Just got an email from AOL indicating that AOL Journals (my blog) will be shutting down permanently at the end of October. <sigh> I know it is totally self-serving to have a blog, but it helps me to have a forum to express myself. Apparently AOL is offering an alternative. Will be looking for that.
Stay tuned!
...just to stay in one place! I took the day off today. Had to go to school to take my lesson plans in. I left early. Got back home about 8:15. Launched into cleaning the living room furniture so my friends could come get it today. You simply can't believe how much junk I found under the cushions!!
The first thing that happened before Meg and the children even left home this morning was that Meg closed her bedroom door firmly. The doorknob has been failing...so we couldn't break back in. I tried. Finally called one of my dear ham friends to help, which he did. Got in the door and replaced the knob with a new one I had purchased. Thanks, Santa! (Inside joke.)
I also worked at sorting laundry, picking up the children's bedrooms, cleaning the main bathroom (which has been out of control for a couple of weeks, doing dishes, etc. Can you tell the difference? No! But I still feel good about what got done. There is plenty more!
As I type, the living room is nearly empty. I have arranged for Grandpa Phil's truck and another ham to help move other furniture out of storage. It will be a big change, but I hope everyone will feel good about it. It will give me an opportunity to redecorate. Love that!
More later...after the transfer. Amazing how unstressed I am when I'm not just getting home from work!
Okay...so Meg and I spent most of yesterday at a scrapbooking event. We didn't have the time to spend, but it was nice just to be able to reconnect with a heritage scrapbook that I have been working on for four years. I enjoyed it. Then came home to a day missed in the process of laundry and cleaning. Meg missed doing homework. Oh well. We'll both get by...I think.
My friends Mark and Beth, who are taking our living room furniture so I can get Meg out of her storage unit (long story) came by so I could take them to the unit to see if they wanted a desk in there. They followed me. I had Meg's slider card to get in. Huh? There was no place to slide the card. Whatever used to be there was replaced by a keypad...and we had no magic numbers. A quick call to Meg indicated that she had no clue, either. Hmmm... We squeezed in through the gate so M and B could see what was in the unit. They took TV tables, but didn't want the desk. No harm, I guess...except that if this had been moving day, we would have been SOL.
When I got home, Meg had a meltdown. She is feeling overwhelmed. (So am I.) The children will be with us next weekend, so we need to compensate each other somehow so she can do homework and I can do laundry. Whatever. We'll git 'er done. (Meg, unfortunately, sees the huge mountain to be overcome rather than the smaller steps to get to the top. It has been ever thus.)
Then the children came home. OMG! They had been to a parade and some kind of carnival. They had two bags of candy and goldfish that they had won. Goldfish? Excuse me? Ryan wasn't in the house five minutes before he had a major kicking tantrum about a bag of candy. And then we had to deal with the goldfish. One was DOA. Four others are still kicking. I could kill Nathan! We have no fishbowls. We have no aquariums. We have no place to put the fish except in Ball jars. We have no fish food. We DO have softened water. Don't know if fish can live in that... Ryan came home overtired and unreasonable. He had three tantrums that put him in time out before we'd even had a chance to say hi. Both kids were tired and hungry and with fish. Happy Sunday!
If I followed Nathan's logic on this deal, I should pick up a stray dog on the way to Muncie and let him know it would be there for him to take care of when we arrived..."for the kids". Look...I love animals. Too much, maybe. I took in Frodo the Wonder Dog when the kids moved to Muncie and couldn't keep her in a rented place. You see how that worked out!
Sunday evening finally settled down a little bit, but the issues of the week are still with us. Quaker Day Parade is Saturday. Robin's Daisy troop is marching in it...and she wants to try it. Two-and-a-half miles. <sigh>
I'm looking for a day off...
Maybe it's a good thing that little Ryan only has one more soccer game. Tonight, only four of their six players showed up, so all four had to play the whole game. Ryan did well, athletically...but there were a couple of incidents where things didn't go his way, so he got angry with the coach's kid (Andrew) toward the end of the game and had a bit of a meltdown. When the kids were coming off the field at the end, I was cheering, "Yay, yellow team!" And here came Ryan, charging me in pure rage. Had I been in a chair with a higher center of gravity, he could have knocked me over. I was wondering what kind of logic was going on in his toady little brain. Later, in the car, Meg tried to evoke an apology from him. He said he was mad at Andrew. I said that I wasn't Andrew and that all I was doing was cheering for him and his team. His response? "I didn't hear you. Next time, yell louder!" So it was my fault...as usual. I took it personally. (Never mind that he's four.) My feelings are still a bit dented...
Okay. I'll admit that I never raised a boy, and I flat-out don't understand them. I remember my own brother at four. He drove me nuts. When I picked the children up from Grandma Judy's today, I took them to McD's for supper. (McDonald's has a Play Place.) Before I was even away from the counter with the food, Robin had come to me twice--the second time in tears--that Ryan had hit her. I warned him. We ate. In short order, he found a boy to play with. I watched while Ryan pretended to be Darth Vader and was hitting the boy like Kung Fu Panda. The boy said, "I'm not playing with you anymore. You play too hard." (Ryan claims to have no memory of hitting him.) Okay...so we continued with our meal, with intermittent playing. I gave the kids a 10-minute warning. With three minutes left, one of the children in the Play Place started crying...and suddenly Ryan appeared to me for protection. I asked what he had done. He said he didn't want to tell me. One of the other children blabbed that Ry had hit a kid on the chin. The little boy appeared in tears. I made Ryan apologize to him, just as his grandmother showed up and asked what was wrong. I told her that MY grandson had hit HER grandson...that he had apologized...and that we were leaving due to bad behavior. (It was time to go, anyway.) She was very understanding, mumbling something like, "The shoe was on the other foot, this time."
As we were leaving, I told Ryan that his behavior was embarrassing...that he didn't even know the little boy was that he hit. Robin commented to him: "You did a lot more to me than you did to that little boy, and you KNOW who I am!" Good point! Did it get through? Doubt it. I am praying that the Angel of Little Boys visits me to give me insight. I keep trying to get it. So far, I don't!
I got to come home over an hour early today because our in-service got done early, and I bailed. There is plenty to do at school, but there is also plenty to do at home. I hoped for a nap but opted for a leisurly bath, instead...sans children. Ahhhhh....
This afternoon/evening, Van Buren Elementary (Robin's school) had a fundraising night at Chuck E. Cheese. Meg considered not taking the children because it tends to be expensive so it is reserved for special occasions...plus the fact that she gets home from work sufficiently late that it would make for a late evening for everyone. The children, of course, love it. BUT, since things have been going better around here, and since I was home from school early, I decided I would take them right when I picked them up from Grandma Judy's. That way, they could have their time to play, and we could be back at a decent hour. Meg maybe got an hour of peace after a trying day at work before we hit the door. The kids were told that they were going because they had been getting up nicely in the mornings, and bedtimes haven't been quite as chaotic as in the past. They were good as gold, so it worked out nicely for everyone.
I have at least four pairs of glasses. Do you think I can find ANY of them tonight? Nooo... I hate when that happens!
Meg and I are spending all day Saturday at a scrapbooking event. We haven't done any scrapbooking for well over a year. I have a heritage book that I've been working on for years. Neither of us can really afford the time...but you know what? We enjoy it. We haven't had the time to do anything creative in a loooong time, and we don't indulge ourselves often...so it will be a welcome retreat, even if it will take us half the time there to figure out where we left off!
Tomorrow is one of Ryan's last soccer games. He has pretty much been a star. Don't know what we will replace it with. He likes the attention, and it is good for him to know that at least one thing in life is specifically his--without perceived competition from his sister. (She has no interest in sports, she says.) God bless the children. They keep us busy!
I received the title for my car in the mail today, which means that the loan is paid off. Neato! However, the buggy has over 140,000 miles on it, and all of the press that I've seen/heard indicates that it will be tough to get loans after this. I have a number of bills in collections due to my aneurysm deal. I may have to work forever to get through this. At least I know that the car is now "mine"...
Because of problems with Ryan, Meg has instituted some new behavior management procedures. For now, they are working. Things are better here. Meltdowns are less common, and we seem happier here. Yes!!
The next two days are half-days with students due to in-service, of which I am a part. Help!
I've written about this event before, I'm sure. Channel 13 in Indy partners up with The Salvation Army and Tuchman Cleaners to collect and distribute free winter coats for needy children. Channel 13 does the advertising and provides the TV "celebrities". Tuchman Cleaners cleans all of the donated coats. Salvation Army provides the volunteers and elbow grease to get the coats sorted and distributed (on October 11th at the State Fairgrounds). For several years, the Indianapolis Colts organization has provided a venue for collecting coats from home-game-goers for one game in September. SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Network) has provided communications for several years now. I am the SATERN Coordinator for Indiana, so I was there...with a team of four others...to help get the job done. We took in 1,263 coats at the game today. (More come from other sources.)
We were at the new Lucas Oil Stadium. Whoop-de-doo! It really was easier working around there than at the RCA Dome, but I probably walked a couple of miles today. My folks worked hard. I really think TSA doesn't know what unsung heroes their own radio communicators are. They needed us but didn't ask. (I called up the team.) Not sure how things would have gone had we not been there... We will also work the distribution in October.
The REAL hero for the day is a ham named Jacob KC9OAD, who has only been licensed since July. Two weeks ago, he checked into our weekly net and heard me looking for volunteers for today. He mentioned that he would be parking vehicles at Indianapolis Welding Supply on McCarty Street, close to the stadium, and essentially invited us to park there. We showed up and met him. He/they were furiously parking cars for $25 a crack. My team took up two spaces and didn't pay a cent. It makes volunteering a whole lot sweeter when it doesn't cost a fortune to help! I owe the young man a thank-you note, at the very least. He saved us many steps and some $$. (Last year, I think we parked at least a mile away.)
Before I left shortly after noon, Meg (who had professed to being overwhelmed today) was desolate because the children were on the way home already. She didn't have all of her homework done, and I was going to be gone. Thankfully, when I returned, all was peaceful. (Sometimes, Sunday evenings turn into horrible events!) In any case, we got everyone fed and bedded without too many problems. Tomorrow is one of the Monday evening deals where both children have to be in different places at the same time...so we will have to split the difference. Plus, my friend Patrick is coming to town. I hope I can accommodate him without too many dented feelings all around.
The Colts lost. :( Still, it was a good day. I could have spent the time here at home, but what we did was for a good cause. I don't ever regret that. God leads. I try to follow. And He is leading me to bed now. I'm pooped!
