January 18, 2016
Day 956
Martin Luther King Day...Lizzie was picking out bands for
Ellie's hair and she commented that she
had chosen "Christmas colors."
Then she asked, "What 'color' is Martin Luther King Day,
Mom?" I know I'm terrible, but I
immediately replied,
"Black."
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I forgot to record a funny incident that happened last month
when I took Lizzie in for her foot. The
nurse asked her how she had hurt herself
and Lizzie told her that her sister had dropped a mirror on her foot. Then the nurse turned to me and quietly asked, "Did she say she
dropped a beer on her foot?"
Ha, ha, ha...she was probably already mentally dialing Child Protective
Services in her mind!
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David and I went to the bank last week and opened up a checking
account for him. Another sign of
impending adulthood, I guess...Actually, I've found it easiest to just get the
kids their own debit cards once they start driving. That way they can buy gas and then I
reimburse them. It will be a good
opportunity for me to teach him bank skills, as well.
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Lizzie was complaining the other night that her foot (not the
one with the previously broken bone - the other one) had been hurting all day
and as a result, she said, she had been, "humping" all day long. I couldn't help it. I laughed outloud! I realize she meant, "limping" but
what she said was so much funnier!
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Bernie Sanders was at the high school last week. I assumed Ben would miss the event because it
was his day to work at Hy-Vee, but they made arrangements to have him come back
early just for the gathering.
I'd just as soon they'd left him working.
Ben got home and the first words out of his mouth were,
"Can some Democrats have good ideas?"
It made for a good conversation but ever since then, Ben has been on the
Bernie bandwagon, no matter how much his brothers and I have tried to explain
to him that Bernie is a Socialist. I
also pointed out to him that we would have to pay for the free college (the
subject he was particularly hard hitting on at the high school that day) he
wants to give out. But Ben isn't quite
persuaded.
I need to get him to a Ted Cruz event.
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I've started working on Ben's scrapbook for his graduation
party. A long time ago I was on the ball
and did his book by the year. The last
page in there is the year he was 9...
So, now I'm going through the albums digging out pictures to copy and
scrapbook.
I was looking through 2008s today and was struck by how happy
we used to be. Not that life was ever
perfect - it can't be - but there were so many genuine smiles in those
pictures. Ben, unfortunately, was a
little vacant in his expressions, but that was normal back then for him. It just makes me wonder if we will ever be
happy that way again this side of Heaven.
I don't know. I hope so.
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Lizzie told me that sometime recently her teacher asked each
student in the room to name something out loud that they appreciate about their
moms and their dads.
I understand that it's a good idea to coax small children into
thinking outside their own myopic little worlds and learning early on to feel
and express appreciation is a good thing.
But knowing that a child has lost a parent, why would a
teacher suggest this activity? Lizzie
said she isn't the only child without a dad in the room and the teacher said
they could say something they are thankful about regarding another male
relative. But everyone knows that's not
the same. It does nothing but cause a child additional
hurt.
Sigh...
By the way, what she said she appreciated about me is that, "she feeds me." Important stuff, I guess!
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Family Day is coming up in about
4 weeks. I did some research
today for options for that day. As time
goes on, I would definitely say the need for distraction on that day is
diminishing. Although, I think the idea
of the day is a really good one, so I don't want to ever abandon it,
altogether, either.
It would have been 23 years this year.
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I had to read a story today for my class. It's called, "The Story of an Hour"
by Kate Chopin. She was a writer from
the 1880s. We're reading another of hers
right now, a novel about a discontented wife.
This was a short story we had to read today and I am starting to sense a
theme with Ms. Chopin's work. This one
actually cracked me up in a morbid, dark way, though. The story regards a woman who has just
received the terrible news that her husband has been killed in a tragic
railroad accident. The news appears to
be confirmed and she is gravely (hah - no pun intended) informed of the
sorrowful event by her husband's co-worker.
She immediately bursts into noisy tears and insists on retiring to her
room, despite the fluttering of her sister and other females in residence. I found myself really being drawn into the
story - no doubt because of my own widowhood experience.
Once in her bedroom, I can imagine the main character doing a
fistpump, although I don't think such an action was a thing 130 years ago. Several paragraphs are dedicated to her
overwhelming sense of newfound freedom.
While she didn't wish any harm to her husband, she is delighted
that she is suddenly completely free of the man and free to do whatever it is
she wants. Her sister hovers outside the
keyhole, begging her to come out, so at long last, the new widow emerges,
forcing her jubilant features into the solemnity the occasion demands.
She walks to the top of the stairs and just then the front door
opens and in walks her husband. The last
line reads, "When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart
disease - of joy that kills."
Oh, that reminds me - I guess I haven't written about my class
yet on this blog. Last Monday all we had
to do was introduce ourselves. There's
15 of us - all women - in the class.
We're located all over the state (the beauty of internet learning). Most are moms, although I think I won the
award for having the most children. Our
teacher is up in the Mason City area - a farmer's wife. It's just amazing to me how much college has
changed since I was last a student 24 years ago. I mean, I'll be sitting on the bed in my
pajamas listening to the professor instead of tapping my foot on a concrete
floor in a cold classroom. Awesome!
Thursday night I drove over to Newton and my adviser showed me
how to access the Blackboard Collaborative on my laptop. I just sat in the
office and did the class there that night.
The teacher had her powerpoint on the screen and we could hear her
talking. We had the ability to speak,
ourselves, if we wanted to into the computer and be heard (we could also show
ourselves, too - I hope I never accidentally press THAT button!). Off to the right of the screen is where we "talk"
by typing. It just struck me as funny
that as the professor is giving her lecture, students are interjecting comments
by type and then sometimes the teacher would respond to those. In a normal classroom nobody would ever just
interrupt the professor in the middle of her talk! Computers make everything so much less formal.
I had spent the week reading the textbook that the lecture was
supposed to cover and I just felt dumber and dumber as the week went on. I didn't understand any of it! But I felt better after actually attending
class Thurs. night. I might be able to
handle this after all.
My professor has been very personally encouraging to me,
praising my writing that she's seen just in my notes to her and introduction to
the class. She said she's "already
impressed" with me...hope I don't let her down once I start submitting
papers!
Oh, and cue the Disney music to "It's a Small World After
All"...I was so flabbergasted to discover after doing our introductions a
week ago that Paul's cousin is in class with me! Of all the universities and all the classes
out there and we end up in the exact. same. one.
Holy cow.
We quickly became Facebook friends after we made the
connection. She's actually Paul's second
cousin, the daughter of his first cousin.
Her daughter was born 4 days before Sam, too. She commented that they don't see too much of
the other relatives (this is Paul's mom's side of the family) so I don't know
if anything will ever get said, but it makes me wonder if it will ever come out
to Paul's family via this cousin that I'm back in school. Not that it matters, I guess.
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Well, it's after 8. I
have one more kid to shoo into bed and then I need to go through my nightly
check-list so that I can get these kids onto the bus in the morning.
Another week starts...
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