Reality Me

Category: Daily Life

Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.

  • This is not the family I wanted!

    My five year old has decided she’s had it with this place. Last night she emptied her chest of drawers into a crate and packed many of her toys in bags. All her clean, folded clothes are in one big pile. The room is wrecked. And as livid as Mom has become running away is probably not a bad idea for all of us! This is her second threat of running away. The first was before Christmas and was abated when I asked, "who should get your Christmas presents?"

    I don’t understand this behavior. One, I thought threats of running away did not come around until age eight or nine. Two, she does not have a terrible life here. We believe hands are not for hitting so corporal punishment is avoided in this house. I will admit that Amy has received a couple of spankings but it makes Cathy very angry with me. I grew up under the threat of the belt so it is ingrained in my head as a means of behavior modification. No, I do not agree with it and regret the times I have employed corporal punishment.

    Her reason for wanting to run away was because she was not allowed to go play with her friends today. It pains me to hear her yell out, "This is not the family I wanted." and talk of no longer liking anyone in the family. I believe strongly she is modeling this behavior from someone but I don’t know if it is a neighbor friend, school friend, or television.

  • Too cool to come out of rain

    I offered to drive the van to the bus stop as shelter to two middler schoolers and two high schoolers and all declined. One declared, "it’s not raining" as my windshield wipers ka-thunked before my eyes. It’s cold too but you’d never know it by the way they all refuse heavy coats and try to minimize how much of their body their light weight coats actually contact. At least the girl had the common sense to be using an umbrella!


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  • Full season of Lost?


    What is happening with the writer’s strike?
    Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

  • Carpool update


    Do you idle?
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  • It’s cold…I need a laptop!

    It too blasted cold to work in the basement. I had planned on saving up for a nice laptop but nooo…I’m just going to buy a cheap one because any laptop is better than no laptop and it is really too stinking cold to in that basement today. I need to be able to work at Starbucks! What kind of geek am I if I never work in Starbucks?!

  • Not making the bus today

    Everyone in this house is moving in slow motion today. Maybe I should slip the kids some coffee.

  • Dad of the year nomination revoked

    Bad Dad sent the kindergartener to school today with nothing but Scooby snacks for lunch.

    Update: Yesterday Amy came home and admonished me, "You forgot to send me lunch. All I had was Scooby snacks. I was starving!" And man was she ever put out. She was whimpery and whining and crying. She went into the kitchen and fixed herself a feast of a sandwich, fruit, apple sauce, and cookies. Then she laid in bed and boohoo’d that we never feed her. She gave it the royal treatment! Around dinner we talked about things she could do if it ever happened again including talking to the teacher, the cafeteria volunteers, or the cashier at which point she cheerfully responded, "I did! I had mashed potatoes and … and … and … and strawberry milk and … The IOU is in my lunchbox." Boy does she know how to milk guilt!

    Today she was sent with more food than she will eat.

  • Carpool update

    Knoxville storm last night took out trees
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  • From the mouths of babes

    Amy: "The thing I love the most is my family."

  • We’ve lost our motivation

    The bus was a very exciting part of school for Amy. As a kindergartener I never expected her to ride the bus but it was such a big deal to her that the first time we missed it she had alligator tears. Now she has grown indifferent. She has friends in the carpool lobby as well as the bus lobby. We miss the bus primarily because I choose to sleep "just another 15 minutes." I think perhaps it is time to start waking everyone 30 minutes earlier.

    Our children grow so fast. The conversations. The logic. The sentence structures. The choices made. I am awed that she is only 5! I love watching the children grow!

  • 101 days of school


    Celebrating as dalmations
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  • Carpool update

    Off the grid
    Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

  • Break the mental dam

    I’m stuck. You know. Bouncing between Twitter and checking Reality Me for comments and email and generally not getting over the programming hurdle that has me in gridlock. So I’ve turned off the distractions but the mind races. It thinks of that overdue post about this past Thursday’s parent night at the high school. It thinks about the phone calls which need to be made to the NRA, Les Jones, and lawyers etc. It thinks about the squirrel trap in the attic. It thinks about anything but what it needs to be doing? How to calm the mind and get focused on work? Simple! Step away from the keyboard. Juggle or clean something. Do something drastically different from the task at hand so that in 5 minutes the task at hand seems fresh and new!

  • State of Me

    Cold. Needed a haircut before Christmas. Now I really need a haircut. Focused on tying up some loose ends on some old projects so that I can move forward with some new projects. Dreading next month’s electric bill. Am feeling pretty sane and balanced between work, personal life/children, and community/volunteer activities.