Appreciation

I appreciate my health. I have been sick all week with a nasty nasty nasty cold, and man, am I a nasty miserable 'justletmedie' sick person. I am not fun to be around. My kids and hubby bore the brunt of my miserableness. I can not even begin to imagine what one goes thru when one faces an illness with a life threatening prognosis. I think I would just hand a pistol to my husband and tell him to shoot me, but my perspective is that of a sick person who will definately be getting well. I follow the blog of a woman who is fighting, with fierce determination, humour, humility and cross our fingers triumph, breast cancer. And I admire her deeply. And hope that I have 1% of her strength of character. I have read her blog with tears pouring down my face more than once.
Last year I hurt my back, too much lifting - little boys, pig food, little boys, totes of apples, little boys, canning, little boys, strawberries.....little boys....and the next thing I knew I had permanent pain down my leg and couldn't sit or lie down comfortably and no painkiller could touch it. My doctor told me NO LIFTING. I stopped everything. And it went away, slowly. Now I listen to my body more, it had been giving me signs for months....but I thought it was sore tired muscles not bulging back discs.....boy, it's amazing how little you can do when you can't lift....so now I'm getting to the age where getting hurt is not a good thing either....3 kids, business, family......So much depends on the mummy.....although in my house, Daddy is around 24/7 too but with a slightly different philosophy. Not necessarily a bad thing but the kids have definately had less hands on less reading to and less mom time this past week...... Hopefully this coming week is a polar opposite.

Tagged.....

This is the first time I've been "tagged" or include in anything. Thanx MamaK, I'm glad my meandering thoughts are being read by someone....

Ok here are the rules, choose your sixth folder and sixth photo.....

I have no idea, but I'm going to look....

WOW! This was a cool day. I posted about it....memories of my childhood...we went for a walk in the little known government lands/tidal flats in front of the home where I grew up. We cut grass and wove, like I did when I was young. We were caught by the tide - that came up all the dried up river beds. I decided to show them how to weave while we waited for the tide to go out.....but found it was still coming in and eventually I had to take off my boots and socks and carry the boys across FREEZING water to get back to our car.....

August is definately a crafty guy. He loves to make things. I hosted a Stampin' it Up party and he was so UPSET that he couldn't make a card the next day too. And now the "Big book of things to Draw" book that I gave older cousin for Xmas?????? August is using it to draw.....

Now How to I tag people??? Pam?? Zombie Girl?? Amy??

books and Consumer Crap

Not sending my kids to school means that they are not exposed to so much crap that is out there. OK OK not totally - I am guilty of allowing them to watch Treehouse.....so they see Dora, Diego and etc....and we head to CBC and watch Magic School Bus EVERY DAY without fail.....ok there are failures. But they are getting bored of it, and said so. I told them to play instead of they were bored and then later in the day when something new and different (word world, superwhy) was on we could turn the tv back on. This went over well. Then add Scholastic Book Clubs into the mix from schools. Have you looked at the crap in them. And the good stuff? For example: I ordered the Sarah Plain and Tall series, all 4 for $11.99, and Socks by Beverly Cleary is $1.99, but the rest of the books are recipe written and boring to read.....cheap yes, get kids reading yes, and then the rest of the consumer stuff.....ack, I guess this position is becoming known... THIS ARTICLE describes it and this website is how to make a difference!. I've also linked to posts about this in the past. I'm so glad I don't have girls. My boys just want to push dirt.....but that's a whole 'nother post

Teacher's Pro D Day

I recently attended a teacher's pro d day to display my books (usborne) and wow I got some interesting comments from a lot of different people. I spoke with teachers, teachers who are parents and other distributers. From the french teacher who told me that we don't have it right and they just 'forget it all anyways' to the curriculum distributers who told me they wished they'd homeschooled or sent their kids to a Waldorf school, to the teacher's store owner who told me her son was being labelled ADD and she didn't know what to do...... I heard it all. Teacher horror stories, teacher nice stories.....very very interesting. It's amazing how many people say, "If I could do it again I would homeschool." And from a teacher, "If it isn't working for my child, I'll pull her" The system is broken folks, but how to fix it? Someone said to me today that the schools teach mediocracy. Another told me it wasn't until her daughter was in grade 3 that she got a report card from a teacher who really *knew* her daughter and appreciated her strengths.....and it brought her to tears. Yet we all (we being a broad term) have kids and send them off to Kindergarten because that's what we're supposed to do - and it looks like we're headed for full day kindergarten too (in BC). And many parents are happy about this. There was a letter in the paper today from a man who thinks the FSAs are a good thing and what are the teacher's afraid of (don't even get me started on skills testings, just visit www.alfiekohn.org) . People just have no idea. Speaking of FSAs - the district I'm registered with and receive funding fromm tells us we must have our kids do the FSAs in grade 4 and 7. HA HAHAHAHAHAHHAHhahahahahah I've already registered my objections and I'm still 2 years away. It won't happen. And then there's my friend down the road. Our kids were in K together. She took her grade 4 son to after school learning centres 3 days a week. WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY. Everyone's brain develops at a different rate, something education system teaching to the masses seems to forget. And guess what he's doing fine now, probably would have even without the learning centre. Ok, blabbed on enough here. Check out this video - everyone should HAVE to watch it.....
http://www.raisingsmallsouls.com/animal-school-movie/

If they don't work ....

If discipline tools don't work in a "functioning" (I'm labelling myself that...HA!) family how in the heck are they supposed to work in a dysfunctional family? I mean really time outs, consequences, punishment....I really believe in teaching my kids how to relate with each other. I get angry, I yell, occasionally, I help them fix it, most of the time. I calm myself down internally and re-react if I've used a script from my childhood.... They sometimes, if I'm upset, usually because they've hurt each other, go to their room for like 10 seconds, mostly so I can calm down.....but really we don't "discipline" in the traditional manner. Much to my mother's dispair.....("That child needs a good whack on his bottom!") So my sister-in-law is now telling me how she helps her clients to discipline their kids, how she helps them at home...I mean she is a child and family services worker who helps people get their kids back, or keep them if it looks like the kids are going to be taken...Usually there is some sort of abuse (drugs, alcohol, neglect) in the household involved and single parent households are common. So these crack smoking idiots (seriously) are being taught, by my sil, how to handle their kids. Sounds like a recipe for disaster and a waste of taxpayers dollars eh? Don't even get me started on how she raised her kids....Mental note to self "Don't judge anyone until you've walked a mile in their shoes....repeat often" She started telling us how to handle Holdy this weekend during her visit because "I'm a counsellor, I can't help it....." Don't get me started.