martinzoo

Ok, this is ridiculous! I feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way. For the last two weeks I have taken tremendous amounts of my time going from store to store, asking for the Wii, and standing in lines waiting for delivery trucks, then leaving the stores with nothing.

This morning I was 6th in line at Walmart……… I was so hopeful that THIS time I would get one. But no, this time there was nothing on the truck. We were all SOL.

I’m so mad at Nintendo for putting people through all this. If the car manufacturers can pump a car out every 5 hours, why can’t a game manufacturer make enough product that people, who are willing to fork over the tremendous amount of money that they cost, can get it when they want.

I feel so manipulated. It’s not like this is the first year that this game system has been available either. I purposely did not do this last year because I thought if I waited a year for it, it would be much easier to buy.

Yesterday at the Walmart there was a fist fight. Now how bad is that? I feel terrible for the people who work at these retail stores. They are constantly answering the same questions, and constantly seeing disappointment on people’s faces. How unnerving. All this during a season when people try only to make other people happy.

I may have to give up and wait another year, because this isn’t worth it. 

Prepare for a rant…. I will apologize now.

The Summer season is once again upon us. I would like this season to be different.

It used to be that I CRAVED the begining of Summer. Why? Oh, for so many reasons. First and formost, because there would be no school for the next three months (the season was longer then, too). But also because there were days upon days of swimming, playing, watching cartoons, and doing absolutely nothing. It was glorious! And such a fun time to look forward to.

These days, I believe kids still look forward to Summer, but it’s not the same. Yes, thank God, there is still no school. Except for those poor kids who must endure Summer school. Not because they are failing or need remedial help (I could understand and sympathize with that), but because their parents want them to keep up with their studies, or get a leg up on other children, or worse yet, they need cheap babysitting. I’ve known several families who did this. But these days Summer is just as filled up as the school year, with tons of activities. Yes, there is no school, but every moment is filled with something.

I believe our children are losing the art of self-entertainment. ***my opinion*** They are constantly provided with sources of stimulation. And I am guilty of this, also! I don’t want to be. But each Summer I find myself, and my reluctant children, rushing to swim practice and other activities. Our team would like you to practice twice a day. And lots of parents do it! They make the kids practice twice. The kids literally lose their love of swimming because they are in a regimented practice two times per day. And who wants to run up to the pool in the middle of the day, just to goof off, if you just had a morning practice, and you’ll be rushing back late afternoon for another one? I draw the line on this. I WILL NOT take my child to two practices a day. He’ll have to become a better swimmer slowly…. too bad.

Swimming is not the only source of stimulation that we put on our kids these days. We go out to eat so much that it is now considered a burden. You have to get dressed, get in the car, wait for a seat, eat, wait to pay, and then drive home. Eating ends up taking several hours and inevitably occurs at a time when the child is deep in some other activity and must find some kind of transition, or end in a melt down or battle of wills. Our family does this several times a week. It’s crazy. When I was a kid we were called to the table when the food was ready. We ate, then ran back to playing. Your friends would wait because, hey, it only took about 20 minutes to eat. You know?

Some folks do camps… church camps, sleep over camps, sports camps, Science camps (see how they sneak in that education - “Let’s call it camp!” There is so much work for the volunteer parents that it just doesn’t seem worth it. *** once again, my opinion *** Tons of money, tons of time, and cranky kids, that’s not my idea of a fun week. Do the kids really have enough fun to justify it? Or would it be just as much fun to fill a huge storage container that they could plow through at will. It could have craft supplies, books, CD’s, or any old stuff you could find at the dollar store. I know which one I would have chosen when I was a kid.

Some folks like to put their kids in sports… which is fine, to a degree. But they need some down time, too. If you have several kids and each kid does two or three activities a week, such as sports or scouts, or church activities, look how much time you are taking to get them there and how your day is actually spent. Yes, it’s fun…. for some parts. But don’t they get cranky? Mine have.

And here is the kicker: It costs us tons of money! Everything! The sports, the camps, the swimming memberships, out to eat, putt-putt, theme park tickets, going to see movies, extra educational opportunities. Do they love all this? Or are my kids just different from other kids. They don’t seem to love all this activity. They want/crave down time. They don’t care how much money we’ve forked over for them to have fun. They still get cranky and we…… we get a big bill.

It’s a vicious cycle. They get bored because they have nothing to do, so you fill the day with stuff to do. Then they don’t know what to do with any free time…. So they are bored and whine. We give in and find something else for them to do. Hense, they end up with no free time. I think they need to learn how to fill their own free time. Give them time to broaden their imaginations. Let them learn to problem solve in a structure-free environment. Here comes the big rant….. LET THEM GET DIRTY! Yes, they are a mess, but it’ll come clean later, and if it doesn’t? So what. They are kids…. kids should play. *** my final opinion ***
End of rant.

So my goals for this Summer are simple. I want to do less for my kids….. Isn’t that a weird thought? My Summer’s homeschooling goal will be to teach about nothing, and doing nothing. We’ll go to swim team ONCE a day. We’ll go out to eat less. Hey, let’s eat at home! If they want to go to the theme park, let them ask. Movies, putt-putt, lessons and other activities? Let them ask. Our time, and their time is precious. And our down time is, too!

Let’s break this vicious cycle! Bring back Summer! Sun, fun, and nothing!

Did you ever worry that your nightmares are trying to tell you something?

I am one of those people who dream a lot. They are the weirdest, and sometimes the most horrible of dreams. I have bad dreams several times per week and they really can affect my mood for several hours during the next day.

This week I have had two nightmares about the same subject: school shootings. My husband says that my dreams are my brain’s way of working through my fears. And this week I have had terrible reoccurring fears stemming from the Va. Tech shooting rampage. It seems like everywhere I go, I hear about it, or see it, or read about it. I can’t get away from it.

As if the current events were not bad enough, my usual escapes have been polluted with the subject also. When GB is at swim practice, I like to read a book. I love to read and this is one hour of no interruptions. My bookclub just finished reading “The Thirteenth Tale,” and I needed a new book to read. So I grabbed one of the books off of my reading pile, by Jodi Picoult. I have loved each one of her books, so I had not even read the book jacket when I bought this book. It’s called “Nineteen Minutes.”

About 20 pages into the book I start getting a niggling feeling. Then it was confirmed about 10 pages later that this book is indeed a story about a school shooting. Ugh! I put the book down…. I couldn’t read any more…. at that time.

That night I had my first nightmare. I dreamed that I was floating along beside a killer’s head, kind of like a bug. And I watched while he went from room to room shooting innocent young men and ladies. My dream even “borrowed” scenes from the book, which I didn’t need to see. One of the passages read:

John thought of Courtney Ignatio: how she’d been sitting across from him at the cafeteria table when the glass wall behind her burst; how suddenly there had been a flower blooming in the middle of her chest, bright as a poppy. He thought of how a hundred screams, all at once, had braided into a rope of sound. He remembered teachers poking their heads out of classrooms like gophers, and the looks on their faces when they heard the shots.

And this scene was in my dream….. vividly. I have been drawn to this book, even though I don’t really want to read it, but I can’t get it out of my head. I want to know the kid’s motivation. And so far, the motivation that I’m getting is that he was bullied (this is one of my huge issues with public school) from the time he was in Kindergarten.

Then last night I watched Wednesday’s episode of “Medium.” A couple of weeks ago (before the Tech shooting), Allison’s husband was involved in an incident at work where a disgruntled employee came in with a gun and held key employees hostage and shot a couple of them. In this episode Allison’s husband is having flashbacks (which they decided not to show because of the Tech shooting) and having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that we really don’t have as much control over our lives as we like to think. At one point he tells Allison that you get through your life based on certain assumptions, such as the fact that nobody will come to your work or school with a gun and shoot innocent people. And now it’s very hard to come to terms with the fact that that may not be necessarily true. But I don’t want to come to those terms. I don’t even want to worry about that. My Scarlett O’Hara mentality tells me to “worry about that another day.”

And yet obviously my brain IS worried, because I had another nightmare last night. Aquagirl is at JMU and Jabem will be at VCU this coming Fall. In my dream I was at VCU with Jabem, don’t ask me why, and shots were being fired. Students were running chaotically in every direction and yet we were frozen. I kept telling Jabem that we needed to get out of the building, but he wouldn’t run. Then the shooter came in and was going to shoot Jabem…..I jumped in front of Jabem and got shot in the back. Jabem caught me and was holding me, and at the end of the dream he says, “What did you go and do that for?”

I’m not sure what to make of it, except how I feel. I feel terrible sadness, even though it didn’t really happen. And I feel worry for my kids. That is what I feel.

I want my Scarlett O’Hara mentality.

I hate my dreams………

Around here, we love the Pillsbury Grands Flaky Cinnamon Rolls. Yum! Yesterday, as a treat, I decided to make some for me and Jabem. Guess what was missing when I opened up the package? The cinnamon! Not a bit of it! How frustrating! I made them anyway, because, well, I had opened the package. I miss the cinnamon.

I emailed Pillsbury and asked them to send me a coupon for a free roll. Think they will? We shall see.