So, I am thinking of trying to post every day in April. After all, you readers keep saying you want more. I tend to think of good ideas when I am away from my blog and fail to retain them long enough to actually write about them. Plus my life has been so wrapped up in work lately, I felt like I was getting boring.
Today is my last day on the special team at work. That means next week I train for the promotion they gave me two weeks ago. This is both wonderful and scary-the job is kind of a big deal, to me at least.
I was home on Wednesday and Thursday but failed to do much from my to-do list. I am trying to sort out what is blocking me...I think it's that I am overwhelmed. Until quite recently I really had a handle on the housework and stuff, at least to a basic level, and was keeping from being overwhelmed. Then work stuff hit on the heels of the holidays and things got out of hand. Now the list is too long and the piles are too big and I don't know how to deal with it! Plus, with the schedule I have now, I feel like work days are work-ONLY days, and frankly, that ain't working! So tonight I am PROMISING myself that I will spend at least 15 minutes on one area of need...a la Flylady, I suppose, but I am not signing up for all those emails again unless I get in really deep, lol.
Well, I had better get back to work. Customers need me to wave my magic wand!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Quick Trip
Nate and I had to take a semi-emergency trip to the Wet Side of the state. We stopped and visited friends and my grandmother along the way, and actually convinced her to come along with us! So it made for three, and I am glad. I rented a Kia Rondo (?), which was comfortable if a tad noisy, and put 700 miles on it in two days, which is more than I prefer.
Grandma and I stayed at the Comfort Inn in Port Orchard. It's an adorably little place. It has a quaint little breakfast room where you can have everything from cereal to waffles (note--READ the instructions on the waffle iron before using), yogurt, bagels, just about everything you could want that they can do self-serve. The room furniture is pretty, and the pillows absolutely marvelous. I think they get their name from the pillows, really, it was very hard not to steal one or two! My single complaint, and it really isn't bad enough to call it a complaint, but I don't know another word, is that there was not much floor space in our room. Just walking paths around the furniture, lol. We had two double beds, though, perhaps other rooms have more, um, room.
The day we came back, we took Nate to the Naval Undersea Museum. It was very cool! Torpedoes, diving exhibits, underwater robots, a ship's bell exhibit and, dear to mine and Grandma's hearts, the half-size rescue sub used in the filming of The Hunt For Red October. They also have a reproduction of the living quarters on a Titan Submarine, which I had hoped would make Nate think twice about being deployed on one, but no such luck. Kid doesn't like to go to the grocery store when it's busy because of all the people, but thinks he can live on a shelf in a wall of shelves, all housing full-grown men?! Sigh.
We were lost about 50% of the time we were driving, but we did make it back home. I want you all to know, I stopped and asked directions FOUR times during that trip, and TWO of those times, people gave me bad advice! Grandma says I am pretty good at finding a way...eventually, lol.
Grandma and I stayed at the Comfort Inn in Port Orchard. It's an adorably little place. It has a quaint little breakfast room where you can have everything from cereal to waffles (note--READ the instructions on the waffle iron before using), yogurt, bagels, just about everything you could want that they can do self-serve. The room furniture is pretty, and the pillows absolutely marvelous. I think they get their name from the pillows, really, it was very hard not to steal one or two! My single complaint, and it really isn't bad enough to call it a complaint, but I don't know another word, is that there was not much floor space in our room. Just walking paths around the furniture, lol. We had two double beds, though, perhaps other rooms have more, um, room.
The day we came back, we took Nate to the Naval Undersea Museum. It was very cool! Torpedoes, diving exhibits, underwater robots, a ship's bell exhibit and, dear to mine and Grandma's hearts, the half-size rescue sub used in the filming of The Hunt For Red October. They also have a reproduction of the living quarters on a Titan Submarine, which I had hoped would make Nate think twice about being deployed on one, but no such luck. Kid doesn't like to go to the grocery store when it's busy because of all the people, but thinks he can live on a shelf in a wall of shelves, all housing full-grown men?! Sigh.
We were lost about 50% of the time we were driving, but we did make it back home. I want you all to know, I stopped and asked directions FOUR times during that trip, and TWO of those times, people gave me bad advice! Grandma says I am pretty good at finding a way...eventually, lol.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Click Here For Giggles
Do you know what the Kindle is? If not, you should find out. In any case, you should click here to read the reviews of the second-most-expensive Kindle book ever, Nuclear Energy. No, really, you should click and read--I promise you won't regret it!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Adjustment
I just KNOW that Nate and I are going to make this new schedule work for us. Today, though, is the first day, and I am running into unexpected problems. For instance, I found that I don't have as much time in the morning as I expected. Now, that might be due to figuring I could 'stay up late' last night and not getting to sleep until after 11...ok, my new schedule is not license to pretend I don't work the next day.
Also, it dawned on me that Nate and I won't be having dinner together four nights a week unless we eat quite late. Most days I have left enough convenience food for him to get through the day, figuring we'll make it up with a good home-cooked dinner. This clearly will not work anymore. Do I get up early and make a really, really good breakfast? Cook ahead and take some to work and leave some for Nate (who hates leftovers, btw)? I don't want him to live on processed food.
Also regarding food--working 10 hour days, I need to bring more of it to work with me. I have six and a half hours of work left and only two hot pockets to carry me through the rest of my day! That's not good for someone recovering from restricted eating. The vending machines here are not generally to my tastes and my breaks are all scheduled pretty early in my day. I did recently buy this, into which I can pack considerably more food than I expected, and it has a handy ice ring that kinda-sorta keeps things cold, but I forgot to wash it before work this morning. I might need to get a couple more of their containers. It bugs me that they say 'fit & fresh' and come with diet tips, but other than that they are perfect containers to pack food for work, especially when I am frequently reduced to grabbing a bite and trying to chew and swallow before the next customer comes on the line!
Finally, I previously had a nice (sometimes) habit of going for a walk when I came home at 3 in the afternoon. Well, coming home at 9 at night is a different story, at least until the days get a bit longer. I could walk on my lunch break...but only if I bring good shoes. Yet another thing to haul in! I'll have to get over that somehow. Nate has become so active lately that it isn't that big a deal that he isn't walking with me each afternoon anymore. It'll be hard walking without company, though.
So, that's my reflection on the first half of my first day on my new schedule. It is going to be a rough week as we have to take a trip on my two days off and I am not going to get rested up or spring cleaned or anything like that. Next week will be a better measure of how we will do.
Also, it dawned on me that Nate and I won't be having dinner together four nights a week unless we eat quite late. Most days I have left enough convenience food for him to get through the day, figuring we'll make it up with a good home-cooked dinner. This clearly will not work anymore. Do I get up early and make a really, really good breakfast? Cook ahead and take some to work and leave some for Nate (who hates leftovers, btw)? I don't want him to live on processed food.
Also regarding food--working 10 hour days, I need to bring more of it to work with me. I have six and a half hours of work left and only two hot pockets to carry me through the rest of my day! That's not good for someone recovering from restricted eating. The vending machines here are not generally to my tastes and my breaks are all scheduled pretty early in my day. I did recently buy this, into which I can pack considerably more food than I expected, and it has a handy ice ring that kinda-sorta keeps things cold, but I forgot to wash it before work this morning. I might need to get a couple more of their containers. It bugs me that they say 'fit & fresh' and come with diet tips, but other than that they are perfect containers to pack food for work, especially when I am frequently reduced to grabbing a bite and trying to chew and swallow before the next customer comes on the line!
Finally, I previously had a nice (sometimes) habit of going for a walk when I came home at 3 in the afternoon. Well, coming home at 9 at night is a different story, at least until the days get a bit longer. I could walk on my lunch break...but only if I bring good shoes. Yet another thing to haul in! I'll have to get over that somehow. Nate has become so active lately that it isn't that big a deal that he isn't walking with me each afternoon anymore. It'll be hard walking without company, though.
So, that's my reflection on the first half of my first day on my new schedule. It is going to be a rough week as we have to take a trip on my two days off and I am not going to get rested up or spring cleaned or anything like that. Next week will be a better measure of how we will do.
Friday, March 13, 2009
A Good Night's Sleep
Tomorrow is my LAST morning of getting up at 4 a.m.! Yay!
Why? 'Cause I was promoted yesterday and I start a new ten-hours-per-day, four-days-per week schedule next week. I will be working Mon, Tues, Fri and Sat from 9:30 to 8:30. I will lose my afternoons but still think Nate and I will have fun with the new schedule, especially since the days are getting longer. I can hardly wait...not having to hit the sack at the stroke of 8...gee, I will almost feel like a grown up!
I am also done with my 50-60 hour weeks, for the time being. Double Yay!
Why? 'Cause I was promoted yesterday and I start a new ten-hours-per-day, four-days-per week schedule next week. I will be working Mon, Tues, Fri and Sat from 9:30 to 8:30. I will lose my afternoons but still think Nate and I will have fun with the new schedule, especially since the days are getting longer. I can hardly wait...not having to hit the sack at the stroke of 8...gee, I will almost feel like a grown up!
I am also done with my 50-60 hour weeks, for the time being. Double Yay!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Making the Grade
Our happy and free not-quite-unschooling process just ran smack into a brick wall called The System.
Nate has been enjoying his Navy Sea Cadet unit immensely. He gets to do all sorts of fun things like SCUBA class and so on. (alternatively, I seem to have taken up a new hobby--patch application!) There are plenty of awards and ribbons to be earned, one of which is the Academic Achievement ribbon. Here are the standards:
You can see where we might have a few problems. Honor Roll? The whole school has only one student-you can't get more honored than that. Officially declared? Um, 'cause Mama said so? Full time student? How on earth do I determine that? He lives here. Full time. And then there are the grades. We don't have any!
So I had to have a chat with the kid today. He is entering a portion of his life where these things matter (to other people, anyway). After a discussion, this is what we came up with:
One of the chief reasons to school at home is that you can move at your own pace. If you are moving at your OWN pace, then you are never forced to move on when you have not mastered a concept. If you master the concepts, that's an A grade, right? So the way he figures it, and I agree, is that he should never have anything less than an A. From there it's just a matter of me determining if he's executed 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or 1 whole class credit, I guess. Although I haven't been counting hours or anything on below-high-school-level courses. And that still doesn't tell me what to do about a child who is working at so many different levels, or finishing one math class and starting another partway through the year.
Now I just need to figure out what my requirements for the 'honor roll' are. I suppose being a straight-A student, as we have just decided Nate is, would be good enough for most schools...but that word 'honor' in there makes me think there should be more to it. Then there's the 'regular school year'...again, we don't have one. Do I now need to be dividing up our school years into semesters? That makes no sense for us since courses don't begin and end on particular dates. Carrying required courses...hmm. I do require him to do things. Now I guess we need an official letter. And since we are going to be needing more and more official proclamations in the future, I think it must be time to buy a seal embosser. Only problem? Nate's school has no name.
Last night I asked him to name his school and his ONLY suggestion was, "Nate's home for the chronically insane." Which brings to mind the questions: When you graduate, does that mean your are sane or insane? If you become sane, does that make you a dropout? All I know is that I am not spending money to have that embossed on documents!
Nate has been enjoying his Navy Sea Cadet unit immensely. He gets to do all sorts of fun things like SCUBA class and so on. (alternatively, I seem to have taken up a new hobby--patch application!) There are plenty of awards and ribbons to be earned, one of which is the Academic Achievement ribbon. Here are the standards:
a. Is officially declared on his/her schools Honor Roll for a
semester.
b. Makes no grade below B.
c. Makes the Honor Roll during the regular school year.
d. Carries the required courses to be considered a full-time student at the
enrolled school.
e. Provide Commanding Officers with a letter from the school verifying the
Honor Roll status.
You can see where we might have a few problems. Honor Roll? The whole school has only one student-you can't get more honored than that. Officially declared? Um, 'cause Mama said so? Full time student? How on earth do I determine that? He lives here. Full time. And then there are the grades. We don't have any!
So I had to have a chat with the kid today. He is entering a portion of his life where these things matter (to other people, anyway). After a discussion, this is what we came up with:
One of the chief reasons to school at home is that you can move at your own pace. If you are moving at your OWN pace, then you are never forced to move on when you have not mastered a concept. If you master the concepts, that's an A grade, right? So the way he figures it, and I agree, is that he should never have anything less than an A. From there it's just a matter of me determining if he's executed 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or 1 whole class credit, I guess. Although I haven't been counting hours or anything on below-high-school-level courses. And that still doesn't tell me what to do about a child who is working at so many different levels, or finishing one math class and starting another partway through the year.
Now I just need to figure out what my requirements for the 'honor roll' are. I suppose being a straight-A student, as we have just decided Nate is, would be good enough for most schools...but that word 'honor' in there makes me think there should be more to it. Then there's the 'regular school year'...again, we don't have one. Do I now need to be dividing up our school years into semesters? That makes no sense for us since courses don't begin and end on particular dates. Carrying required courses...hmm. I do require him to do things. Now I guess we need an official letter. And since we are going to be needing more and more official proclamations in the future, I think it must be time to buy a seal embosser. Only problem? Nate's school has no name.
Last night I asked him to name his school and his ONLY suggestion was, "Nate's home for the chronically insane." Which brings to mind the questions: When you graduate, does that mean your are sane or insane? If you become sane, does that make you a dropout? All I know is that I am not spending money to have that embossed on documents!
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