A few weeks back we packed candy in bags for the primary children and friends.
I've been enjoying the BBC show "Call the Midwife". Today it hit me how strange the premise of universal health care is. A show about medical care in a low income neighborhood would be plagued with people worrying about how they can afford their care.
I like that the show goes through many different social, medical and political troubles in each episode. It's like historical fiction, educating and entertaining.
A podcast I listened to said that people see what they want to. Liberals watching the Stephen Colbert show saw conservative talk radio/TV being mocked. Conservatives watching the show saw liberal guests being mocked.
We see what we want to see. But can we choose what we want to see?
Today
we worked the yard sale for MO who has leukemia and is one of lP's
friends at church. We donated some items like a nativity, bench,
inflatable alligator... all sold. We also bought a lot of items. A
clarinet(!), smaller crock pot, small pie dishes, blender majig, and box
of gift bags... many things. We also got 2 nice non-stick pans after
so much searching for a nonstick pan, and a pair of shoes for M.
Totally great cause, and 8 hours well spent. I'll be donating the
medium size crock pot we have and the normal size pie pans. Being in
the P family, I will never be responsible for making the thanksgiving
pies. So 2 little pie dishes are perfect for us to have a pumpkin pie
and pecan pie for our own little covid thanksgiving.
I introduced the kids to Cornell Notes today. We prepared the paper, then watched this video of Beowulf.
After taking notes, I told them to come up with 3 questions for the right hand column and write a summary at the bottom of the page. Then we asked each other our questions. lP was a little annoyed that her understanding was questions she had about it, like "Why did the dragon steal the cup?" Good question but it wasn't covered in the material. So she learned the type of question we were looking for and now she knows something new.
I was today many years old when I learned how to take Cornell notes. It's brilliant! I wish I'd understood this when I was younger. I was so prideful and didn't want anyone to know that school was hard for me. So I pretended I didn't care and did a good job of that. I can only hold 3 facts or tasks in my head at once, and if someone needs me to know more than that, I need to write it down. Growing up in such a brilliant family, that loved to call each other stupid, I felt stupid a lot, and mad a lot. I'm not actually stupid, just not as good at the same skills as many of my siblings, who are brilliant and talented. Compared to normal people, I'm quite smart and capable. I wish I'd learned more strategies when I was younger.
They say "Work smarter, not harder." I didn't know how to work smarter and didn't want to look stupid working harder. Wow.
I hope my children will learn to work harder, and smarter. They are so capable, like someone who is really able to walk well. And I hope they don't rely on their natural ability to memorize, but instead learn to use tools, like a bike, to go further, faster, than they can on their own two feet.
B was getting an MRI because he has a loss in vision but the extensive tests on his eye show no reason for it. So we scheduled an MRI at Shands for 11:30. Our day looked like this:
8:30 depart B drank a little carton of orange juice from the school lunch he looked forward to eating.
10:30 arrival, because you have to come an hour early.
12:30 go to the prep room and find out that OJ is not a clear liquid and he needs to wait 2 more hours. The anesthesiologist said if he has loose teeth, they should get pulled so they won't get knocked out during the procedure. B had a loose one that could come out, so E pulled it out and used rolled klenex to contain the bleeding. They let him use an ipad loaded with nice games. E napped while B became absorbed and didn't mind the wait or the pulled tooth. He would wake E to get a new klenex roll periodically.
3:00 ask if they are going to call him back since it's been 2 hours plus a reasonable extra wait. Find out that an emergency case came in at 2:30.
4:00 B goes in.
5:30 E goes over to Shands to find B in Recovery, has all the feels as she wanders the post-op looking for him and recognizing the sights, sounds and ceiling tiles of past times with Geoff.
6:15 B can be waken from and observed for 10 minutes. They let him use an ipad again and his movements were jerky. He had a wheelchair ride down to the exit.
7:00 visit Grandma L. She have us some gifts and an ice cream cone for B. We chatted while B ate the ice cream but he was nauseous and not able to finish it.
8:00 go pick up doughnuts for teeth!
8:30 pick up checkers for fries!
9:30 pick up cheezy bread from the Hastings little ceasars because they didn't have cheese pizza.
10:00 Arrive alive!, share fries and cheezy bread.
8:30 AM Wednesday: Doughnuts for Breakfast!
My sister offered me her old phone but wasn't able to get it unlocked. In the meanwhile I thought how nice it would be to use my phone to pick up groceries, use Messenger, or LDS tools. I have been using my current phone as a hot spot and using the big ipad, that can handle the aps, to pick up groceries.
So I got a new phone on Swappa, but it turned out the camera was broken, so I returned it and got an even nicer phone with more storage, listed as mint, and ear buds.
The ear buds were especially enticing to me because 3 years ago, when I was helping my dad, I offered to buy a set of the 2 he had unopened in a bag in his mansion of hoarding. He said no. They were worth $30 at the time and I was offering him a walmart gift card of less than $30 value. That he never used any headphones, let alone the 2 pair he had, was of no consequence. He knew their value and was not going to part with them for less, not even to his daughter spending hundreds of hours saving his estate from tax seizure, cleaning his home, and managing his finances. That's my dad. I'm glad/sad he can't spoil me rotten : )
So I got a new phone and I don't want to actually spend more time on my phone, just to have it be more useful. So I'm trying to be conscious about what I put on there because I don't want to be entertained by the phone.
While P was away I fell off the Adulting boat. I watched too many episodes of "Call the Midwife" on Friday so I banned myself from watching any Saturday. I'm grateful for a strong ability to just tell myself "No." I ate horribly all weekend, darned bananna pancakes. So today is a new day. I've eaten better and plan to watch one episode tonight.
I watched this video about toxic families and hope to educate my children on what to look out for in future relationships. People with a lot of drama are often part of creating that drama. They may not be the source of the toxic behavior but if they are used to enabling and don't have boundaries, those toxic people are going to be in your life.
Sometimes the apathy is strong. I don't care if they learn academic skills, I just want to enjoy these beautiful days.
We went up to the playground, woods and beach where we first did a homeschool co-op 8 years ago. It was a lovely waldorf inspired group and there were so many beautiful happy times.
We've been going to the pool once a week. We bought punch cards last year and only used half, so it was a treat that they don't expire and we've been able to just go, riding on the wind of last year's enthusiasm. The pool only lets you stay for 2 rotations and they take a 15 minute break. So if you get there at 12:30 you can only stay until 2. I told the children that if they want to maximize their time, they should get in the car when I tell them to, not take half an hour... But there is a splash park and it's so fun.
I love the pool but don't hope to have one at our home. I wouldn't want the risk of a child drowning. I hope to swim laps someday, maybe an exercise pool would be cool, but still the risk to little ones isn't something I would like.
Because of the pandemic and distance learning, the USDA has approved funding for distance learners to pick up food from schools. We've enjoyed going once a week and picking up food. It will hopefully help our food budget get back to normal. Between trying to stock up, again and again, it's hard to keep the budget. The kids are loving all the boxed milk, juice, sugary ceral and other lunch treats.
The first 2 times I let the kids each have their bag and eat what they wanted throughout the day. Today I sorted out the bags and brought out different items at different times. I also made sure they understood they needed to clean up the packaging. We were able to use the cereal, milk, fruits and veggies, sandwiches and snacks throughout the day and nothing got wasted.
I saw a quote by Ezra Taft Benson on Facebook about how a government able to give you everything is able to take everything from you. I don't like these poor shaming quotes and have been thinking about it a lot. Benson was the Secretary of Agriculture while he was an apostle and he was very conservative. He was against farm subsidies which I think is the genesis of that quote. If the government can pay you to not grow crops, they can also control prices and your hard work will never profit you.
If the government can pay for your health care, they can also tell you that you are not eligible for the procedures you seek.
If the government can educate your child from 4-18, your child will be educated by them.
If the government can discriminate against specific races, or groups of people, they can discriminate against your group of people.
If the government can say that personal decisions about what you do with your body, or who you are legally allowed to love, they will make those decisions.
This works both ways. I am grateful for government services, and I have benefited from having help. I'm grateful there is a government safety net and that we don't have to rely on go fund me for everything.
