This is awesome and I had to share.
I am so excited to finally figure videos out! Now I just have to be careful not to add too many...
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
A New Outlook
With the trip to California finished I find that it is harder than I thought it would be to get back into the "daily grind." I am relieved that we are taking at least this month off swimming and that the co-op classes are almost finished (though we will still be involved in bi-monthly Catholic celebrations like an immaculate conception tea party, mardi gras party, etc). I have a few schemes to keep me busy this month and next month, so hopefully I won't overcommit when everything gets going again. I am pleased with the impression I made on the other families in the co-op with my teaching style (and they were excited to have a new way to do things), but overall I think it is more trouble than it is worth doing official classes. My kids love them and I really love teaching them, but I have a lack of tolerance for office politics and the long drive and late nights preparing for class. With my experiences in CA, I am beginning to think I lack finesse in general when it comes to politics and other "taboo" topics of any kind. It doesn't help that the election happened while we were in CA and that almost everything I cared about lost, but more than that I think I am finding resolve in my opinions and since I love a good debate, I can't manage to keep my opinions to myself.
I had a wonderful time bonding with my BIL and SIL as well as my cousin-in-law (I guess that is the term). Lisa is only 16 and she and I disagreed on pretty much everything, but we had a great 90 minute conversation about religion, history and politics and while neither one of us walked away with different opinions, it was awesome to have a non-heated debate about where we stood and why. I have not had that much fun disagreeing with someone in a long time. Lisa's small-town public education shined through as being far better than anything I have seen the city public schools churn out. It almost gives me hope in the public schools - though they are still very biased, at least they give some foundation so that the children can sound like they know what they are talking about (they may even be able to draw on that knowledge in the future to learn to think for themselves!). My experience with larger city-run public schools is that the kids come out knowing how to be "popular" or at least not picked on, all about how unfair society is and how the government can fix it if only the 'people' will get out of the way and where to go to get free condoms or abortions (they've also probably been to Planned Parenthood at least once to render one of those services). Of course there is more than that, and I'm sure my oversimplification will inspire indignation in many individuals, but this blog is for my opinions so tough luck! Those are the things that stick out most in my mind from my own city public education.
Another huge thing both J and I realized after the trip is that we are good with taking long extended family visits for quite a while. It was nice visiting, but we have established a routine within our own family that doesn't lend itself to imposing on another family very easily. There are just too many of us. When your family is outnumbered almost 3 to 1 for an entire week (8 of us to my in-laws 3), there is going to be stress and it isn't fair nor conductive of a good visit. I figure we will find our way down to visit again, but it will be in the context of a larger trip and we will take a day or two to go out with family, but we will have our own space at night. I would love to see all the missions along the El Camino Real, Yosemite, the CA beach and a smattering of other sites in CA with the kids. We'll just have to see how it goes. I also discovered that a trip to sites would not be as expensive as I feared. I'm even tempted to try for an East Coast trip this summer if gas prices stay as low as they are. I am so excited to be spending $2.25/gal for gas! It feels like I can drive again, but since I have lost many of my wasteful and expensive habits (like family outings to the store, running errands and eating junk food) we will be able to better afford and enjoy those trips.
I am looking forward to time at home with the kids to prepare for and make our extended family gifts, hopefully getting rid of lots of junk around the house, getting caught up on housework, making house repairs and things like my garden prep bigger priorities and accomplishing (or at least starting) my homeschool goals for this year. I am hopeful that the next couple months will be productive on those fronts. We will see...
I had a wonderful time bonding with my BIL and SIL as well as my cousin-in-law (I guess that is the term). Lisa is only 16 and she and I disagreed on pretty much everything, but we had a great 90 minute conversation about religion, history and politics and while neither one of us walked away with different opinions, it was awesome to have a non-heated debate about where we stood and why. I have not had that much fun disagreeing with someone in a long time. Lisa's small-town public education shined through as being far better than anything I have seen the city public schools churn out. It almost gives me hope in the public schools - though they are still very biased, at least they give some foundation so that the children can sound like they know what they are talking about (they may even be able to draw on that knowledge in the future to learn to think for themselves!). My experience with larger city-run public schools is that the kids come out knowing how to be "popular" or at least not picked on, all about how unfair society is and how the government can fix it if only the 'people' will get out of the way and where to go to get free condoms or abortions (they've also probably been to Planned Parenthood at least once to render one of those services). Of course there is more than that, and I'm sure my oversimplification will inspire indignation in many individuals, but this blog is for my opinions so tough luck! Those are the things that stick out most in my mind from my own city public education.
Another huge thing both J and I realized after the trip is that we are good with taking long extended family visits for quite a while. It was nice visiting, but we have established a routine within our own family that doesn't lend itself to imposing on another family very easily. There are just too many of us. When your family is outnumbered almost 3 to 1 for an entire week (8 of us to my in-laws 3), there is going to be stress and it isn't fair nor conductive of a good visit. I figure we will find our way down to visit again, but it will be in the context of a larger trip and we will take a day or two to go out with family, but we will have our own space at night. I would love to see all the missions along the El Camino Real, Yosemite, the CA beach and a smattering of other sites in CA with the kids. We'll just have to see how it goes. I also discovered that a trip to sites would not be as expensive as I feared. I'm even tempted to try for an East Coast trip this summer if gas prices stay as low as they are. I am so excited to be spending $2.25/gal for gas! It feels like I can drive again, but since I have lost many of my wasteful and expensive habits (like family outings to the store, running errands and eating junk food) we will be able to better afford and enjoy those trips.
I am looking forward to time at home with the kids to prepare for and make our extended family gifts, hopefully getting rid of lots of junk around the house, getting caught up on housework, making house repairs and things like my garden prep bigger priorities and accomplishing (or at least starting) my homeschool goals for this year. I am hopeful that the next couple months will be productive on those fronts. We will see...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)