Black August

Oh August,

How I loathe thee.

I can see you right around the corner.

The American people could pay down the National Debt with the disbursement of funds about to happen to schools and stores for the Parental Holiday known as ........Back to School.

I should be rejoicing that all the darlings will be exiting my house once again, but I am hesitant.  The lists are long of required items.

Why do we as parents buy our children new rulers....every year?  What is wrong with the old one?  Shock and dismay.....
"It is not my favorite color anymore!"
And do the kids really use all the items on that list?
I know they don't!  The extras are in a cabinet downstairs!

I have laid down the law this year.....

We are on a budget.  We will refrain from the feast before us.....the beautiful Number 2 Ticonderoga Pencils, the Pentel Gel Pen Pack in multi-colors, the row upon row of Crayola products......



So......

The rule this year is:

We will reuse what we can.
We will purchase what we NEED and not what we WANT.

and....
If it is not in the budget......it is not happening.

So this is notice for my children......and the Tall Man.

You have until midnight tonight to submit your budget requests for the month of Black August.  There might be some negotiation after the deadline, however.......

I reserve the right of line item VETO......

Continuing Education on the GO!

Frog and I just took a whirlwind trip to her future college home.  She is set with her new school ID card, some highlighters, rollerball pens, and plans to decorate her dorm room.

All that education and college stuff got me excited.....

I am ready to learn something new...further my education....

A language!

French......Canadian French to be exact!

Our device to learn from???

GPS!

It is brilliant....learn as you drive down the road!

This is what we learned today...

Prenez le droit d'emballage, eh?......
                                 Take Wrap right, eh?


Recompte, eh?.......
                              Recalculating, eh?



Arrivant à la destination à droite, eh?...........
                                   Arriving at destination on the right, eh?



Recompte..... Restez dans les petites routes gauches vous poursuivre sur le pontage, eh?


You stupid American....
......remain in left lanes to continue on bypass, eh?




I feel sooo much smarter now!  This is better than Rosetta Stone!

Helicopters and Boomerangs

If you have not looked at my previous post, it is a bit of a set up for this one.

I have been working on this post for over a month.  It just never seems right.  So I am starting from scratch tonight.  This is raw......the thoughts have been there, but the fingers are just tapping away.

Helicopter Parents:  describes parents who hover over their children and become too involved in their lives, including interfering in college or career decisions ...


I don't understand helicopter parents.....I am not one.



This is what it looks like to me:

Take your kid to school.
Hang up kids coat, comb kids hair.
Tuck in kids shirt.
Unpack backpack in desk.
Turn in homework, talk to teacher about poor test questions.
Say goodbyes ----- but hang around in the hall.
Go pick up lunch. Deliver to school.
Since your there, have lunch with kid.
Pick up kid, reviewing homework with teacher.
While kid throws a tantrum, do kids homework for them.
Drag to sport, dance, music lessons.....

This continues from elementary....
                                   to junior high...
                                            to high school.

You think your kid is ready for college, but every little life set back, you show up to solve their problems.

And you are surprised when they move back home??

This is the boomerang effect.


Why do parents hover? Why are parents so afraid that their child will fail?  What is so important about a sticker?  My brain has been spinning about this topic too long.....and what is the outcome of all of this contemplation? 





Helicopters and boomerangs do not mix.
If you toss a boomerang out of a helicopter,
           it is bringing
                        everyone
                                  down.

Crash and burn.......

Instructional Video on Parenting?

This is what we have become.

When did this happen?

My parents sent me out the door in the morning and I would wander back in the door when I was hungry.  They never showed up at school to argue my grades or tell a teacher they were being unfair because I didn't get an "A" or a prize or a sticker.....

I had to earn it.

The scene with the kid in class.....hanging his head in embarrassment at his mother being there....doing his work for him......answering his questions?

Yep.....I have seen this in real life.....

Hope you enjoy your kid living in your basement
...... for the rest of your life.
They will never leave.

Let them make mistakes.
Let them fail.
Let them lose.

What frightens me most about this commercial though.....

I am frightened that some parents
will use this as an instructional video.

Microwave Safety Briefing

I got mail....

It wasn't my mail, but it was in my mailbox.

I was intrigued.....

This was the cover.....

I wondered why the donkey is considering putting a cat in the microwave.  Or perhaps, is the donkey wondering why the lady is putting the cat in the microwave......

...and yes....I am considering the risks right now....



I turned the mail over and saw.....

WHAT!?!

So it is okay if you use ov-gloves to remove the cat from the microwave??



So, if you haven't guessed, this was for the local vet......I marched right in and asked what in the world they were doing with cats in their office?  The vet-techs had never looked at the images quite the way I did...they thought it was funny too!



By the way....this was a brochure for safety gloves.  Before reaching into a "pet-carrier" the tech should put on some of these safety gloves to protect them from getting scratched or bitten.

I am still wondering why in the world you would plug in a "pet-carrier"....

...and why does this vet have a donkey walking around the office?

A Road Well Traveled.....Finding Jesus

Our final day of travel.

We are heading home......but the question is....
how long will it take us to get home?

We left Sioux Falls and set our direction southward.

Our first stop was Vermillion, South Dakota....
  ...home of University of South Dakota.....
    ...the Man Child's birthplace.....
      ...Concordia Lutheran Church and Student Center.
A congregation from my past.

It is so nice to go "home" sometimes.
   So nice to see friends.....
      to worship together.....
         to sing together again.....
            to break bread together.....
               to share the Cup of Blessings.

After a lengthy South Dakota goodbye.....
                                   we started south once again.

We were on our final mission....

                                                       ...to find Jesus.

Jesus is located in Trinity Heights, 

a Catholic retirement community in Sioux City, Iowa.  

I am very glad we had GPS to find our way there...although, I even got turned around with the GPS system.  We had construction, closed roads and the dreaded new roads because the GPS wasn't updated so we were driving through fields on the GPS screen listening to "recalculating, recalculating, recalculating...."

This site was well worth the trouble of finding.......

The word is AMAZING....

There was also a wood carving.

A life size (well, very close to it) wood carving of 

The Last Supper

This is not a relief...this is fully three dimensional!

close-up

And on the other side of the "park" was a statue Mary.

Facts we learned:

Mary is 30 feet tall.

We added Stella for reference.
Jesus is tall!

Jesus is 33 feet tall.

The conclusion is.....

Jesus was taller than his mother.

......and on a footnote......

Photo of Peanut on her trip to Germany, February 2012

Martin Luther was very short.

A Road Well Traveled...The Event

The entire reason for our trip.

The event.

Josh and Rachel.....the two will become one.

A Marriage.

A Covenant. 

It was a perfect day.  

We have had so many days with a heat index over 100 degrees.  

God granted a glorious day for the wedding ....84 and sunshine.

The reception was even glorious.  

Thelma and Louise were in rare form....

I know I just referred to myself as Thelma 

in the previous sentence, but how would it sound if I said, 

"Louise and I were in rare form"

.....it sounds so much better as 

Thelma and Louise...

We sat at a table with strangers,

(I think that is so much more fun at a wedding)

the minister who married Josh and Rachel

 and another lovely older couple.

Turns out Stella had gone to college with children of both couples.

And then it happened.....

The deck of cards came out.

I have never experienced this wedding game before. 

 I have always attended weddings with 

my husband and children in tow.  

This was a strange new realm for me.

The dealing began....

On the table in play ........ 

a 27 year old son,

a 24 year old son,

a 30 and 32 year old daughter,

an 18 year old daughter

and we threw Stella in also.....

The parents were working the details.....

Stella looked as if she were in 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets...

she was petrified....frozen in horror.

During all of the dealing and horror, 

Stella realized that Louise had disappeared.....

As she frantically looked about the room, 

Louise was spotted in the distance, a 

finger pointed in her direction and heads nodding.

A young man stands and follows Louise around the table....

holds his hand out and bows.....

"May I have this dance?" he queried.....

They danced.

They talked.

I sure hope he calls....

...because Stella lost his number.....

I love weddings...