Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
bees aren't this busy.
I have homework to do, but when is that not the case? Never, that's when. If I mention homework in a blog post does that count towards homework time? I knitted a hat over the weekend, knowing I should have been reading my Western Civilization chapter. Naughty me. I just have to have a break sometimes.
The house is dirtier than it used to be. While I was a stay-at-home mother I felt unappreciated and resentful about all the housework I had to do. I never felt like I got enough done. Now I'm amazed at how much I was able to accomplish. The soap-making, the knitting, the cooking, the fridge cleaning... It takes less time to hold my breath when I have to get milk out of the fridge than it does to clean it. I'd like to have the time to finish this website. I wish I could read a book. I'd love to help my friends promote their books.
When I started taking classes toward my long-postponed bachelor's degree, I truly had no idea the work load would be so heavy. I don't remember doing this much when I was in college full time. Like, maybe one assignment per week per class, with the larger chapters broken up over a couple of weeks. In each of these classes I have a chapter per week with a related lecture, quiz, and discussion, plus several short papers over the semester. It says a lot that I feel more pressed for time now than when I was taking 18 hours and working full time with time to party left over.
But I have kids now--a full time job in itself, running them around. And in online classes they can only track us by our online work, and that means writing and assessments.
It's just the nature of the beast (which apparently lives in my fridge).
One crazy day
I'd like to kick a couple of guys' asses, and there's probably about 5,000 other people who would help me. Yesterday two crazy druggies left a swath of destruction--okay, maybe that's a little strong; how about a swath of inconvenience?--through Oklahoma, with my town at the epicenter. Here's a link to the news story. For some reason it won't embed:
category.asp?C=116601&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5092603&flvUri=&partnerclipid=
The drone of the circling search plane is still stuck in my head. I had a road block right outside my window for about four hours:
The kids' schools were all on lockdown, which meant the buses wouldn't run. I picked up Maggie with no problem, but at Abby's there was a total clusterfuck, and I don't use that word lightly. I ended up waiting for almost an hour, watching other people leave with their children. Some did, anyway; the rest of us stood in the 99% humidity and wondered.
Meanwhile, my son was still at school on the other side of town, and my husband was still on his way home from work. Thank God for cell phones. Finally, they caught the stupid fugitive (lemme at 'im!) and the decision was made to let the buses run. I found Abby in the school hall and took the girls home where the hubs had just arrived. He said when he passed Jonah's school there was a 2-block line of cars waiting to pick up their children--the van can't idle so he had to wait for the car--so rather than drive, I walked the mile to the school just to make sure the buses had made it there as well. It only took a few minutes to get there, but the place was almost deserted. I felt much better, because I knew Jonah had been put on the bus. And indeed, once I arrived home he was there waiting.
My irrational mother hormone wanted to keep the kids home today. I still have a headache.
The whole thing drove home what will happen if there is ever a real disaster. My three children, each at a different school (with apparently different tactics to handle lockdown), and a couple-thousand parents trying to retrieve their children all at once...It's anxiety-inducing. I hope the school leaders have learned something that will make the process easier in the future.
Stupid druggies.
category.asp?C=116601&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5092603&flvUri=&partnerclipid=
The drone of the circling search plane is still stuck in my head. I had a road block right outside my window for about four hours:
The kids' schools were all on lockdown, which meant the buses wouldn't run. I picked up Maggie with no problem, but at Abby's there was a total clusterfuck, and I don't use that word lightly. I ended up waiting for almost an hour, watching other people leave with their children. Some did, anyway; the rest of us stood in the 99% humidity and wondered.
Meanwhile, my son was still at school on the other side of town, and my husband was still on his way home from work. Thank God for cell phones. Finally, they caught the stupid fugitive (lemme at 'im!) and the decision was made to let the buses run. I found Abby in the school hall and took the girls home where the hubs had just arrived. He said when he passed Jonah's school there was a 2-block line of cars waiting to pick up their children--the van can't idle so he had to wait for the car--so rather than drive, I walked the mile to the school just to make sure the buses had made it there as well. It only took a few minutes to get there, but the place was almost deserted. I felt much better, because I knew Jonah had been put on the bus. And indeed, once I arrived home he was there waiting.
My irrational mother hormone wanted to keep the kids home today. I still have a headache.
The whole thing drove home what will happen if there is ever a real disaster. My three children, each at a different school (with apparently different tactics to handle lockdown), and a couple-thousand parents trying to retrieve their children all at once...It's anxiety-inducing. I hope the school leaders have learned something that will make the process easier in the future.
Stupid druggies.
My thoughts on Obama's address to schools
I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday weekend. The hubs is off one more day, but the kids have gone back to school, which means we have some time alone as a couple. It's such an unusual prospect I can't think of a single thing we could do together without kids that we can't do with them. Maybe we can go to the art museum. Spent a couple of days migrainey. The sinuses are still prickly, but I feel better now. DH discovered Facebook and we spent the weekend playing Farmville together. It's nice that he's finally taking an interest in my activities.
I didn't get much of my own writing done because of the migraine. I used the lucid times to get some editing done for the Eternal Press stories. I don't know if I'm very good at juggling two stories at once, but I can already tell it's going to be a good lesson. It's so rewarding to get the manuscript back from the author after the first round of edits, the hardest part. Seeing it so much cleaner than it was when we started is awesome.
Something else I've been thinking about is this uproar over the presidential address to the schools. I never get political on here, mostly because I'm on the fence about all the issues and I know my limitations. I affiliate with no party. But why is everyone being so unreasonable about this? I understand how a parent might worry a politician might try to indoctrinate the young'uns to his ideas, and how that parent might wish to look over the speech before it is delivered. The way some folks have reacted to the very idea of that speech, text unseen, is ... I'm just flabbergasted. He won't have hypnotic lasers beaming directly into our children's brains. It's, what--20 minutes out of their day? When the kids come home from school, I'll ask them if they saw the speech, and what they thought of it, and address any questions they have--if they're even showing it at our school, I haven't asked. What happened to calm reason? Waiting to find out the facts before freaking? Or has that always been a quality in the minority?
I invite your comments and discussion on this issue, 'cuz I know you will. All I ask, since I have readers on both sides of the fence, is to keep the snark to a minimum. Snark reflects worse on the snarker than the snarkee, and solves nothing. Calm reason, please.
I didn't get much of my own writing done because of the migraine. I used the lucid times to get some editing done for the Eternal Press stories. I don't know if I'm very good at juggling two stories at once, but I can already tell it's going to be a good lesson. It's so rewarding to get the manuscript back from the author after the first round of edits, the hardest part. Seeing it so much cleaner than it was when we started is awesome.
Something else I've been thinking about is this uproar over the presidential address to the schools. I never get political on here, mostly because I'm on the fence about all the issues and I know my limitations. I affiliate with no party. But why is everyone being so unreasonable about this? I understand how a parent might worry a politician might try to indoctrinate the young'uns to his ideas, and how that parent might wish to look over the speech before it is delivered. The way some folks have reacted to the very idea of that speech, text unseen, is ... I'm just flabbergasted. He won't have hypnotic lasers beaming directly into our children's brains. It's, what--20 minutes out of their day? When the kids come home from school, I'll ask them if they saw the speech, and what they thought of it, and address any questions they have--if they're even showing it at our school, I haven't asked. What happened to calm reason? Waiting to find out the facts before freaking? Or has that always been a quality in the minority?
I invite your comments and discussion on this issue, 'cuz I know you will. All I ask, since I have readers on both sides of the fence, is to keep the snark to a minimum. Snark reflects worse on the snarker than the snarkee, and solves nothing. Calm reason, please.
Enrollment day
No writing dreams last night. The themes seemed to be travel, freedom, and fun. Nice.
Today's enrollment day. It's such a huge milestone that I blog about it every year. It's interesting to look back over posts of years past to see where I was then. Every year I think I'm going to have more writing time.
My Busy Day
Okay, so I'm not much of a schmoozer
Watch out, I'm about to get prolific
Last year the noose did loosen a bit, since I had afternoons free. Too bad I was also going through the biggest writer's block of my entire life, so I didn't take full advantage of it. This year, as I said before, I'll have the entire day free. I also have my own vehicle now, which will help immensely when I need to freshen my mind.
I think I should get done enrolling fairly easily, since we have no new students this year. The noose loosens further.
Today's enrollment day. It's such a huge milestone that I blog about it every year. It's interesting to look back over posts of years past to see where I was then. Every year I think I'm going to have more writing time.
My Busy Day
Okay, so I'm not much of a schmoozer
Watch out, I'm about to get prolific
Last year the noose did loosen a bit, since I had afternoons free. Too bad I was also going through the biggest writer's block of my entire life, so I didn't take full advantage of it. This year, as I said before, I'll have the entire day free. I also have my own vehicle now, which will help immensely when I need to freshen my mind.
I think I should get done enrolling fairly easily, since we have no new students this year. The noose loosens further.
