Aaaaaaaargh!

Kami, that makes me SO MAD on your behalf. Argh! So frustrating!!! I wish I could write the school a strongly worded letter for you. >:(

Criminal Me

So I'm now into criminal activity. Yes, by keeping my daughter home for 8 days spaced throughout the school year, I received a letter today from my local police department informing me of my crime. And I quote, "This is a crime." Forget that Texas has THE MOST HOURS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME of any state in the country, (and one of the most in the ENTIRE WORLD) but I'm required to take my daughter to the school nurse to PROVE she's sick. And while I admit she wasn't sick all those days (she was some of them and oops, I didn't take her in--I QUIT jobs that required me to go in to prove I was sick) I did feel strongly that she needed a break. For example, two weeks ago after I got a note from the teacher that she hadn't been paying attention that day, I let her stay home, took her to preschool with her sister, let her play at the park, play with her friends, and spend almost the whole day outside. She's a bit temperamental (more so than my other kids) and had been screaming and upset at home as well. Problem solved, she was fine the next week and back to her normal self. But as the parent, I am obviously am so stupid and inept at raising my own children that I can't be allowed to give my 5 year a break from the long school day (more breaks are required by law for adult workers than my child gets). Because mental health is so OBVIOUSLY unimportant in this country, and no terrible crimes are ever committed because a child's mental well-being is ignored. 
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Organizing-a-school/Time-in-school-How-does-the-US-compare

Common Core Meeting

Thanks for the thought, Marilyn!!!  I didn't make it to the meeting but from what I'm hearing it was more of the same.  We don't want questions.  No straight answers.  Hoopla and hooey.

I did get a food order done, two sisters visited, my children fed, dog poo removed, and various and sundry other life details.

Good luck to us all tomorrow!

Andrea

I wish I could watch your kids for you.

Because I really want you to be at that common core meeting. And I am NOT good at things like that, I get flustered and cry. I would much rather watch your adorable children. :)

Mother's Day Talk

So now that I gave my bishopric the big lecture on getting high quality talks for mother's day--they gave me the opportunity to speak.  No pressure, right?  :)  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I wish I had unlimited time to spend on preparing the talk but I am also teaching in RS the first Sunday in May and I'm supposed to be calling the sisters to repentance because nobody in our ward will accept callings.  (Currently the junior primary has teachers for only one class.)  I'm also supposed to be putting together an addendum to the visiting teaching message for May about the same topic.

I'm also supposed to be doing a ton of stuff for our combined RS/YW activity about self-reliance/knowledge.  I'll post details so you can offer suggestions when I have time.  Ha.  Time.

And this week I have three food orders to do and one commodities order and I handed off a needs assessment to my first counselor because I was feeling daunted by this week.  Plus we're supposed to do visits tonight in our meeting because the Bishop had a person that must. be. visited. this. week.

The bishop also wants me to meet with our prospective new second counselor to feel her out on whether or not she'd accept such an undertaking before the Bishop calls her in.

What I really wanted to do was attend a meeting tonight with the assistant state superintendent of education about the testing associated with common core.  I am vehemently opposed to common core and wanted to be on hand because I am pretty okay with speaking up in front of people and I'm not easy to push around on these issues because I'm a parent/teacher.  Can't pit me against myself.  :)  But . . . no babysitter to be found from 4-6 in the afternoon.  Wonder why they chose that time?  Oh yeah, they don't want people to actually learn about common core.  Sigh.

And I'm off now to tackle my day.  I came on to ask for advice for the mother's day talk and ended up rambling.

PS We're having our children's new favorite recipe for breakfast this morning: hulled barley cooked in blended up pears and water and cinnamon served with milk and craisins.  If you are interested in the details, let me know.  Barley has the most fiber of any grain and it is delicious.

Goodbye for real now.

Yes, my day does scare me, how can you tell?

Really now--I'm off.