Saturday, April 27, 2013

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. 

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

This week I'm covering someone I first heard two years ago. Maybe she's very well known by others. She has a lot of likes on her YouTube videos. It's Mindy Gledhill.

She's been featured on the blog NieNie Dialogues. In fact two of her daughter are in the video. Stephanie who writes for NieNie Dialogues was in a plane crash was lucky to survive. She had burns all over her body. I read her blog often. She actually shut off comments because people kept calling her names and saying horrible things. :(

Mindy Gledhill sang some songs with the band I covered last week.

Mindy Gledhill is an indie folk singer. She is also known for her guest vocal work for DJ Kaskade.

Listening to her music makes me think of my sisters.

Whole Wide World


Hourglass


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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Bubbles and Sleep

Isaak loves our bubble mat. I get it out many once every three months. This is the only time I add bubbles to his bath.

A Bath He Had This Last Weekend

He gets all giddy like when it's bubble time. My kids have rarely went in stages of hating bath time. They even love water going over their heads.

Last night was a little different.

Isaak hasn't pulled a temper tantrum in a long time. He's been whiny, but hasn't had a full blown temper tantrum. Last night he did.

He wanted to go swimming at the Y. I told him, "Ok go get undressed and get your swimming suit on." Part of getting undressed is that he needs to put his underwear and socks in the hamper, put his jeans and shoes away. I always take care of his shirt. He wouldn't put things away. I warned him about how if he didn't take care of his things, we wouldn't go to the Y. He still wouldn't do it. I took away the Y. He cried, threw a craft popsicle stick at me, and screamed, "I want to go live with Grandma and Grandpa! I want to go to the Y. You are mean! I want to watch a movie." Then kept repeating this stuff like a broken record.

I started up a bath because he needed one. I was hoping it would divert his thinking. I didn't add the bubbles though. That's only for good, happy boys. Still he likes baths! NOPE! He kept right on screaming. Only this time he was saying, "The water is too cold!" It wasn't. I kept checking.

I brushed his teeth, which the water was too cold for that as well. Then I got his pjs on, put him to bed, said, "I love you.", and poof in 5 minutes it was quiet. He slept from 6:15 PM to 6:30 AM.

Sometimes bubbles are the best medicine. When bubbles are out of the question, sleep is the BEST medicine.

College Life

Somehow this week is going way easier than I thought. Our plates are full of things to do. Somehow it's getting done. Then little surprises pop in. Some shake things up, some don't.

Work has been drama city. I had one student drop out early this week. She had a lot going on in her personal life; some of which I knew about, some of which I don't. Here it is close to the end, and she just dropped out. Her mom and her were fighting in the classroom. It wasn't pretty. When the mom left, I hugged the student and said, "When or if you are ready to talk, we can talk." Later she came up and talked to me. I didn't side with her or the mom. I just said, "Listen sometimes moms and daughters need time-outs from one another. She might be mad for awhile. She has a right to be upset. Just like you are upset with yourself, she's having a hard time swallowing things. She'll forgive you. You will move on. Life gets in the way sometimes." She seemed to understand what I was saying. Then she thanked me.

The student that I thought/think he has Aspergers has been great this second part of the semester. He hasn't had any real emotional outbursts. I happened to snap at him this week though. He listens, but not to the things I want him to really take in. I kind of blame him for this. I only blame him because I know he doesn't read his handouts, or take notes. Inside I think he has problems. At the same time I know he needs to learn how to function outside of his first year of college. The teachers in 2nd year don't go over things as much as I do, they don't tolerate excuses what so ever, and school only gets harder with web, 3D animation and video thrown at them. When he walked up to me this week and had his document set up all wrong, I gave him a piece of my mind. I didn't yell at him, curse at him, I was just to the point about how I covered this twice and it's in their handout. I expressed how I expected more. Somehow in the depths of conversation another student slipped that this man boy is going to be a father. I wanted to say, "What? You are not ready for kids!", but I kept my mouth sealed. Sometimes with students it's like having kids of your own; you want to know everything, but you don't. For some odd reason we have a lot of pregnant folks in this school right now.

We have an older student in one of my classes. Most of the students come straight from high school. He's always been a little different. He's in his early 50s. He was going to drop out of school recently. Instead he decided to distance himself from his whole class by sitting somewhere entirely different. It has something to do with one girl in the class. The thing is, is I've been there all year; I've never seen her bother him at all. In fact she's very nice. Everyone is really quiet in that classroom. It's all very odd. As an outsider I see an odd obsession going on there.

Just when I thought things couldn't get more odd, things got better.

I had portfolio reviews a few weeks ago. Many didn't do as well as I would have liked. Their pieces weren't bad. It was just the layout of their images on the page, and the order of their images. I spent a day writing and writing changes. Then I copied them, so I'd have a record. The only real power I have over them is with a grade. I graded their portfolios. Their resumes were horrible. Someone is supposed to go over those before they get to me. I'm sure they did, but didn't make them change things. Programs were spelled wrong. I get it programs are spelled odd (Power Point PowerPoint, Quark X Press QuarkXPress and Indesign InDesign), but if I'm seeing these things, people that would hire them would see these things as well. They had 2 weeks to make them better. If they didn't do anything, then their grade dropped even more. If they fixed up things dramatically their grades got better. Guess what? They all fixed them! :)

I had a student create this on Facebook, and tagged me:


BTW I know it's not a policy at many school to friend your student on Facebook. I don't ask anyone to be friends. I only except if they ask me. It's a private, college school. I'm very careful about what I say on there. Really I only talk about my kids, or he news. Then I don't get into trouble. I don't hang out with them outside of school.

I know it's silly, but my student making this made my day. It made all the odd things go away. The girl that made it is a great student. Just like anything, there is way more good than bad with things. I have a lot of wonderful experiences in my job!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

WW: The Dog Next Door {Linky}

Isaak loves the dog next door.
 
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Monday, April 22, 2013

Busy, Busy, Busy

Just a heads up, this week will be swamped. I'll try to blog some.

Just to give you an idea:

Monday

The Honda Pilot went in the shop for a recall. The emergency break has to be fixed. It was supposed to go in on Saturday, but they thought it would need a full day of service. Daddy called and got it in on Monday. We took it in, and they had no record of him calling it in. They made it sound like it was his fault. I for see a bad evaluation coming to them. Controversy in the making. I refuse to give a good evaluation to people that messed up; then want to blame us for the mess up. I wish a different Honda dealership was near us. We don't have time to run all over for this.

Daddy has to pick up some artwork at a gallery between 4:30 and 5. He may get me later than 5.

Swimming lessons are at 6:15 and 6:45.

We probably have to go pick up the Pilot after that.

Tuesday

Mica has a Music and Arts Festival at school. We missed the last event for his school the previous time because we went to the Lion King. We better go to this one. :)

Wednesday

Is Jujutsu. Mica was supposed to test for a new stripe on his belt two weeks ago. He hasn't been trying very hard, so Daddy said, "No." to that. Mica was mad. I feel like Daddy did the right thing. Mica has to learn to try. We kept reminding him that we are paying for him to go. We are not going to pay for him to test if he's not trying his hardest. He doesn't want to quit.

Isaak has a birthday party at BouceU. He'll love it.

Thursday

I'll be at work most of the evening because I have Portfolio Review Night. It's a night were many pros come in and students show them their portfolios.

Friday

Mica doesn't have school. Grandma and Grandpa will have an extra body.

Daddy has to work at the gallery where his artwork is at. I'll have the boys to myself.

Saturday

Mica has a birthday party to go to somewhere. I don't even remember where now.

How's your week looking? Are you busy to? This is usually a busy time for me because it's close to finals time. It's especially crazy because I have a student that is pregnant and needs her review sheet one week early and her exams one week early. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but it will get done.

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

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