The Proper Way to Weigh

So I have been getting very discouraged lately... I am pregnant with my twins and it seems like I am the land-locked equivalent of a blue whale. I am 28 weeks along and already bigger than I was when I delivered both of my other two kids at 40 weeks. My biggest problem is that I never really lost the baby weight from the last one (who is now 16 months old) and so I am just piling more and more on top of that. It feels like I'm drowning. My sweet hubby still tells me I'm beautiful and attractive, but I just don't see it. I am really past the point of any sort of exercise regimen for the duration of this pregnancy... mostly because things are so tight in there that I get winded and often light headed just walking across the room. Plus, I have major circulation issues in my legs while I'm pregnant which makes exercise really painful (horrible varicose veins). I need a good post-pregnancy diet/exercise plan to look forward to, but it can't be too restrictive because that never works... I will also have 3 babies and a 5 year old to deal with so it needs to be very flexible. Do any of you have a plan that worked really well for you?

The Sunday Morning Mommy Monster

On Sunday morning, every week, I turn into a stress monster. For some reason, we cannot get to church on time. Church starts at 9am and we live 20 minutes away, so we should really leave the house by 8:40 if we want to get there on time. We're doing well if we leave the house by 9. Yesterday, we left at 9:15. I spent 15 minutes trying to do Headbanger's hair, getting more and more frustrated with elastics and clips and hair that would just not do what I wanted to. I was so engrossed in her hair that I failed to realize that she had unscrewed the lid to the handsoap and was spreading it all over the counter and the mirror. As I was finally getting Hairbaby into her car seat, she spat up all over my arm. It had taken so much effort to get to that stage, that I decided to ignore the spit up and just get in the car and go. I'm convinced that I get up at a reasonable time on Sunday mornings, but things never go as planned and it is REALLY hard to get Flashlight out of bed early on a Sunday. I can be a sane and relatively calm and patient person throughout the week, but by the time we are all in the car on a Sunday morning, I'm about ready to shout at everyone, including the baby. At I time when I should be focussing on the important things in life, I am seething over the time it took Flashlight to shower and the last minute diaper changes, which normally do not bother me. As I walk through the front doors I am feeling thoroughly un-Christ-like. I hate being late for church (or anything, really) and I hate that I get so stressed about it. Sunday mornings are the low point of my week. They turn me into the Crazy Lady.

Is there a time in the week that regularly sends you over the edge?

Women Helping Women

So while I was doing some research for food storage (specifically what kinds of sanitary supplies to store) I came across a something that just blew me away. In Africa and other developing countries, girls only have rags or newspaper to use when they have their periods, or even worse they have nothing at all! This makes it difficult for them to go to school on the days that they are menstruating. 

Some companies are providing disposable sanitary supplies for them which is good, but has a downside. There are no public waste disposal facilities and so the pads and tampons (containing plastic and chemicals) and covers end up being burned which releases toxins into the environment. This also makes it so the girls are having to rely on an outside source instead of being self-reliant once they had the washable pads.

I thought it would be neat to challenge each member of this blog to make 6 reusable cloth pads to donate to Goods 4 Girls (and if you are feeling ambitious, 3 zippered wet bags to carry wet or dry pads in). There are a variety of patterns to choose from and they don't look to hard to make. If you feel too intimidated by sewing to make them yourself, you can also donate money to the cause or buy cloth pads from an online store and they will mail them to Good 4 Girls for you.

I have had some real challenges with my period lately (I know nutellafiend and ms. jones hear me) and am so grateful that I can drive to the drugstore and buy myself sanitary supplies whenever I want. After reading about these girls without access/money to buy pads or tampons, I felt like a spoiled brat because I complain a lot about my period. I have sanitary supplies, soap, hot running water, wipes, Midol and Ben and Jerry's to help me get through my period. I can't imagine having to sit in a hut on a pile of newpaper for days while I wait for my period to end. I feel so fortunate that I live where I live in the pleasant circumstances that I live in!

I think we could do a lot of good with a little effort. You can use fabric you already have as long as it is clean. You might have to buy some waterproof fabric and snaps or velcro and zippers, but the cost should be minimal. If you don't have any fabric on hand, many fabric stores sell remnants for much cheaper. Some of the recommended fabrics are flannel, cotton-T-shirt and PUL. 

Are you gals in? I think a good deadline would be the end of January after the holidays are over. Does that sound reasonable? 

I think this would also be a wonderful humanitarian aid project to suggest to your church or other women's organizations you belong to. I am going to suggest it at my own church.

Complete information and instructions can be found at Goods 4 Girls.

No Child Left Behind?

• 
  All this talk about school has me a little fired up! Here's my beef...
  
  In our school district, we live in the SF Bay Area in an affluent area, there are early intervention programs for children with all kinds of disabilities. Any kind of disability you can think of is covered. Here is a list of some of them, straight off the district website.
  Deaf/Hard of Hearing
  Deaf-Blind
  Visually Impaired
  Speech-Language Impaired
  Specific Learning Disability
  Multiple Handicapped
  Orthopedically Impaired
  Other Health Impaired
  Mentally Retarded
  Emotionally Disturbed
  Autism
  Traumatic Brain Injury

They start working with these children as soon as they are identified, sometimes as early as age 3, by their teacher/parent/pediatrician/etc. These programs adapt the state's curriculum based on the child's abilities/disabilities. They are given an Individual Education Plan. I think these programs are neccessary, useful, and obviously, costly.

Here's my pet peeve, what do they do for children on the other end of the scale? Those who might be bored in class, frustrated with the slow pace, need more challenging work? The answer is: almost nothing. They don't even attempt to identifiy these children until the end of 2nd grade. Then, like most districts, they offer enrichment programs, like GATE (Gifted and Talented Education). These enrichment classes are in addition to their normal curriculum and the kids must make up any regular class work they might miss while participating. There are also two classes of mixed 3-5 graders at one elementary school where the top 1% of kids tested in the district can go to be challeneged and interact with like-mided children. That's it, that's all.

What about the rest of kids? Shouldn't the schools try to recognize and incorporate all children's abilities and adapt their rigid standards to fit all kids? I know that the district relies on the state for funding and standards and I think California is failing. What do you think? How are your schools doing in identifying and accomadating children of all abilities?

She Talks Too Much, She Never Shuts UP!

So I have noticed that I seem to only have LDS friends that I actually do stuff with. I am starting to dislike this a lot since it seems like I have to be around a particular person who has a grating personality. Last night she completely hogged the conversation and said very rude and also ridiculous things (these are only the highlights):

1. She started talking about late term miscarriages in the presence of someone who is 8 months pregnant.

2. She said that she was living her religion to the fullest because she did not finish college and decided to concentrate on having babies. She also said that she can't understand women who choose to work.

3. She spilled several sensitive secrets about people that were not in attendance.

4. She would not stop talking, even when we jokingly asked her to let us get a word in edgewise.

The other crazy part of it is that whenever she said something inappropriate or rude the other people would laugh out loud or give each other "is she for real?" looks and she did not notice or change her behavior in any way. I was so annoyed with her that I ended up unwisely venting to other people about her bad behavior afterwards and then my doing that was my own bad behavior (mean gossip!). I feel like a terrible person because I really don't care for her company, but end up seeing her ALL the time because:

1. We go to the same church and so . . . 

2. Besides seeing her Sundays, I also see her at every women's activity sponsored by my church.

3. We have three children the same ages who like to play together and so . . .

4. We end up trading babysitting frequently because we are in a babysitting co-op together and are the only ones with more than two children.

5. We have the same circle of friends and our town is really small so we end up spending a lot of time in each other's company whether I initially choose to or not.

I really feel like I need some space from her, but I don't want to be mean and I don't want to be cliquey. I also feel like if I want to see my other friends I can't avoid seeing her too. I was so frustrated today that my husband actually started trying to make a list of friends for me to hang out with who don't know her. 

Does anyone have any passive suggestions for easing this person out of my daily life? 

Wiki-how had this advice, which I mostly found funny, but too mean to try.

She is so clueless to the fact that she ruins social situations with her constant nonsensical chatter (ie. movie night where she talked so much we couldn't hear the movie) that she actually called me today and asked me if I wanted to meet her for lunch after our horrific evening last night and asked me to babysit for her tomorrow!

Any words of wisdom? Has anyone had a similar situation? 

I know I am mean. I accept that about myself. I can't be Sally Sunshine all the time.

Help Me Understand Homeschooling

Growing up, the only people I knew who homeschooled their kids were my aunt and uncle, who were (and still are) extreme fundamentalist Christians. They really do believe that everyone is evil. As these were the only homeschoolers I knew, I figured that all homeschoolers were crazy. Since moving to my new home in Southern Utah, I have met lots of people who homeschool and I'd say that most of them seem pretty normal. A good chunk of people in my ward do it. Its something of a trend around here, as the homeschoolers add a few more to their numbers every year. But their motives, or what I perceive as being their motives, bother me somewhat. Some people fall into the-outside-world-is-totally-evil camp and I think that some feel that it is part of their religious (LDS) responsibility and this scares me. It almost seems as if homeschooling is seem as a form of super-righteousness.

Do you homeschool? Why do you do it? Would youy ever go back to regular (public or private) school? Please help me understand my neighbors!

You know its time to lose the baby fat when...

your eighteen month old child (Headbanger) comes up behind you, pulls up your t-shirt and slaps your muffin top because she likes to watch your fat jiggle. Its becoming a habit.

Sent to the Principal's Office

OK, technically not really, but she did call me up at home and politely chew me out. Here's what happened:

Beau Brummel's parents were out visiting us last week. Jedi invited them to come to his school to eat lunch with him twice. They went and brought their own lunches both times. No one gave them a hard time. Everyone had fun. Please note that last year at Jedi's old school which is K-3 parents are allowed to drop in any old day and eat lunch with their children. If you want to buy a school lunch for yourself (as a parent) you must tell the school in the morning so they have enough food for you. 

Today I went to Jedi's new school (4th-5th grade) and when you enter the school you must state your name and purpose for entering the school before they will buzz you in. ( Opal*Q, here to eat lunch with Jedi.) You are observed by a security camera as you do this. I went to the office and signed in and put a visitor sticker on. Then I went to the lunchroom and tried to buy lunch for myself and HotDog so we could eat with Jedi. I was told that a) I could not buy lunch because they do not prepare the food at the school, but have it delivered and so would not have enough and b) I must go to the office and get permission to eat lunch with Jedi. (I had already told them I was there to eat lunch with Jedi.) So I went back to the office and asked the secretary if I could eat lunch with Jedi, she said yes, but I couldn't buy lunch there. HotDog and I left and went to a nearby sandwich shop and got lunch and came back. We ate lunch with Jedi and had a good time. For some reason he likes to sit with the girls (who are on one end of the table) instead of the boys (who sit on the polar opposite end of the table with about 6 feet of space in between). During lunch, I noticed that the teachers and other adults were whispering among themselves and looking at us. I just assumed this was because parents don't often come to school to eat lunch with their children. 

When I got home I got a call from the principal of Jedi's school. Here's what she said:

It is inappropriate for me to come to school and eat lunch with Jedi and that they only allowed it for his grandparents because they were visiting from out of town. The school only lets parents eat lunch with their children if they are having trouble at home and need to spend more time with them. The school does not have enough room or food to support parents coming in to eat lunch with their children and she didn't want to open up that possibility. There is nothing written about this particular situation in the school handbook, but probably now there will be. By fourth grade the school wants the children to be more independent from their parents.

I was a little annoyed with the whole situation myself. What is the big fat deal if a child wants their parent to come to school and eat lunch with them once in a while? Honestly, have I ruined their push for independence by breaking this unwritten rule? 

Even though I like the schools in our area for the most part, I am starting to get a better idea of why we have so many home schoolers in this town. The bureaucracy is very strict without a real reason to be and makes it difficult for children to have educational experiences outside of school because they only allow for 5 days of educational experience outside of school for the entire school year. All I can say in conclusion is, "HUMPH!"