Wow, I am wrung out from the Destination Imagination Regional Tournament this weekend and getting very behind on my Gulf Wars preparations! Our team was absolutely awesome! We tied for first in our Challenge and we are going to the STATE TOURNAMENT! Hooray!!!
However, at the Tournament and later I have seen and heard some things that have made me cringe. It seems that Toxic Parent Syndrome has infected even Destination Imagination. So now I hope I survive the State Tournament without the verbal equivalent of belting somebody. All I can say is I'm feeling very prickly and like I REALLY DON'T LIKE PEOPLE right now. This has nothing to do with my wonderful team or their parents, but with the OTHERS.
Destination Imagination is a wonderful program that is supposed to emphasize self-determination and learning over winning. Of course there are tournaments and competitions but it is supposed to be about the PROCESS. We have always had fun and learned a lot. The first year we competed (3rd grade) we were fifth. The next year (last year) we got very excited because we were 3rd (and got a trophy). This year we tied for first in a Technical Challenge so I was ecstatic!! Not only that, the kids did it not by making a bunch of artsy fartsy props that took forever but by ingenuity and by figuring out the challenge and working smart.
It's also obvious that the kids made the props and costumes and such. In fact, it's the absolute truth. I took a nap while they were writing the script. I told them they needed to get it to at least 8 pages if possible and then cut it down, and they didn't even have to use it at the tournament, but their assignment was to write an 8 page script one way or the other. It took several sessions but they finally did it.
You know, it wasn't exactly how I would have done it but it was pretty damn good and it was pretty funny too, in a wacky sort of way.
I took them shopping at the CCA Thrift Store, and they decided what stuff to buy. We were going to get new t shirts at Hobby Lobby to decorate but we found two in the right color and size at CCA, so they flipped them and used those. They were decorated with fabric markers and with stuff they sewed on themselves. They didn't take forever although the sewing took longer than you would think. They also were not intended to be graded as "side trip" but were "for fun" costumes.
Unfortunately, what I saw in several OTHER challenges that I viewed was Toxic Parent Syndrome. Parents being more than just proud of their kids. Parents being hyper involved. It was very obvious to me in one of the winners that the parents must have interfered in the costumes and props--they were just too perfect. I know what elementary students, including good and artistic ones, are capable of, and these kids were led down the garden path by someone. But they didn't get a penalty and I guess the kids answered the appraiser questions the right way. I don't wish the cute little kids any ill will and they were adorable, but I sure hope someone takes notice at the State Tournament that these little girls could not possibly have built some of these perfect puppets, puppet theatre, and made these costumes out of chip bags and juice boxes and trash that look like they came off the Paris runway. I'm not saying that they didn't do the work themselves, but surely someone held their hand while they were cutting, if you catch my drift. I don't even know how to make costumes like that. Maybe there's a manual.
The team I felt really bad for was the 2nd place team. They had a much more creative story line and such and they obviously made their own props. If I was their team manager I'd be really irritated by the judging, but there's nothing you can do about it. It's all subjective.
I think it's great for parents to support their kids' activities but when did promoting your child become your life's work? I wish I could write in a more humorous way about this but it's just not very funny to me right now. But I will try.
These parents make it impossible to compete and they make others' children feel bad. Little Suzi can't go to the Girl Scout dance unless she has a ball gown and her hair professionally done and a manicure and a $50 corsage (what will you have to do for PROM??) Little Jimmy has $150 sneakers for basketball. Little Bethany takes fencing, violin, plays mah jong and,oh by the way, is practicing to be a walk on professional acrobat with the circus after she finishes her medical degree.
It is Cheerleader Syndrome, or PTA Syndrome, at its worst. My kid is better than yours. My kid is smarter, prettier, and dressed better than yours. I am always here supporting my child so obviously I am a better parent than you are. I give my child everything in the world so that he or she will want for nothing, and I do it better than you because I have MORE. And if I don't have MORE I will sure do a nice imitation of it!
A good example of this is "pin trading" at the DI tournament. Now, they sell pins to raise money for the programs and I get it. But they have turned this into a "must do." The kids have a mixer where they trade pins and collect pins from other regions. This is fine but a set of the pins to trade costs $56. For me that's $112, and that's before I buy the MANDATORY STATE T shirt. Make that three shirts. And I would like some pins myself (after all, I have to endure two six hour bus rides with a bunch of kids to Lubbock in order to compete and get the school district to pay for it.) So now we are looking at over $200. Right before Gulf Wars, and did I mention I also have to pay for the very expensive 5th grade field trip which my kids wsnt me to chaperone.
OK, I can say No. I can say: I don't want the pins or the t shirt. It's more crap for my house that will end up in a box one day and I have enough of that. My kid is not going to want these pins when they are 25, or if they do it will be more crap in THEIR house. But I don't want my kids to be left out. I don't want my kids to miss out on the fun or feel like the "don't haves." They want to trade pins with the other kids--it's a good ice breaker and it's fun. And I want to have some fun too, and it's not like we're going to have time to go to the Buddy Holly museum if we are on the **** bus!!!
So I will be plopping down the over $200, plus everything else they want me to plop down even though what I really need to do is get the car fixed and take care of some other things. But I sure resent it. It's not that I don't want the kids to have the stuff but I resent being railroaded into purchasing stuff we don't really need. But I would really like to meet some people from other regions and trade some pins myself if we are going all that way, so I guess all three of us will do it.
In fact, Amelia said it best: "Why can't we just go to the mixer and mix?" She had a cute outfit all picked out and I was told "we wear the regional t shirt." I told her to wear her cute outfit and take her t shirt and if she didn't want to wear it I would be happy to hold it for her. I don't care what she wears but I want her to be happy. Although if I buy her 16 regional pins at $56, I sure don't want half of them back.
I expect that toxic parent syndrome is partially responsible for these kids' sense of entitlement rather than their sense of independence. Mom and Dad will always do everything for me so all I have to do is perform well at my activities. And they will buy me what I need to do that and to really shine and stand out in front of everyone.
DI is supposed to be fun, but now I am being told that my team needs to remake a bunch of stuff for the Tournament. Now I want them to perform well but I don't want them so "winning focused" that they forget the spirit of DI or that they don't have a good time. I want them to have a blast, not be so stressed out at age 11 that they burn out later in life (like me). If there is too much pressure put on them, they will get nervous and choke and that's not what got them to State in the first place. It was having a great performance where they were having fun.
I know the wages of too much pressure and I don't want my kids under it. They are awesome, talented and beautiful (in fact I'm sure they are better in every way than your kids even though yours are probably taller), but I want them to stay that way. I want them to be a success in life. That means being able to take care of themselves and have a career or job that they love (most of the time, anyway). I don't know that I have achieved that but I know what it's like to be an overachiever, and sooner or later you just aren't number one (or two, or three, or ten) and it is hard to accept.
You know, most of us are "also rans." Most of us are not number one. Yet our culture and our society treats us as if we are failures if we are not. The fact is that there are many highly successful and effective and respected people out there who will never be rich or famous but who are good at what they do and are loved by their families and friends. And isn't that a lot better than not being able to sleep and overdosing on drugs like Michael Jackson? How about the people who weren't as talented as he was who turned to drugs and such because they were disappointed that they couldn't be great recording stars?
I see this on American Idol all the time. Pretty but not too bright teenager comes on to sing. Has personality, has flair, dressed nicely, good skin and hair, but sings like a mud brick. Wow, even with asthma and being thirty five years older, I can sing better than that, although I don't usually sing in public. Plus, what was she thinking singing "At Last" anyway???? Or "Over the Rainbow?" Why not just go all out and sing "Oh Holy Night" or the "Halleluia Chorus"?
Anyway, cute teen gets told no, and is totally devastated and hysterical: "But this is all I HAVE! This is all I want to do with my life!" Her mom is also devastated (five people waiting by the door)--because Mom thinks her child prodigy is the next Celine Dion. Well, maybe she can get a job cleaning Celine's house.
Face it, that's pretty sad if your main game plan in life is "become a big recording star" (or athlete) and strike it rich." That's like the "maybe I'll win the lottery" retirement plan (Oh, wait, that IS my retirement plan!)
People on that show "want it so bad" that they choke under the pressure, time and time again. A lot of people got sent home this year who can really sing, but they can't handle the pressure and they can't pull their best performance out of a hat when the going gets tough. And THAT's what you have to do. Don't get nervous, don't get down on yourself, don't focus on what you want--focus on what you DO, and Rock the house. When you don't do that, you don't do your best, and you get sent home. And you may get sent home anyway because there's someone out there who sings better than you do. But if you do your best performance that is all you can do and you shouldn't be disappointed.
Tell that to the guy who finishes fourth at the Olympics! Yeah, losing still sucks. So I tell myself I am not a loser: "I tied for third on the Mythology exam at the State Latin Convention! Whoo Hoo!" (I really did. I've got one hell of a brain, you know).
You should strive for your personal best at all times, and let the chips fall. Then you will never be a failure even if you are fifth, or tenth, or twenty seventh. It's if you don't finish strong(because you choke so badly you must pull out of the competition) that you are a true loser.
But this doesn't apply to downhill skiing.
Face it, there are just some contests in life where you are either first or you wipe out and your car blows up or you end up in the footage for Wide World of Sports (remember the ski guy???) But let's not enter our 11 year olds in them.
Showing posts with label Destination Imagination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Destination Imagination. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Friday, March 5, 2010
How to Overschedule and Burn Out Your Children
OK, it is now about 1:15 am and I am FINALLY finished with the DI paperwork. I copied most of it today but the damned detailed spreadsheet wouldn't work out at 2:30 am yesterday so I finally finished that too. I really did want to make sure I had spent under $125 (the budgeted amount) on this challenge and not $175 like it was telling me. The problem was that I had 25 feet of craft wire listed incorrectly so it was showing at $35 instead of .50. Or at least that was ONE of the problems. Anyway, it doesn't actually agree with what I am giving the appraisers but it is LESS than what I am giving the appraisers (the appraiser sheet estimates too high a cost for duct tape, for example).
I could work on it all night but it would never agree. This is why I hate Quicken and I hate to balance checkbooks. I am no accountant. I had a rough idea of what I had spent (about $110 to $120) and sure enough, one report says $107 and one says $116. So I'm pretty damn close in my head, and I haven't really overspent except for the color copies of the forms today (not part of or included in the budget but would you believe, over $59!!!) I sure hope I don't get audited, as they say. Although I think I am about as accurate as I can be at this point, and I even have receipts. Of course, part of the reason that I am trying to be accurate is so that my husband can write some of it off the taxes, since I always end up spending more of my personal money than my fair share when I do these things. It's one of the reasons I got out of Scouts--the recordkeeping was so burdensome and I always ended up out of pocket.
But I have just about had it with these oversheduled children and their parents! Some months ago I told everyone to totally block out March 6th for the TOURNAMENT because I didn't know for sure when we would be performing, etc. I also asked that the kids be present for the Instant Challenge Workshop where they all need to practice IC as a team, and for the dress rehearsal last Sunday. Well, in all cases (even tomorrow) someone can't be there or couldn't be there for the whole thing. The parents never tell me this until the last minute, as if I am going to argue with them or something. It really hacks me off. Now one little girl needs to go to soccer tomorrow, even though that means that the whole group will have to try to meet up with her mom in the middle of the day so she can go home. I wonder what other surprises are in store for me tomorrow. I sure hope they all show up at 7:30 am.
Now here's the thing about Destination Imagination: although there is a tournament and a competition, it's more about process than product. It's about teamwork and learning how to work together. It's very subjective (well most of it anyway) so you can't really predict how you will do. It's the Ice Dancing of the kids' activities world. Your goal should be do to your personal best. If you can do your personal best, then it is OK if you don't get the gold medal. You may be a bit disappointed but you shouldn't be disappointed if you don't win American Idol when you are next in line behind David Cook. But here's the trick--you get out of Destination Imagination what you put into it. You have fun and you get silly but you work and work and work on stuff. One of our backdrops took over 10 kid hours, and that was with two or three kids on it at all times. Some of the stuff they make can be incredibly involved. And they have all these grandiose ideas at the beginning, many of which turn out not to come to fruition, which is a shame but it's just DI. Sometimes the ideas you have are too grand for the budget and the time you have to complete them.
The other thing about DI that a lot of people don't get is that the kids do all the work. If the parents help or do it for them, it is interference and it's a penalty at the tournament. I am supposed to facilitate and generate ideas but not give them ideas. I am supposed to get them to do research and look at books and such. I am supposed to get them to learn by participating in workshops and trying things out. This year we learned how to make paper pulp and sculpt in clay, and we also learned that our clay puppet head just would not attach well to the body and was very heavy, so we spent a lot of time on a solution that got abandoned. But here again, this was process, not product. (And I also learned that you should never make paper pulp out of newspaper in your kitchen--the ink is a MESS! Finally had to borrow my friend Viv's dye pot--thank God for the SCA, where people who live in apartments own pots that you can use to make a big mess in.) The next time I'm at a thrift shop or CCA or something, I am looking for a big dye pot myself. Or I could always just keep borrowing someone else's dye pot.
So I'm tired of the constantly overscheduled kids. They don't get the full benefit when they don't participate. Now I could be a meanie like a soccer coach and say if you don't participate for a certain number of hours, you don't get to do X. My friend Cyndy who coaches a high level team that has been to Globals makes her kids sign in and out to see who is putting in the most time. She also told me not to let one girl participate in IC (instant challenge) since she missed the workshop for a drama thing at church. But you know, I'm not that big a hard ass. For one thing, the girl that missed is one of our most experienced team members and I WANT her in IC because she knows what she is doing. Also, the dress rehearsal for the church thing supposedly came up kind of last minute, and these things happen. Finally, her mom is very supportive of DI and is being an appraiser this year, a substantial time commitment. So no, I am not booting her out of IC, in part for political reasons, and except for this one thing, her attendance has been pretty good. But I do think that from now on I may make it a policy that if you miss the IC workshop you can't do IC with the team. Because we have a really good team and we could be great, but only with time and effort and commitment, just like a sports team. We have the brains--we need the focus and the unscheduled blocks of time. And that is the hardest thing of all to come by in our overstructured and overscheduled society.
My girls participate in Destination Imagination, which I coach, and Scouts. Because we do the SCA thing and the Ren Faire thing in the spring, we aren't in sports right now. The last time we tried it, it severely limited what we could do on Saturdays with our other activities. If my girls were really talented at sports it would be one thing, but they are small for their age and don't have a lot of sports aptitude. M was really good at soccer but when the field got larger and the girls got taller, they mowed over her (even her own teammates). She was a great ball handler but they just took it away from her (even her own teammates) and then missed the goal. I mean, M could score 6 goals in a game when the field was small, but she couldn't keep up with the running. And A in particular struggled with her asthma in the spring. They play in February around here and it was really cold this year, so I was glad that we were out of it. Plus, it looks like they are going to be around 5 feet tall IF we are lucky.
We have tried gymnastics and dance but with the ADHD they are both so distracted that it just becomes extended playtime. And dance gets really expensive with two girls, about $1000 a semester around here by the time you buy all the costumes and the shoes and pay for all the lessons. So I haven't done it. I got M a guitar for Christmas and I got A the small drumset from Target and I would like to get them into music, but not until DI is over. Plus they have Scouts and scout campouts and such, and it often conflicts even with DI (they are missing the Father Daughter Girl Scout Dance this year, unfortunately, because of this conflict). The DI state tournament, which we were going to go to and watch even if we didn't place high enough to go and perform, is here locally this year. Unfortunately it conflicts with the big Girl Scout campout. So if our team makes it to the State Tournament, we will have a big brouhaha about all of that, since five of our six team members are supposed to go on the campout.
(send me a note if you know how to spell that "brou ha ha" word, OK)??
I guess I am not feeling very amused right now. I am so tired of kids missing DI because of all of these other things that they are doing. The girl down the street has soccer, hockey, student council and jump rope team. And she's 9. Another girl I know who doesn't have time for DI does gymnastics 5 days a week. Another kid I know is in three sports. The Tae Kwon Do and Karate people do it 3-4 times a week. Plus in addition to the games there are bithday parties and family things, and so forth and so on. Two of the girls missed dress rehearsal, one because of a family thing that was important (90th birthday party of grandpa), but it would have been nice if she had told me in advance so I could have rescheduled. The other missed dress rehearsal because her family decided to take an impromptu vacation and forgot totally about it. So I had to schedule ANOTHER one, because with only 4 girls to do a skit that was intended for 6, the firs dress rehearsal was a total train wreck. We have it on tape. I am trying to read the parts of the other two girls and keep time. It's a mess.
We finally ALL practiced today and all I could think of was how much better this skit would have been if we had all practiced together Sunday or even before. But we couldn't get our props, including the giant Chinese Dragon Puppet, done in time to practice much before, plus it has been way too cold in the garage and because we live out here in Texas, we don't have a basement. In fact, we didn't even paint anything this year except a few chairs because it just wasn't warm enough most of the time to paint outside or in the garage. And we had several days where we had three of the six show up for work sessions (two of them being my kids, of course).
My daughters get a little frustrated because if there is anything that needs to be done in DI they end up having to do it. But I have explained that this actually benefits them, and that if they want me to coach they need to put in the extra time too. In fact, I do have one rule: they can't take unfinished stuff to tournament. If they scale back the original idea, that's fine--but they can't take a half finished backdrop or puppet or something to tournament. They must finish their props, costumes, etc. to take them. The items don't have to be perfect and some of them don't even have to be good but they do need to be DONE. Finish what you start.
I am not sure where all this overscheduling of 9 year olds will lead. I think it will lead to total burnout, and that some of these kids will decide not to go to college or will not want to do much with extracurriculars even in high school. Others will be so specialized by the time they are 12 that they won't have anything to fall back on if whatever their specialty is doesn't work out in the long run. I remember meeting kids at Target who weren't in college and had very little future, and in one case it was a gal who was a great soccer player but dropped it for political reasons after her junior year of high school. She did complete high school but she had nothing at all to fall back on and couldn't afford to go to school, got no soccer scholarship, and for all I know she is still folding towels in Domestics like I was. The difference being that I wanted to be there and make a little Christmas money and get away from 4 year old toddlers for a few hours, and for her it was a career.
Now those of you who know me from high school know that I was overscheduled, but I did this myself (not my parents). And I learned the hard way senior year that being the News Editor of the Paper and the Literary Magazine Editor and in NHS and Key Club and Latin Club and all of these other things--and I didn't do sports--was very difficult. It led to a lot of late nights and a lot of tears sometimes as I tried to balance schoolwork with all the writing and the other more academic interests. I was on the Certamen team (college bowl for Latin geeks). I flirted with chess club and debate team (or at least with the guys--my kind of guys!!!) I studied Mythology and took the exam at the Latin convention and was third in the state, two years running (see, always an also-ran). I was fourth in the class (again, always a bridesmaid, never the bride). I thought I was really hot shit, let me tell you.
When I got to college things were different. My parents wanted me in a sorority because I went to their college and that was the thing to do at William and Mary, so I was in a sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta. Not really my thing, being around all those women with all their hormones, but there were some good experiences that came out of there and I learned a lot about "corporate" leadership skills, although unfortunately since there were no men involved it wasn't very realistic. But a sorority is generally very well run from a business perspective--a sorority is a little on campus business. They are in the business of self promotion so they are always reminding you when to wear your pin (and when not to, like when you are drunk). On Mondays we were supposed to dress up (plaid kilts and sweaters and clogs, really!) and wear our pins because that was Meeting Day. On Fridays it was Jersey Day and you wore your Kappa Alpha Theta black and gold jersey but not your pin. Because on Friday you just might go out and party or something in college. Go figure. Anyway, other than Theta and studying with my graduate student boyfriend (who took me to the library every night from after dinner until 10 pm, and I am not kidding), the only other activity I had was literary magazine, where I was a mere staffer for three years. I didn't have time to write for the college paper; I tried but it was too much like an unpaid job. I was spending the rest of my time either studying my ass off at William and Mary or having sex. Seriously. And the studying was much more prolific than the sex too. No wonder I made Phi Beta Kappa ahead of my much brighter friend Rise, and got nearly straight A's, was 12th in the class, and went on to a bright future at UVA Law School. Hopefully you can read between the lines and catch a bit of the sarcasm here because I'm not trying to brag. I really did do all these things, but it turned out that law wasn't exactly what it was cracked up to be for me, although that's a whole different essay.
The point is that I didn't burn myself out with activities in college because I learned my lesson in high school. College was harder than high school so I concentrated on my studies. It paid off. In law school, my extracurriculars (other than sex of course) were the Journal of Law and Politics (ironic since I don't really follow politics much but this journal specialized in things like election law, which I find fascinating, and had people of both political parties involved in it), and Moot Court, which I only did briefly because my partner was a lovely woman and a space cadet with a huge brain but very little common sense. She had the longest hair I've ever seen and she would have LOVED the SCA. She was very bright but she was a bigger pointy headed geek than even me, and she struggled with appellate argument although this would have been a good place for her in the legal world. I wish I knew what happened to her--I miss her. Maybe she is on FB. Anyway, between me and my partner, with whom I was probably very well-matched, we just weren't practical enough and just didn't have enough of that killer instinct, so we didn't advance beyond the first round. My boyfriend at the time went on to the final round of Moot Court--he wouldn't be partners with me though because he didn't think I was smart enough and after all, I was only a woman. I didn't realize until I got to law school how sexist life out there could be, at least in the 1980's--I had been sheltered by sorority life, I guess.
My favorite part of law school was my trial practice class, where we got to do a criminal defense case and I put panty hose over my head at closing argument. It was a lot of fun, even though I got reamed by the judge ( a REAL judge in real life) becuase of course I couldn't have gotten away with that in a real trial. But it got a laugh out of the jury and we won our case. That's me, Liz Wilson, Comedy Trial Lawyer. Not that I ever really wanted to do criminal defense work (corporate defense work being so much more on the morally high ground, you know), but I sure did enjoy that trial!!!
Well, I should really go to bed because I have a 14 hour day tomorrow with six (well, now it may be down to 5) 10 year olds and I suppose I need some sleep. And my Earl Gray Lady tea and Samoas are gone so I guess it's time to go push the dogs off my pillow and wake up my husband briefly and climb back into bed. Tomorrow is another day. In fact, since it's already Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday and by then the DI tournament will be OVER!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!
Pleasant Valley Mom, wondering if she can get away with visiting the Team Manager lounge this year and switching off with Hubby. He can visit it too if he likes.
I could work on it all night but it would never agree. This is why I hate Quicken and I hate to balance checkbooks. I am no accountant. I had a rough idea of what I had spent (about $110 to $120) and sure enough, one report says $107 and one says $116. So I'm pretty damn close in my head, and I haven't really overspent except for the color copies of the forms today (not part of or included in the budget but would you believe, over $59!!!) I sure hope I don't get audited, as they say. Although I think I am about as accurate as I can be at this point, and I even have receipts. Of course, part of the reason that I am trying to be accurate is so that my husband can write some of it off the taxes, since I always end up spending more of my personal money than my fair share when I do these things. It's one of the reasons I got out of Scouts--the recordkeeping was so burdensome and I always ended up out of pocket.
But I have just about had it with these oversheduled children and their parents! Some months ago I told everyone to totally block out March 6th for the TOURNAMENT because I didn't know for sure when we would be performing, etc. I also asked that the kids be present for the Instant Challenge Workshop where they all need to practice IC as a team, and for the dress rehearsal last Sunday. Well, in all cases (even tomorrow) someone can't be there or couldn't be there for the whole thing. The parents never tell me this until the last minute, as if I am going to argue with them or something. It really hacks me off. Now one little girl needs to go to soccer tomorrow, even though that means that the whole group will have to try to meet up with her mom in the middle of the day so she can go home. I wonder what other surprises are in store for me tomorrow. I sure hope they all show up at 7:30 am.
Now here's the thing about Destination Imagination: although there is a tournament and a competition, it's more about process than product. It's about teamwork and learning how to work together. It's very subjective (well most of it anyway) so you can't really predict how you will do. It's the Ice Dancing of the kids' activities world. Your goal should be do to your personal best. If you can do your personal best, then it is OK if you don't get the gold medal. You may be a bit disappointed but you shouldn't be disappointed if you don't win American Idol when you are next in line behind David Cook. But here's the trick--you get out of Destination Imagination what you put into it. You have fun and you get silly but you work and work and work on stuff. One of our backdrops took over 10 kid hours, and that was with two or three kids on it at all times. Some of the stuff they make can be incredibly involved. And they have all these grandiose ideas at the beginning, many of which turn out not to come to fruition, which is a shame but it's just DI. Sometimes the ideas you have are too grand for the budget and the time you have to complete them.
The other thing about DI that a lot of people don't get is that the kids do all the work. If the parents help or do it for them, it is interference and it's a penalty at the tournament. I am supposed to facilitate and generate ideas but not give them ideas. I am supposed to get them to do research and look at books and such. I am supposed to get them to learn by participating in workshops and trying things out. This year we learned how to make paper pulp and sculpt in clay, and we also learned that our clay puppet head just would not attach well to the body and was very heavy, so we spent a lot of time on a solution that got abandoned. But here again, this was process, not product. (And I also learned that you should never make paper pulp out of newspaper in your kitchen--the ink is a MESS! Finally had to borrow my friend Viv's dye pot--thank God for the SCA, where people who live in apartments own pots that you can use to make a big mess in.) The next time I'm at a thrift shop or CCA or something, I am looking for a big dye pot myself. Or I could always just keep borrowing someone else's dye pot.
So I'm tired of the constantly overscheduled kids. They don't get the full benefit when they don't participate. Now I could be a meanie like a soccer coach and say if you don't participate for a certain number of hours, you don't get to do X. My friend Cyndy who coaches a high level team that has been to Globals makes her kids sign in and out to see who is putting in the most time. She also told me not to let one girl participate in IC (instant challenge) since she missed the workshop for a drama thing at church. But you know, I'm not that big a hard ass. For one thing, the girl that missed is one of our most experienced team members and I WANT her in IC because she knows what she is doing. Also, the dress rehearsal for the church thing supposedly came up kind of last minute, and these things happen. Finally, her mom is very supportive of DI and is being an appraiser this year, a substantial time commitment. So no, I am not booting her out of IC, in part for political reasons, and except for this one thing, her attendance has been pretty good. But I do think that from now on I may make it a policy that if you miss the IC workshop you can't do IC with the team. Because we have a really good team and we could be great, but only with time and effort and commitment, just like a sports team. We have the brains--we need the focus and the unscheduled blocks of time. And that is the hardest thing of all to come by in our overstructured and overscheduled society.
My girls participate in Destination Imagination, which I coach, and Scouts. Because we do the SCA thing and the Ren Faire thing in the spring, we aren't in sports right now. The last time we tried it, it severely limited what we could do on Saturdays with our other activities. If my girls were really talented at sports it would be one thing, but they are small for their age and don't have a lot of sports aptitude. M was really good at soccer but when the field got larger and the girls got taller, they mowed over her (even her own teammates). She was a great ball handler but they just took it away from her (even her own teammates) and then missed the goal. I mean, M could score 6 goals in a game when the field was small, but she couldn't keep up with the running. And A in particular struggled with her asthma in the spring. They play in February around here and it was really cold this year, so I was glad that we were out of it. Plus, it looks like they are going to be around 5 feet tall IF we are lucky.
We have tried gymnastics and dance but with the ADHD they are both so distracted that it just becomes extended playtime. And dance gets really expensive with two girls, about $1000 a semester around here by the time you buy all the costumes and the shoes and pay for all the lessons. So I haven't done it. I got M a guitar for Christmas and I got A the small drumset from Target and I would like to get them into music, but not until DI is over. Plus they have Scouts and scout campouts and such, and it often conflicts even with DI (they are missing the Father Daughter Girl Scout Dance this year, unfortunately, because of this conflict). The DI state tournament, which we were going to go to and watch even if we didn't place high enough to go and perform, is here locally this year. Unfortunately it conflicts with the big Girl Scout campout. So if our team makes it to the State Tournament, we will have a big brouhaha about all of that, since five of our six team members are supposed to go on the campout.
(send me a note if you know how to spell that "brou ha ha" word, OK)??
I guess I am not feeling very amused right now. I am so tired of kids missing DI because of all of these other things that they are doing. The girl down the street has soccer, hockey, student council and jump rope team. And she's 9. Another girl I know who doesn't have time for DI does gymnastics 5 days a week. Another kid I know is in three sports. The Tae Kwon Do and Karate people do it 3-4 times a week. Plus in addition to the games there are bithday parties and family things, and so forth and so on. Two of the girls missed dress rehearsal, one because of a family thing that was important (90th birthday party of grandpa), but it would have been nice if she had told me in advance so I could have rescheduled. The other missed dress rehearsal because her family decided to take an impromptu vacation and forgot totally about it. So I had to schedule ANOTHER one, because with only 4 girls to do a skit that was intended for 6, the firs dress rehearsal was a total train wreck. We have it on tape. I am trying to read the parts of the other two girls and keep time. It's a mess.
We finally ALL practiced today and all I could think of was how much better this skit would have been if we had all practiced together Sunday or even before. But we couldn't get our props, including the giant Chinese Dragon Puppet, done in time to practice much before, plus it has been way too cold in the garage and because we live out here in Texas, we don't have a basement. In fact, we didn't even paint anything this year except a few chairs because it just wasn't warm enough most of the time to paint outside or in the garage. And we had several days where we had three of the six show up for work sessions (two of them being my kids, of course).
My daughters get a little frustrated because if there is anything that needs to be done in DI they end up having to do it. But I have explained that this actually benefits them, and that if they want me to coach they need to put in the extra time too. In fact, I do have one rule: they can't take unfinished stuff to tournament. If they scale back the original idea, that's fine--but they can't take a half finished backdrop or puppet or something to tournament. They must finish their props, costumes, etc. to take them. The items don't have to be perfect and some of them don't even have to be good but they do need to be DONE. Finish what you start.
I am not sure where all this overscheduling of 9 year olds will lead. I think it will lead to total burnout, and that some of these kids will decide not to go to college or will not want to do much with extracurriculars even in high school. Others will be so specialized by the time they are 12 that they won't have anything to fall back on if whatever their specialty is doesn't work out in the long run. I remember meeting kids at Target who weren't in college and had very little future, and in one case it was a gal who was a great soccer player but dropped it for political reasons after her junior year of high school. She did complete high school but she had nothing at all to fall back on and couldn't afford to go to school, got no soccer scholarship, and for all I know she is still folding towels in Domestics like I was. The difference being that I wanted to be there and make a little Christmas money and get away from 4 year old toddlers for a few hours, and for her it was a career.
Now those of you who know me from high school know that I was overscheduled, but I did this myself (not my parents). And I learned the hard way senior year that being the News Editor of the Paper and the Literary Magazine Editor and in NHS and Key Club and Latin Club and all of these other things--and I didn't do sports--was very difficult. It led to a lot of late nights and a lot of tears sometimes as I tried to balance schoolwork with all the writing and the other more academic interests. I was on the Certamen team (college bowl for Latin geeks). I flirted with chess club and debate team (or at least with the guys--my kind of guys!!!) I studied Mythology and took the exam at the Latin convention and was third in the state, two years running (see, always an also-ran). I was fourth in the class (again, always a bridesmaid, never the bride). I thought I was really hot shit, let me tell you.
When I got to college things were different. My parents wanted me in a sorority because I went to their college and that was the thing to do at William and Mary, so I was in a sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta. Not really my thing, being around all those women with all their hormones, but there were some good experiences that came out of there and I learned a lot about "corporate" leadership skills, although unfortunately since there were no men involved it wasn't very realistic. But a sorority is generally very well run from a business perspective--a sorority is a little on campus business. They are in the business of self promotion so they are always reminding you when to wear your pin (and when not to, like when you are drunk). On Mondays we were supposed to dress up (plaid kilts and sweaters and clogs, really!) and wear our pins because that was Meeting Day. On Fridays it was Jersey Day and you wore your Kappa Alpha Theta black and gold jersey but not your pin. Because on Friday you just might go out and party or something in college. Go figure. Anyway, other than Theta and studying with my graduate student boyfriend (who took me to the library every night from after dinner until 10 pm, and I am not kidding), the only other activity I had was literary magazine, where I was a mere staffer for three years. I didn't have time to write for the college paper; I tried but it was too much like an unpaid job. I was spending the rest of my time either studying my ass off at William and Mary or having sex. Seriously. And the studying was much more prolific than the sex too. No wonder I made Phi Beta Kappa ahead of my much brighter friend Rise, and got nearly straight A's, was 12th in the class, and went on to a bright future at UVA Law School. Hopefully you can read between the lines and catch a bit of the sarcasm here because I'm not trying to brag. I really did do all these things, but it turned out that law wasn't exactly what it was cracked up to be for me, although that's a whole different essay.
The point is that I didn't burn myself out with activities in college because I learned my lesson in high school. College was harder than high school so I concentrated on my studies. It paid off. In law school, my extracurriculars (other than sex of course) were the Journal of Law and Politics (ironic since I don't really follow politics much but this journal specialized in things like election law, which I find fascinating, and had people of both political parties involved in it), and Moot Court, which I only did briefly because my partner was a lovely woman and a space cadet with a huge brain but very little common sense. She had the longest hair I've ever seen and she would have LOVED the SCA. She was very bright but she was a bigger pointy headed geek than even me, and she struggled with appellate argument although this would have been a good place for her in the legal world. I wish I knew what happened to her--I miss her. Maybe she is on FB. Anyway, between me and my partner, with whom I was probably very well-matched, we just weren't practical enough and just didn't have enough of that killer instinct, so we didn't advance beyond the first round. My boyfriend at the time went on to the final round of Moot Court--he wouldn't be partners with me though because he didn't think I was smart enough and after all, I was only a woman. I didn't realize until I got to law school how sexist life out there could be, at least in the 1980's--I had been sheltered by sorority life, I guess.
My favorite part of law school was my trial practice class, where we got to do a criminal defense case and I put panty hose over my head at closing argument. It was a lot of fun, even though I got reamed by the judge ( a REAL judge in real life) becuase of course I couldn't have gotten away with that in a real trial. But it got a laugh out of the jury and we won our case. That's me, Liz Wilson, Comedy Trial Lawyer. Not that I ever really wanted to do criminal defense work (corporate defense work being so much more on the morally high ground, you know), but I sure did enjoy that trial!!!
Well, I should really go to bed because I have a 14 hour day tomorrow with six (well, now it may be down to 5) 10 year olds and I suppose I need some sleep. And my Earl Gray Lady tea and Samoas are gone so I guess it's time to go push the dogs off my pillow and wake up my husband briefly and climb back into bed. Tomorrow is another day. In fact, since it's already Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday and by then the DI tournament will be OVER!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!
Pleasant Valley Mom, wondering if she can get away with visiting the Team Manager lounge this year and switching off with Hubby. He can visit it too if he likes.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The Joys of Neanderthal Teeth, or Trying to Make It Until Root Canal Time
Well folks, this will be short today because I am doped up. I finally went to the dentist yesterday about my teeth since I broke a filling and lost part of a tooth a week ago Friday!!! I have been so busy and with the snow and everything, I just could not seem to get in to the dentist. Well, now I need a root canal in addition to a crown, and I am scheduled to see a specialist (endodontist) on Thursday at 9:30 am. So I am going to be doped up a bit this week and taking antibiotics until I can get this tooth fixed. I was fine while I was writing my email but all of a sudden that hydrocodone haze has descended and I know that I am getting loopy!!! It's almost time to get the girls up and I feel like I am stoned.
I am afraid that I have developed a dreadful dental phobia in the last few years. I am a mouth breather so going to the dentist has always been miserable for me. I have had 3-4 root canals (one had to be redone so I don't know if that counts as a fourth root canal or not). The one that had to be redone took FOUR visits to fix and the dentist who did it (not the one who did it the first time) told me to never get another root canal done by an ordinary dentist but to use an endodontist. She claimed that I have extra roots in my teeth or something and that they are very weird. My teeth are not as evolved as most people's. Does this mean I have neanderthal teeth? Well, probably not but let's call it that. Neanderthal teeth.
I really really really hate the dentist. No matter how nice they are. When I had my wisdom teeth out in high school, three of the four were impacted. I'm the only person I know who stayed in bed for four days after her wisdom teeth came out. I was so swollen that I had black eyes. It was a lovely sight. No one saw me for a week. I believe I got to do this over spring break Senior Year. I remember that the dentist's name was Bruce and he was really cute. I remember that it cost $350 (my mom complained about it of course). I also remember that it was HELL.
I am a mouth breather and an asthmatic, so being at the dentist is always absolutely horrible for me, no matter how much gas they give me. I want to be gassed, even for a cleaning, and I want to listen to really loud music and try to pretend I am not there. I think I will take my ipod this time and try to zone out as much as possible, plus take the codeine to the office and see if they want me to take it before the procedure (although the gas would be nice too and I should probably just hold out for the gas; I'd just rather be stoned). I am hoping to get R to drive me and wait and drive me home, and take his computer to work there if necessary. I have to go all the way to Carrollton because the endodontist in our town isn't on our insurance, so I don't really want to be driving home all the way from Carrollton after the root canal experience, or sitting around in the office waiting for him. For me in terms of stress it's like having surgery; actually worse because I'm awake for it.
The weird thing is that most of the pain is in my lower jaw but those teeth actually look fine, including the ones that have had root canals in the past. This is not the first time someone has told me this. Could it all be in my head? I can't imagine that I am imagining this tooth pain though--that doesn't sound like me. So the pain feels like it is lower but is may actually all be related to this upper tooth that fell apart ten days ago. Because it has been bothering me for some time but I have been trying to ignore it, I haven't had a cleaning in some time either, so now they want to do scaling. Yuk. Even having the hygenist talk about it was making my skin crawl. I know I probably really need to do this and it looks like it is covered by insurance now (which it wasn't before), but I am really dreading dreading dreading it!!!!
Does anyone else out there hate the dentist? What in the world is wrong with me, putting this off for ten days? The dentist did give me the codeine of course, so I guess he believes that I am really in a lot of pain. Maybe I just supress some of it. Anyway, I feel a lot better with the codeine but of course, like usual when I am on medication of different types, it makes it hard to function. Today we have to do the Scouts presentation board for Thinking Day on the country of Colombia. How appropriate. Note to self: No codeine after Noon. Must sober up in time to do presentation board etc. Defrost something easy and early and crash about 5 pm. There's always chicken soup, and if I'm not too out of it today I could make some noodles for it.
It didn't help that last night I had to go to DI training until almost 10 pm over in Carrollton. I got a ride since I have no business driving, and then I couldn't leave because she was giving another lady a ride home. I mostly went to find out some key DI information; there wasn't anything else much that was new about the training, and my drugs wore off. Then when I got home R and I had to print out consignment tags (yes, still doing that), print out pictures from Colombia, staple fabric to the presentation board and set up a spreadsheet for DI. Well, R did most of this for me because I was too loopy to do it, of course. I tried to watch Lost but I fell asleep, so no exciting blog about that today. Maybe in a few days after the root canal is done. A friend said recently that you should never put off procedures involving your feet or your teeth, and I am guilty of doing both.
Man, I really really really hate the dentist. And my Neanderthal Teeth. Somebody wake me up when it is over!!!
Pleasant Valley Mom, more like Valley of the Dolls today
I am afraid that I have developed a dreadful dental phobia in the last few years. I am a mouth breather so going to the dentist has always been miserable for me. I have had 3-4 root canals (one had to be redone so I don't know if that counts as a fourth root canal or not). The one that had to be redone took FOUR visits to fix and the dentist who did it (not the one who did it the first time) told me to never get another root canal done by an ordinary dentist but to use an endodontist. She claimed that I have extra roots in my teeth or something and that they are very weird. My teeth are not as evolved as most people's. Does this mean I have neanderthal teeth? Well, probably not but let's call it that. Neanderthal teeth.
I really really really hate the dentist. No matter how nice they are. When I had my wisdom teeth out in high school, three of the four were impacted. I'm the only person I know who stayed in bed for four days after her wisdom teeth came out. I was so swollen that I had black eyes. It was a lovely sight. No one saw me for a week. I believe I got to do this over spring break Senior Year. I remember that the dentist's name was Bruce and he was really cute. I remember that it cost $350 (my mom complained about it of course). I also remember that it was HELL.
I am a mouth breather and an asthmatic, so being at the dentist is always absolutely horrible for me, no matter how much gas they give me. I want to be gassed, even for a cleaning, and I want to listen to really loud music and try to pretend I am not there. I think I will take my ipod this time and try to zone out as much as possible, plus take the codeine to the office and see if they want me to take it before the procedure (although the gas would be nice too and I should probably just hold out for the gas; I'd just rather be stoned). I am hoping to get R to drive me and wait and drive me home, and take his computer to work there if necessary. I have to go all the way to Carrollton because the endodontist in our town isn't on our insurance, so I don't really want to be driving home all the way from Carrollton after the root canal experience, or sitting around in the office waiting for him. For me in terms of stress it's like having surgery; actually worse because I'm awake for it.
The weird thing is that most of the pain is in my lower jaw but those teeth actually look fine, including the ones that have had root canals in the past. This is not the first time someone has told me this. Could it all be in my head? I can't imagine that I am imagining this tooth pain though--that doesn't sound like me. So the pain feels like it is lower but is may actually all be related to this upper tooth that fell apart ten days ago. Because it has been bothering me for some time but I have been trying to ignore it, I haven't had a cleaning in some time either, so now they want to do scaling. Yuk. Even having the hygenist talk about it was making my skin crawl. I know I probably really need to do this and it looks like it is covered by insurance now (which it wasn't before), but I am really dreading dreading dreading it!!!!
Does anyone else out there hate the dentist? What in the world is wrong with me, putting this off for ten days? The dentist did give me the codeine of course, so I guess he believes that I am really in a lot of pain. Maybe I just supress some of it. Anyway, I feel a lot better with the codeine but of course, like usual when I am on medication of different types, it makes it hard to function. Today we have to do the Scouts presentation board for Thinking Day on the country of Colombia. How appropriate. Note to self: No codeine after Noon. Must sober up in time to do presentation board etc. Defrost something easy and early and crash about 5 pm. There's always chicken soup, and if I'm not too out of it today I could make some noodles for it.
It didn't help that last night I had to go to DI training until almost 10 pm over in Carrollton. I got a ride since I have no business driving, and then I couldn't leave because she was giving another lady a ride home. I mostly went to find out some key DI information; there wasn't anything else much that was new about the training, and my drugs wore off. Then when I got home R and I had to print out consignment tags (yes, still doing that), print out pictures from Colombia, staple fabric to the presentation board and set up a spreadsheet for DI. Well, R did most of this for me because I was too loopy to do it, of course. I tried to watch Lost but I fell asleep, so no exciting blog about that today. Maybe in a few days after the root canal is done. A friend said recently that you should never put off procedures involving your feet or your teeth, and I am guilty of doing both.
Man, I really really really hate the dentist. And my Neanderthal Teeth. Somebody wake me up when it is over!!!
Pleasant Valley Mom, more like Valley of the Dolls today
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
February Madness, Destination Imagination Style
We don't have March Madness around my house even though I do like college basketball. This is a holdover from a previous relationship. I used to be able to do those pools at work and end up in or close to in the money every time, but I have let me knowledge slip away and now I am not nearly as familiar with the coaches (the key to college basketball) as I once was.
But we do indeed have February Madness, also known as Destination Imagination. This program used to be called Odyssey of the Mind for those of you old-timers. The kids on the team pick a challenge in the fall and spend all year working toward the goal of doing an 8 minute presentation at tournament. You would think that this wouldn't take very long to prepare for, but you would be wrong. The kids are supposed to do ALL the work; the coach or Team Manager is just a facilitator. I even took various ones of them shopping with me when we had to buy materials, although I drew the line at taking them to Perth Street where the discount fabric stores are located (I did get them some $1 a yard fabric though!) The parents out here wouldn't like it if I took their little darlings down there, since it's off of Harry Hines. This is kind of like the Red Light District in the DFW area, and most people who live out here in Pleasant Valley have never been there, so they are scared of it. I guess they think someone is going to steal their Rolexes or something if they go down there, but since the only Rolex I ever owned was a Hong Kong knockoff, it doesn't scare me much. They are more than welcome to the less than $20 in my purse, and if they can figure out a way to get money out of those debit cards, more power to them. I have a scrapbooking friend who quilts but she refuses to go down there with me, even though the fabric stores are only open during the day, but she would be amazed at the deals.
Although some of the Destination Imagination challenges are more scientific and technical (for example, requiring the kids to build a device that sends hacky sacks over a wall for points, or a robot), our group usually picks the theatre arts related challenge. They are an excellent improv group but they never pick the improv challenge because they want to MAKE stuff!!! This year with all the cold weather and the garage being a mess (never got it fully cleaned up after Harvest Fest because the weather got nasty--got the camping gear reorganized but there's still SCA crap out there in piles)--well anyway, it has been a challenge this year. They had to make a puppet and they decided on a large one. I can't say what yet because the tournament is March 6, but after Tournament I will share all of our secrets. They also have to do a live art form on stage that relates to the character flip or change in point of view that has to be in their story. They have come up with a great idea for a story and a decent script, after much research and angst. I thought we were going to have to paint our backdrop outside yesterday but they even decided on their own to use markers and scraps of felt and craft foam to decorate it, and they did one of the backdrops from a picture that one of the girls had drawn. I am going to attach her picture to my tournament forms because these little fourth grade girls (not my two but two others on my team) can draw better than I can. I am not very good at drawing and these kids could kick my butt at it--I could never have drawn what they did yesterday, not in a million years. My own kids worked on the technical and decorative aspects of the puppet, and the script yesterday. They have inherited our brains and creativity but unfortunately they have also inherited our lack of drawing talent.
We also have to practice instant challenges. For an instant challenge, the kids are taken to a room where appraisers read them a challenge. They generally have 4-5 minutes to use some random materials (like straws, paper clips, etc) to build something and plan a performance around it, then about 2 minutes to actually perform. Sometimes our team is awesome at this and sometimes they don't get it and it's a big mess. This is worth up to 100 points at tournament so it is important to practice and practice and practice, but at this time of year there is so much to do! I don't let them start building and making stuff until January because I don't want my house torn up at Christmas, but now all bets are off.
We have a backdrop sitting in my foyer on a lovely piece of warped plywood. It's propped up by a table where I am trying to make clay Viking brooches (and I am finding out that carving Viking designs in clay is not really something that I am particularly good at! Maybe I'll get the fourth graders to do it.) Plus Gulf War fabric all over the living room, with the feast gear and period games and embroidery stuff and calligraphy stuff and Ministry of Children stuff and God knows what else. I will say again, if you want to visit me, I need 30 days notice. Really.
The dining room table still has the good china on it from our brief Valentine's dinner. The china has been there since New Years so I think it is probably time to put it away now. I don't think I am going to leave it out until April (R's birthday), and we have precious little to celebrate after that as all family birthdays will then be done until the following January.
Every year I say in January that i am going to take a cake decorating class, but then by April, the desire passes into the wind like bad gas. I make the girls a coconut cake based on Grandma's recipe (I have to refrigerate this cake and I have the Tupperwear cake taker just for this purpose). I don't make myself a cake and I didn't even get one this year because we had Twelfth Night that day and no one like my husband thought about getting me a cake, and I refused to buy my own, so no birthday cake for me this year. I didn't really care that much but it would have been nice. I did make a boar's head out of rice krispy treats and frosted it so I guess I really did make my own cake, but we didn't eat this. The frosting was gray and I used some old black food coloring to achieve this, so I really didn't want to eat it. We sliced some of it up at DI the following Tuesday and we all said, "Yuk!!" and threw it all away. If you think blue and magenta cakes are nasty, just wait until you try a 4 day old gray Boar's Head rice krispy treat cake. I will probably just buy R a cake because I don't think he will care one way or the other whether I make one from a mix or not (I don't usually do scratch and even grandma's cake starts with a mix). I can do a cake from scratch, but we don't need a lot of extra desserts around here so my dessert skills are rather weak. My cookie sheets are shot (probably because I keep using them for trays for rain boots and crafts, not cookie sheets), so even my Christmas cookies suck. Every year about November I think about getting some new cookie sheets with Martha Stewarteque sillipat mats (rubber mats that aid in baking and don't melt in the oven), but that desire always passes, again like bad gas, by New Year's. Well, maybe this year. I haven't been to Williams Sonoma since I quit working full time but we did get married more than 15 years ago and maybe it is time for some new fancy WS or Pampered Chef gear. In my dreams!
Well, seems like I am just rambling today. Last year for DI the kids made a tree using girl scout cookie boxes and chicken wire and paper mache. They did bark out of brown paper and painted it, and made a hole in it for the Featured Creature using cardboard and duct tape. Miranda was the featured creature and had feathered wings (fortunately she got sick the week of the tournament and I made her sit there with a fever and glue her wings together, feather by feather, but we got a great score on her costume!) This year we are trying to focus on the key elements of the challenge and on the instant challenges so we don't do too much extra work that doesn't get graded, but we will see what happens. It is a hell of a lot of work for 8 minutes, but DI isn't really about the tournament or even winning (the scoring is extremely subjective even on things that could be seen as objective, so you really can't predict how you are going to do). DI is more about the Process of Learning how to do things and learning teamwork. And our whole house is more Process than Product right now, let me tell you!!
I did get my Valentine's Cards and the Birthday Card made at 3 am on Valentine's Day (couldn't sleep again so I got up and did these things since I was too tired right when we got home from Kingdom A & S). I dropped my Dotto adhesive and broke it though (broke the wheel off the whole container somehow), and now I need more in order to put together the damn snowmen. One of my new Cricut cartriges has lots of snowmen on it, kind of like snowmen paper dolls. I thought it would be fun but it's a nightmare putting these suckers together!! I can see why it's Limited Edition cartridge--it's damned hard to do, and by the time everyone figures it out, they will be all sold and off the market. I have snowmen pieces all over my scrapbook table (and they have been there since I returned from my scrapbook retreat almost a month agao). The plan was: put these snowmen together in about an hour the day after returning from retreat, and get back into the Christmas scrapbooking. Well, a month later it still looks like a terrorist attack on a colony of snowpeople on my scrapbooking table, and I just keep shunting it aside. I am about ready to put the whole damn mess in a baggie and move on with my life. Especially now that I broke my dotto adhesive, and my acid free gluestick is all dried out for some reason, and my glue pen isn't working (and I hate those anyway), so I really don't know how in the hell I am supposed to glue these tiny pieces together.
So, at Kingdom A & S the other day there was pewter casting, wood working, weaving, sewing (a whole dress and all four layers, even undergarments, made totally by hand), basketry, medicine (cough syrup), calligraphy and illumination, middle eastern cooking, blacksmithing, a variety of sewing and jewelry projects, etc. etc. There were over 50 entrants and it was AWESOME!!! Maybe I cn actually do something for it one day if I can ever figure out how to get the snowmen and my dreadful attempts at Viking Brooches off my work table.
Well, a mysterious alarm is going off somewhere in the house (I think it's the DI stopwatch) so I hope I haven't bored everyone to death today. This is the time of year when I get really serious about DI so I'm just not feeling very funny today. Plus I know I have to go to the dentist this morning, and have the DI kids this afternoon, and we are almost out of Crown after Valentine's Day, so that sort of stinks. That stuff is now about $25 a bottle and I feel like I just bought one, but I may be hitting the liquor store again on Friday. After all, it's just across the street from the girl scout store, and I'm sure there's some reason I need to go there (oh, yes, to sign up to rent a COOKIE Costume for our booth sale March 8!!!)
By the way, Girl Scout cookies will be here Wednesday so if anyone is interested, please know. I have to pay for them March 10th and we are selling some at All Con, but that's not until March 13th. I would really like to be able to pay for them on time so I will be selling them as fast as I can. They freeze well (at least I have told my husband this because he doesn't fully know how many he is buying yet). This year we made it almost all year with cookies--used the last box of Thin Mints up about 2 weeks ago. So I am ready for more! I don't buy any other cookies year round except for a few Oreos now and then--we just eat Girl Scout cookies all year. So that's why I don't have to learn to make desserts!
Pleasant Valley Mom, mired in Destination Imagination and other obnoxious projects
But we do indeed have February Madness, also known as Destination Imagination. This program used to be called Odyssey of the Mind for those of you old-timers. The kids on the team pick a challenge in the fall and spend all year working toward the goal of doing an 8 minute presentation at tournament. You would think that this wouldn't take very long to prepare for, but you would be wrong. The kids are supposed to do ALL the work; the coach or Team Manager is just a facilitator. I even took various ones of them shopping with me when we had to buy materials, although I drew the line at taking them to Perth Street where the discount fabric stores are located (I did get them some $1 a yard fabric though!) The parents out here wouldn't like it if I took their little darlings down there, since it's off of Harry Hines. This is kind of like the Red Light District in the DFW area, and most people who live out here in Pleasant Valley have never been there, so they are scared of it. I guess they think someone is going to steal their Rolexes or something if they go down there, but since the only Rolex I ever owned was a Hong Kong knockoff, it doesn't scare me much. They are more than welcome to the less than $20 in my purse, and if they can figure out a way to get money out of those debit cards, more power to them. I have a scrapbooking friend who quilts but she refuses to go down there with me, even though the fabric stores are only open during the day, but she would be amazed at the deals.
Although some of the Destination Imagination challenges are more scientific and technical (for example, requiring the kids to build a device that sends hacky sacks over a wall for points, or a robot), our group usually picks the theatre arts related challenge. They are an excellent improv group but they never pick the improv challenge because they want to MAKE stuff!!! This year with all the cold weather and the garage being a mess (never got it fully cleaned up after Harvest Fest because the weather got nasty--got the camping gear reorganized but there's still SCA crap out there in piles)--well anyway, it has been a challenge this year. They had to make a puppet and they decided on a large one. I can't say what yet because the tournament is March 6, but after Tournament I will share all of our secrets. They also have to do a live art form on stage that relates to the character flip or change in point of view that has to be in their story. They have come up with a great idea for a story and a decent script, after much research and angst. I thought we were going to have to paint our backdrop outside yesterday but they even decided on their own to use markers and scraps of felt and craft foam to decorate it, and they did one of the backdrops from a picture that one of the girls had drawn. I am going to attach her picture to my tournament forms because these little fourth grade girls (not my two but two others on my team) can draw better than I can. I am not very good at drawing and these kids could kick my butt at it--I could never have drawn what they did yesterday, not in a million years. My own kids worked on the technical and decorative aspects of the puppet, and the script yesterday. They have inherited our brains and creativity but unfortunately they have also inherited our lack of drawing talent.
We also have to practice instant challenges. For an instant challenge, the kids are taken to a room where appraisers read them a challenge. They generally have 4-5 minutes to use some random materials (like straws, paper clips, etc) to build something and plan a performance around it, then about 2 minutes to actually perform. Sometimes our team is awesome at this and sometimes they don't get it and it's a big mess. This is worth up to 100 points at tournament so it is important to practice and practice and practice, but at this time of year there is so much to do! I don't let them start building and making stuff until January because I don't want my house torn up at Christmas, but now all bets are off.
We have a backdrop sitting in my foyer on a lovely piece of warped plywood. It's propped up by a table where I am trying to make clay Viking brooches (and I am finding out that carving Viking designs in clay is not really something that I am particularly good at! Maybe I'll get the fourth graders to do it.) Plus Gulf War fabric all over the living room, with the feast gear and period games and embroidery stuff and calligraphy stuff and Ministry of Children stuff and God knows what else. I will say again, if you want to visit me, I need 30 days notice. Really.
The dining room table still has the good china on it from our brief Valentine's dinner. The china has been there since New Years so I think it is probably time to put it away now. I don't think I am going to leave it out until April (R's birthday), and we have precious little to celebrate after that as all family birthdays will then be done until the following January.
Every year I say in January that i am going to take a cake decorating class, but then by April, the desire passes into the wind like bad gas. I make the girls a coconut cake based on Grandma's recipe (I have to refrigerate this cake and I have the Tupperwear cake taker just for this purpose). I don't make myself a cake and I didn't even get one this year because we had Twelfth Night that day and no one like my husband thought about getting me a cake, and I refused to buy my own, so no birthday cake for me this year. I didn't really care that much but it would have been nice. I did make a boar's head out of rice krispy treats and frosted it so I guess I really did make my own cake, but we didn't eat this. The frosting was gray and I used some old black food coloring to achieve this, so I really didn't want to eat it. We sliced some of it up at DI the following Tuesday and we all said, "Yuk!!" and threw it all away. If you think blue and magenta cakes are nasty, just wait until you try a 4 day old gray Boar's Head rice krispy treat cake. I will probably just buy R a cake because I don't think he will care one way or the other whether I make one from a mix or not (I don't usually do scratch and even grandma's cake starts with a mix). I can do a cake from scratch, but we don't need a lot of extra desserts around here so my dessert skills are rather weak. My cookie sheets are shot (probably because I keep using them for trays for rain boots and crafts, not cookie sheets), so even my Christmas cookies suck. Every year about November I think about getting some new cookie sheets with Martha Stewarteque sillipat mats (rubber mats that aid in baking and don't melt in the oven), but that desire always passes, again like bad gas, by New Year's. Well, maybe this year. I haven't been to Williams Sonoma since I quit working full time but we did get married more than 15 years ago and maybe it is time for some new fancy WS or Pampered Chef gear. In my dreams!
Well, seems like I am just rambling today. Last year for DI the kids made a tree using girl scout cookie boxes and chicken wire and paper mache. They did bark out of brown paper and painted it, and made a hole in it for the Featured Creature using cardboard and duct tape. Miranda was the featured creature and had feathered wings (fortunately she got sick the week of the tournament and I made her sit there with a fever and glue her wings together, feather by feather, but we got a great score on her costume!) This year we are trying to focus on the key elements of the challenge and on the instant challenges so we don't do too much extra work that doesn't get graded, but we will see what happens. It is a hell of a lot of work for 8 minutes, but DI isn't really about the tournament or even winning (the scoring is extremely subjective even on things that could be seen as objective, so you really can't predict how you are going to do). DI is more about the Process of Learning how to do things and learning teamwork. And our whole house is more Process than Product right now, let me tell you!!
I did get my Valentine's Cards and the Birthday Card made at 3 am on Valentine's Day (couldn't sleep again so I got up and did these things since I was too tired right when we got home from Kingdom A & S). I dropped my Dotto adhesive and broke it though (broke the wheel off the whole container somehow), and now I need more in order to put together the damn snowmen. One of my new Cricut cartriges has lots of snowmen on it, kind of like snowmen paper dolls. I thought it would be fun but it's a nightmare putting these suckers together!! I can see why it's Limited Edition cartridge--it's damned hard to do, and by the time everyone figures it out, they will be all sold and off the market. I have snowmen pieces all over my scrapbook table (and they have been there since I returned from my scrapbook retreat almost a month agao). The plan was: put these snowmen together in about an hour the day after returning from retreat, and get back into the Christmas scrapbooking. Well, a month later it still looks like a terrorist attack on a colony of snowpeople on my scrapbooking table, and I just keep shunting it aside. I am about ready to put the whole damn mess in a baggie and move on with my life. Especially now that I broke my dotto adhesive, and my acid free gluestick is all dried out for some reason, and my glue pen isn't working (and I hate those anyway), so I really don't know how in the hell I am supposed to glue these tiny pieces together.
So, at Kingdom A & S the other day there was pewter casting, wood working, weaving, sewing (a whole dress and all four layers, even undergarments, made totally by hand), basketry, medicine (cough syrup), calligraphy and illumination, middle eastern cooking, blacksmithing, a variety of sewing and jewelry projects, etc. etc. There were over 50 entrants and it was AWESOME!!! Maybe I cn actually do something for it one day if I can ever figure out how to get the snowmen and my dreadful attempts at Viking Brooches off my work table.
Well, a mysterious alarm is going off somewhere in the house (I think it's the DI stopwatch) so I hope I haven't bored everyone to death today. This is the time of year when I get really serious about DI so I'm just not feeling very funny today. Plus I know I have to go to the dentist this morning, and have the DI kids this afternoon, and we are almost out of Crown after Valentine's Day, so that sort of stinks. That stuff is now about $25 a bottle and I feel like I just bought one, but I may be hitting the liquor store again on Friday. After all, it's just across the street from the girl scout store, and I'm sure there's some reason I need to go there (oh, yes, to sign up to rent a COOKIE Costume for our booth sale March 8!!!)
By the way, Girl Scout cookies will be here Wednesday so if anyone is interested, please know. I have to pay for them March 10th and we are selling some at All Con, but that's not until March 13th. I would really like to be able to pay for them on time so I will be selling them as fast as I can. They freeze well (at least I have told my husband this because he doesn't fully know how many he is buying yet). This year we made it almost all year with cookies--used the last box of Thin Mints up about 2 weeks ago. So I am ready for more! I don't buy any other cookies year round except for a few Oreos now and then--we just eat Girl Scout cookies all year. So that's why I don't have to learn to make desserts!
Pleasant Valley Mom, mired in Destination Imagination and other obnoxious projects
Friday, February 12, 2010
The Gulf War Meltdown, or Snow Days in North Texas
Six inches of snow on the ground in North Texas and I just can't catch a break! Boy, snow days sure exhaust this Pleasant Valley mom.
It started snowing last night about 2 am and I didn't even notice what it was doing when I was up doing my blogging thing. About 5 minutes after I quit, I went to get the girls up, and THEN I looked out the window. I no longer watch the news and I rarely watch the weather, but even I knew it was probably going to do something--but what?
Our school district won't make a closure decision until 6:45 and sure enough, I was back on line when the emailed update came through. The snow was pouring down. Robert decided to work from home. The kids got too excited to go back to bed but I made them wait until 8 am to go out (I tried to go back to bed but to no avail. Unlike the rest of them I get up between 4 and 5 am lately with no alarm clock--just like my mom used to do).
Well it snowed and it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. At least six inches and still coming down. It doesn't usually snow like that in North Texas. At 8:15 precisely the girls were ready to come back in. The snow was very wet and sticky, because the temperature was hovering right around 32 degrees. Also we have no waterproof gloves, boots or pants other than a pair of rainboots that are 2 years old. We don't ski or visit winter climates (doesn't agree with R's knees or my ecsema)so we don't have any ski clothes or other proper winter playclothes. Other than possibly getting some more rain boots (which I won't be doing today), our gloves and hats and things are quickly soaked in a snow like this. Amelia in particular doesn't last very long, poor baby! I don't even go out in it. R has some old waterproof gloves so he can clean off the car and such, but not me.
Our cars, of course, are BOTH in the driveway covered with snow because it's Destination Imagination season, plus we are still reorganizing our camping equipment and getting ready for Gulf War (we almost finished the reorganization last fall but Christmas intervened, and it's been too cold to hang out in the garage much lately). Hope it warms up by Saturday because we have a big event in Athens to go to (Kingdom A & S), and then there's also a DI work session on Monday! Pray for nice weather because I am just not going to allow six fourth graders to paint backdrops in my foyer (they might get paint on the fifty pounds of fabric sitting out there!)
We don't own a snowblower or a snow shovel because some winters it doesn't snow at all and it usually stays less than 24 hours. I don't know about this one though. I made R go out and move the van a bit and shake some of the snow off the trees, in a rare break from his work (I never saw someone work so much on a snowday!) I stood on the porch and in the back and took a few photos with the old camera, because I put the better one down in the house somewhere during DI practice this weekend, and now I can't find it. Maybe it's in the Scouts stuff from Monday--I literally just remembered as I am sitting here writing.
So the girls are literally soaking wet by 8:15 and I am putting the wet clothes in garbage bags because Thursday is the secondary laundry day around here. Monday is primary laundry day, but by Thursday there are 3-4 MORE loads of crap to wash, so Thursday is secondary laundry day. When I miss one of these days there is hell to pay until the next one. Since I got my fleece for Gulf War cloaks on Tuesday, I washed all of that stuff between Tues and Weds (total of 35 YARDS! Some of it is for blankets though). Anyway, I am doing about 15 loads this week with the extra fabric for Gulf War. And people wonder what I do all day?
Then I am freaking out trying to get some hot chocolate or grits or something down these little girls, and it's 8:20, and you know who is already up in the office working! So I am trying to get him downstairs to eat too so I can get some eggs cooked. R is the official breakfast cooker--he cooks eggs, pancakes and french toast and usually uses his cast iron skillets. I don't touch the cast iron skillets--they have bad karma for me. Every time I touch one of them, something happens and it gets rust on it that has to be polished off, so I leave them both the hell alone. That's what happens when you integrate someone else's pots and pans into your kitchen. Those damn things have been in my cabinets 17 years now, and they make fabulous food for him, but they hate me. They leave rust spots on my shelf liner paper just to mock me. "Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah! You can't cook with cast IR-ON!"
So, R FINALLY comes downstairs and agrees to fix some eggs although he reminds me about 40 times that it is a WORKDAY for him (yes, and I will be painting my toe nails and eating bon bons all day like usual, in between the 15 loads of laundry of course).
I am rapidly losing my patience with the three muskateers (my husband and the two kids) as I mentally tick off the things I need to get done before Saturday: finish making Valentine's cards with the new Cricut I got for Christmas (can't afford to buy cards since I just spent all that money on a die cut machine!!). Finish birthday card for Tanya for Sunday's birthday party (wrapped Zhu Zhu pets already at midnight one night this week). Cut out at least one clothing item each day for Gulf War using the patterns Viviana made for us. Sew something and finish something that will be used at Gulf War. Paint puzzles for MOC on Saturday because they need to dry by Friday. Paint black star on MOC floor cloth for tic tac toe game. Clean out MOC tubs for Saturday and get stuff together for Kingdom A & S. Get garb ready for four people (or at least three) for Kingdom A & S. Get SWAPS counted and coins rolled for Thinking Day Feb 20th (maybe kids can do this with supervision). Get Miranda to research her St. Valentine's presentation for Kingdom A & S. Bribe at least one child to do Environmental Contest, due Monday, with promises of money in allowance account (I keep their allowance account on paper so that I can make additions and deductions all the time without going to the bank). Work on presentation board for Thinking Day and see what is missing about the country Colombia from the research the Scouts already did. Oh, do six loads of laundry. clean bathrooms upstairs and make sure upstairs doesn't get trashed, because we have two girls coming over Sun night for a sleepover and we will be gone all day Sat. And I don't do housework on Valentine's Day. Call PTA mom re book presentations for Friday to find out what she will do if school is delayed start tomorrow.
The list continues: Call other mom re Destination Imagination t shirt order that is due Fri--did she get it? I left it under the front porch mat yesterday (chat with her 20 minutes about DI and Freecycle once I get her on phone--other mom never calls back--she actually went to an EYE appointment in all this mess--her hubby took the message but I bet he forgot to give it to her). You always have to call twice if the husband answers the phone--they never give the message to the mom. My husband is guilty of the same thing on more than one occasion. And if one of them does slip up and give the mom the message it's almost always garbled or wrong. In fact, I send this mom an email later for clarification purposes. I have learned the hard way in years past--these suburban husbands would never make it as receptionists. Their hearing has developed over time into "selective messaging" mode so they can tune out their wives.
More of my to do list: Iron and tag all consignment clothes--dropoff is Feb 19th, which is going to be a busy day since ARD meeting for Amelia is that morning and possibly rescheduled book presentations. Not washing the damn things again--they were washed when put in the plastic bins,stored in a closet, and they are clean enough. Need to print consignment tags while R is here so technical difficulties, if any, can be resolved. Sew some more for Gulf War. Feed kids and husband. Clean up after kids and husband. Cut out more clothes for Gulf War. Etc. Etc. Etc. I am really stressed out right now, you know????
So, I start to delegate. Husband is out of pocket; back in office because it's a WORKDAY for him. The girls want me to sit and watch Robin HOod DVDs. I say, I will after I cut out something for Gulf War and do some painting. Maybe you could help by hemming those little Viking dresses Viv made you? I can show you how. Major whining. It's our day off--we want to play and have fun. We don't want to sew. Sewing is work.
"Well, how about if you guys roll some more coins for me for Thinking Day? (Oh, good, they did finish that with R last night). Then, could you count these SWAPS (Some Whatchamacallits Pinned Affectionately Somewhere)." SWAPS are traded in Girl Scouts and each country has one for Thinking Day. Our country is Colombia. We need 270 for Thinking Day. Now, these were handed out to the 10 girls last week and they did bring them back, but several ran out of coffee beans and didn't finish their packs. A count reveals we have 242 so I am trying to get M and A to make the other 28. It's pretty easy: stick coffee beans and a label in a jewelry bag and add a pin. But M doesn't want to do the pins: "Mommy, will you do the pins for me?" So I do SWAP pins for 30 minutes with Disney Channel blaring in my ear.
Then I work on painting one side of these cool puzzles that Lady Stephanie Lillburn made. I want to paint one side to make them more colorful so they will appeal to the kids at MOC, but I want the edges and the other side left natural so you can see the wood grain. This is an interesting feat and as I am trying to do it mostly with foam brushes in my front foyer (yes, I am allowed to paint there and only me)--well, it's not the best job but they actually look very good. Try to get hubby's consultation on what to paint and how since he's the woodworker, but he doesn't want to come downstairs because of his knees and because he's WORKING. Painted mouse puzzle, pig puzzle, two small and one large dragon. After drying, I accented them with marker. They don't look totally professional--but not bad.
Then I cut out a navy dress for Gulf War. Kids are upstairs playing somewhere. I go back in the family room to put away the SWAPS, I change the laundry, yada yada yada.
Pretty soon it's noon and everyone says they aren't hungry (well, R says nothing because he's on a conference call). I am starting to lose it. I am working my ass off and everyone else is ignoring me, like I'm the maid.
I fix lunch for me and go lay down to watch a movie and maybe sew. M wants to go outside again. I get her bundled up and leave bags and stuff by both doors with instructions that coat is to be hung up and wet stuff put in bags. I fall asleep watching movie--I did get up at 3 am last night so I am pretty tired by now. Oh, let the doggies out and then get the clumps of ice off of them. Twice. Put away some laundry. M is yelling that she ran hot water on her feet and now she hurts--what time is it??? 2 pm????? Did anyone eat lunch???? There is wet stuff including coats all over the foyer. Water running in rivulets down the tile, and now the floor is trashed and I can't cut stuff out on it. Wet towels everywhere. Kid yelling upstairs. Hubby incommunicado.
I make M get dressed and A get dressed too. She apparently went outside and went through clothing set number 2 and now she is complaining that she has no clean clothes. I LOSE it because they are supposed to bring their own laundry down, and I am the one that did it this morning since I noticed that they hadn't put their clothes away from Monday and the hamper was full again with dirty clothes since Monday.
Kids find something to wear. I give them hot grits and hot chocolate--don't feel like fixing another lunch. R still has not eaten I don't think--not sure. I yell and scream at kids who won't sew and want to play all day. "Mommy," says Amelia, "why are you being so mean???" But I am on the warpath. They have trashed upstairs too and I don't have time to clean it tomorrow if they are in school. I make the go upstairs to clean up playroom, make beds. I show them how to clean the bathroom by cleaning the downstairs one and give them the bathroom stuff for their two bathrooms upstairs. That will keep them busy for a while so I can go work on laundry and take a shower.
I pile all of Hubby's laundry on his side of the bed. That way he has to put it away before he can sit down and watch TV. I am getting really pissed--there is so much crap all over the bedroom that I couldn't clean it if I had 10 days. I even stack up some papers and things he keeps moving around the room. My mom would throw them away but it's woodworking stuff so I don't want to do that. I spend an hour or more putting away my clothes and getting hangers for the laundry room, and changing laundry over etc. etc. Then, finally about 4 pm, I take a shower. Of course the shower really needs cleaning but I can't see that well in there without my glasses, so I ignore it. People banging on the locked bedroom door while I am trying to comb out my hair, with bathroom cleaning questions.: "Go ask Daddy!!!"
When Husband resurfaces I inform him that I am not cooking tonight but I am sewing instead. There is a steak thawed out and mashed potatos he can heat up plus salad. I am having soup (can't chew much until I get this dental work done which will probably not be until next week with all this snow). I tell him about steak and such. I go and play on computer for a while and read Facebook. I go and sew.
I tell all three of them that if they are watching TV, from now through Gulf Wars, I want them sewing something. I have HAD it. If they can't sew their clothes then they can wear them unhemmed and unfinished. R leaves me alone on the computer while he grudgingly cooks dinner (he conveniently forgets about the steak and does leftovers so he has less to clean up). Kids are hungry and whiny since I didn't feed them properly today, but they wouldn't eat when I offered, and you would think they could learn to fix a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or two.
Finally around 8 pm I get my way: Family time! H is sewing on his blue hat (after all, he told the girls this morning how the men sew in the SCA--so now I am making him do it!!!) Amelia takes to the sewing just fine and completes her hem but Miranda whines and only does about 3 inches. She is really really tired. We watch a few episodes of Robin Hood. I sew something else for Gulf War and actually finish it (it's only a cloth for my basket, but it's something!) I do have to help the other three-well at least the girls-- with the sewing as well, after all. All I have to do with R is keep handing him various magnification devices because he is having trouble seeing the navy thread on the navy hat.
It's still snowing, mixed with a little sleet. They actually cancelled school again for tomorrow. I've never seen it cancelled two days in a row. No book presentations; no Valentines' parties; no Lightning Thief field trip Friday afternoon. I guess we will be squeezing these into my "workweek" next week while I am trying to finsh Scouts and Consignment. It will be icy in the morning; in fact R says that there is no point in shoveling the snow away because it provides some traction if we need to get out. There will be a layer of ice underneath the snow on the driveway--he is actually correct about this, not just trying to get out of it. The road will be a solid sheet of ice though, and we live in the house on the hill. So we are not going anywhere for a while. Hopefully it will be clear tomorrow so we can go to Kingdom A & S.
Oh, Crap! I'm stuck with them all again tomorrow, and it's another WORKDAY for R. I guess I should get the bonbons and the toenail polish out. Oh, wait. I'm out of bonbons (what is a bonbon anyway?) and I haven't painted my toenails since spring 2009 (last formal pedicure). Remind me to write about how I am SO not a spa girl tomorrow.
Plesant Valley Mom signing off(exhausted and looking forward to maybe not doing anything much for Valentine's Day--except Gulf War sewing!!!) OK, do you see why the Tolkien discussion is STILL on the back burner????
It started snowing last night about 2 am and I didn't even notice what it was doing when I was up doing my blogging thing. About 5 minutes after I quit, I went to get the girls up, and THEN I looked out the window. I no longer watch the news and I rarely watch the weather, but even I knew it was probably going to do something--but what?
Our school district won't make a closure decision until 6:45 and sure enough, I was back on line when the emailed update came through. The snow was pouring down. Robert decided to work from home. The kids got too excited to go back to bed but I made them wait until 8 am to go out (I tried to go back to bed but to no avail. Unlike the rest of them I get up between 4 and 5 am lately with no alarm clock--just like my mom used to do).
Well it snowed and it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. At least six inches and still coming down. It doesn't usually snow like that in North Texas. At 8:15 precisely the girls were ready to come back in. The snow was very wet and sticky, because the temperature was hovering right around 32 degrees. Also we have no waterproof gloves, boots or pants other than a pair of rainboots that are 2 years old. We don't ski or visit winter climates (doesn't agree with R's knees or my ecsema)so we don't have any ski clothes or other proper winter playclothes. Other than possibly getting some more rain boots (which I won't be doing today), our gloves and hats and things are quickly soaked in a snow like this. Amelia in particular doesn't last very long, poor baby! I don't even go out in it. R has some old waterproof gloves so he can clean off the car and such, but not me.
Our cars, of course, are BOTH in the driveway covered with snow because it's Destination Imagination season, plus we are still reorganizing our camping equipment and getting ready for Gulf War (we almost finished the reorganization last fall but Christmas intervened, and it's been too cold to hang out in the garage much lately). Hope it warms up by Saturday because we have a big event in Athens to go to (Kingdom A & S), and then there's also a DI work session on Monday! Pray for nice weather because I am just not going to allow six fourth graders to paint backdrops in my foyer (they might get paint on the fifty pounds of fabric sitting out there!)
We don't own a snowblower or a snow shovel because some winters it doesn't snow at all and it usually stays less than 24 hours. I don't know about this one though. I made R go out and move the van a bit and shake some of the snow off the trees, in a rare break from his work (I never saw someone work so much on a snowday!) I stood on the porch and in the back and took a few photos with the old camera, because I put the better one down in the house somewhere during DI practice this weekend, and now I can't find it. Maybe it's in the Scouts stuff from Monday--I literally just remembered as I am sitting here writing.
So the girls are literally soaking wet by 8:15 and I am putting the wet clothes in garbage bags because Thursday is the secondary laundry day around here. Monday is primary laundry day, but by Thursday there are 3-4 MORE loads of crap to wash, so Thursday is secondary laundry day. When I miss one of these days there is hell to pay until the next one. Since I got my fleece for Gulf War cloaks on Tuesday, I washed all of that stuff between Tues and Weds (total of 35 YARDS! Some of it is for blankets though). Anyway, I am doing about 15 loads this week with the extra fabric for Gulf War. And people wonder what I do all day?
Then I am freaking out trying to get some hot chocolate or grits or something down these little girls, and it's 8:20, and you know who is already up in the office working! So I am trying to get him downstairs to eat too so I can get some eggs cooked. R is the official breakfast cooker--he cooks eggs, pancakes and french toast and usually uses his cast iron skillets. I don't touch the cast iron skillets--they have bad karma for me. Every time I touch one of them, something happens and it gets rust on it that has to be polished off, so I leave them both the hell alone. That's what happens when you integrate someone else's pots and pans into your kitchen. Those damn things have been in my cabinets 17 years now, and they make fabulous food for him, but they hate me. They leave rust spots on my shelf liner paper just to mock me. "Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah! You can't cook with cast IR-ON!"
So, R FINALLY comes downstairs and agrees to fix some eggs although he reminds me about 40 times that it is a WORKDAY for him (yes, and I will be painting my toe nails and eating bon bons all day like usual, in between the 15 loads of laundry of course).
I am rapidly losing my patience with the three muskateers (my husband and the two kids) as I mentally tick off the things I need to get done before Saturday: finish making Valentine's cards with the new Cricut I got for Christmas (can't afford to buy cards since I just spent all that money on a die cut machine!!). Finish birthday card for Tanya for Sunday's birthday party (wrapped Zhu Zhu pets already at midnight one night this week). Cut out at least one clothing item each day for Gulf War using the patterns Viviana made for us. Sew something and finish something that will be used at Gulf War. Paint puzzles for MOC on Saturday because they need to dry by Friday. Paint black star on MOC floor cloth for tic tac toe game. Clean out MOC tubs for Saturday and get stuff together for Kingdom A & S. Get garb ready for four people (or at least three) for Kingdom A & S. Get SWAPS counted and coins rolled for Thinking Day Feb 20th (maybe kids can do this with supervision). Get Miranda to research her St. Valentine's presentation for Kingdom A & S. Bribe at least one child to do Environmental Contest, due Monday, with promises of money in allowance account (I keep their allowance account on paper so that I can make additions and deductions all the time without going to the bank). Work on presentation board for Thinking Day and see what is missing about the country Colombia from the research the Scouts already did. Oh, do six loads of laundry. clean bathrooms upstairs and make sure upstairs doesn't get trashed, because we have two girls coming over Sun night for a sleepover and we will be gone all day Sat. And I don't do housework on Valentine's Day. Call PTA mom re book presentations for Friday to find out what she will do if school is delayed start tomorrow.
The list continues: Call other mom re Destination Imagination t shirt order that is due Fri--did she get it? I left it under the front porch mat yesterday (chat with her 20 minutes about DI and Freecycle once I get her on phone--other mom never calls back--she actually went to an EYE appointment in all this mess--her hubby took the message but I bet he forgot to give it to her). You always have to call twice if the husband answers the phone--they never give the message to the mom. My husband is guilty of the same thing on more than one occasion. And if one of them does slip up and give the mom the message it's almost always garbled or wrong. In fact, I send this mom an email later for clarification purposes. I have learned the hard way in years past--these suburban husbands would never make it as receptionists. Their hearing has developed over time into "selective messaging" mode so they can tune out their wives.
More of my to do list: Iron and tag all consignment clothes--dropoff is Feb 19th, which is going to be a busy day since ARD meeting for Amelia is that morning and possibly rescheduled book presentations. Not washing the damn things again--they were washed when put in the plastic bins,stored in a closet, and they are clean enough. Need to print consignment tags while R is here so technical difficulties, if any, can be resolved. Sew some more for Gulf War. Feed kids and husband. Clean up after kids and husband. Cut out more clothes for Gulf War. Etc. Etc. Etc. I am really stressed out right now, you know????
So, I start to delegate. Husband is out of pocket; back in office because it's a WORKDAY for him. The girls want me to sit and watch Robin HOod DVDs. I say, I will after I cut out something for Gulf War and do some painting. Maybe you could help by hemming those little Viking dresses Viv made you? I can show you how. Major whining. It's our day off--we want to play and have fun. We don't want to sew. Sewing is work.
"Well, how about if you guys roll some more coins for me for Thinking Day? (Oh, good, they did finish that with R last night). Then, could you count these SWAPS (Some Whatchamacallits Pinned Affectionately Somewhere)." SWAPS are traded in Girl Scouts and each country has one for Thinking Day. Our country is Colombia. We need 270 for Thinking Day. Now, these were handed out to the 10 girls last week and they did bring them back, but several ran out of coffee beans and didn't finish their packs. A count reveals we have 242 so I am trying to get M and A to make the other 28. It's pretty easy: stick coffee beans and a label in a jewelry bag and add a pin. But M doesn't want to do the pins: "Mommy, will you do the pins for me?" So I do SWAP pins for 30 minutes with Disney Channel blaring in my ear.
Then I work on painting one side of these cool puzzles that Lady Stephanie Lillburn made. I want to paint one side to make them more colorful so they will appeal to the kids at MOC, but I want the edges and the other side left natural so you can see the wood grain. This is an interesting feat and as I am trying to do it mostly with foam brushes in my front foyer (yes, I am allowed to paint there and only me)--well, it's not the best job but they actually look very good. Try to get hubby's consultation on what to paint and how since he's the woodworker, but he doesn't want to come downstairs because of his knees and because he's WORKING. Painted mouse puzzle, pig puzzle, two small and one large dragon. After drying, I accented them with marker. They don't look totally professional--but not bad.
Then I cut out a navy dress for Gulf War. Kids are upstairs playing somewhere. I go back in the family room to put away the SWAPS, I change the laundry, yada yada yada.
Pretty soon it's noon and everyone says they aren't hungry (well, R says nothing because he's on a conference call). I am starting to lose it. I am working my ass off and everyone else is ignoring me, like I'm the maid.
I fix lunch for me and go lay down to watch a movie and maybe sew. M wants to go outside again. I get her bundled up and leave bags and stuff by both doors with instructions that coat is to be hung up and wet stuff put in bags. I fall asleep watching movie--I did get up at 3 am last night so I am pretty tired by now. Oh, let the doggies out and then get the clumps of ice off of them. Twice. Put away some laundry. M is yelling that she ran hot water on her feet and now she hurts--what time is it??? 2 pm????? Did anyone eat lunch???? There is wet stuff including coats all over the foyer. Water running in rivulets down the tile, and now the floor is trashed and I can't cut stuff out on it. Wet towels everywhere. Kid yelling upstairs. Hubby incommunicado.
I make M get dressed and A get dressed too. She apparently went outside and went through clothing set number 2 and now she is complaining that she has no clean clothes. I LOSE it because they are supposed to bring their own laundry down, and I am the one that did it this morning since I noticed that they hadn't put their clothes away from Monday and the hamper was full again with dirty clothes since Monday.
Kids find something to wear. I give them hot grits and hot chocolate--don't feel like fixing another lunch. R still has not eaten I don't think--not sure. I yell and scream at kids who won't sew and want to play all day. "Mommy," says Amelia, "why are you being so mean???" But I am on the warpath. They have trashed upstairs too and I don't have time to clean it tomorrow if they are in school. I make the go upstairs to clean up playroom, make beds. I show them how to clean the bathroom by cleaning the downstairs one and give them the bathroom stuff for their two bathrooms upstairs. That will keep them busy for a while so I can go work on laundry and take a shower.
I pile all of Hubby's laundry on his side of the bed. That way he has to put it away before he can sit down and watch TV. I am getting really pissed--there is so much crap all over the bedroom that I couldn't clean it if I had 10 days. I even stack up some papers and things he keeps moving around the room. My mom would throw them away but it's woodworking stuff so I don't want to do that. I spend an hour or more putting away my clothes and getting hangers for the laundry room, and changing laundry over etc. etc. Then, finally about 4 pm, I take a shower. Of course the shower really needs cleaning but I can't see that well in there without my glasses, so I ignore it. People banging on the locked bedroom door while I am trying to comb out my hair, with bathroom cleaning questions.: "Go ask Daddy!!!"
When Husband resurfaces I inform him that I am not cooking tonight but I am sewing instead. There is a steak thawed out and mashed potatos he can heat up plus salad. I am having soup (can't chew much until I get this dental work done which will probably not be until next week with all this snow). I tell him about steak and such. I go and play on computer for a while and read Facebook. I go and sew.
I tell all three of them that if they are watching TV, from now through Gulf Wars, I want them sewing something. I have HAD it. If they can't sew their clothes then they can wear them unhemmed and unfinished. R leaves me alone on the computer while he grudgingly cooks dinner (he conveniently forgets about the steak and does leftovers so he has less to clean up). Kids are hungry and whiny since I didn't feed them properly today, but they wouldn't eat when I offered, and you would think they could learn to fix a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or two.
Finally around 8 pm I get my way: Family time! H is sewing on his blue hat (after all, he told the girls this morning how the men sew in the SCA--so now I am making him do it!!!) Amelia takes to the sewing just fine and completes her hem but Miranda whines and only does about 3 inches. She is really really tired. We watch a few episodes of Robin Hood. I sew something else for Gulf War and actually finish it (it's only a cloth for my basket, but it's something!) I do have to help the other three-well at least the girls-- with the sewing as well, after all. All I have to do with R is keep handing him various magnification devices because he is having trouble seeing the navy thread on the navy hat.
It's still snowing, mixed with a little sleet. They actually cancelled school again for tomorrow. I've never seen it cancelled two days in a row. No book presentations; no Valentines' parties; no Lightning Thief field trip Friday afternoon. I guess we will be squeezing these into my "workweek" next week while I am trying to finsh Scouts and Consignment. It will be icy in the morning; in fact R says that there is no point in shoveling the snow away because it provides some traction if we need to get out. There will be a layer of ice underneath the snow on the driveway--he is actually correct about this, not just trying to get out of it. The road will be a solid sheet of ice though, and we live in the house on the hill. So we are not going anywhere for a while. Hopefully it will be clear tomorrow so we can go to Kingdom A & S.
Oh, Crap! I'm stuck with them all again tomorrow, and it's another WORKDAY for R. I guess I should get the bonbons and the toenail polish out. Oh, wait. I'm out of bonbons (what is a bonbon anyway?) and I haven't painted my toenails since spring 2009 (last formal pedicure). Remind me to write about how I am SO not a spa girl tomorrow.
Plesant Valley Mom signing off(exhausted and looking forward to maybe not doing anything much for Valentine's Day--except Gulf War sewing!!!) OK, do you see why the Tolkien discussion is STILL on the back burner????
Monday, February 8, 2010
Super Bowl Chickens
OK, I did give in and watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. My husband has been waiting 43 years for this game. I was running late with the food so I missed the first 30 minutes and a lot of the commercials and let him be a couch potato (after all, 43 years is a long time).
I did note, however, a number of commercials involving Chickens!! So what is with the chickens anway? I wish I could tell you that I remember what they actually did in the commercials or what product they were actually advertising, but like I said, I was too busy being the Kitchen Wench.
What is it about the chickens?
IN fact, Chickens are the symbol of ADHD (in fact, there are shirts for ADHD people that say, "Look! A Chicken!") People who are ADHD and ADD are easily distracted, like by chickens on the side of the road. They move rapidly from one unfinished project to another. Come look at my house and you will get the idea.
One of our daughters is ADHD or at least ADD, but we have decided that we are actually ALL ADD or ADHD here in the Wilson home. It just manifests itself differently in all of us. Some of us are more competent than others at hiding their disorders; however, mine is in full view. There is a stack of fabric in the living room next to a big SCA pile of stuff for Ministry of Children and Gulf Wars. There is a pile of unfinished leatherwork in the bedroom (well, it used to be an unfinished kumihimo loom and a bunch of beebees and a scale, so things are improving). There is still a Barbie group on a table in the foyer although it is getting smaller. There are pieces of snowmen on the scrapbooking table that are starting to get dusty as they have been there for two weeks. There are scrapbook bags and things all over the dining room, which is also home to Girl Scout Thinking Day materials. There are bins of DI materials all over the family room and garage, which is also home to DI despite the cold and rain. There are bins of consignment materials in the downstairs office. The Beanie Baby bins just went back upstairs--I'm not dealing with them right now.
In other words, it looks like a bomb exploded and left crap all over the house instead of shrapnel. Other than the fact that it doesn't smell like cats, you walk in and say, "Oh, SCA house!" But then the SCA folks don't usually have all the consignment and kid crap and Destination Imagination and Scrapbooking and Scout Crap and....Yikes! It's actually WORSE than an SCA house. At least the toilets are clean. Well, at least the toilet that guests use is clean.
It's a good thing I can't afford a maid right now because I could never get the house picked up enough right now for her to clean it. If you are planning on visiting us, please give us at least 30 days notice. I'm not kidding. If you want us to entertain, 45 days notice would not be unreasonable.
This is not a scientific dianosis and I don't mean to make fun of those of you who have such a diagonsis. bu we really are an ADHD House. Well, Amelia actually has the diagnosis, but I wanted her to get it it so that she could get extra help and accomodations in school. It wasn't hard-I just filled out the questionnaire honestly, and about 50% of all kids could qualify. However, after reading about three or four books on ADHD as I usually do when I need to learn about something new, I have come to the following conclusions:
1. If you are very smart you are probably ADD or ADHD.
2. If you are very creative you are probably ADD or ADHD.
3. If you are productive sometimes and other times, it's just a CF (email me privately if you don't know what I mean), then you are probably ADD or ADHD.
4. If you have a lot of energy sometimes, and then you just don't, you are probably ADD or ADHD (unless you are manic-depressive, of course!)
5. If some days you are firing on all cylinders and on other days you can't remember your own name, you are probably ADD or ADHD.
6. If you are a perfectionist you also are probably ADD or ADHD but no one may ever know it, and you may be able to avoid being medicated. In other words, you overcompensate for your disorder.
So in other words, I expect that most of you reading this fall into one of the above categories, if not more than one. Welcome to the Chicken house!
We have not designed our devices for the SCA yet but we are thinking that my husband needs a Rooster on his (he is also born in the Chinese year of the Rooster) and then the girls and I need Chickens in some form or another. So he's the Rooster in the Henhouse, so to speak. (Of course if you are an official SCA hearald, please disregard this and believe that we would never pull such a foolish stunt on our official insignia, of course.)
So, here's to all you chickens and roosters out there! And if you can't be a chicken or rooster, hug one today!
I did note, however, a number of commercials involving Chickens!! So what is with the chickens anway? I wish I could tell you that I remember what they actually did in the commercials or what product they were actually advertising, but like I said, I was too busy being the Kitchen Wench.
What is it about the chickens?
IN fact, Chickens are the symbol of ADHD (in fact, there are shirts for ADHD people that say, "Look! A Chicken!") People who are ADHD and ADD are easily distracted, like by chickens on the side of the road. They move rapidly from one unfinished project to another. Come look at my house and you will get the idea.
One of our daughters is ADHD or at least ADD, but we have decided that we are actually ALL ADD or ADHD here in the Wilson home. It just manifests itself differently in all of us. Some of us are more competent than others at hiding their disorders; however, mine is in full view. There is a stack of fabric in the living room next to a big SCA pile of stuff for Ministry of Children and Gulf Wars. There is a pile of unfinished leatherwork in the bedroom (well, it used to be an unfinished kumihimo loom and a bunch of beebees and a scale, so things are improving). There is still a Barbie group on a table in the foyer although it is getting smaller. There are pieces of snowmen on the scrapbooking table that are starting to get dusty as they have been there for two weeks. There are scrapbook bags and things all over the dining room, which is also home to Girl Scout Thinking Day materials. There are bins of DI materials all over the family room and garage, which is also home to DI despite the cold and rain. There are bins of consignment materials in the downstairs office. The Beanie Baby bins just went back upstairs--I'm not dealing with them right now.
In other words, it looks like a bomb exploded and left crap all over the house instead of shrapnel. Other than the fact that it doesn't smell like cats, you walk in and say, "Oh, SCA house!" But then the SCA folks don't usually have all the consignment and kid crap and Destination Imagination and Scrapbooking and Scout Crap and....Yikes! It's actually WORSE than an SCA house. At least the toilets are clean. Well, at least the toilet that guests use is clean.
It's a good thing I can't afford a maid right now because I could never get the house picked up enough right now for her to clean it. If you are planning on visiting us, please give us at least 30 days notice. I'm not kidding. If you want us to entertain, 45 days notice would not be unreasonable.
This is not a scientific dianosis and I don't mean to make fun of those of you who have such a diagonsis. bu we really are an ADHD House. Well, Amelia actually has the diagnosis, but I wanted her to get it it so that she could get extra help and accomodations in school. It wasn't hard-I just filled out the questionnaire honestly, and about 50% of all kids could qualify. However, after reading about three or four books on ADHD as I usually do when I need to learn about something new, I have come to the following conclusions:
1. If you are very smart you are probably ADD or ADHD.
2. If you are very creative you are probably ADD or ADHD.
3. If you are productive sometimes and other times, it's just a CF (email me privately if you don't know what I mean), then you are probably ADD or ADHD.
4. If you have a lot of energy sometimes, and then you just don't, you are probably ADD or ADHD (unless you are manic-depressive, of course!)
5. If some days you are firing on all cylinders and on other days you can't remember your own name, you are probably ADD or ADHD.
6. If you are a perfectionist you also are probably ADD or ADHD but no one may ever know it, and you may be able to avoid being medicated. In other words, you overcompensate for your disorder.
So in other words, I expect that most of you reading this fall into one of the above categories, if not more than one. Welcome to the Chicken house!
We have not designed our devices for the SCA yet but we are thinking that my husband needs a Rooster on his (he is also born in the Chinese year of the Rooster) and then the girls and I need Chickens in some form or another. So he's the Rooster in the Henhouse, so to speak. (Of course if you are an official SCA hearald, please disregard this and believe that we would never pull such a foolish stunt on our official insignia, of course.)
So, here's to all you chickens and roosters out there! And if you can't be a chicken or rooster, hug one today!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
The Barbie Hierarchy
Well, I have survived Destination Imagination Overload Saturday only to find out about 9 pm tonight that I had a nasty note from the Divine Consign people. I had marked some generic tags for DVDs, kids' clothes, etc. and they were writing me to tell me that I had better be specific on my tags or else. Although this sale is not until the weekend of February 20th, we have to enter our tags early. Once they get to 33,000 items (and they wre at 27,000 on Thursday), that is IT. You cannot enter more items or change your tags. Now I don't know about you, but when I do a garage sale I don't tag everything three weeks ahead of time so this system puts me under considerable stress. Anyway, I went through the whole damn house and pulled some videos to sell, and made my kids try on a laundry basket of summer clothes before bedtimes (like it? hate it? Next!!!) I am pleased to say that although I got to spend NO time relaxing with my kids watching Robin Hood (and Robert was upstairs doing real work for which he does not get paid any overtimes--ah, the joys of a salaried position!)......
Well, anyway, I am pleased to say that I got all my tags completed tonight, although I did decide about midnight that I'm not going to deal with the Beanie Baby issue this time, so I pulled all those tags and I will be putting those bad boys back in the closet. (I could make some joke here about not knowing the sexual orientation of my Beanie Babies for sure, even though they spend a lot of time in the closet, but I won't).
So, then I came downstairs and started putting Barbies in Bags. In fact, maybe we will have Barbie in a Bag for dinner tomorrow night. Is that like Chicken in a Bag? No, it's SuperBowl Sunday so I think I will stick to the Brisket I had planned, and the cranberry/pecan/banana bread now that I actually have all the ingredients for, assembled in the kitchen together, after 5 days of trying. I hope the Bananas in the Bag have not gone moldy or it will be banana bread minus the bananas--maybe i can feed the Bananas in a Bag to the Barbies in the Bags.
By the way, the bags are ziplock bags and I am putting the Barbies that I have fixed up in the bags for storage. The kids don't want to sell them now that I have cleaned them up and worked on them all week; in fact, Miranda wants the Barbie MiniVan to stay and Amelia wants the whole Barbie mansion, so I guess we will be back in Barbie hell soon enough. And the moms who come in the door and see the big pile of Barbies (and a few Kens) say, "Why would you want to sell them??? They are so PRETTY!!!!!" Why indeed.
Only because I am drowning in CRAP in this house and have very little money and tons of stuff sitting around that is not being used (these Barbies spent the last year in my husband's office and the attic), but OK, why indeed would I want to sell anything?
Have you ever tried to dust a house full of Barbies?
Also, it occurred to me as I put the Barabies into Bags that there is a Barbie hierarchy that corresponds roughly to life. We actually have five kinds of Female Barbies. I'm not counting the Kens (men are definitely subordinate in the Barbie world) and I'm not counting the Kellys (the little girl dolls that represent the children, or the Tommys, the little boys that are subordinate to the Kellys). And let's not count the McDonalds Madame Alexander dolls or the dolls of many lands from Target, or the teenager doll that's left over from the carnival stuff that I sold years ago. Or even the "Disney Barbies," who look like Barbies but are cheaper, and have a larger Princess head on a Barbie body. They look a little deformed in truth. All of these others are dolls but they are all second fiddle or worse next to BARBIE.
A REAL Barbie will fit into one of five categories in our household. We have Princesses (especially those from the Barbie movies) who are the glamour girls, the non-working girls at the top. They are the movie stars, of course, and they are well known to fans of Barbie World. The movies that they come from include Swan Lake Barbie, Rapunzel Barbie, Twelve Dancing Princesses, Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, and Princess and the Pauper. There are others such as Barbie Muskateer that came out this year and that we don't have, but we already have five or six of these movies and most of the dolls (I drew the line at buying all Twelve dancing princesses but I think we still have 4 of the dolls from that film, plus possibly the prince). The Barbie movies are great to put on and watch with the girls if you want to take a nap. In fact, I'm not selling these movies, and I may keep them until I have grandchildren! The plots are truly insipid and they play extremely bad versions of classical music. It's so bad and so bowlderized that they don't even credit the original composer sometimes except to say "Based on Tchaikovsky") (OK, know I mispelled that!)
I understand that in the Barbie Muskateer movie, which I have only seen part of, they actually sword fight with a rhythmic gymnastics ribbon. Someone gave it to one of the Rapier Dons that I know as a joke. I wish I could tell you this is the worst thing you will find in a Barbie movie, but that's not true. So, the Number 1 Barbies are Princesses and the stars of these movies.
I am not sure how to rank the others but the other categories are Fairytopia Barbies or Fairy Barbies (not intended as a slur on gay people, because these Barbies really ARE Fairies!) Also we have a few Ballerina Barbies and a few Mermaid or Mermaidia Barbies. Finally there are a few Modern Barbies such as Dr. Barbie.
The Fairy Barbies are the creative spirits and the wild children. They wear cool makeup and have lots of colors in their hair, and a few even light up (one of these is called Nuclear Barbie by my husband). They all have wings. Their hair is blue or pink or sparkly. They have tatoos and body paint, and scanty clothes. In fact, gentlemen, this is truly the Barbie of your dreams, and the one who would be most likely to grant you sexual favors if she could.
Ballerina Barbies are the Madonnas of the Barbie world. I don't mean Madonna the singer. They are sweet and pretty. They are on a pedestal. They would never say mean things about anybody. And they are kind of bland and boring, and of course, mostly blonde.
Mermaid Barbies are the opposite of the Ballerina Barbies. I don't want to call them whores because, like the rest of the Barbies, they are not anatomically correct and not responsible for their actions (since humans put them into whatever poses and positions they desire). However, the Mermaids are of course the Sirens. They would be the ones enticing men to their doom. One of my SCA friends sent around a great piece about, would you rather be a whale or a mermaid,and made a great case for being a whale because whales are universally loved and have great family groups, whereas Mermaids just kill men. Point taken.
Finally, there are the Barbie Modern Girls. They don't make very many of these but they are usually made for that parent like me who wants the girls to see themselves as "Career girls" through their dolls. Don't try to use Barbies like this--it doesn't work. Who wants to wear a working girl outfit like a vet or a doctor or a lawyer would wear when you can wear a ball gown? So we have Doctor Barbie (if they have made a Lawyer Barbie I haven't seen her yet). We had a Vet Barbie and we had a Midge who was pregnant and the belly could come off (I think we have lost the belly though so she's not pregnant any more.) She came with a husband, of course, because Barbies are NEVER unwed mothers. Shame, shame!!! In fact at the time she was controversial so I'm sorry that we have lost the belly--she might be worth something on Ebay some day. I think we also lost the kid that came with her and her Kenish husband, or maybe the kid is in the box of Kellys and Tommys. Oh well, she and Ken can adopt a few of those. Unlike in the real world, there are plenty of Kellys and Tommys available for adoption.
In fact, I can't remember which blonde Barbie even is Doctor Barbie, so Doctor Barbie is out there hidden in a ball gown with all the rest. It makes a difference because Doctor Barbie's little white pants are very tight and they just won't go on the ass of every single Barbie!!! Some of these Barbies must have been eating too many donuts down there in Dad's office! I tried to fit these pants on three or four of them and I finally gave up and used ball gowns instead. Easy to put on, easy to take off. Difficult to go to the bathroom in, but then remember, since they aren't anatomically correct, the Barbies NEVER have to go to the bathroom. And there is not ONE toilet in the Barbie house!!!
Well, anyway, I am pleased to say that I got all my tags completed tonight, although I did decide about midnight that I'm not going to deal with the Beanie Baby issue this time, so I pulled all those tags and I will be putting those bad boys back in the closet. (I could make some joke here about not knowing the sexual orientation of my Beanie Babies for sure, even though they spend a lot of time in the closet, but I won't).
So, then I came downstairs and started putting Barbies in Bags. In fact, maybe we will have Barbie in a Bag for dinner tomorrow night. Is that like Chicken in a Bag? No, it's SuperBowl Sunday so I think I will stick to the Brisket I had planned, and the cranberry/pecan/banana bread now that I actually have all the ingredients for, assembled in the kitchen together, after 5 days of trying. I hope the Bananas in the Bag have not gone moldy or it will be banana bread minus the bananas--maybe i can feed the Bananas in a Bag to the Barbies in the Bags.
By the way, the bags are ziplock bags and I am putting the Barbies that I have fixed up in the bags for storage. The kids don't want to sell them now that I have cleaned them up and worked on them all week; in fact, Miranda wants the Barbie MiniVan to stay and Amelia wants the whole Barbie mansion, so I guess we will be back in Barbie hell soon enough. And the moms who come in the door and see the big pile of Barbies (and a few Kens) say, "Why would you want to sell them??? They are so PRETTY!!!!!" Why indeed.
Only because I am drowning in CRAP in this house and have very little money and tons of stuff sitting around that is not being used (these Barbies spent the last year in my husband's office and the attic), but OK, why indeed would I want to sell anything?
Have you ever tried to dust a house full of Barbies?
Also, it occurred to me as I put the Barabies into Bags that there is a Barbie hierarchy that corresponds roughly to life. We actually have five kinds of Female Barbies. I'm not counting the Kens (men are definitely subordinate in the Barbie world) and I'm not counting the Kellys (the little girl dolls that represent the children, or the Tommys, the little boys that are subordinate to the Kellys). And let's not count the McDonalds Madame Alexander dolls or the dolls of many lands from Target, or the teenager doll that's left over from the carnival stuff that I sold years ago. Or even the "Disney Barbies," who look like Barbies but are cheaper, and have a larger Princess head on a Barbie body. They look a little deformed in truth. All of these others are dolls but they are all second fiddle or worse next to BARBIE.
A REAL Barbie will fit into one of five categories in our household. We have Princesses (especially those from the Barbie movies) who are the glamour girls, the non-working girls at the top. They are the movie stars, of course, and they are well known to fans of Barbie World. The movies that they come from include Swan Lake Barbie, Rapunzel Barbie, Twelve Dancing Princesses, Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, and Princess and the Pauper. There are others such as Barbie Muskateer that came out this year and that we don't have, but we already have five or six of these movies and most of the dolls (I drew the line at buying all Twelve dancing princesses but I think we still have 4 of the dolls from that film, plus possibly the prince). The Barbie movies are great to put on and watch with the girls if you want to take a nap. In fact, I'm not selling these movies, and I may keep them until I have grandchildren! The plots are truly insipid and they play extremely bad versions of classical music. It's so bad and so bowlderized that they don't even credit the original composer sometimes except to say "Based on Tchaikovsky") (OK, know I mispelled that!)
I understand that in the Barbie Muskateer movie, which I have only seen part of, they actually sword fight with a rhythmic gymnastics ribbon. Someone gave it to one of the Rapier Dons that I know as a joke. I wish I could tell you this is the worst thing you will find in a Barbie movie, but that's not true. So, the Number 1 Barbies are Princesses and the stars of these movies.
I am not sure how to rank the others but the other categories are Fairytopia Barbies or Fairy Barbies (not intended as a slur on gay people, because these Barbies really ARE Fairies!) Also we have a few Ballerina Barbies and a few Mermaid or Mermaidia Barbies. Finally there are a few Modern Barbies such as Dr. Barbie.
The Fairy Barbies are the creative spirits and the wild children. They wear cool makeup and have lots of colors in their hair, and a few even light up (one of these is called Nuclear Barbie by my husband). They all have wings. Their hair is blue or pink or sparkly. They have tatoos and body paint, and scanty clothes. In fact, gentlemen, this is truly the Barbie of your dreams, and the one who would be most likely to grant you sexual favors if she could.
Ballerina Barbies are the Madonnas of the Barbie world. I don't mean Madonna the singer. They are sweet and pretty. They are on a pedestal. They would never say mean things about anybody. And they are kind of bland and boring, and of course, mostly blonde.
Mermaid Barbies are the opposite of the Ballerina Barbies. I don't want to call them whores because, like the rest of the Barbies, they are not anatomically correct and not responsible for their actions (since humans put them into whatever poses and positions they desire). However, the Mermaids are of course the Sirens. They would be the ones enticing men to their doom. One of my SCA friends sent around a great piece about, would you rather be a whale or a mermaid,and made a great case for being a whale because whales are universally loved and have great family groups, whereas Mermaids just kill men. Point taken.
Finally, there are the Barbie Modern Girls. They don't make very many of these but they are usually made for that parent like me who wants the girls to see themselves as "Career girls" through their dolls. Don't try to use Barbies like this--it doesn't work. Who wants to wear a working girl outfit like a vet or a doctor or a lawyer would wear when you can wear a ball gown? So we have Doctor Barbie (if they have made a Lawyer Barbie I haven't seen her yet). We had a Vet Barbie and we had a Midge who was pregnant and the belly could come off (I think we have lost the belly though so she's not pregnant any more.) She came with a husband, of course, because Barbies are NEVER unwed mothers. Shame, shame!!! In fact at the time she was controversial so I'm sorry that we have lost the belly--she might be worth something on Ebay some day. I think we also lost the kid that came with her and her Kenish husband, or maybe the kid is in the box of Kellys and Tommys. Oh well, she and Ken can adopt a few of those. Unlike in the real world, there are plenty of Kellys and Tommys available for adoption.
In fact, I can't remember which blonde Barbie even is Doctor Barbie, so Doctor Barbie is out there hidden in a ball gown with all the rest. It makes a difference because Doctor Barbie's little white pants are very tight and they just won't go on the ass of every single Barbie!!! Some of these Barbies must have been eating too many donuts down there in Dad's office! I tried to fit these pants on three or four of them and I finally gave up and used ball gowns instead. Easy to put on, easy to take off. Difficult to go to the bathroom in, but then remember, since they aren't anatomically correct, the Barbies NEVER have to go to the bathroom. And there is not ONE toilet in the Barbie house!!!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Zombie Mom and the Dreaded Pay Day
Zombie mom here again. Yes, this time I truly do feel like Night of the Living Dead. I wish I could tell you that this is a hangover, but even I don't get hung over after a cranberry juice and vodka or two (good for bladder health or so they tell me).
I was a bad bad girl last night. No, I didn't stay up late pleasing my husband or anything fun like that. I was a bad bad girl because I stayed up late sewing for Gulf Wars and catching up on LOST and American Idol, WITH the light on because I needed it for sewing, while Hubby tried to sleep.
Gulf Wars is a big SCA Event down near Lumberton, Mississippi every spring. We have been in the SCA for 2 1/2 or so years and have never gone. It is a week-long melee battle or series of battles, but there are also classes, shopping, children's activites--you name it. For a WEEK!! Sometimes it does not coincide with our spring break but this year it does. The girls have been begging to go for more than a year so we are going to give it a try.
Now, this getting ready for WAR (in the middle of Destination Imagination, Cookie season and Girl Scout Thinking Day, not to mention the big spring Consignment Sale) is going to KILL me!!! I am literally working every minute of every day on something. Cleaning up the barbies, getting the stuff done to present the WAGGS patch, researching Coloumbian food for Thinking Day, talking people into buying cookies (hope I can talk them into paying on time too)..you name it but Supermom, who is turning into Zombie Mom by the minute, is doing it. A friend said I am overcompensating for not working as a lawyer. Well, I don't have time to see a shrink, but maybe she is right.
Another friend is kindly helping me by doing a lot of sewing of garb for the family. "Garb" is the name for the costumes that we will wear during Gulf War--at least one per day unless it pours rain like two years ago. Having been to Scarby over an extremely rainy Memorial Day weekend (but having a nice hotel at the end of the day, not a tent), I wholeheartedly agree--take all the clothes we have and then add as much as we can possibly afford to make between now and then. My friend works full time and takes on too much because she's one of these incredibly talented people, and maybe she is overcompensating for something in her life too. Anyway, I am doing the handsewing and I will help her in any way I can, but if I have to sew them together it will be a miracle if we are ready for Gulf War 2011. Seriously.
I am not a seamstress and I really hate sewing machines. I don't like noisy machines anyway, including vaccuums. I even dislike motorcycles and have never been on one (and probably never will). Leafblowers. Snowblowers. Ick Ick Ick. Hate noise pollution, HATE it. Only watch tv during the day or have it on if there's an ice storm or I am doing laundry; otherwise, I MIGHT listen to a little music, but I love silence. I have other reasons why I don't like sewing, mostly relating to the fact that my mom is a wonderful seamstress and I could just never get the hang of it (or felt like I couldn't, or felt like what I did wasn't good enough, so I gave up). I wish I could tell you that this was my mom's fault but it probably wasn't-- I don't specifically remember any criticisms at all, and in fact I remember her telling me after I took a class that I was a good seamstress and should stick with it. Since I did this class about the same time I took typing and I am a really excellent typist, she was probably right. I probably just deep down don't like the noise.
So Zombie Mom did hand sewing from 10 pm to 2 am on a gauze dress. Love gauze for the faire; hate sewing on it by hand. It's thin and light and my pins won's stay in it, plus I am not very good at hemming these very wide and long skirts. But it's an underdress for the girls, and it's in Ansteorra gold, and my friend even gave me the fabric, so I really can't complain. I just wish the damned thing was done this morning so I could move on to something that is easier for me to sew on. I started with it first because I knew I was going to hate it but I didn't think I'd still be working on it today.
It's also the Dreaded Pay Day. Now, Pay Day is nice because then you get money. But Dreaded Pay Day is tough because I have to run around like a maniac all day doing errands and using up my husband's paycheck before there isn't enough left to buy groceries. It's so much pressure!!! I think he really felt it last time when he got stuck doing all the Dreaded Pay Day errands while I was on Scrapbook Retreat. He had 9 errands to do, and no, they did not all get done--now, 2 weeks later, I am still doing them, AND getting fleece for cloaks and blankets, and going grocery shopping at Wally World (read Wal-Mart), and going to the liquor store (about time--this errand has been skipped for about three paychecks). And I have a church luncheon at 11 on how to keep God in my marriage (why? Did he leave? I thought three in a marriage was a bit crowded, as Princess Diana said).
Sorry to be sacreligious--I wouldn't be going if I didn't think it would be good. These luncheons at my church are excellent and good for the soul. And I don't have any objection to keeping God in my marriage, although I don't know if my husband wants him there. Is God there during sex? I am not sure I want to think of this in the middle of...well, anyway, time to sign off and drink some coffee.
Pleasant Valley Mom
I was a bad bad girl last night. No, I didn't stay up late pleasing my husband or anything fun like that. I was a bad bad girl because I stayed up late sewing for Gulf Wars and catching up on LOST and American Idol, WITH the light on because I needed it for sewing, while Hubby tried to sleep.
Gulf Wars is a big SCA Event down near Lumberton, Mississippi every spring. We have been in the SCA for 2 1/2 or so years and have never gone. It is a week-long melee battle or series of battles, but there are also classes, shopping, children's activites--you name it. For a WEEK!! Sometimes it does not coincide with our spring break but this year it does. The girls have been begging to go for more than a year so we are going to give it a try.
Now, this getting ready for WAR (in the middle of Destination Imagination, Cookie season and Girl Scout Thinking Day, not to mention the big spring Consignment Sale) is going to KILL me!!! I am literally working every minute of every day on something. Cleaning up the barbies, getting the stuff done to present the WAGGS patch, researching Coloumbian food for Thinking Day, talking people into buying cookies (hope I can talk them into paying on time too)..you name it but Supermom, who is turning into Zombie Mom by the minute, is doing it. A friend said I am overcompensating for not working as a lawyer. Well, I don't have time to see a shrink, but maybe she is right.
Another friend is kindly helping me by doing a lot of sewing of garb for the family. "Garb" is the name for the costumes that we will wear during Gulf War--at least one per day unless it pours rain like two years ago. Having been to Scarby over an extremely rainy Memorial Day weekend (but having a nice hotel at the end of the day, not a tent), I wholeheartedly agree--take all the clothes we have and then add as much as we can possibly afford to make between now and then. My friend works full time and takes on too much because she's one of these incredibly talented people, and maybe she is overcompensating for something in her life too. Anyway, I am doing the handsewing and I will help her in any way I can, but if I have to sew them together it will be a miracle if we are ready for Gulf War 2011. Seriously.
I am not a seamstress and I really hate sewing machines. I don't like noisy machines anyway, including vaccuums. I even dislike motorcycles and have never been on one (and probably never will). Leafblowers. Snowblowers. Ick Ick Ick. Hate noise pollution, HATE it. Only watch tv during the day or have it on if there's an ice storm or I am doing laundry; otherwise, I MIGHT listen to a little music, but I love silence. I have other reasons why I don't like sewing, mostly relating to the fact that my mom is a wonderful seamstress and I could just never get the hang of it (or felt like I couldn't, or felt like what I did wasn't good enough, so I gave up). I wish I could tell you that this was my mom's fault but it probably wasn't-- I don't specifically remember any criticisms at all, and in fact I remember her telling me after I took a class that I was a good seamstress and should stick with it. Since I did this class about the same time I took typing and I am a really excellent typist, she was probably right. I probably just deep down don't like the noise.
So Zombie Mom did hand sewing from 10 pm to 2 am on a gauze dress. Love gauze for the faire; hate sewing on it by hand. It's thin and light and my pins won's stay in it, plus I am not very good at hemming these very wide and long skirts. But it's an underdress for the girls, and it's in Ansteorra gold, and my friend even gave me the fabric, so I really can't complain. I just wish the damned thing was done this morning so I could move on to something that is easier for me to sew on. I started with it first because I knew I was going to hate it but I didn't think I'd still be working on it today.
It's also the Dreaded Pay Day. Now, Pay Day is nice because then you get money. But Dreaded Pay Day is tough because I have to run around like a maniac all day doing errands and using up my husband's paycheck before there isn't enough left to buy groceries. It's so much pressure!!! I think he really felt it last time when he got stuck doing all the Dreaded Pay Day errands while I was on Scrapbook Retreat. He had 9 errands to do, and no, they did not all get done--now, 2 weeks later, I am still doing them, AND getting fleece for cloaks and blankets, and going grocery shopping at Wally World (read Wal-Mart), and going to the liquor store (about time--this errand has been skipped for about three paychecks). And I have a church luncheon at 11 on how to keep God in my marriage (why? Did he leave? I thought three in a marriage was a bit crowded, as Princess Diana said).
Sorry to be sacreligious--I wouldn't be going if I didn't think it would be good. These luncheons at my church are excellent and good for the soul. And I don't have any objection to keeping God in my marriage, although I don't know if my husband wants him there. Is God there during sex? I am not sure I want to think of this in the middle of...well, anyway, time to sign off and drink some coffee.
Pleasant Valley Mom
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