half lobster (aka: the human guillotine) who looked like what “might have been” had the Karate Kid’s mom taken Thalidomide?
I understand the technique of portraying bad guys as inhuman…but really.
Beyond that, I really can’t say that the plot was captivating or that the characters were inspiring. I mean if a pregnant (read: highly emotional) soldier’s wife doesn’t feel particularly moved when she sees a scene where the queen receives the necklace her dead king wore in battle (and I tried, I tried) than you really haven’t done much in the way of character development.
The special effects were cool, I suppose. But I’m just too old now for lots of blood: it doesn’t excite me the way it used to. And all that slo-mo, stop-action fighting with people hovering in the air…I first saw that technique in The Matrix (it might be older than that for all I know), and that was eight years ago. There comes a point where it just seems passé (please note the use of the fancy “e” there…and many thanks to my BIL, Tom, who made that possible).
In the end, it wasn’t a total waste of my time. I rarely watch modern movies, and whenever I do, I feel so hep and a part of modern pop-culture. But even Bill agreed that it was better on DVD (as in free) than if we had paid to see it (and paid babysitters for the ability to see it).
For a bit, I’ll go back to old movies. We just got a collection of Roy Rogers films I think the kids will enjoy…and me too. No blood. No slow motion. But probably not a bad soundtrack.
…a bit more…
My sister, who is celebrating her birthday today, chastized me for not appreciating this movie. Apparently, I should have spent my time admiring the bare-chested actors to get the true essence of what the movie was all about. Silly me. But, when you live with this hunk o’ burnin’ love, I’m sure you realize why I just don’t notice those sorts of things:
And Esther also disagreed with my assessment. So please don’t allow my personal opinion to detract you from enjoying the film, if you like looking at men’s chests and think severed limbs and heads flying in slow motion across the screen are cool. My copy will be back at Netflix in a day or so.
Happy Catholic liked the bare-chested babes, too. I’m sorry, I still can’t get over the deformed guy who beheaded the inept general with his forearm.
Man, hunter, ugh, ugh
Situation: baby squirrel wanders into yard. Dog instantly sees and seeks to destroy. Squirrel evades under patio furniture. Dog manages to capture until silly human owners make her stop. Squirrel runs for life, with a limp.
Man: Good dog!
Woman: Bad dog!
Reit This Way 