The boy loves Queen! We will watch the videos on YouTube and he will dance around, and even sing along!
Our local power company - PEPCO - decided to sponsor a "Back to the 18th Century Night" in January, so we had to find ways to not only keep ourselves warm, but also entertain ourselves. Luckily I had seen that snow was coming, and I had brought in some wood for our roaring fire! (It was so hot that it burned the hair off of my hands when I tried to put more wood in.) Owen and Beki used Owens flashlight lantern to play some puzzles and games, and we survived the 18th century just fine! (Thanks PEPCO!!! ...bastards...)
Staying warm by the fire!
This should give you an idea of how awesome the 18th Century is.
Since it snowed, the next morning there was a snowman to build!
I think that I have made it pretty clear on this blog that I am all about teaching the boy to fend for himself, and more especially, to do things that are beneficial to me! After seeing a post on my cousins blog about her son making his first Peanut butter and Jelly Sandwich, Owen was anxious to give it a try, so we had a little lesson!
He had a pretty solid foundation of knowledge...he knew that you needed two pieces of bread, and that the PB goes on first.
It took a little bit of time to get the mastery of spreading the PB around...
But the licking of the knife came naturally! (And we then had to get a new knife...)
Jelly is much more tricky to get out, so there was some supervision needed here...
But once he saw what I was trying to do he took over.
Look at the concentration!! (My oldest brother Todd used to always stick his tongue out like that when he was thinking hard...I wonder if it is genetic.)
A little unorthadox on the method used here to put the two halves together, but it worked.
A very important step...cutting out a shape, and cutting off the crust.
These comfort-fit cookie cutters are awesome...I might have to talk about them more later!
And we have one sandwich!! (The next step in training is to teach him to make me one too!!)
I cannot remember why, but one night Beki came home with a can of ginger ale. The boy has a nose like mine, and so you cannot have food or drink without him knowing about it. He managed to finagle Beki out of her drink and this is what I see walking around the corner, just chugging away!!
Unfortunately I turned the camera off right before the boy had soda bubble up and come out of his nose...it was awesome!! He decided that we should pour it into a sippy cup after that.
One of the things that we really like about Owen's school is that they celebrate holidays. Since it was Valentine's Day, Owen needed to make his Valentines for his class.
Mommy was there to supervise, but Owen did all the writing himself!
Good Job Buddy!
This is the last good picture that our camera ever took...
Last Sunday, while Beki and I were getting ready for church, Owen was watching Veggie-Tales, as he normally does. For some reason he decided that he would play with the camera, which he has done on occasion, taking a bunch of pictures, but never really doing too much damage. Now a normal 4 year old would break your camera by dropping it or possibly even hitting it with a hammer, but oh no...that would be too 3 year oldish for our son. Instead he poured an entire bottle of Lens cleaner on the camera in an attempt to "clean it." Beki and I took the camera apart and tried to dry it out with a hair dryer, but even though we were able to get it to turn on and even take pictures again, this is what they looked like...
So once again the boy has led us to upgrade our electronics, and we are now the owners of a Panasonic Lumix! Thanks Owen...grrr...
I know that my blog posts tend to be ridiculously long, so I am using this space down here to get all of my rambling out. That way you can just look at the pictures of the boy, and then come back when you are bored at work and waste your time reading my delusional ideas!
The Job
Being unemployed sucks, I don't like it. When the chance came to go back to work, even though it would be teaching the Music Survey class, I jumped at the opportunity. The schedule works very well with our family schedule: I drop Owen off at school at 8am, drop Beki off at 8:10am, and get to school by 8:15 plenty of time to get ready for classes that start at 9:30am. I teach 3 classes, and have 4th period as prep, so I can leave in time to pick up the boy from school by 4:30pm.
Now while I didn't go to school for 7 years and get 2 degrees so I could teach a general music course, it is where I have found myself, and so I am determined to make the class not suck. On my first day on the job I found the curriculum, which sucks. I also found the textbook, which sucks. I sat there on that first day and had to decide whether I wanted to simply go through the motions and follow the curriculum, or put some effort into the course and see if I could get the students interested in something that doesn't suck.
The promising side of this job is that the Band teacher is anxious for me to help him work with his groups, and may even be looking to leave the school in the next year or so. While I have learned not to get too excited about anything, I am at least having a good time, and actually look forward to going to work!
Politics and Teachers
As I am sure you have heard, they are having some troubles right now in Wisconsin. (If you haven't heard, guess what, they are having problems in Wisconsin.) I am not going to get into the right or wrong of Government Unions having collective bargaining rights. What is amazing to me is that the teachers in the major school districts called in sick all last week so that they could attend protests at the Capital. First, what would your boss do if you called in sick three days in a row, especially if they knew that you weren't sick? But what really pisses me off whenever teacher's go on strike - and that is really what this is - is that they always claim "We just want what is best for the kids!"
How exactly is the students missing a week worth of instruction best for students? If you want to strike, be honest about it - don't have your union leaders telling teachers to call in "sick" (These are the same teachers who tell their students to be honest and not cheat or plagerize, but it is ok to be dishonest if the Union tells you to do it) and don't use the bull shit "We want what's best for children" card. Teacher's unions want what is best for teacher's unions. (In fact I think the thing the Union in Wisconsin is most afraid of isn't the loss of Collective Bargaining, but the provision that would make it so that the Union can't charge money from teachers not in the Union, this would bankrupt them because most teachers would probably leave the union.) If you care about what is best for the students Go To Work!!
I thought about getting into teachers and their salaries and benefits, but I said I wouldn't, so I won't!
Wilton Comfort Grip Cookie Cutters
Are these not the greatest cookie cutters you have ever seen?!?! Since the boy likes his sandwiches cut into shapes, and my artistic skills are lacking, cookie cutters have made life a whole lot easier. But why am I so excited about these in particular? Well, have you accidentally used a cookie cutter upside-down? It cuts the crap out of you hand! With these you never make that mistake! Plus they are sturdier and don't rust. I am seriously going to buy them all. Go to wilton.com, you can buy them too!! (And no, I am not being payed to say all that, I just think they are that great!)
Making my Mother's Cookies
Speaking of cookie cutters...my period of unemployment coincided with the holidays, which gave me lots of time and occasion to make cookies. Over the course of the holidays I will be so bold to say that I became a master sugar cookie maker. I think I can do a pretty good job making them just like I remember my mom's being! (Of course she sent us some for Valentine's Day and even after being mishandled by the Post Office they kicked the crap out of mine...why does everything taste better when mom makes it?) Since I have Sugar Cookies down I figured that I would branch out and try something new. Being adventurous I tackled the Ginger Snap, and they were Awesome!! I've made them twice, and they are easy, so this week I think I will move on to Snicker Doodles! Anyway, here is my mother's Ginger Snap recipe if you are interested!
3/4 cup Shortening 2 1/4 Cups Flour
1 Cup Brown Sugar 1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Molasses 1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 Egg 2 tsp. Soda
1/2 tsp. Cloves
1 tsp. Ginger
Cream the Shortening, Brown Sugar, Molasses, and Egg. Mix in the rest of ingredients, form into small balls and roll in sugar. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Political Parties
Before you freak out, I am not advocating for any particular political party, in fact if I had things my way we would get rid of them completely. Imagine if politicians had to actually tell you what they thought or believed about the issues rather than just saying whatever the higher-ups tell them to say. Imagine if people actually thought about which candidate had similar opinions and beliefs before voting instead of just voting in a block.
Here is my problem with political parties. As it is currently set up, it is no longer about ideas to help the country, everyone in politics is only interested in how they can "one-up" their "opponent." If one side likes a group or idea, the other side goes out of their way to demonize and cut its funding. Political leaders say things like "I don't want the group that caused the problem to do a lot of talking," and "Our job is to make sure so and so is a one term president." And when things don't go their way, they leave the state rather than show up to work.
People in this country do not think as differently as politicians make us think we do. I would venture to say that most Americans believe that the government should not spend more than it has, that the government can't make you purchase something, that everyone should be given the same rights and treated equal, and that no one wants to be felt up by the TSA. The problem is that the fundamental extremists on both sides are the ones who end up on the TV and on the radio.
And the constant blaming is driving me crazy. Both parties got us into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both parties took us down the financial path of destruction that we are currently on. Both parties are responsible for a reasonable immigration solution not being reached. Both parties put special interests first. Both parties claim that they want to do what is best for the American people, but that is just like the line of bull that the teachers use. Both parties only want to do what is best for them. So don't pigeon-hole yourself to one of their all encompassing political descriptions, because if you look into it, you probably hate half of the things that they stand for. You don't have to be a Republican or a Democrat, you can hate them both equally!
No comments:
Post a Comment