How’s everyone’s week so far? Mine has been good, quiet and relaxing actually. I like having time off, now that I’m down to one kid, 3 days a week. My mornings are certainly a lot more relaxed and peaceful. One problem though, I have to keep myself going. I find myself getting bored, and I fall into being lazy and that’s not me!
I was able to get my hands dirty this week finally. I got a new flower bed dug up and planted. Now watching it will be the fun part. I’m glad Bailey likes that kind of stuff as much as I do. The bird bath has had plenty of use. Bailey has his grandma Joys love and curiosity of birds. He names every one that comes down for a bath or a to get a full belly. Joy just got him his own bird book, and I can’t wait to give it to him! He talks about his Grandma Joys book of birds like it’s the bible…oh coveted one! LOL Kid loves birds, what can I say!
Oh yea, Sue was talking about Trinity doing her state report on Illinois. That very next day Bailey brought a sheet home explaining his. He picked Mississippi. I told him, a very important person was born in Mississippi! Who?! Mr.Brett Favre! I actually saw a glimmer of excitement about the report!
I’m almost done with this book I’ve been trying to finish. The Last Song. It’s the one that was made into a movie, with Mylie Cyrus. Joy, Sue and I saw the movie, I was the only one who hadn’t read it yet. I know, I’m doing things backwards, but now I’m reading it and so close to being done. It’s hard for me to sit and read a book all day, or even for more than a couple of hours at a time. Short attention span I suppose! The books so far has been good, so many parts though I would have loved to seen in the movie. Also I liked having an image in my head while reading it. The characters, the scenery…it’s made the book so much better in my opinion. What is everyone reading right now? If you are reading something that is! I also started watching One Tree Hill from the very beginning. I got hooked to it last season, and I hadn’t realized it’s been on for like 7 or 8 season! Thank you Netflix!
Okay, well I’m off for now. I’m sure I’ll chime in sometime, but for now…have a fabulous day!
Us Girls..Our Views 
I’ll comment more later but I SWEAR I hadn’t read this before I put in the question of they day!!! LOL!!! I’ve done that before too!!! I can’t remember now which question but it was related to the main post.
Heh… I’ll post it again here: I’m reading “Savor the Moment”, by Nora Roberts.
It’s pretty cool that Bailey is into birds. My whole family are bird-observers. We’re not obsessive about keeping a “life list” like many are, but it’s one of those things that we all just know. I’ll sit in my dining room and watch the birds come to my feeder, and then call my mom: “Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Titmouse, three sparrows, a handful of Juncos, more chickadees than I can count, and eight (four pairs) of Cardinals.” And she swears at me because I have this great variety, and she’s sitting in HER kitchen with a Super-Soaker, trying to keep the grackels from eating them out of house and home. It’s great fun.
Well, I really don’t have much of interest going on. Work is ramping up for the super-busy season and I don’t really know how I’m going to get it all done. I’ve been getting up early lately to do some work before the girls wake, because staying up late isn’t cutting it – I may stay up, but I’m reading on the internet because I can’t concentrate on my work – unless it’s a dire emergency. But, I’m supposed to be up working, so I can’t really go to sleep either. Something about that doesn’t seem quite right.
Got the kids signed up for Sunday School. The plan is to start going to the 8:30am church service and then Sunday School, so I can be back home in time for a good day’s work. They have some adult discussion going on during Sunday School about practical issues and the Bible. I might as well check it out, since I have to do something while the kids are at Sunday School.
I thought about becoming a member of the church, but I read the “recommended prayer” about it, and I don’t think it reflects how I truly feel. Basically it says “I believe there is only one way . . . .” I haven’t held that belief since I was in Lutheran school, over 30 years ago. I don’t think I will ever go back to it. So I don’t think I can be a member, but they say I can still take communion (otherwise I’d be the only person staying in the pew), and that they would baptize my girls, even if I’m not a member. I think that wasn’t the case when I was a kid. I remember my parents doing Bible studies and getting baptized, and then finally my sibs and I got baptized all at once when I was 6. (Lutherans normally baptize babies, but you can catch up later if you want to be a member.) I am thinking of putting my kids in the Lutheran school attached to this church, but I know they will teach this narrow view of religion. Well, it didn’t ruin me, so maybe it won’t be so bad. I can always tell the girls my views so they can consider the different points of view.
It’s been cold all week, so not much outdoor fun. It’s beautiful to look at, though. After a windy, rainy day, the ground was carpeted with blossom petals. I still haven’t gotten the kids outside to plant seeds and clean up the leaves. But, I did take off their training wheels and adjust their bike seats so they can get around with their feet on the ground. They still have their trikes for when they wuss out on the bikes – but gosh, those trikes have shrunk a lot since I bought them! Or could the girls have really been that small?
SKL, I did the same thing with Josh, as far as the school thing goes. He needed a good school, and the publics weren’t measuring up to my (admittedly) high standards. The Catholic school in town welcomed him in, the teachers (specifically the Kg teacher) were phenomenal, and all the kids knew each other and treated one another with respect. It’s a small school, very much what I was looking for. Except that it’s Catholic. And I’m not. Steve, and his entire family, are Catholic, though. I figured, I want Josh to have a good school atmosphere, good academics, and a foundation in morals and values that match mine. That which I disagree with as far as religious dogma can be countered or tempered by me as he grows up. And since I cannot homeschool him (another comment for another day), this was the next best thing.
I’m still not sure what I’ll do when the kids age out of their current school (it goes through KG and has high standards). My two kids have very different needs. I wish I could feel enthusiastic about public education. Our local system is not one of the “worst.” But the elementary school is over 3 miles away and they don’t start any programs for advanced kids until 3rd grade (and then it’s a one-day-a-week thing). I know all moms are biased, but my youngest will definitely need to be challenged in school. I should probably talk to the public school and see what they do in practice with kids who are years ahead of their peers. Maybe they have ways of engaging them. Like, my kid sister was used as a peer tutor, and she was very happy in her public school. On the other hand, they can make all kinds of promises, but what do I do if they aren’t kept? There just isn’t much sympathy for kids who are academically advanced. Perhaps rightly so. As a taxpayer, I do feel it’s more important to ensure basic literacy for slower kids than to kiss the butts of smarter ones – up to a point. (But don’t get me started on the bad choices the gov’t / public schools make with my tax money.) On the other side of things, my other daughter doesn’t have a great visual memory and I’m not sure she’d be happiest in a high-standards school. I’ll have to see how she does in her current school over the next couple years. One thing I am pretty sure of is, both girls need to go to the same school.
The sad part is they will probably just want to move her up in grades. Which I guess would be okay but how high can you go and keep with her at an emotional level? They wanted to move Toby up from Kg to 3rd grade. There was no way I could do that. Jason was in 4th grade and for baseball and church and all other things, he would never know anyone. I just felt it was too drastic. Getting him through elementary school was very difficult.
Sadly, there’s not much for the “gifted” in public schooling. Especially now with all the budget cuts. I guess check out the private school. The one thing that made sense to me was when you said the religion stuff didn’t kill us is learning something ever really a bad thing?
I had a similar concern with Josh – I don’t know if he’s “gifted”, but he’s certainly very smart, and was reading before we put him in kindergarten (at age 4 – he’s in kg for the second time for maturity reasons).
What I really liked about the private school we chose, over the public school, was that when we asked each about ‘special’ programs for the kids, both gifted and remedial, the public school had this breakout and that breakout based on this test score and that test score. Everyone had to “qualify” for everything. The private school is small enough that the teacher can give individualized attention. For example, Josh is a more advanced reader than the others in his class, so he takes home a book a week (sometimes two), and reads for comprehension, and then is tested on it. But he’s not broken out and separated from his class – he still receives the same social interaction, and stays with the class where appropriate. The same is true for a little boy who isn’t quite as advanced. He is getting the same individualized attention in his area of need.
Perhaps that’s a function of the size of the school – it’s tiny, there are about 130 kids spanning K-8 – but I tend to believe that it’s the private aspect of it.
The funny thing is, for all my concern about not being “elitist,” my parents put me in a Lutheran school when they hardly had two cents to rub together. Come to think of it, that might have been the motivation for them to join the church – there was a deal for members to send their kids to the school – and my parents had 4 of us at the time. Not to say my parents didn’t believe in the message and all that (I clearly remember them being “born again” and it wasn’t an act), but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had reservations as I do about there being “only one way.” Isn’t it funny how we sometimes come full circle to where our parents once were?
I guess it’s a good problem to have, to need to challenge a bright child. I am blessed because I have lots of alternatives to choose from. I have a tendency to obsess over education at times, which I need to resist.
Nice post again, Nikki! I can relay to becoming lazy when I can relax, weird, isn’t it? My week was pretty busy but nice. Hope you will have a great weekend!
Okay, did you know that I am from Mississippi (aka The Magnolia State)? So now can you figure out my WordPress name?
I like playing in the dirt too! Not so much flowers but I do have a few. I especially like the iris’ I brought back from MS that I have stuck in the back yard.
Ah yes, the good old state reports! I did mine on Missouri, but we got to pick our states. Trinity said the teacher put all the states in a hat and then they drew out to see who got what. Not fun if you ask me, but they didn’t! I hope Bailey has to do more for his report than Trinity does. Fill in the blanks, cut out the squares and paste it in a book just doesn’t seem like a report to me. But, there again, they didn’t ask me!
We’ve started playing in the dirt too! My flowers are up in my gardens and I did get them cleaned out last weekend, but now have to start pulling weeds. We finally got the garden tilled too. That’s such a big job. Probably b/c we have a huge garden, but when I suggested to Toby that we make it smaller I got the “why would we do that” look! If I get ambitious this afternoon I may start to plant the early stuff. Michael, I don’t want to hear about your garden! It’s just not fair that you’ve got things actually growing already!
I’m glad you’re almost done with the book. I thought it was great. I have read 2 books by Nicholas Sparks in the last week and will probably start another one today. Thanks mum 🙂 I have no problems reading for hours and I couldn’t put The Last Song down and finished it in one day! If you haven’t read it, you should! That’s about it for now 🙂
I always feel I have other stuff I need to do….and obviously this book hasn’t grabbed me but it’s good. The Cottage by Danielle Steel…that grabbed me and I couldn’t put that one down for very long.
Happy gardening!
I don’t enjoy reading a book fast. There are times I have to put a book down because sometimes I’m so in love with it that I hate to let it go.
Aaww nothing like your first bird book that was a sweet story. I love my bird book. I also love Netflix. I’m reading too many books right now feeling a little overwhelmed. Two E books, 1 library book that was a special order so the pressures on and the time is ticking on that one. One word at a time I guess. I am trying to learn to branch out of my reading comfort zone and explore other reading areas so that’s actually fun right now for me. I did see the Movie Last Song with a friend of mine good chic flick. She had read the book and said she enjoyed the book better. I have not read the book, at this point not sure when I could get to it. ;+)
The book was MUCH better than the movie. I felt it was a good movie but there were so many important details left out of the movie.
I’m like you and can’t read under pressure. If I “have” to, I don’t seem to want to. Know what I mean?
I’m so happy Bailey loved that book. When he called to thank me he said “I love it” and he sounded breathless. I’m so happy he loves them the way I do. They are so entertaining. He loves watching the deer too. One day he followed tracks thinking he was going to find the deer. How cute is that?
We went to see Oceans last Friday night with Toby, Sue and the kids and it was good. I liked it. It was beautiful but it did get long. But when I think about it, I wouldn’t want anything cut out of it either. For my hate of theaters, I’ve gone to two movies in a month! How weird is that? I’m kind of wondering if I didn’t like to go to movies because I couldn’t smoke.
It was after the movie that I stopped at the bookstore. I said to Paul “are you coming in with me” and he said “are you only getting that “one” book” and I said “yes” LOL!!! One book my eye. It had been so long since I was at Barnes and Noble. I just grabbed books in my path and saw that bird book and thought of Bailey right away and added that to my purchases. I was out of there in record time though.
I can’t go into bookstores unless I have at least an hour to spare. I’m always finding “one more book” that I have to investigate. Usually, I don’t buy anything, unless I go in there with a specific title in mind, but I’ll pick up and peruse almost anything.
And I’m almost as bad with the kid’s section. There are so many books that I want to buy for Josh, but I have to forcibly restrain myself because he has sooooo many already!!! But occasionally, a Skippyjohn Jones, Magic Tree House, or Magic School Bus will find it’s way to the checkout line…
I used to be exactly the same way in the bookstore. The first time I discovered Barnes & Noble, I literally spent 6 hours in the children’s section.
Long before I had kids, I had thousands of kids’ books in my basement – most used or purchased at deep discounts, but some purchased at full price because I thought they were so educational.
Now that my kids are of the age to benefit from many of those books, I realize that I had accumulated so many, there is no way to actually use them all. They have already grown out of whole shelves of books that I didn’t even remember I had. But, that doesn’t stop the strong temptation to look at the kids’ books in the bookstores even today. And sometimes I buy – but not nearly as often.
Having two tots does change the bookstore dynamic, I must say. We are almost to the point now where I could really browse again. But I am on overload now. I still have so many books, even grown-up ones, that I haven’t read. Right now I just want to get through the ones I have and clear out my shelves.
That said, we do visit Barnes & Noble almost every week. We usually don’t buy anything, though.