Busy lives

Lets see if I can get you up to speed. The past few weeks I spent cleaning huse, planning and having Grils Scouts meetings, working on Girl Scouts Fall sale (just no wrapping that up), working, running kids to dance and tumbling, my mom was in town visiting, dh, and fil's birthdays, working on starting a Daisy troop for my younger daughter, and getting more training for Girl Scouts. I feel at times like I am drowning. But I am sure we have all felt that way.

I spent Friday night in a cabin with 7 grown women working on getting our training so that we could take our Girl Scouts out camping, fieldtripping, and just cook with them. It wasn't all bad. Well except there was no flshing toilets and it was freezing out and we had to cook outside. We cooked some good stuff. Breakfast was omelettes in a bag, lunch was chicken noodle soup, peach cobbler, banana boats, and grilled cheese ALL cooked on a camp fire. Can't wait to take the girls.

So that is my life.

Falling off

So I think I may have fell of the side of the earth this week. I barely had anytime to breath. Biggest event of the week was my birthday. Yep I am now another year older yipee. I have pondered how I got to this rip old age. My biggest accomplishments are my children which in alot of ways I think that should be as a mother. Waht do you all think?

So we have joined the YMCA. Savannah is taking dance. She adores it. Always showing us a new dance step. Soo darn cute. Zoe tried kids yoga. She loved it! She said it was relaxing. May have to find her a yoga DVD to do here at home. I walked their indoor track on Monday while Savannah was at class...good for me but never got back there. The kids went to family swim and slide as well. We just need to find some kind of schedule that will work for us. ANyone ever join the Y?

I was mean mommy last night I had to make the girls shovel out the playroom. I told them they had x amount of time to do it or (insert me holding a trash bag) I would be cleaning it out for them. HA they worked pretty darn fast.

Not sure how many here are involved with Girl Scouts or even Boy Scouts.. well I am the assitant leaer for Zoe's troop which feels more like a leadership role at times. And now drumroll please.... I am going to co-lead Savannahs new troop. Just have to get in for training and we shall begin. Daisys are an interesting age. We will have to get creative with them. We are not the raditional troop. We are not all about doing crafts. We do complete a few crafts over the course of the year but over all we are much more about being active and doing thngs. This week we are going to be working on a try it badge or Eat right stay Healthy. Should be fun

Well off to go have a girls day have lunch and a movie with a friend.

Brett's phone call

Well we learned today that Brett's girlfriend Brittany got a phone call from Brett. She said he sound so sad and cried. Pulls at your heart strings huh?

I reassured her that he would be fine. That it is all part of the training. She seemed to be holding up well herself. SO please think good thoughts and keep him and all the other young men out there in your prayers.

Brett's letter

So as some of you know my eldest step son whom I raised with dh most of his life is now at boot camp. We have had monimal communication about him which has come from his girlfriend. As expected she was the first person he contacted.. big shock huh? LOL

So I go to the mail box yesterday and what should appear. A letter from Brett. I was soo excited. He seemed to be fairing well at that time. He said it is tough and it has been a shock to his "mind" which made me laugh because of all the trouble he gave us the past year. He says the drill sergants are "crazy" yelling allthe time. But he reassures that he can handle it. I am confident that he can. HE is a strong young man and will make wise decisions even if he takes the hard road there.

So hats off to you Brett for doing what so many of us don't want to do. We love you!!

Standardized testing

Here is my rant for the day. Our school system is now completing the states required standardized tests. Since I work with a student who needs assistance I get to actually see what the test looks like. In itself it is not soo horrible. Any student who paid attention and did their work should be able to pass it. Well we are two days into it.

My problem is that the teachers basically teach these kids to know the material that is on the test. Which means that the state is telling the teachers what they need to be teaching. The bigger problem lies in that the state looks at the grade and school as a whole and they get a score that way. These schools are struggling with enough budget money to run through the year. They struggle with getting parents to care enough to have their child do homework let alone cooperate with the extra programs the child needs in order to actually learn at their grade level.

The state requires that the school has a certain percentage of improvement over the previous year or they get put on a list. It doesn't look at taking out students who scores they can compare over the previous year. It doesn't look at what services can they provide to help that school suceed. It seems to be more about punishment.

Don't get me wrong I understand that there is a need to test our children to insure that they are learning and that the schools are doing their job teaching our kids. I just think the government needs to stop punishing the schools for low test scores and take a look at why this is happening. I mean the schools that struggle are not in affluent neighborhoods. They are schools that serve a population that sometimes cannot even feed their own children. A populatin that is not worried about reading to their child. They are worried about making it to their next paycheck without having their water or heat turned off. So how can the state help the schools to provide better programs and insure these kids are not left to slip behind?

That is my rant for the day. Just my opinions. You may or may not agree.

trying this out

Well I thought I would try blogging once again. It seems that since my step son has left for boot camp and I have been writting him I have found a renewed sense of enjoyment for writting.

I used to write often when I was younger. Seems I can always find something to write about. I am a much better communicater in writting than in speaking. GO figure.

So we shall see how this goes. I have been inspired by my friends over at SMFM. Thanks ladies!!