Random Thoughts Because It's Been Busy

• These are random thoughts to catch you up on what has been happening with the family.  Very random.
• I walked/ran my first 5K at the beginning of March and did well.  My best time yet and I ran most of it and I had fun and it was also a girls weekend at the beach that was so good to spend time with and get to know my neighbors better!
• M is doing great in school (I'm suspicious).  His only issue is absences and that is truly out of our control.   M is also playing baseball for the first  time.  He says he doesn't want to play every time it is time for practice or a game, but then gets there and has a ball.  He is an average hitter, a terrific runner, and is a daisy-picker in the outfield.  His coach is controlling his own frustration with my little space cadet quite well.  
• G is rolling along in 3rd grade.  After D saw him interact with his teacher (picture lots of hugs and beaming with happiness at seeing each other) I think he now fully understands my fear of the end of the year--- it is going to be tears for a long time when the last day of school arrives.  G chose not to play any sport because he has too much fun playing around the neighborhood with his pals.  
• E is doing really well in school and has caught on to keeping the grades in check and may have even figured out getting things done early so you don't have it hanging over your head.  Football is the sport E will be trying this spring-- we will see how it goes.  He is still an Oregon Ducks fanatic.  
• What has taken most of the time is that we FINALLY got the referral for M to see an Ears,Nose, Throat specialist about the strep infections.  You know I have been saying for a couple years the kid should get the tonsils out, but I am also a rule follower and wanted to fulfill the protocol to get the referral from our GP. The surgery is scheduled near month's end--- tonsilectomy here we come!  I have come up with the top signs that it is time for your child to get their tonsils out:

1. You stop greeting your child with a hug and begin by putting your hand on their forehead to check for a fever.
2. You have a dedicated shelf in the kitchen only for that child's medicines.
3. The pharmacists at not one, but two pharmacies can greet you by name and know which child will be with you.
4. Ditto for the receptionist at the GP's office:  When I call she is shocked if the appointment is not for M....and they are considering naming an examining room after him.
5. When M gets feverish I ask what hurts and he says "my stomach and my throat, but they always hurt".
6. He can do the strep test (qtip in the back of the throat) without gagging and takes his medicine without complaint.  
7. He can also associate the name of the medicine with the taste and has preferences for which antibiotics are his favorites.
8. When his throat hurts we don't look at the inside we only have to look at the outside to see the swelling.

The specialist said he is a prime canidate that having the tonsils out will help because he never seems to get fully over the infections and his tonsils seem to be partially swollen with scarring from past infections.  While M's absences from school are high he pointed out that if we waited for summer M would probably have at least 2 more infections and would still miss as many days of school.

So that is a random update on our clan.   Happy Spring! It feels like it today with temperatures in the 70s.  love and hugs, B

Freedom of the Press

Ranting again.  Sorry.  Last one and in February I will bring you light-hearted glimpses into our little family.  
The First Amendment of the US Constitution provides for freedom of speech which protects journalists working in good faith to inform citizens about their governments process and actions.  It also protects citizens' right to speak their mind.  It is why these blog entries speaking out against the way the government is being run right now are possible without penalty against me.    Artists' creations are protected as well; even if they are offensive.  What I hadn't paid attention to until a few months ago and not truly contemplated until I read a biography of Thomas Jefferson recently was the basic reason the founders specified this freedom in the constitution.   As citizens we cannot be in WashingtonDC as work is happening and we probably do not have a direct line to our representative to find out what is happening and where they stand.  The press should act as nonpartisan eyes and ears for the citizens reporting what action is being taken.  The press should be there representing the people asking questions to make government bodies, representatives, agencies accountable for their actions or inactions.  The press is allowed to report what happens within the government even if it makes the government look bad.
So where is the press now?  Why are the mainstream media in America regurgitating press releases to us without asking any questions?  Where are the American media asking questions about important attacks on Americans and around the world today?  Why have I been reading foreign press on a more regular basis?  Because  American press does not report things like why the CIA agents who were killed in Benghazi were there in the first place (lets just say 15,000 shoulder fired rocket launchers that the US government were quietly trying to pass to Libyan rebels went missing and were thought to be in Taliban control--- makes you want to get on a plane right now doesn't it?).  The American press never tried to find out what other damage was done to Middle East operations during the raid of the Libya compound (classified information taken or left --literally--lying around the destroyed embassy including names of informants).  American press was certainly not going to point out that the President and State Department "squirreled" the country about some protest over a video that had been released on Youtube 5 months before and continued in the lie for 2 and a half weeks before they said they might have been wrong (squirreling is distracting the public with some shiny object so they don't notice the real story).  American press who laughed at presidential canidate Mitt Romney in October when he suggested Mali was becoming a hot bed of terrorist training and anti-American sentiment have still not put that fact out there that Mali is a hotbed of terrorist training.  Had mainstream American media pushed and questioned and examined and investigated the Benghazi attack perhaps the government would have had to pay attention and would have gotten to the bottom of who the attackers were and where they came from thus finding them before the same people (not just the same group , but the actual individuals who perpetrated the embassy attack) would have not taken people hostage in Algeria killing many more.
American media has a duty to the country to pass on unbiased information so that American people can understand what is happening in their government, where their government fits in the world, and people can make informed decisions and vote with true facts in hand not just what the government tells us to believe.  If I wanted government run media, I would move to North Korea or China.  I want my media to question and dig and poke at the administration and find out if they even understand what is happening or if they could have predicted what happens with the intelligence they have or even if they read the intelligence reports they get.  When the media does their job then it falls on the shoulders of the people to read the information, make an effort to understand it, and use the information to be active in government through calling representatives or at least having an informed opinion to vote with.
OK.  I think I am done with ranting.  Thank you for listening.  Will be back later in the week with something a little more light-hearted ( though still no photos because I have not figured that problem out yet.).  B

The Economy

When I give a gift I recognize I have no control and no say in how it is spent.  It is the receivers to do with what they will.  If I give a gift card and they want to throw it away or give it away that is their business.  If  I give a monetary gift and the recipient wants to burn it or save it or spend it all on candy and soda, it was a gift and as I give it I recognize it is gift and once given it is no longer my business what happens to that gift.
Paying taxes is a responsibility.  When I fulfill my responsibility I expect the government as the beneficiary of my tax money to use it wisely, to track it so I can see where it is going and how it is being used in a way that benefits all.  Entitlement programs funded by the US Government include (but are definitely not limited to... as they just keep growing and growing and growing) Social Security for the retired/elderly, education of the young, food stamps- wage subsidies- housing subsidies for the poor,  government worker pensions, and medicare/medicaid (now the affordable care act).  By definition an entitlement is something that workers pay in for and use the benefit provided for their children or themselves as needed.  I have no problem with people paying into the system and then using the benefits, but what the benefits are used for, where they are used, and the lack of oversight on use is what bothers me.  I didn't give this money as a gift to the government.  I expect they are using my money for what it is meant for and not just passing it out carelessly.  I expect that they are checking for fraud.  Did you know that you can go into a bar/restaurant establishment order beer or another alcoholic beverage and pay with your food stamps-- your server just rings up your purchase as a hamburger combo.  Not the government's fault, but who is watching it and what is the consequence if the business is found out.  They should lose their "privilege" of serving as a provider of this benefit and the person with the food stamp benefit should lose it.  People can go in and apply for housing assistance per month to help with rent.  Good system, but with no oversight you can move in with your friends and still collect the assistance and use it to supplement your wardrobe instead of your rent-- that's not what it was intended for.   At one point before I was married I was looking for a new apartment.  D and I drove up to a complex that looked nice with a pool and a good view of the Nashville skyline and the cars in the parking lot were much more expensive than mine; when we walked in to talk to management about it they informed us it was all a Section 8 housing development.  At that point on a small Christian school teacher's salary I was well qualified for Section 8 housing, but walked away.  That job and a government Head Start teaching position I was offered taught me another scam some people run: at Head Start the person who interviewed me offered as a benefit that every summer when class was not in session I could apply for unemployment benefits and not work or even have to try to find some gap employment, just ride the broken system and enjoy summer by the pool. Maybe it is my ethical flaw that if I can scrape by and make it on my own, I do.  I believe in the benefits entitlements provide but question the fraud being committed in these systems at worker-taxpayer expense.  I question the lack of concern in the government about how long people remain in the welfare system and lack of encouraging people to work or even to perform volunteer services to earn the benefits they take out of the system if they are able-bodied.   I question what the government considers to be rights instead of privileges: internet and cell phones are luxury items not an inalienable right.  I have been in positions at different points of my life to recognize and have to make those choices.  When you go for a year or longer living on a strict budget where you call the bank before you go to the grocery store to make sure you have enough to cover food or when your splurge of the week is a trip for fast food, but only the dollar menu and you take it home so you don't have to order drinks, you know what a budget is and how to make it work without incurring debt.  I know what a budget is and why even today I like to save as much as possible and I am very aware how blessed I am and what hard work is and remember value so I don't ever have to call the bank before I go to the grocery store again.
The American government has no sense of budget or what is necessity and what is luxury.  The government (in my view) has no vision of limiting spending or cutting anything.  The president recently compared the debt ceiling to eating a big steak dinner at a restaurant and then walking out on the bill.  Let me expand on his analogy-- the government has no business eating in a restaurant right now, much less buying an expensive steak dinner and as far as walking out without paying the bill that's not what they want to do, they want to hand the bill to my children and grandchildren and have them pay later for the expensive steak dinners they are ringing up now.  I am willing to do my part through taxes, but I want to see their wise spending and see their accountability for the money I provide for their use.  I pay their (inflated and rising) salaries.  I want to get my money's worth.  I think many American taxpayers are angry not fully because taxes are rising, but because they feel they are paying for a lot of unnecessary items, a lot of splurges and luxuries at our expense and it all goes unregulated.  I am fine paying for the person who can't do for themselves, but hold issue with paying for people who won't do for themselves because using the system is just so much easier.  
Before I pay any more in taxes I want to truly see that the people spending my money are accountable.  That the items purchased with money are necessary (protection, caring for the poor and disabled, education, infrastructure). When I see true effort for living within governments means, ending fraudulent use of funds,cutting back, belt tightening then my mind is more open. Right now we are at a tipping point that other countries have faced when there is so much more leaving the coffers than is being taken in. Right now I just think about how much my boys will have to make to live and how much more to straighten out the financial disaster my generation is leaving for them. Right now I don't want to look anymore at government programs and expenditures because the luxury item spending makes me feel furious and powerless at the same time.

Americans Forgive and Forget.....No, They Just Forget

Lance Armstrong has been under great scrutiny recently due to his admitted use of performance enhancing drugs.  After his titles were stripped people wondered why he would come forward and apologize.  I wonder the same thing since Americans don't have to forgive to forget.  Americans just forget.  Last summer at the Democratic Naitonal Convention who was upheld, praised and worshipped as such an amazing man and was recently recognized as father of the year: former President Bill Clinton.  Does anyone remember the issue that should have tarnished his reputation?  Let me throw some names out and see if it jogs your memory: Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky.  Yes there were that many that the public knows about; how many didn't come forward.  Upstanding man that all these women(from totally different times and places) conspired against, lecherous oaf, or predator?   It doesn't matter because America has forgotten all of it.
Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens footbal team.  This Super Bowl will be his last.  He will retire as a possible Super Bowl Champion.  He is being heralded as a one of the greatest player of all time and his story is the big headline of big game.  Does anyone recall the 2000 Super Bowl?  Ray attended as a fan in the stands as his team didn't make it to the big game that year.  After doing an autograph appearance at a sporting goods store and then the game, Ray and his friends head to a bar to party where at 4am a drunken brawl breaks out with another group from the bar.  Ray is seen throwing a punch, 2 people magically end up stabbed to death with a knife that came from the store where Ray had signed autographs that day.  Blood from the victims is magically found in Ray's limo, witnesses see people exit the same limo at different times of night in different places throwing away bags of things in dumpsters. Ray Lewis and 2 friends are charged with the crime and it goes through a trial where witnesses now claim they can't remember or can't be sure about a thing they saw.  Charges against Lewis are totally dismissed and the friends are acquitted.  So I guess no one really committed that crime.  Families of the victims bring civil suits against Ray Lewis and settle for undisclosed amounts.  And America forgets and puts him on a pedestal.
Maybe the majority of America is better than I am.  Maybe I should be more forgiving and forgetting and let bygones be bygones.  Perhaps it is a fault in myself that I remember these tiny flaws and mistakes.   But maybe if more Americans paid attention and retained information we would be more wary of characters who could come back into the spotlight and fool us again.  Maybe we could spot patterns in the world that point to trouble brewing and a major storm on the horizon.  Let me go off the people track for a moment and jog some memories about attacks on Americans/America in the past.
Terrorist groups don't only plan a single large attack,  execute and then disappear.  Terrorist groups poke and tease with smaller attacks and actions to judge the security in place and guage the reaction of the US Government.  They judge those reactions, actions, and security systems and adjust their training and plans based upon what they learn each time.  September 11, 2001 didn't just magically happen.  There were multiple events leading up to it: embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, multiple cases of borders being tested for entry (legal and illegal) to our country, USS Cole bombing in 2000.  9-11-01 was so strong it made a lasting impact on America's memory, but if we could remember how the terrorists tested and tried different actions leading up to that day maybe we would pay more attention to the Benghazi embassy attack, to the hostages taken in Algeria, and to the increasing strength of the Taliban in northern Mali (Be sure to giggle when a presidential canidate mentions Mali and say most americans think that is the president's daughter).  It would cause me less concern if I bought into the dumbing down of America and I would just forget too.  Then a few months or a year from now when the big terrorist event happens I could be as surprised and appalled as everyone else and not be the "told you so".  I do believe we should be positive and supportive of people who change or try to change their ways, but is it bad to still remember their past and use it to temper the adoration given to them in the present.  It is right to move on with our lives as bad things happen around the world, but as humans given the ability to remember it is also our responsibility to observe patterns, take note, and connect them to past events to see possible future events.

This is part of a rant series I am writing to get a few things off my chest.  I am up on my soapbox for the first few posts of  2013.  Sorry.  I have been thinking about doing a few of these for a while and am hoping that once I write them they  will be off my mind.  Heavy stuff.  Light hearted commentary on parenting and life will return in February.

Prayers to New Town Connecticut

The school shooting that happened today in Connecticut has shaken me.  I have turned off the radio and TV after watching a bit of the news coming in.  So sad.  So senseless.  So scary that this is the world our kids are growing up in. For my parents and my generation schools were open places, completely unlocked.  A place of innocence and fun and learning and struggle and accomplishment.  During my time teaching K schools became locked.  We practiced lockdowns.  My school was one of the first in our area to lock all our doors; parents had to buzz in and were indignant and said they felt unwelcome.....until we used the system successfully 2 months after putting it in place to stop a noncustodial parent from forcibly taking a child from our school.  Parents then understood that it could happen anywhere.
What saddens me is that I taught kids our lockdown procedure: door locked, hide out of sight of windows and door, lights off, quiet, quiet, quiet. In Kindergarten. Some kids thought it was like hide and seek.  Some said it was in case of bad people.  The ones who were going to bring up guns were stopped midsentence. But they knew.
What saddens me is that lockdown is now a regular school term that all the kids understand.
What saddens me is that they are needed at all.
What saddens me is that the elementary children today will hear about this in one way or another and it will affect their view of school, of school being a carefree place where their only worry is that 'big test' or reading the next line of the story or if their toga will stay on for their presentation.
They know they learn procedures to stay safe, but being safe at school should be a given.
Kids shouldn't have to think about staying safe at school.
Prayers to the families of Sandy Hook Elementary who have been forever touched by this avoidable tragedy.
Prayers to school children and personnel everywhere.
B

Running in Place

I tried to blog yesterday.  Lack of photos or words to write are not an issue, but lack of GB storage for photos on the blogger system is.  Apparently since the beginning of the blog when I was sure I would never fill all the photo storage space provided I took a lot of photos and fill it I did.  So my plan is to print another blog book that will cover the past 3 years of posts and then delete some beginning posts to see if that fixes my storage issue.  Yes, I am too cheap to pay the company to store old photos--- that's what I have Snapfish for.   Anyway.... I may do some written posts, but until I get photo issues worked out I cannot load any. I have considered ditching this blog and restarting elsewhere and maybe this is a sign to take that road.  I'll let you know if I decide to move to another site altogether---- though probably not since I have sentimental attachment to this one and it would confuse me to learn a new blog site.  Thanks for your patience.  Will write soon.

G's Eyes (and his amazing teacher)

Over the summer G's reading fell off.  Odd for him, but I thought it was a summer break, her was tired of reading, couldn't find anything to strike his interest.  I gave him a stern talking to after he took his test to check his grade level reading test for AR (Accelerated Reading): he had dropped a whole grade level !  I lectured on how he had to get back to reading and actually finishing books and had to stop being lazy about his work.  At his conference at the beginning of October his teacher asked me when he last had his eyes checked; she pointed out 6 different things that would point towards G needing new glasses despite his new pair being prescribed six months ago.  His teacher also said that he was trying very hard, but was frustrated often got teary in class.  Well, give me a parenting gold star.  I finally get him scheduled and to an appointment at the end of the month (another gold star).  At the appointment the doctor first checked his prescription and it was fine.  Then he listened to the symptoms G's teacher reported as well as things we noticed at home.  He tried another test: with G holding a  letter on a page 'reading distance' from his eyes the doctor held lenses over his eyes and asked G to say each time the writing came into focus.  Normal eyes can refocus from reading to distance vision 11-15 times in one minute.  G did 8.  He has accomadative insufficiency meaning his eye size has grown but the strength of the muscles to focus at changing distances has not.  We are working on strengthening through reading more with a marker under the words to help him focus.   Gold star and a blue ribbon for my super parenting in blaming a legitimate problem on laziness.
I have already thanked G's teacher multiple times.  Let me tell you a bit about her.  She is an experienced teacher.  The kind that a lot of parents would write off  because they want their kid to have to have the bouncy, just out of college teacher ( not that the bouncy, just minted teachers are bad).  She is a benevolent dictator in her room.  What she says goes and does not waver and cannot be changed by whining parents or kids.  Her students adore her, because she does what she says, she holds them to a high standard, she expects the best out of everyone of them, but she also knows when to give an extra hug and is in tune to when something is off with one of "her kids".  She loves them and that is what makes her push them and they love her which is why they respond and give her their best.  They wouldn't dare turn in an item late or half done because they would disappoint her.  Her years of experience make her the great teacher she is.  The years of experience she has made her able to tell me 6 things about G in the classroom that indicated a sight problem without ever having written any of them down.   G's teacher has years of experience and keeps learning about new resources and technology which is why when I told her how we were working on it for  the next few months she immediately knew what G needed and took me to the library to pick up some "focus strips" that have a transparent colored window so G can keep his eyes focused in the right place.  His reading enthusiasm has gone up 3000%.
So that is your educational post of the day on how to be a gold star example of pitiful parenting,  how important experienced teachers are, and how eyes are important and sometimes eye problems are not just about prescription strength.
love and hugs and is it time to get your eyes checked? B