This morning did not go well. I let the kids sleep in because I thought they needed it. Okay I let them sleep in because I was half asleep on the couch myself waiting for my cup of coffee to kick in. Those 15 minutes were not worth it. 4 out of 5 kids surveyed this morning were grouchy, snappy, and accident prone. One mother left to deal with these folks was not so pleasant herself. Probably a candidate for help from SuperNanny.
After dropping them off at school and vowing to go back to bed I picked up one of my partially unread library books. Positive Discipline For Children With Special Needs by Jane Nelsen, ED.D., et al. ( note: is that how you say and others in latin?) Looking in the front cover I see that this book is actually part of a series of books on Positive Discipline.
I grabbed this book from the library to begin with because I am at my wits end with my DD #2 who is taking out her frustration with school at home on me and anyone in her path. All who know her tell me she keeps it together all day long at school but she gets home and is a screaming mess. Which turns me into a screaming mess, and that's only me if we are lucky! I also have DD#4 who has begun kindergarten and also in the same boat for similar reasons.
So I am going to try this book's advice out and be done with time out in the traditional sense. I'm off to buy a bean bag to give the future offender or should I say "child with the mistaken goal" a place to chill out and calm down. I"d better buy a big one because I'm pretty sure this person might be me. Can't wait to tell the kids, " mommy's going to Alaska" and then plop myself down.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Big Mistake in Newsweek 9/12/11 issue
Okay so this is a week late. The Sept 12, 2011 issue of Newsweek had a glaring mistake in it. They identified Todd Beamer one of the many heroes of flight 93, the "let's roll" namesake as Scott Beamer. Yes, they renamed him as they tried to honor him.
Page 11 of this issue lives up to it's title NewsBeast, Under Who We Admire is where the mistake occurs.
"The first heroes of emerged in the first moments of the tragedy: Scott Beamer and the passengers of United Flight 93..."
Hmmm, the stranger thing is that I've heard nothing about this error. Not even a mention in the next issue. Has Newsweek become irrelevant? Nobody noticed. It's akin to someone talking to themself in the corner while the party rages on.
I still have my subscription but I wonder why when I have to take pains to hide it from the elementary readers in my house. I don't think Tina Brown passed down the memo that profanity isn't edgy but rather shows a lack of vocabulary. That's bad enough but now I will definitely think twice as I read and wonder, did they get the facts right?
Page 11 of this issue lives up to it's title NewsBeast, Under Who We Admire is where the mistake occurs.
"The first heroes of emerged in the first moments of the tragedy: Scott Beamer and the passengers of United Flight 93..."
Hmmm, the stranger thing is that I've heard nothing about this error. Not even a mention in the next issue. Has Newsweek become irrelevant? Nobody noticed. It's akin to someone talking to themself in the corner while the party rages on.
I still have my subscription but I wonder why when I have to take pains to hide it from the elementary readers in my house. I don't think Tina Brown passed down the memo that profanity isn't edgy but rather shows a lack of vocabulary. That's bad enough but now I will definitely think twice as I read and wonder, did they get the facts right?
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Above the law in Arizona?
The fight in Arizona over a law proposed to enforce federal law that requires non-citizens to have proper documentation should be insulting to law abiding citizens and non citizens alike of any color. Since when are people above the law for any reason?
My heart goes out to any children of illegal immigrants hurt when their parents are inevitably caught when this law is enforced. I feel the same for children who are hurt, no matter what their background may be, when their parents break the law and are faced with the consequences.
We moan and groan about this being a cultural problem, this lack of responsibility toward ourselves and our families. However there is a fix, it begins with each person taking responsibility one choice at a time.
My heart goes out to any children of illegal immigrants hurt when their parents are inevitably caught when this law is enforced. I feel the same for children who are hurt, no matter what their background may be, when their parents break the law and are faced with the consequences.
We moan and groan about this being a cultural problem, this lack of responsibility toward ourselves and our families. However there is a fix, it begins with each person taking responsibility one choice at a time.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
clues to the election
Obama won. Conservatives the nation over are asking, " how did this happen- is America blind?" The short answer is yes.
Those who elected Obama have purposefully turned a blind eye toward the facts, steadfastly refusing to question any sketchy information that made its way forward. Obama's surface is so smooth and shiny that it reflected what many voters wanted to see, namely themselves. Before any one is quick to judge think harder about why this happened. African americans and other people of color have had so many distorted mirrors held up to them for many, many years ( even recently think of CNN's Black in America- that didn't reflect any of the black people I know.) that when some one finally reflected the good in them at least on the surface people of all races swarmed toward that image. NO ONE WENT BENEATH THE SURFACE! When surrounded by ugliness for so long and presented with a beautiful image the last thing you want to do is scratch the image. However what American's might have bought themselves is fool's gold. I pray that isn't so.
Blindness isn't just common to Obama supporters, those who supported McCain are not immune. As Americans many of us claim to be color blind. However that doesn't make us a nation of various shades of gray. Part of America's vibrancy is its color and the color is only skin deep. Each one of us beautifully shaded by our Lord in his own image. The Bible tells us that God is love. John1 4:8 As Christians when we have failed to embrace each other as children of God beautifully and wonderfully made we have failed to embrace God himself. We have failed to love.
This will be the challenge for America in the coming years to love one another while we struggle to create a culture of life in America that celebrates and protects al lives from their beginnings to their natural ends. We cannot fall into the snare of hating those with whom we disagree, even if our disagreement is of the most serious nature. We are called to love by Him who first loved us.
Those who elected Obama have purposefully turned a blind eye toward the facts, steadfastly refusing to question any sketchy information that made its way forward. Obama's surface is so smooth and shiny that it reflected what many voters wanted to see, namely themselves. Before any one is quick to judge think harder about why this happened. African americans and other people of color have had so many distorted mirrors held up to them for many, many years ( even recently think of CNN's Black in America- that didn't reflect any of the black people I know.) that when some one finally reflected the good in them at least on the surface people of all races swarmed toward that image. NO ONE WENT BENEATH THE SURFACE! When surrounded by ugliness for so long and presented with a beautiful image the last thing you want to do is scratch the image. However what American's might have bought themselves is fool's gold. I pray that isn't so.
Blindness isn't just common to Obama supporters, those who supported McCain are not immune. As Americans many of us claim to be color blind. However that doesn't make us a nation of various shades of gray. Part of America's vibrancy is its color and the color is only skin deep. Each one of us beautifully shaded by our Lord in his own image. The Bible tells us that God is love. John1 4:8 As Christians when we have failed to embrace each other as children of God beautifully and wonderfully made we have failed to embrace God himself. We have failed to love.
This will be the challenge for America in the coming years to love one another while we struggle to create a culture of life in America that celebrates and protects al lives from their beginnings to their natural ends. We cannot fall into the snare of hating those with whom we disagree, even if our disagreement is of the most serious nature. We are called to love by Him who first loved us.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Palin Rocks Fort Wayne
The Palin rally tonight was worth the wait. I left most of the kids home with Dad and brought DD#1. Despite the cold and really long wait we had a great time. Nosebleed seats on the concrete next to the actual seats behind the stage our actual "seats" could not have been worse but her speech reached us just the same.
The theme hammered home was lowering taxes because citizens know best what to do with their own money as well as defending "Joe the Plumber" for just asking a simple question to which he responded to Obama's answer truthfully. "To spread the weatlth around" really does sound like socialism.
As a mom of a special needs daughter she further cemented my support by her hopeful and proactive words in support of special needs children, her desire to challenge Americans to accept and further integrate these children into our society.
My greatest wish now is that these children are not forgotten as our health insurance system is overhauled. I don't want these children who already have too many labels attached to them being tacked on with pre-existing condition and as a result be denied the coverage they so desperately need.
The theme hammered home was lowering taxes because citizens know best what to do with their own money as well as defending "Joe the Plumber" for just asking a simple question to which he responded to Obama's answer truthfully. "To spread the weatlth around" really does sound like socialism.
As a mom of a special needs daughter she further cemented my support by her hopeful and proactive words in support of special needs children, her desire to challenge Americans to accept and further integrate these children into our society.
My greatest wish now is that these children are not forgotten as our health insurance system is overhauled. I don't want these children who already have too many labels attached to them being tacked on with pre-existing condition and as a result be denied the coverage they so desperately need.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
election mess
Today somebody asked me what would happen if we all just decided not to vote in this election? As a practical answer I answered quickly and incorrectly that the presidency would then fall to Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. Later in the day I rehashed the conversation with my husband and realized that duh, it would be Dick Cheney. Either direction is scary. The question itself is what' s really sad. How many others feel that way?
As eloquent a speaker as Obama is I can't come to grips with his abortion stance. It just seems so disconnected from humanity to cast a vote in what appears to be a case of letting a string of faulty logic play itself out to conclude that an aborted baby that somehow lives should not be saved. Just wrong headed and it makes me question how else he would let things play out here and abroad just because in his mind a+b must = c. A leader's logic must be tempered by his faith and with Obama I just don't see that.
McCain pulling Palin onboard is also an odd one. If she was picked for her faith and conservative policies as a governor the campaign should really just leave it at that and let Palin speak to what she knows. What on earth inspired her to claim knowledge of Russia just because of a precarious view of it from her office or home or wherever in Alaska? I could hear sea lions from my bedroom in San Francisco but that does't make me an oceanographer! The blind insistance of politicians of being all things to all people chips away at them until we no longer know who they are.
What speaks to me thankfully are not her words but her actions. She and her husband chose life for their littlest one. Fear didn't determine her choice but rather faith. I can only assume that the same faith led her to accept McCain's offer of the VP spot. Faith doesn't preclude misteps, I am a living testimony to that and so is Sarah Palin. We all are learning on the job no matter what we call our work. Her tasks for the weeks ahead are to convince voters that she is a quick learner and stop pretending to be what she isn't. Be proud, be pollyanna!
As eloquent a speaker as Obama is I can't come to grips with his abortion stance. It just seems so disconnected from humanity to cast a vote in what appears to be a case of letting a string of faulty logic play itself out to conclude that an aborted baby that somehow lives should not be saved. Just wrong headed and it makes me question how else he would let things play out here and abroad just because in his mind a+b must = c. A leader's logic must be tempered by his faith and with Obama I just don't see that.
McCain pulling Palin onboard is also an odd one. If she was picked for her faith and conservative policies as a governor the campaign should really just leave it at that and let Palin speak to what she knows. What on earth inspired her to claim knowledge of Russia just because of a precarious view of it from her office or home or wherever in Alaska? I could hear sea lions from my bedroom in San Francisco but that does't make me an oceanographer! The blind insistance of politicians of being all things to all people chips away at them until we no longer know who they are.
What speaks to me thankfully are not her words but her actions. She and her husband chose life for their littlest one. Fear didn't determine her choice but rather faith. I can only assume that the same faith led her to accept McCain's offer of the VP spot. Faith doesn't preclude misteps, I am a living testimony to that and so is Sarah Palin. We all are learning on the job no matter what we call our work. Her tasks for the weeks ahead are to convince voters that she is a quick learner and stop pretending to be what she isn't. Be proud, be pollyanna!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
chore jar
Yeah, it's come to this, the chore jar. I don't like starting these organizational tools because I invariably stop them for some reason and then feel guilty that I stopped. However after 4 days this appears to be working for everyone who is old enough to get the concept. My nearly 2 year old prefers to shake the jar and try to hurl it as far as she can across the kitchen table. No harm no foul, it's plastic.
The kids pick their own slip of paper with a chore on it and then do said chore. My 5 and 7 year olds still need quite a bit of guidance but my older two are eating this up b/c they choose what they do and don't feel like I'm unfairly dishing out chores. The good thing I added is an oh so brief sit down with the white board to show the kids what the day holds activity wise so we can decide on a time to pick the chores and do them. Depending on the day and how busy it is , we might just pick one or if we have time we can pick more. And as I 'm checking out the progress I can mentally note what else needs to be broken down into paper slips and added to the jar.
One big exception is the kitchen. Clearing and washing dishes is the kids responsibilty on the nights that we are not rushing off to the baseball field or elsewhere.
The system will need to be tweaked but it is up and running. The miracle of miracles, our house is becoming cleaner this summer with not so much grumbling . I've heard it takes 3 weeks to create a habit, check with me in 3 to see if this is still going.
The kids pick their own slip of paper with a chore on it and then do said chore. My 5 and 7 year olds still need quite a bit of guidance but my older two are eating this up b/c they choose what they do and don't feel like I'm unfairly dishing out chores. The good thing I added is an oh so brief sit down with the white board to show the kids what the day holds activity wise so we can decide on a time to pick the chores and do them. Depending on the day and how busy it is , we might just pick one or if we have time we can pick more. And as I 'm checking out the progress I can mentally note what else needs to be broken down into paper slips and added to the jar.
One big exception is the kitchen. Clearing and washing dishes is the kids responsibilty on the nights that we are not rushing off to the baseball field or elsewhere.
The system will need to be tweaked but it is up and running. The miracle of miracles, our house is becoming cleaner this summer with not so much grumbling . I've heard it takes 3 weeks to create a habit, check with me in 3 to see if this is still going.
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