Friday, October 25, 2019

Random Tid Bits

  1. I got invited to one of those online parties. In my younger, just an adult years I didn't mind them. I went to a Tupperware, a Pampered Chef, a Discovery Toys, Usborne Books, some craft, and some costume jewelry party.

    I even hosted a few of these parties with my sister Terra.

    Now I can't stand them. I'm tired of feeling like I have to buy something at them. It's like, the pressure is on! My sister Terra has had 2 Norwex, a Young Living, and a LuLaRoe party. I managed to skip the Norwex and Young Living ones.

    I did buy a magic glass cleaning cloth from Norwex. I never really fully believed in the oils. Sure they smell good, hold some different properties, go well in some homemade cleaning recipes, but they aren't going to magically make all your problems go away.

    I just got invited a few weeks ago from a high school friend to join an online Usborne party. I said, "Really? I've hosted one, and been to another, my kids are ages 11 and 14, what could I possibly get out of this?" He convinced me it would be fun. The party happened to land when Mica's conferences were. Their books aren't cheap, and I have a plethora of gifts saved up for my youngest nephew Edison from blogging. I did very little participation. I just entered my name for the drawing. Go figure I won.

    Part of me wanted to just pass, but I'm like maybe it's something I can hand off to one of my nephews. It's a hard book cleaning rag. It's going to Emerson because he can't be around any germs.

    The host messaged me, "Can you tell me why you didn't participate in the party?" I think I gave her more of a response than she needed to read. Hello I'm a blogger. 

  2. Isaak's rotated out of Piano, and is now in Drama. This also fits him really well. To Travis I've always called him my Drama King.

    Tomorrow he has to act out a family member. He's torn between acting out Mica or his Gecko Sunny. I think it would be much more fun acting out Mica. They are for the most part opposite with so many things. One likes sports one doesn't, one likes trivia while the other could care less, one is slow and the other is fast. The list goes on and on like that.

  3. I think Isaak's finally sort of used to his braces. I haven't given him meat on the bone or anything, but he can have more solid things. Yay!

  4. I was just messing around. Not sure I like this in the least bit. It's just not as funny as I thought it would be. I tried putting Putin's face in with Trump's. It didn't really work like I thought it would. Trump's face is fat and short, Putin's is long and skinny.


  5. Isaak hasn't cried with homework for a long while. I so wonder if a kid can get PTSD from a teacher? My cousin brought that up to me. The thought crossed my mind, but I didn't really want to go there. His teacher covered so much when he wasn't in the classroom (strings, bathroom duty, safety patrol) and then would expect him to do homework. He felt so unsure how to do it, because he'd miss full lessons. I think when school started back up he felt that pressure again.

    He is super slow, not dumb. Just moving. That's on him. We're trying to figure out how to get him to move faster, without changing him. It wears on all of us when he's doing homework all night. Mica has to do more around the house than Isaak does. I put Isaak's clothes away, when Mica has to put his own away. I'd like it if it wasn't like that. Mica is older, but Isaak should have responsibilities too. The fact is, is that Isaak has a night of homework, and Mica hardly has any. Parenting is hard at times!

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Conferences

We had conferences last week. Both boys ended up with A's and B's. I couldn't ask for better report cards.

It was the first time Isaak was in middle school, and the middle school is very different than Mica's. As much as we didn't try to contrast, and compare it was natural to do so. 

We have, and continue to find all the staff at Mica's school to be so positive!

He's the news man in the morning. He loves doing it! He's free to change up things within reason. So he changes his accent almost every time. He makes silly jokes. A sixth grader came up to him in the hallway and said, "Are you the guy on the screen in the mornings? Man you're a good actor!" It cracked us all up, when we heard that story.

His Language Arts teacher likes that he puts his personality into his work. Not every kid feels free to do that.

His Healthcare Academy teacher is all over the place, but it's only because she likes to fit in as much as she can, within reason. She gave Mica a book about Polio, that he has to do a book report on. My Mom had that, so it's interesting. In the middle of talking to her the phone rang. She's like, "Mica can you get that? It's blind people that need to be escorted down here." He got the phone, but his ditzy Mica self said, "Ok come on down to room blah blah blah." It was like the blind was leading the blind. Ha! His teacher said, "No Mica you have to get them. They can't see!"

At the end of conferences I complimented Mica's last teacher. I said, "You know what? I know you don't feel well (she had a cold), but you should be proud. I haven't met a single bad teacher, since Mica started school here three years ago. You're all good." Then I walked away.

I do wish all the students at his school knew the capacity of the teachers, and how wonderful they are! Many don't seem to be as into things as Mica is.

Mica got all A's and one B.

Just like he tries different accents on the morning announcements. He tries different faces when we go out to eat.




Isaak's school had less walking, for conferences. All the teachers had their own little table in the gym and cafeteria. One would think that would be great. It annoyed Travis. He felt it was less personable. Voices echoed badly. There were only 3 chairs at any given table, so if anyone had an extra kid they had to stand.

There's only two teachers of his that I find great! The rest are just ok. I thought I'd think otherwise, considering that Isaak goes to an art magnet school.

Travis and I wanted feedback on how Isaak works in the classroom. His life seems to be school and homework. We don't want his whole life to be like that. I was looking for teacher tips on being more productive. Like, "Rule out all the answers you know are wrong, to pick the right answer.", "Do the easy homework first, and follow up with the harder things., "Talk less." and so on. Not one really gave us any tips. I've learned more from watching YouTube videos on anxiety in kids than I could get out of his teachers. One actually told me that boys just work slower than girls. Right away I thought, bullshit! Mica hardly has homework. He's a guy. That's an old way of thinking.

One teacher asked me who he has for Math. When Isaak said, she said, "Oh..." insert awkward silence here.

Isaak's teachers weren't mean. They just weren't out of the box thinkers, like I thought they'd be. 

Top teachers for him were Piano and Language Arts. He stops Piano now, and takes Drama. They have a rotating wheel of different arts they take. Yay Drama, but pout no more Piano. They seemed to understand creative kids the most.

Isaak got a two or three A's the rest B's.


I am happy both boys are doing great in school, but worried about Isaak's work load. How can I make the boy go faster? I'm not trying to change him. I just don't want his school life to always be homework. With ACT's and SAT's time is a factor. Life doesn't stop for people that go slow. 

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

WW: Braces {Linky}

The littlest man in our house got braces last Thursday. He had no choice. There was not enough room in his mouth, for his adult teeth.


He had to get some baby teeth out, to make room for big teeth to come in. He had a space maintainer.

This Thursday he got braces. 



I had braces, for too long really. I just know because my roots are small. They say if your roots are small you've had them for too long. 

I remember the pain. Isaak hasn't complained too much. 

He did complain when a ball from Goalball hit his mouth. The poor boy started bleeding. For a moment I thought we'd need to go back to the Orthodontist, but he was ok. 

He sure looks like a pre teen with them in!


In case you're wondering he lives in this coat. He has a closest full of shirts, and covers them all up with this coat. Ha!

He is still eating soft food for the most part. I'm sick of oatmeal, applesauce, smoothies, soups, yogurt and so on. I'm not even eating all those things when he eats them. I hope he gets used to them soon enough. 

Here he is eating a Goodrich Malt. A few years ago he said, "Can we get those mulches?" I had trouble understanding what he was talking about. When he said, "Goodrich Mulches" I knew he meant "Malt". I still call them "Mulches". He goes right along with it! Ha! 


Did you have braces when you were a kid? 

Monday, October 21, 2019

Rescued Gecko

When we got Mr. Sunny, Isaak's Leopard Gecko I was told by my student that had him, "He eats 2 meal worms every other day. He's afraid of crickets."

We found a few small crickets from outside, and tried to feed him them. They hopped around awhile in his tank, but he snapped them up when they slowed down. Now that he knows what they taste like, and has gotten over the fact that they are new to him, he loves them. He wiggles his tale all excited like, and snaps them up! It could be that my student tried to feed him too big of crickets. I'm not sure.

We were feeding him 2 mealworms one day, and a cricket the next day. He ate them right up. It got to a point where Isaak put 2 crickets in his tank, and de snapped both of them up!

I said, "We should read how much Leopard Geckos are supposed to eat." I was just kind of going off what my student said. Even so he still seemed hungry. He'd watch whoever had his food like he was thinking, Feed me!

Based on Sunny's length, he should have 3 meal worms one day, and 2 crickets the next day. Poor little guy was being underfed! It's kind of good we've been building back up his appetite. No one can go from not eating much, to eating a whole bunch more.

We also read that the blue sand he had in his tank before was bad for him. Geckos lick a lot. The sand could be poison to his insides. The sand can be used, for bigger lizards. It just isn't supposed to be used for little guys like Sunny. Most of the time in the desert lizards are on hard dirt surfaces. We got him coconut mulch, which is too big for him to eat.

He's our rescued Gecko!




Sunday, October 20, 2019

AncordWorks Portable Bluetooth #speaker #sp #review

AncordWorks has a great bluetooth outdoor speaker!


What we tried the sound out on:

Yesterday we as a family went to Mica's school to play Goalball. Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't. It's a game were we got taught how to play from visually impaired people. We had to wear blinders, the lines in the gym stuck up (the were wires taped down), and the balls had bells inside them. Mica tossed a lot of of balls out of bounds (not a penalty though), and Isaak got so turned around he tossed the ball towards his own net. It was for Mica's Healthcare Academy. I recorded a some of the play, and played the video on the AncordWorks speaker.

Here's the original video:


Now here's the video playing on AncordWorks Portable Bluetooth Speaker:


The speaker has protected buttons:

This is where cords get plugged in. It's covered by a hard plastic, and clips into place.


The power, play, and so on are hard silicone buttons:


Clip It:

If you are on the move, you can clip the speaker to your pants, coat, overalls, or anything else really. The clip is really durable.


Water, Water, Everywhere:

Sometimes the best time to relax is when you take a shower, a bath, are in a pool, in a lazy river, or on a beach. The speaker comes with a little tiny raft. You can blow it up, and strap the speaker into place. The straps are a bit loose, so if we use it like this, we'll be sure to tighten them up. The speaker won't get damaged if a little water splashes up on it.


AncordWorks Portable Bluetooth Speaker is great holiday gift! Do you have a portable speaker? You can get it on Amazon Prime for $34.99 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CHCNMXN

Disclaimer: I got this product free or for a discount in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own.

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.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

If you have any questions about this blog, or want to get in contact with me please email me at: anapeladay@gmail.com