Wednesday Hodgepodge

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me, but now that things have settled down, I'm back to joining in on Joyce's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

Here we go!

1. Did you know there is a National Day of pretty much everything in the universe? February 23 happens to be National Inconvenience Yourself Day...when was the last time you were inconvenienced?

I am inconvenienced daily:

But they are worth it.

Derek has an affinity for needing to have a bowel movement the very minute I settle down to do anything. And did you know that he couldn't possibly make that happen unless someone is squeezing his hand? It's true.
He doesn't care who you are-- gym childcare worker, Awanas volunteer, stranger in our home-- if you're available, he will request that you squeeze his hand while he goes.

2. When a room in your house needs painting who does the job?

We don't paint. We move.
Often.
So when we don't like a paint color, we just say to ourselves: No big deal, we'll be out of here soon.

3. Are you friends with your cousins?

There is a very high likelihood that if I were walking down the street and passed one of my cousins, I would never know that he or she was related to me. 

I believe I have 11 first cousins, many of whom I have not seen in years and years. 

It's a byproduct of being a military brat who did not live near my family for all of my growing up years. 

4. Do you use an alarm clock? If yes-is it an actual alarm, music, or something else?

I do set an alarm on school days, because the bus comes at the wee hour of 7:15am. (We got a new bus driver-- the old one came at 7:09, so I like this one better.) My alarm (music) goes off at 6:45, and I spend the next 30 minutes doing everything short of chewing her food to get my dear Alexandra moving at a speed greater than molasses. 

Every other day, my alarm is the sweetest little thing that I still don't want to wake up to.

Also, let me take this opportunity to give a shout-out to my awesome husband who has gotten up with the kids for 5 days in a row, including Saturday and Sunday. Just because he loves me. :)

5. What do you put ketchup on?

Ummm...food. 

This begs the question, what do you put ketchup on?

6. What smells make you nostalgic?
Dank, damp, musty garage smell reminds me of what my junior high gym uniform smelled like. I never, ever remembered to take it home and get it washed.

Gross, huh?

Also, the smell of PineSol reminds me of when I mopped my kitchen floor, back in 2004.

7. Have you heard about the high school English teacher recently suspended as a result of some things she wrote in her personal blog? You can read the story here but in a nutshell she vented a lot of frustration onto her blog. She didn't mention individual students by name but she did make some harsh comments about kids in general and their parents.

What are your thoughts-If you're a parent is your child's teacher online and are you 'friend' or 'follower' there? If you're a teacher are you on facebook and do you accept or friend students on fb? How about their parents? If you're a student are you friends with your current or former teachers online? Do any of them have blogs you read? If you're a teacher or a parent do you ever use your blog as a place to vent your frustrations with our educational system? So much to discuss...

My goodness, this is one heck of a question. 

I am not "online friends" with Alex's teacher. Mostly because I want her to give Alex a fair shake, and if she knew how strange I was, she might treat her differently. 

Overall, I think teachers' personal lives should remain a mystery to their students, so I feel that it's best not to "friend" them on facebook or encourage them to visit a personal blog. This goes for parents, too. No need for undo familiarity, as this could be seen as playing favorites or just hindering the professional relationship that exists between parents and educators.

In this specific case, it seems that the teacher did not advertise her blog to students, but being the tech-savvy generation that they are, they sniffed it out. She did not use names, just gave her opinion on the overall work ethic of the age group she was teaching. Her remarks were likely accurate.

She has a right to blog, but considering her profession, she might have made good use of maintaining a private blog and avoided this controversy.
I don't believe that punitive actions should have been taken.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

 1) Criss-cross-applesauce.
Political correctness in it's earliest form.
It's called Indian-style people. Indian-style.
What is so offensive about that?

2) I have a much harder time finding brand name clothes on sale in the boys' section than in the girls. And while I don't require that my children wear brand-name clothes, I find that many times they wash better and wear longer than their cheaper counterparts. So when we were shopping at an outlet mall in Virginia, and I found a nice loot at Gap kids for Derek, I bought it up.
Here we have some winter clothes for the boy for next year-- 4 long sleeve t-shirts, one pair of sweats, one pair of cords, and a cute hoodie.

Tax included, $21-something. Which averages out to $3 per item. Not too shabby.

3) The weather was warm enough to support this outfit for school the other day.

Ahh, spring is on it's way. And I love knee-socks on little girls.