Category Archives: School

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: May 15, 2016

Posted on by

For Today…

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… sunny and breezy with temps in the mid 70’s. (I’m doing this during daylight hours for a change.)

I am thinking… grumpy thoughts about the hospital pharmacy who made a typo when they transferred one of my prescriptions to Target which caused the prescription to expire 11 months early. (Prescriptions expire after a year — they said it was written on April 13, 2015 instead of April 13, 2016. I only have one dose of it left and I’m not feeling optimistic about it getting fixed tomorrow. Hmph!

I am thankful… for one of my favorite church kids doing a flawless job reading the Acts 2 passage this morning. I usually have to sit in the pew and cringe while adult lectors butcher all the names and nationalities of the people so it was wonderful to hear it done well. I’m kind of hoping my priest puts her in the lector rotation even though she’s only in elementary school because I think she’d do a fabulous job.

One of my favorite things… the smell of star jasmine in the morning when Daniel is leaving for school or I am leaving for church.

I am wearing… a burgundy fitted tee from Old Navy in honor of Pentecost and jeans from Kohl’s. I swapped out my jeans for my black dress slacks this morning for church.

I am creating my temperature afghan during my spare moments.

I am reading… Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber. I need to swap out my e-reader for my laptop at night so I can finish the book and move on to my mountain of books-to-be-read.

I am hoping… Daniel sleeps through tonight and doesn’t wake me up wanting milk/juice/cheese/my credit card.

I am learning… about social services in other states. Woohoo.

In my kitchen… something grilled for tonight. It’s Sunday family dinner and Dad is in charge of the food.

In the school room… working on various speech things with the kid.

Shared Quote…

Wise words on the bathroom debate.

I have friends who are transgendered and most of them have been using the bathroom of the gender with whom they identify for years without issue. In fact, one of them shared the story of a woman in Kentucky who was attacked for looking too masculine while people looked on without helping her. This terrifies me. There is no excuse for violence.

And for the record, the man that strangled the 8 year old girl in the bathroom in the Chicago deli was not transgendered. Most pedophiles are statistically married and heterosexual, not transgendered.

A moment from my day… Kiddo climbing one of the apple trees while helping my mom in the garden.

A boy in a tree.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: May 8, 2016

Posted on by

For Today… May 8, 2016

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… dark. It was cloudy for most of the day and Lick Observatory was quite socked in with fog when we went up there in the afternoon. It got sunny in the late afternoon though.

I am thinking… about grade inflation in the homeschool world and misreporting of class values in portfolios for college. Long story, trust me.

I am thankful… for the chance to see the big telescope at Lick Observatory and for the volunteer who let us walk around on the platform while he was talking. Keith, you rock!

One of my favorite things… a quiet evening after a busy day.

I am wearing… jammies. (It’s 8:45 p.m.) Church clothes were a black decorative top, black pants, black flats, and my burgundy choir robe. After-church clothes were a charcoal fitted tee from Old Navy and black capris from Kohl’s with my running shoes.

I am creating my temperature afghan. I’m about two months behind but I might be able to get a little caught up this week, depending on how long a couple tasks take me and if I can get them done at the beginning of the week.

I am reading… Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber. I might be able to finish this week if I read during lunch instead of being on my laptop.

I am hoping… to get a lot of my errands done in the first part of the week.

I am learning… to ask for help and not act like everything in the next month is completely for me to do.

In my kitchen… Dad made the usual Sunday fare for us for Mother’s Day — steak, tater tots, and caesar salad. It was what Mom and I both chose as it was our day.

In the school room… I’m working on fine motor tasks with Daniel to strengthen his hands and help him maintain his tripod grip while writing without special grips on the pencil.

Post Script… This is an interesting piece on missions and why you shouldn’t build a house on your next mission trip.

Shared Quote…

This week's quote found on Facebook.

A moment from my day… A picture from my first Mother’s Day in 2009.

Hard to believe this kid is now only a foot shorter than I am!

Closing Notes: May is Preeclampsia Awareness Month. Learn more here.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: TGIAF!

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

It’s been an insane week here and I have one more thing tomorrow before I feel like I can breathe again. Thank goodness it’s almost Friday!

— 1 —

Prayer request. The person assigned to Daniel at the Lodi Social Security Office fouled up his SSI payments and I have an appeal hearing tomorrow on some issues related to them. Please lift me in prayer around noon PDT. Thanks!

— 2 —

Climate change deniers. This video explains climate change in a way that even Donald Trump supporters can understand. 😉

— 3 —

One last political take. While I am completely overjoyed at Ted Cruz dropping out of the race and Carly Fiorina being an even bigger loser than before, I’m kind of bummed that I won’t be using this picture more often…

Thank goodness this isn't a possible combination in the White House!

— 4 —

I want this shirt! My birthday is two weeks from today and I will be your BFF if you get me this shirt in green and XL.

— 5 —

On the homeschooling front… Dawn of Ladydusk wrote this amazing piece on starting to homeschool and what she learned from it. I recommend reading it if you think you eventually want to homeschool your kids as Dawn is a mom I trust for this kind of thing.

— 6 —

Making a crossbow out of office supplies. This is kind of cool.

— 7 —

Doctrine vs. discipline. Simcha nails it with her post on Ascension, the crazy go nuts schedule of her kids, and why it actually matters to make it to Mass if it’s a holy day in your diocese. (San Jose abrogates it to Sunday.)

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The Simple Woman’s Day Book: May 2, 2016

Posted on by

**NOTE** I did one yesterday and then found that the prompts had changed a bit when I went to link up. I’ve got some spare time this morning so I’m redoing it for today. Also, for anyone that needs the new prompts and wants some code for them to insert into an entry, click here and copy/paste into a text editor so that you can create a text file (*.txt file) with them for use every week.

For Today… May 2, 2016

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… sunny and clear. I think it is supposed to be in the 80’s.

I am thinking… about the things that are supposed to be happening this week. I apologize for vague-blogging but I can’t talk about the upheaval in my life until things are more set in stone. (It’s nothing bad — just a lot of uncertainty.)

I am thankful… for the day trips with my parents and Daniel this weekend. We went to Henry Cowell Redwoods on Saturday and the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Sunday.

One of my favorite things… café vanilla frappucinos at Starbucks. I’m also a fan of functional Internet and functional plumbing but that’s another story for another day!

I am wearing… charcoal fitted shirt from Old Navy and jeans from Kohl’s.

I am creating my temperature afghan. I’m 2 months behind now but I will eventually get caught up.

I am listening to… the Reply All podcast which was recommended to me by a couple friends. This episode involves an email malfunction that tangents into stories of survival in a Chinese concentration camp during World War II. The story that the woman tells is told in a very cheerful and matter of fact way that seems to be somewhat common among survivors of concentration camps in Europe and Indonesia that I’ve met. (If you have a sizeable Jewish population, you probably have someone of that generation who survived and emigrated from Europe afterwards, so I remember hearing probably 5-10 of them speaking to us in middle school and high school. The one I know who was in the Indonesian one was one of my seminary professors.)

I am hoping… my fibromyalgia medication snafu gets resolved soon. (My PA is being a jerk about refilling my meds and is referring me to a rheumatologist. After he mansplained fibromyalgia to me on Thursday, I may or may not have ripped his head off and got a ONE TIME LAST REFILL because I managed to make logical sense. Of course, he cut my dose in half but half a dose is better than no dose.)

I am learning… to just shake things off. It helped me when I came out of the house this morning and found a flat tire. I rolled my eyes, went back in the house to drop my stuff off, and got ready to change it on my own. My mom saw this and replied, “Just call AAA. It’s why we have them.” OK. They had someone out to change it in 15 minutes and while I missed my meeting this morning, it wasn’t an essential one and we were able to just check in by phone.

In my kitchen… no clue on dinner tonight. Dad did the normal Sunday fare of steak, tater tots, and Caesar salad last night and all the adults ate outside by lantern light. Fun fun fun.

In the school room… I have an IEP amendment meeting for Daniel on Thursday afternoon to go over occupational therapy goals.

Post Script… for all who read the selfish essay on “meternity leave” from the NY Post, there are some good rebuttals and satires here, here (tw: language), and here (tw: mention of body parts). I think the last one is the best one of all.

Shared Quote… I think I’ll share my Facebook commentary on the above foolishness!

“Is of the opinion that she can have a “meternity” leave for self-discovery and growth if she is willing to gain 50+ lbs over a 7-month period, have emergency surgery requiring at least a 8 week recovery (from which she returns 2.5 weeks early for financial reasons), deal with scar tissue adhesions on her abdomen every time she moves, and then give up regular sleep for a year following it.”

Because, you know, it’s not like that all happened to me or anything…

A moment from my day… Here’s a picture of my very silly and ticklish boy and me at the Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday.

My silly boy and me at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Closing Notes: Someone shared this story on the winners of the Biggest Loser and their weight gain battles in one of my Facebook groups and it makes SO. MUCH. SENSE.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Ruminations from My Hurting Brain

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Update on my fast. I’m still loving pita and hummus (and usually some carrots) for lunch and I’ve been doing tofu dogs and tater tots for dinner the last few days. I think the biggest thing is reminding myself that I could totally cheat when nobody is looking and have a frappucino but… I’m doing this to draw nearer to God at a time when I’ve got a lot of hard things going on in my personal life and said frappucino will still be there on Sunday. 🙂 I’ve fallen a couple times and had a few M&M’s (also known as “Daniel’s bribe to take his meds”) but that has been it.

— 2 —

CDC study in my backyard. OK… Palo Alto isn’t quite my backyard but… I knew some students at Palo Alto High School and Gunn so I feel like I can weigh in on the fact that the CDC is doing a study on teen suicides in Palo Alto. I could probably tell the CDC something that will save it money: I would put money on some of the suicides being caused by the insane pressure to succeed at both schools. Stanford University is local, it’s a wealthy school district so these kids have all the advantages in the world (hence, no reason why they don’t achieve magnificent things), and there are stories in the local paper about some student who gets a perfect score on the index for admission to the engineering program at Cal. They make my suburban high school (which is similarly high-pressure and which sends usually 10-20% of each graduating class to Cal) look like a bunch of slackers.

— 3 —

*facepalm* Maybe it’s just me but… WHAT ON EARTH POSSESSES PEOPLE TO TAKE A BABY DOLPHIN OUT OF THE OCEAN AND PASS IT AROUND FOR SELFIES?!?!?!?!?!? My brain hurts now…

— 4 —

Dying. If you don’t follow Honest Toddler on Facebook, you’re missing out on gems like this. I’m dying of laughter only because THIS IS MY KID AND IT’S ALL TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

— 5 —

Bravo, Apple. Considering that I am a PC person and the only Apple product I own is an elderly iPod Nano, I’m kind of shocked that I’m praising them but I love that they are saying “no” to the FBI request to create a backdoor into the iPhone. It shows a commitment to their customers and their privacy.

— 6 —

THIS. I’m loving the 8 signs that you love legalism more than Jesus and I’m seeing myself in my early convert days in this piece.

— 7 —

A thought on the debate over who should replace Justice Scalia. Maybe we should wait, out of respect for his family and loved ones, until AFTER the funeral and burial before we descend on his Supreme Court seat like a pack of hyenas?

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: The News From Here

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Temperature afghan progress. I’m slowly but surely catching up and if I could drag myself away from Cross-Stitch World, I’d probably be making it more quickly. Maybe if I get home from choir in time, I can do some more work on it…

Progress as of today.

— 2 —

Concerning Donald Trump. I read two interesting articles concerning Donald Trump in the last few days. The first one was Matt Walsh: The Primer for Trump by Leticia Adams. The second was Donald Trump and a Tale of Two Gospels by Rachel Held Evans. I recommend both of them, not because I hate Matt Walsh and adore Rachel, but because I found them to be well-written and compelling.

— 3 —

Simcha! Simcha Fisher knocks it out of the park again with why she decided to stop homeschooling and finally got rid of all her homeschooling stuff. I’m not anti-homeschooling by any stretch of the imagination but she talks about keeping the stuff out of fear that she was making the wrong decision and that public schooling would ruin her kids. Fear isn’t a valid reason to make decisions and her kiddos are doing fine in their public and charter schools.

— 4 —

Oh thank heavens! After having to fight to get Daniel’s ADHD meds for the last three months, I finally have an intake appointment and psychiatrist appointment with a group that will do medication management for him. The difference between him medicated and him unmedicated is like night and day, so this was definitely a worthwhile fight for me.

— 5 —

Daniel story. My parents’ cat Jethro was in a fight last week and developed an abscess that wasn’t draining so he was at the vet on Monday and Tuesday where they eventually had to put him under anesthesia, open the abscess and drain it, and put stitches in. He has a lovely cone of shame to wear and my mom and I are having to clean the area and medicate him. Yesterday, Daniel wanted to look at pictures on my mom’s phone and my mom told him he needed to wait, using the words “first cat then phone.” (“First ____ then _______” statements are an ABA thing.) Daniel’s response: “Cat bye!” (Translation: “Take a flying leap, cat! It’s my turn.”)

— 6 —

Prerequisite weather take. I was hoping to go for a long walk tomorrow morning but it is looking like we might have rain. Oh well… I can work on entering receipts for taxes instead, I guess.

— 7 —

New Year’s resolution progress. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to get my prayer life back to normal. I’ve had some long drives this week for various things and it has definitely given me an opportunity to pray! Now if only I could get that integrated into my normal day…

— Bonus —

Pick Jen’s Lenten discipline. The raffle ends next Friday so come on over and enter! All that you have to do in order to enter is leave me a comment with what you would choose for me. Previous winners are allowed to enter again. *coughcoughcoughKellycoughcoughcoughBethAnnecoughcoughcough*

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: Temperature Afghans, Chuck Jones, and Why I Don’t Homeschool Daniel

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Temperature afghan progress. My yarn finally arrived yesterday and I did all the calculations on how many to chain for the correct width for this pattern. Let me tell you… it’s so much easier to chain 402 stitches in groups of 16 than it is to count to 400 and then have to put stitch markers in various places! (Don’t worry — I just counted to 16 every time and then counted the stitch markers, 25 in all, plus the two extra chains for turning.) I’m in the part I hate most right now (the first row) but when I’m done with that, things will be a lot easier!

The chain last night with stitch markers:

The chain with stitch markers.

The first row (yarn is Herrschner’s 2-Ply Afghan Yarn in “Forest”):

Row #1

What I have left to do on the first row:

What I have left on Row #1

— 2 —

Beep-beep! I did not know that Chuck Jones had 9 sacred rules for every episode with Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. This explains *SO* much.

— 3 —

The immigrant experience. Reddit users were asked what the most pleasant surprise they experienced when they came to America as immigrants. Here are their answers.

— 4 —

A political sign I can stand behind. Godless in Dixie shared this on Facebook and it cracked me up!

Anyone but Trump 2016!

— 5 —

To the twits who give me a hard time for not homeschooling Daniel. Seriously, I still get people asking me why I don’t homeschool Daniel because he’s autistic. For the last time…

#1: I don’t have a degree in education with specializations in special education and rare conditions. I believe that whoever is teaching my kid needs to have a 4-year college degree in the subject and the specialized knowledge to do so. (Most of the people I know who turned out brilliantly from being homeschooled were that way because their parents had college or graduate degrees which gave them the mindset and skills to teach them well. I’ve also seen some people come out almost completely illiterate when the parents have barely a high school diploma and decide that it’s enough to be able to teach their children.) This would apply even if Daniel was neurotypical — I’d still send him to school because… I DON’T HAVE AN EDUCATION DEGREE.

#2: I have the patience of a Marine drill sergeant. Can we say “not a good combination with a kid who does not respond to conventional tactics”?

#3: I am a serious introvert and already am pretty taxed by the amount of intensive time I spend with Daniel and what that time constitutes. You can’t give what you don’t have and if I don’t have some Daniel-free time to myself to recharge (even if that means I’m working a 9-5 job outside of the home), I have a really hard time being the mom I need to be. I’m good with spending time away from my kid — it means I get to miss him a little bit and it makes the time we do spend better.

— 6 —

For those who love to read. There’s a reading group over at Liturgy of Life and it looks interesting. I’ve got too many balls in the air to participate but I wanted to put it out there for those who are interested.

— 7 —

Because Geraldine is AWESOME. For those who are into yoga and fitness, go read this. You will die laughing.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.