Category: Family

Happenings in a 5 child, 2 adult household.

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Hard Lessons

Sarah is the student council historian this year. So for her birthday, we got her a Kodak EasyShare Z730 camera. I am very impressed with the camera.

One of my mantras to the children that they hear moaned out several times a day is "Don’t put it down; put it away." Sarah does not follow this at all. Her world does not operate by our laws, our physics, nor our logic. And, she leaves droppings wherever she goes. If she visits a friend, socks, trinkets, school notes, or something will have to be picked up several days later.

She took pictures in art club after school yesterday. Art club is supposed to end at 4:45 and we picked her up at 5 (the time she always comes out of the building anyway). She had set her camera beside her stuff then picked up her stuff to rush out leaving the camera behind. She realized this 15 minutes later at Target. Since the school would have been locked up it made no sense to go back but I got her there early this morning.

Apparently she was the first into the classroom but no sign of the camera. The teacher doesn’t recall seeing it and it hasn’t appeared in lost and found. It may still turn up but, sadly, the odds are against it. What is worse, the list of suspects is small: custodial staff, the few remaining art club students, and teacher. It should be easily recovered.

I feel bad for Sarah. I grew up with a belief system of trust. I believe people should be trustable and honest. If I find money or something like a camera, I seek out the person that may have lost it. I try to do my part as a citizen. Yesterday as I parked at Target the lady with a child in the car beside me was unloading the last few items from her cart. I waited then asked if I could take her cart for her. It was the right thing to do. If a person took Sarah’s camera with no intent to return it, that would be the wrong thing to do. I only hope that this does not scar Sarah’s trust in people or influence to not do the right thing because she has been burned. I want her to care enough to take the person cart rather than declare it SEP.

Now, the angry dad in me wants to jump to conclusions, secure the school security tapes, and go after somebody.

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They are more important

I am so stressed over my work that my head feels like it is going to crack. Noah wants to make blueberry muffins. I can’t argue with that. I love blueberry muffins. However, poor Noah needs guidance. Lots of guidance. He gets priority.

If you haven’t had a 10 year old boy yet, their brains don’t work.

The cooking lessons are fun. I enjoy watching him go through discovery. This morning I have had questions like:

"What’s a muffin pan?"
"Where’s our can opener? How do I use it?"
After getting the mixing bowl, "Where can I get a bowl to put in the ingredients?"

I had no doubt that one or two of the eggs would splat on the floor. One did. Learning to crack and egg is scary. I feel bad for him. He will have to go to school before these are done. This child moves in slow motion!

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From the mouths of babes

Noah, 15 minutes before he leaves for his school bus: "By the way, Dad, I need two composition books for TAG today."

Fortunately I use composition books for my project tracking. Unfortunately, I ran out of the $1.40 composition books and started using 15 cent notebooks instead.

Dad, as Noah walks out the door for his bus: "Noah, what are you carrying?"
Noah: "Oh yeah. Guess I don’t need this plate."
Noah returns pink plate with Tinkerbell picture to kitchen and walks out door with dry waffle in hand.

It is hard to be 10.

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Unable to help the children

I feel sad for my daughter. She is 13 and in the 8th grade. Here that is middle school. Next year she will be in high school. At her bus stop, a high schooler waits for a different bus but sits on the other side of a busy street. Once Sarah’s bus arrives, Sarah crosses that busy street and gets on it. I have given her permission to cross over and socialize with the high schooler. Ok, uncool! But social networking is a terribly important concept to learn for success in life. However, after creating different encouragements for her to meet this high school girl and pointing out some of the benefits, like already knowing an upperclassman when she enters, I gave up.

This morning she was late so I offered her a ride to school. Instead she just wanted a ride to the bus stop. As we approach, there is another girl waiting on the right side of the road. I’m surprised and ask Sarah if she is always here and I get a wishy washy answer about "sometimes." I ask her name and Sarah doesn’t know. I encourage her to find out then Sarah gets out of the car and walks to the left side of the street. I roll down the window and ask, "how will the two of you talk if you are over here?" She replies, "I always wait on the left side of the street."

My wife’s response will be to tell me that she is just a teenage girl and to butt out for a few years. I want to help my shy, obsessive compulsive girl break out of her shell. I know she has her own path to walk and I will let her walk it but I will continue to offer forks in the road, puzzles, challenges, and mind expanding opportunities.

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Rattle snakes are real!

Rattle snake - not rubber

Pictures of a 13 year old’s recovery from a rattle snake bite (not lunch safe – gross) are circulating the Internet.

On July 21, 2002, just after my 13th birthday, I was bitten by a Western Diamondback rattlesnake. I was located on a trail in a hiking area near Yosemite National Park, California. The bite occurred when I was sitting on a small boulder at a distance of 4.5 miles from the trailhead with my cabin group at camp. I had my arms dangling at my side, and a 5 foot long rattlesnake bit me in the middle of my left palm.Source

I thought it fitting to post my family’s encounter with a rattler outside of Gatlinburg, TN. The snake sunning itself, the family as far back as the trail permitted studying the snake, Noah seems nervous, and ok, so all the kids look nervous.

As we visit the great outdoors, we have to remember, it is their home.

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Earth to Noah

Noah this morning poured his cereal in his bowl, opened the utinsil drawer for a spoon, poured his milk, closed the milk carton, and tried to put the milk carton into the utinsil drawer.

Yesteday the dogs were out when Noah came home. He opened the door and let the dogs in. Molly carried a ball that must remain outside. We call it the "stinky" ball. I said the stinky ball needed to go outside and Noah opened the door, stared at the tv, and was oblivious as the dogs stepped on his feet and ran out. When I asked, "what are you doing?" he swayed back and forth almost as if semi-conscious and closed the door. I mentioned the dogs he let Molly in and closed the dog on Crystal.

These types of absent-minded actions on Noah’s part have become increasingly bad. I feel it has slipped beyond "being 10." I do not yet know how to snap him out of it. I feel he has some enourmous stress or anxiety built up in him. I am sorry. At 10 years old you should feel no stress or anxiety. We are going to start by making his life as stress free as possible, do some juggling, and perhaps yoga. I would like to see an improved diet also.

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The Sound of Silence – Riiiiight

Programming is an art. Basically programming is mathematically solving complex logic problems that start out as word problems. That is why lateral thinkers make good programmers.

I have heard it stated that programming is 90% thinking and 10% coding. I am not sure if 90/10 is accurate but the concept is correct. To get your head around the problem, you have to be able to concentrate and sometimes for a long time. One disadvantage of working from home is finding long blocks of undisturbed time to concentrate and focus.

I used to have a Sony Discman (minidisc player) that was great for helping me block out ambiant noise (white noise drives me nuts) but it is gone or misplaced. I have often used ear plugs that cut noise down by about 20 decibals but I have lost ever single set. I would kill for a nice pair of noise reducing headphones. Of course, having a music source to plug those into would be even nicer.

In leu of all that, I will let Evan climb in my lap, listen to Amy’s shrill demands and shreaks, monitor the fights between the older children to decide when to intervene, listen to the dogs bark at unseen foes, hear the whine of the television and the hum of the refrigerator, heed my wife’s requests and listen closely to the words she does not speak, and between chaotic outbreaks I will slip in some coding enjoying the chaos and the logic.

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Assume the negative; unless they call

Yesterday Sarah’s bus was 20 minutes late. I thought Sarah pushed her luck and missed it. Regardless, I drove her to school arriving 2 minutes late. When she came home and explained that "the bus was 20 minutes late and I arrived before the bus students so they counted me tardy" I was dumbfounded. I called the school and received no answer.

Today I called, was transferred to another office where another person tracked down the authority to whom I needed to speak. Before I could finish my explanation, she chimed "all fixed."

Some number of tardies equals an unexcused absence; 3 tardies I think. Some number of unexcused absenses lands a parent in court; 5 I think (but the school can suspend a student for no reason for 10 days I think). So, shouldn’t the school be proactive and not mark the students from this particular bus tardy? This mirrors the wicked insurance industry with the practice of automatically denying a claim and then laying the burden of proof on the exhausted patient. Sometimes it is easier just to say "I’ll take the screw." I wonder how many parents fail to even ask "were you counted tardy" much less follow-up with a phone call to the school.