Sunday Mornings

There is something to be said about Sunday mornings.  The quiet hum of the fridge in the kitchen is usually the only noise in my house when I get up, probably because I wake up extremely early regardless of the day.  Apparently my body never came with that second program function on its alarm clock.  You know the one for weekdays and weekends.  It kinda sucks actually.  

So I have a cup of tea... trying to cut back the coffee, but if I am successful I am not sure what I will do about my Starbucks habit, I will sure miss collecting my stars and having my gold member status.  Anyways, I am having a cup of tea and writing this as my son's cat paces around my feet, I think she wants me to turn on her water fountain.  Yes the cat has a water fountain.  Don’t go judging me… I came home from work one day and found this cat (who is 17lbs but perfectly healthy according the vet…I have my doubts in qualifications) sitting on the edge of the toilet trying to drink like a dog, so I stood there and watched from the hall for a moment to not disturb her as she looked like she was working on solving world hunger.  Ultimately she failed, and had an impromptu bath.  From that point forward she followed me around from sink to sink making this noise while staring me down for weeks.  Needless to say I bought the nicest pet fountain I could find which doesn’t look like a pet fountain at all.  It’s called a “Zen Pet Fountain”…. It looks like a decorative fountain, which has been placed in my bathroom and the cat choses to drink from.  Problem with it is, that the boyfriend finds it distracting at night.  So he unplugs the “Zen Pet Fountain” each evening, and doesn’t remember (or want) to turn it back on in the morning.  So I tell the cat each day to go ask the boyfriend to turn it back on… it’s like she is smarter then me and knows that he wont do it and that she just needs me to do it.  Maybe cats are smarter then we give them credit for…

That quiet moment only lasts for about ten minutes… the funny thing is as parents it is our natural instinct to blame the kids for that cherished moment only lasting ten minutes.  Funny how the kids are not home today to blame.  Who do we blame next… The dog.  The dog comes barreling out of his kennel each morning with this amazing excitement, it should be noted he also fails to have that alarm clock function.  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to harness the puppy excitement into a morning upper?  I mean whatever my puppy has it is way more effective then coffee!  “let’s go mom, it’s a new day mom, new stuff to see and do mom, run mom, run mom!”  And just think, the marketing campaign… “Are you jealous of your dog?  Do you feel tired and forced to work each morning?  Do you just want to be excited about your day?”  Everyone in North America is going to want this drug… Oh wait… its speed.  CRASH, BANG, SMASH… there the dog is successfully outside and my quiet Sunday morning sounds just like Monday morning chaos!  And here I was starting to be confused and wonder where my life had run off too.

Todays list of to do’s… vacuum, clean bathrooms, put away laundry, take down the trampoline (winter is coming usually without notice), contact the Sparks parents, finish some client work, cook an amazing dinner, add water to the “Zen Pet Fountain”, turn on the “Zen Pet Fountain”, Farmville2, shower…. That should probably keep me busy enough to not finish today.  I thought Sundays where a day of rest… now when I was a kid and decided I didn’t want to go to church anymore, if my mom had told me that I would have to work all day Sunday if I stopped going to church I would have given up that hour each week… It’s funny the things parents don’t tell their kids.

Now the wine cooler is humming, much louder then the fridge.  It actually is concerning me as it seems to be getting louder each week… Maybe the wine cooler is about to die, or something is wrong with its motor, maybe I should consider drinking the wine soon… Who am I kidding, that’s just an excuse to open a good bottle of wine.  It’s too early to open a bottle of wine, and there are chores to be done, but then again… is it communion?

I should just run down the road to Starbucks and grab my star for the day.  If I give into the coffee I will probably get most of my list of to do’s done today, that coffee is a pretty good substitute for puppy excitement, but I would be failing myself in my ridiculous idea of cutting back on the coffee for no reason at all…. What to do, what to do… What is it Spock says… The needs of the many out way the needs of the few… but that’s just some girl’s excuse for coffee today.

So This Is Education...

So, it is that wonderful time of year where report cards are sent home and you are invited to meet with the teachers.  We call them Parent/Teacher Conferences.  I attended this the other day with my son.  What can I say other then this was a very interesting experience once again. 

Unfortunately I am unable to say I am satisfied with the education system.  Actually, let me be honest, I didn’t think it could get much worse when I was in high school... I was wrong, and I continue to be amazed at the efficiency at which policy makers are able to put into place backwards and ineffective practices to set our children up with failure!

Further, to the above, I continue to be ever so satisfied with the choices and rights parents have in regards to their children’s educations.

The goal setting portion was a special process.  You see, the major complaint from staff is that my son is a very “bright boy” but that he often spends his time focused on things unrelated to his studies and would much prefer acting out or by putting little effort into his school work.  My major complaint is that certain subjects say “Needs Improvement” on the report card under “Effort”.  Now I can accept any grade my child brings home as long as they have tried their hardest.  However, “Needs Improvement” suggests that the low grade can be improved by trying harder.  Call me crazy, but would it not make sense at that point to put in a “Goal” to see an improvement in effort through staying on task and producing quality work within the instruction and guidelines of the teacher?

My son is in a class designed to meet the “learning challenges” associated with his “personality disorders”.  This translates to a class which is designed to hand hold and coddle my son ensuring the over development of his self esteem and self entitlement and the under development of his actual academics and life skills.

I would like to see my son in a regular class room which does not revolve around him.  I would like to see him have a teacher who does not have time to listen, justify, accept and negotiate my son’s excuses for everything he may not want to do.  I would like to see my son in a class room where if he does not take responsibility for himself, his behaviour and his performance he will simply receive natural consequences of failure.  Do I believe it is valuable for the school to offer supports for his achievement in his studies? Of course I do.  Do I think it is valuable to allow my son to continue believing that life is so nice that all you have to do is pretend to try??? NO!  The way the schools go about teaching children success and self esteem these days is atrocious.  And I do understand that the staffs within the school are limited within the means of their directives provided by policy makers.  However if you want me to believe that test scores are down because our kids are not getting enough hugs versus getting enough discipline you are going to have a hard time.

What I have been witnessing the last few years is a gross misunderstanding of the definition of discipline.  So to be clear, let’s clear this up...

dis·ci·pline

  [dis-uh-plin] noun, verb, -plined, -plin·ing.

noun

1. Training to act in accordance with rules; drill: militarydiscipline.

2.  Activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training: A daily stint at the typewriter is excellent discipline for a writer.

3. Punishment inflicted by way of correction and training.

4. The rigor or training effect of experience, adversity, etc.: theharsh discipline of poverty.

5. Behaviour in accord with rules of conduct; behaviour and order maintained by training and control: good discipline in an army.

6. A set or system of rules and regulations.

7. Ecclesiastical. The system of government regulating thepractice of a church as distinguished from its doctrine.

8. An instrument of punishment, especially a whip or scourge, used in the practice of self-mortification or as an instrumentof chastisement in certain religious communities.

9. A branch of instruction or learning: the disciplines of history and economics.

I may be not reading properly but I am failing to see where it says that discipline means to congratulate and reward completion of half a task and request a “positive choice” in the future rather than a “bad choice”.

But what do I know?  I’m Just Some Girl.

55 Mins To Kill!

55 Minutes is how long it takes to back up Simply Accounting.  During this time there is very little I can do! BUT... If I'm typing it looks and sounds like I am working very very hard!  So... We are typing!


First of all, the new job isn't bad.  It has taken some adjustment to having a boss who is just as cynical and dark as I am, possibly a little darker!  But now that I have figured out not to take him seriously with his little comments I think we are getting along fine.

Once this back up is completed of my data I will be able to say that I have made some significant process into creating current AND accurate reports for this company which is really nice.

Lets see... on the personal front.  Well it seems my ex-husband is a drama queen (go figure).  He apparently is going to take me to court for dating someone.  Yep.. jealous much?  I don't know.  I am really looking forward to him actually filing the papers and serving me.  From what I have put together... he is full of smoke and mirrors.  I don't think he actually knows anything.  I also think that he has no grounds on which to take me to court.

The hypothetical...
Lets say HYPOTHETICALLY I am dating someone.  Lets say that I see that person once a week for "date night" at which time my kids are at home with a babysitter.  I don't see anything wrong or unusual... and especially illegal with that scenario so far.  The only other time I Hypothetically get to see the guy that I'm "dating" would be on the weekends that I don't have the kids which is approximately 69.33/hrs per month.  Yes that number includes sleep time as well!