Archive for April, 2008
Just a quick post
So I guess I didn't scare you off, huh? Good! Welcome back!
Warm weather is finally here!! So I’ve been busy doing some spring cleaning and taking Princess outside to ride her “new” bike that Santa finally delivered to our house earlier this week. See, Santa had originally delivered it on Christmas Eve but apparently there was a little mistake in the manufacturing process that prevented the front tire from being put on. So after several months of emailing back and forth with Santa’s elves at Amazon.com and then with the Kent bicycle company, Princess’ pink and blue My Little Pony bicycle is here. And she LOVES it! The first day, she rode it for so long she said her hands hurt from holding the handlebars. It took her a while to get the hang of pedaling and to trust the training wheels to catch her if she leans, but once she had it all figured out she was on a roll! Literally! Check out my baby!
I’ve also been busy catching up on some reading, finishing up Eckhart Tolle’s ‘A New Earth’ as well as ‘The Portable Atheist’.
And, of course, there’s always the ongoing legal/custody issues. Hopefully those will be wrapping up soon. The Sperm Donor’s attorney has been trying to sneak in through a back door by filing motions and pleadings in another county because a) she’s losing in the appropriate county and b) I don’t have an attorney for the case in that county. So I had to represent myself. And get this… I won! So we’ll have a hearing sometime in July and hopefully that’ll be it although I doubt it. He’s just going to keep filing and filing and filing… Give it a rest already. Try spending all of that time, money, and energy on your daughter instead of fighting with me.
Let’s see, what else…
Health stuff. Oy! My kidneys are acting up again and causing me some serious back pain that is just really uncomfortable. And even though I stopped smoking, I’m still having some respiratory problems. I keep hoping this stuff will go away on its own but its just not so it might be time to schedule a tune up with the doc.
Work stuff. One job is still the same ol’, same ol’. The other one, I didn’t get ANY hours last week thanks to technical difficulties on their end and now I’m getting a minimum of four emails a day from them practically begging everyone to sign up for hours. Well, the last time I signed up for hours, I ended up getting docked on attendance for not actually working them when it wasn’t even my fault. So I think I’ll pass this week.
And speaking of work….it has taken me like an hour just to write this quick little entry so I guess I should get back to earning that paycheck, huh?
Ciao!
Menu planning and stuff like that
I’ve been trying to get myself more organized lately which, for me, means ANY amount of organization considering how unorganized I am. I don’t know what it is but my brain just can not put things together in any kind of linear direction and just doesn’t retain dates and tasks and things like that. Pretty ironic, considering my chosen career as a paralegal requires all of those things.
But anyway… I’ve been trying out different online calendar systems and finally just settled on using Yahoo’s system since it will allow me to sync up with the used Blackberry that my mom sent me.
And I’m also trying to eliminate some stress out of my life by doing menu planning which, hopefully, will save me some time and money. So I spent a little time on this thing this afternoon and here’s what I’ve come up with.
My menu, recipes and shopping list
Now the plan is to try at least one new recipe every week, some of which I have been saving over the years from AllRecipes and to use the recipes section to save some of my favorites, then use the ingredients section to help me make up my grocery list. Just a quick copy & paste, sort the ingredients into the categories, print it out then cross out the things I already have and don’t need to buy.
So wish me luck!! No more last minute stops at the grocery store, no more fast food because I forgot to take something out of the freezer. Now if I can just stick with it….
Sesame Street addresses deployment
From ParentDish.com:
When an emotionally upsetting event occurs, schools bring in counselors to help get kids talking about what they are feeling. But for children not yet in school, Sesame Street has been an excellent way to help preschoolers and their parents broach sensitive and scary subjects.
Adoption, divorce, marriage, getting a new sibling, death (The wonderfully written Mr. Hooper episode still makes me cry), 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina have all been carefully and thoughtfully presented. So, the only surprising thing about Sesame Street doing a program on military deployment is that it took them this long.
The Children’s Television Workshop has put together a free bilingual kit to help military families cope with the feelings and concerns children will have over the deployment of a parent or family member. The kit includes a Sesame Street DVD of Elmo and his mother dealing with the deployment of his father, a parent/caregiver magazine, and an activity poster for the child.
According to the website, over half a million children under the age of five are waiting for their active duty, Guard or Reserve, mother or father to come home. If you haven’t experienced it firsthand, a trip to an airport usually yields the heart-stoppingly painful sight of a soldier kissing his pregnant wife good bye while their little boy playfully avoids his kisses trying to keep things normal and his daddy near.
A Sesame Street episode can’t take the sadness away, but it can help. The military episode will air on PBS (check local listings) and can viewed anytime on their website.
