Reason for the Season

Last week I complained about the commercialism today (people camping out for a game!). Yesterday, I received an email that let me know there is still hope for the world and that there are many young people willing to make a difference. I received my niece's Christmas wish-list. She's a senior in high school, and obviously very grown up. Her wish list is for people to contribute to World Vision (buying things like vaccinations, books, animals, etc). The kicker and the part that makes you believe in Christmas is her closing comments, "What's great is it's perfectly fine if more than one person gets the same thing! Please note that this is not in addition to another gift--this is what I want for Christmas, so please treat this like you would any other gift. There should be no "material accompaniment." This is a serious request, not merely politeness. I got this idea after my experiences in Peru this summer; I want to see that at least some children get what they need this Christmas instead of myself receiving things I don't." Viva l'esprit de noël.

Lauren, thanks for making my day, my week, my season.

On a lighter note, this calendar entry is for Cindy.

Its COLD

The Singer seems to have survived her surgery to remove her wisdom teeth just fine. She had sedation before the Novocain in the oral surgeon's office and felt quite good for a while. Yesterday afternoon she was in pain and we gave her percocet. Today, she gets Tylenol. Her face is not that swollen and I think she'll be just fine.

Last week, PlayStation released a new game system. It claims to have incredible graphics, speed, and so on. PlayStation released a limited number. So people camped out to be the first in line to buy this! We're not talking about 20 year-olds (who always do crazy stuff...part of the definition of 20). There were some youngsters there, but there were also 40 and 60 year-olds! Today's columnist, Daniel Ruth, describes my feelings pretty well.

It may be very expensive. It may be technologically the mother of all whiz-bangs. It may be this season's Cabbage Patch doll, only with more bells and whistles.
But PlayStation 3 is still nothing more than a toy.
So you there; yes, you, the 44-year-old cyber-geek with a mortgage, and diapers to change, and, like, you know, a real job: Stop it. Stop it right now!
Altogether Now
Stop standing in line like some refugee waiting on a bowl of gruel, all to blow between $500 and $600 on - altogether now - a toy!
This may come as something of a Saul falling off his horse on the way to Damascus epiphany moment for you, but in time Sony will make enough PlayStation 3s so that anyone who wants one will be able to purchase the toy.
Fights have broken out. Riots have erupted. Shots have been fired between PlayStation 3 suckers eager to be either the first one on their block, or in the morgue, to possess - yes, once again, a toy would be the operative word here.

Still, do you know what will happen if there is no PlayStation 3 left behind by Santa? Nothing, that's what.
Locusts will not descend upon the fruitcake. The sun will rise. The umpteenth rendition of chestnuts roasting over the open fire will still drive you crazy, and your brother-in-law, the one with the ankle monitor, will still drink all your liquor.
And if that perfectly dreadful imp in your life still wants to throw a post-assassination attempt Saddam-esque hissy fit because you failed in your effort to become a homeless person for the sake of an overpriced soon-to-be obsolete TOY, here's what you tell the ungrateful kiddo:
"Life is full of disappointments, my child. And you just experienced one of them. It could be worse. You could be in Iraq. You could be some orphan in Darfur. Tom Cruise could be your father. Are you getting the drift of this?
"Instead, all that happened is you didn't get a toy. Stop whining. Go clean your room. And here, have some fun with this piece of coal.

Thursday is Thanksgiving so the "give mes" have arrived. Every store, every commercial will tell you and your child (or other loved ones) that without this one gift you either aren't loved or don't love others enough. The latest commercial that has me hitting the remote when it comes on is for a jeweler. It uses the great, classic scene from "It's A Wonderful Life" [You want the moon? I'll lasso the moon for you] to sell their jewelry. Let's leave the classics out of this, could we please? I'll be using the remote often in the next few weeks, as I can't stand so many ads because they appeal to a mentality of greed and materialism. Ugh.

Time to go paint the house. We got it pressure washed yesterday and the cracks filled in. Now we need to protect the deck out back from the paint splatters and hopefully it will be warm enough to paint then. It is down right cold here in Florida. We don't normally see these kinds of temperatures until January. It was in the low 40s last night with wind chills in the 30s [news flash: we don't do 30s in Florida...it's why we moved here!]. The high today is suppose to be 60. The normal high is in the 70s. And it's windy and cloudy. It's dreary. If I wanted this I'd live in New England.

Best news of the weekend: the Buccaneers beat the Redskins. (Sorry John). The worst news, we still have to watch them play 6 more games!

Maturation

It takes me a while to type my blogs. My mind works so much faster than my fingers that I often lose my train of thought (my mind is on subject #8 and my typing is still back on subject #2 and then I forget what subjects #3-7 even were). I spent about 30 minutes yesterday typing along. I'm not sure what I hit, but I lost it all. :-( I was not a happy camper.

Friday, the Imp got stung by a wasp as she was getting into the car on her way to school. This was her first wasp-sting and fortunately her reaction was relatively mild. I'm always on high alert when my kids get bit or stung. They're both asthmatic and my brother, Kev, carries (or carried) an epi-pen because of his strong reaction to a bee-sting. So Friday, I whisked the Imp in the house, put alcohol on the sting, and gave her benadryl. I had her sit on the recliner as I did my morning kitchen chores so I could keep my eye on her, asking every few minutes, "How's your breathing? Is your chest tight? How's the arm?, etc" It was driving her crazy. After 20 minutes, I figured she was alright and I jumped in the shower so I could take her to school. She slept about 45 minutes (the benadryl). She was fine. In fact, there wasn't much swelling when I picked her up from school Friday afternoon.

Saturday night was another first. The Singer took the Imp out to the movies. Just the two of them. [They saw "Flush" and both were disappointed with it.] I am definitely entering (in the middle of?) a new phase of my life. My girls are very independent and my role in their lives is more along the lines of advisor/big limit enforcer than the micro-managing required when they were younger. Hubby and I went to a "Smart Discipline" presentation at the Imp's school on Friday night. After listening, it became clear that we were beyond many of the things discussed. We worked very hard when they were little and it seems we are reaping the benefits. Oh, we still have run-ins and problems with the girls...but they're not the rule and having to remind them to do the dishes or get to bed seems pretty minor, especially because when they are reminded, they tend to say "Okay" and do it! The Singer has become the confidant of the Imp. They really do like each other and have fun together. They both wanted to go to the movies together and both had fun on their "sister-time." Sunday, they were the cantors at church. A number of people came up to Hubby and I afterwards to comment on their obvious affection towards each other. I'm not kidding myself into thinking that my job as parent is over. It's just very different than previously. It takes some getting use to. There is a certain amount of sorrow over the passing of what was, and a certain amount of amazement of where we are. (Sort of like dropping them off at kindergarten for the first time).
As I'm entering this new phase, the next phase (the kids out of the house) looms over me. What will I do then? I don't ask that as if I will have nothing to do, but more there will be so many possibilities, of those choices what will I do? Will I go back into the classroom? Not really appealing right now. Will I get my master's so I can be marketable to become a trainer? Get my master's in another field? Get an office job, 9-5, no emotional ties and commitments like in education? Continue doing what I'm doing? I have 6 years to figure it out. No rush. But it's closer than it was and the signs of the girls' maturation are all there. I better be ready when they move on.

Not My Job

I thought this picture just about sums up what is wrong with the world today. "It's not my job!"

Teaching Frustrations and Rewards

I spent over an hour yesterday dealing with a teacher in my on-line course who simply did not want to take responsibility for her own work. It was exhausting and frustrating that I had to spend that much of my time telling her, yes I do expect her to complete the work as described in the course, and yes I will return work that does not satisfy requirements. She repeated a few phrases over and over. One was "but I'm not even getting college credit out of this course," as if it is only appropriate to do professional work if you get college credit. She does get 60 in-service points (which implies 60 hours worth of work and is considered equivalent to 3 college credits). She was complaining that I was sending too much of her work back to her to redo. I think I'm sending too much back, too, but for different reasons. I think if you can't follow directions, after about the 4th time you fail. I didn't tell her that, but really, how hard is it to follow directions? I suggested she simply reread the directions before sending me her work and double check that she had done everything as asked. Her response "I spend so much time doing the work and you want me to spend more time!" I then suggested that taking the few minutes then could save much time later as she wouldn't have work sent back to her. I spent 30 minutes preparing for my telephone conference, reviewing exactly what I had written to her, what I had returned and why. 2 activities were returned because she labeled them incorrectly (and she has to turn in a final portfolio of her work, so labeling correctly is important). All she had to do on those 2 items was correct the label. One activity was returned because she sent me a blank chart as part of the activity. The completed chart was the bulk of the activity. Then 3 others were returned for not following directions. One activity had them summarizing internet articles. The URL address was required. She didn't include them. She said I was being nick-picky. I replied that I couldn't evaluate her summaries without seeing the original. She then got indignant and said, "Are you accusing me of making the summaries up?!?!" "No, I'm trying to do my job professionally!" UGH. I had to get that out of my system. I have 29 participants this course. 4 have already successfully completed the course and have turned in some great work. But there are always a few that drain you. There is a lot of resistance from some teachers about this course because it is required in order for them to keep their certificates. The courses are about teaching English Language Learners (students whose first language is not English). It is a new law (5 or 6 years old) and the first deadline that will result in losing your teaching certificate is approaching. So I get teachers who don't want to take the course, who don't like having ELL students in their classes, and don't want to be bothered. If they turn anything in they think that's good enough. So I'm the bad guy. Most people think since I work with adults it is easier than when I was in the classroom with children. Not really. You have the same distribution of personalities, but you tend to expect more of adults so are frustrated more easily with their shenanigans.

I am having fun teaching Adult Confirmation. Right now I only have 5 people in my class. They are all so wonderful. Most have not been active in learning about their faith since they were in elementary school. Most are in their mid-20s. They are hungry for information and ways to strengthen their faith. Last night, we did an activity that involved a lot of Bible verses that they had to look up. They loved it! It feels great watching them discover things. A definite high point after yesterday afternoon.

The weather is gorgeous today. We had lots of rain yesterday, which we desperately needed and today the air is clear and brisk. Makes me want to spend the day outdoors. Right now I have to go back some cookies for a school function. I'm trying to get that done quickly so I can spend some outside time before going to my hair appointment and then afternoon pickup.

Head Lice and Hairdryers

Yesterday as I was reading the paper I came across an article about killing head lice with a hairdryer. For those of you, who have never dealt with head lice, be thankful. For those of you who have dealt with head lice, things are looking up. I have two daughters with very thick hair. Florida is a haven for all sorts of critters, lice included. Every spring there seems to be an outbreak of lice at one of the school's. When they were little we had quite a few infestations. [When the Singer was in Kindergarten she had them 3 or 4 times...I finally figured out one her best friends had it and was really never lice-free]. The amount of time required in removing head lice from a child with long thick hair is incredible. This doesn't take into account the time in cleaning the bedding, any clothes worn in the last week (jackets, hats, etc), cleaning brushes, etc. But great news....a scientist has created a hairdryer to kill lice! My brother, Kevin is just bemoaning that this wasn't discovered 10 years ago when as a single Dad he got to deal with lice on a little girl with super, super thick blonde hair (blonde hair makes seeing nits difficult). Lice still give him nightmares, I'm sure. As usual, just talking about head lice makes my head itch. Ugh.

I'm not sure where the time goes. I work on a lot of different projects/committees and find that it takes longer to do 4 hours worth of work on 4 different projects than to do 4 hours worth of work on one project. The time it takes to get materials out for each project and the time it takes getting into the mind-set for each project adds significantly to the overall time. I think I may need to curtail my involvement for my sanity. Last week, I taught the Adult Confirmation class (I write the lesson plans), ran a meeting for a intergenerational catechesis (I also type the minutes and email reminders about 'to dos' for everyone), went to a class I'm taking, and presented a 2 1/2 hour workshop on teaching tips to volunteers who teach "Sunday School." In between, I kept up on my moderating my online course, ran the house [car-pool, dinner, clothes,]. I would have preferred to have spent the same amount of time and energy on one activity than being spread around.

Both girls have decided to join the club swim team. Last night we sat down with our current schedule to see when they could fit swim in. The Singer thrives on keeping a busy schedule, and in years past, has done better academically when she's busy. I think when she's busy, she knows she has to plan and use her time wisely. When her schedule is more open, she tends to put work off with the thought of "I can do that later," and then she runs out of time. The Imp has never had this much extracurricular activities, but she wants to give a try. I told her she's got to stick it out until Christmas. [Club teams swim year-round, so you can't really say stay until the season ends.] They're both starting voice lessons, too. The Singer has had lessons before, and is thrilled to be going back. The Imp would like to get a speaking role in her school's production of Beauty and the Beast this spring. The Imp thinks confidence (stage presence) is something she needs to improve and thinks voice lessons will help that. The voice teacher, Miss Melissa, is wonderful. Not just as a voice teacher but as a role-model and responsible adult figure in their lives. I know the Singer talks to Miss Melissa about problems and issues in her life. It's an outlet for her and a support for her.

I'm so looking forward to December. I'll be finished with the course I'm taking, my online work finishes up (and won't start again until January), the intergenerational event at church will be over and I'll get to spend time baking and preparing for Christmas. I just have to make it through November.