True-Blue Colors

Tim Kaine ran for VA governor as a moderate Democrat, not given to high taxing and spending. Now in office for just a few days, he is ready to unroll his plans for car tax increases, and maybe even gasoline tax increases. I'm so surprised!

Double Booking

Another exhausting trip to the pediatrician this morning.  This time it was just K’s 15 month check-up.  The good news is her ears are fine now, and she is healthy.  My complaint is that I had to wait for one whole hour before seeing the doctor.  When I signed in for my 10:30 appointment, I noticed a baby signed in on the line above for a 10:30 check-up with the same doctor.  She probably waited about ½ hour before being called back.  This really annoys me.  Both appointments were for standard check-ups; mine was made three months ago.  I can understand if a sick child needs to be seen at the last minute, but this was not the case.  Waiting with two children for an hour in a crowded waiting room and the examining room is no joke.  I’m considering switching to another doctor.

Nagin Apology

It rarely fails. A public official makes inflammatory remarks, and then apologizes. I wasn't that impressed with Nagin to begin with, but am even less so now. Stand by what you say, if you mean it (and I bet he did)! People are too darn sensitive, anyway. Nagin was entirely correct to point to the problem of 70% of children living in a single parent home. The rest of it, well, if that's what you really think, fine. The voters can choose differently if they so desire at the next election. At least they know where he stands, as compared to some politicians who are much too careful about every word that comes out of their mouths.

Painting

We have spent a good chunk of the weekend painting our family room. I believe painting is a little like pregnancy - you look forward to the results, but you forget how awful it is until you are actually doing it again. I had grand visions of how we would paint like mad for about two days, and be done with it. But alas, I had neglected to factor in my children, and how unenthused I become after a few hours. I also tend to get motion sickness after a while (unfortunately, just about anything will give me motion sickness). So here it is Monday night, MLK day has come and gone, and the room still needs one more coat of paint. It will have to be finished during nap times and evenings this week.

This shouldn't be news to anyone, but many 20 and 30 year olds are having a hard time financially. This Christian Science Monitor Article details the struggles of various young couples to pay for housing, student loan debts, credit card debt, and groceries. A few lines caught my eye.

Even an Ivy League education is no guarantee of instant financial stability. Jeffrey McDaniel graduated from Dartmouth and his wife, Meghan, from Smith. But in 2002, as they began paying her graduate school tuition and their wedding bills, they did considerable belt-tightening.

Ivy League? If you can't afford it, go somewhere cheaper. I had an school-teacher roommate who had to gone to a $20,000-a-year-tuition college, and was really hating trying to pay back $80, 000 of loans on a teacher's salary. She honestly admitted that she regretted it.

Wedding bills? Aaagghh. Why do people go into massive debt for a wedding? Perhaps it's because at least once a year, the media reports on how the "average" couple spends $19,000 on a wedding (or whatever the current figure is). What kind of insanity is this? Instead of worrying about what everyone else does, people should throw a wedding they can pay for.

New Baby

Last night I took dinner over to a friend of mine who just had a healthy baby girl.  She has two boys also.  It is a happy occasion marred by the fact that her divorce will be final in a few weeks.  I don’t know the details, and don’t really want to know; it’s none of my business.  I’m just so sad for her, and the kids.  How awful to have a baby alone.  It’s hard enough to raise kids with a husband.  I know there are so many single mothers out there now, and they manage, but I wonder how much comfort my friend will get from the fact that she has a lot of company.  It won’t make her workload any lighter, or make the kids miss their daddy any less.

Merit-pay for Teachers

Houston is all set to tie teachers' salaries to student test scores. Whew! What a hot-button issue! Books could be written on both sides, but I will try to be brief. I am not necessarily opposed to merit-based pay, but I am opposed to that merit being soley measured on student test scores, as Houston will do. I have taught in schools where the sole focus is test scores, and the result isn't that great (even if scores do rise). Houston's plan does not offer non-core area teachers the same opportunities to earn these bonuses. But all of that and more, aside, it just seems wrong. How can you determine a teacher's pay based on another human's being's choices? I believe that children do have much personal responsibility for their education. How unfair this type of plan is for the teacher whose children simply will not come prepared, listen, do any classwork or homework, or read the test questions? Don't give me the garbage about how a great teacher will be able to motivate all of her students. A great teacher will be able to motivate most or some, but not all. Plus, let's face it, most teachers are good, but not great.

Here's a possible scenario. Johnny is in 7th grade. He has done little work all year. Despite many parent conferences, Johnny just wants to play in school. Having learned little, his grades are failing, and by April he knows he will be retained. When test time comes around in May, he is well-aware that his teacher has a personal stake in how her students perform. He doesn't like his teacher - too strict, got him suspended twice, always tries to get his parents against him, gives him F's, won't let him sit by his friends, etc. He knows that these standardized test scores will in part determine his placement in the next grade (in some places they don't!), but since he knows he's failing regardless, he decides just to bubble his answers in a fun pattern. Besides this'll be good revenge on the teacher. Johnny's teacher and school have various rewards for the kids who try hard on the test, so he is careful to be very slow about filling in his bubbles, so she'll think he is trying.

Think this scenario is not likely to happen often? Ask any middle school teacher, and they will tell you that they know many, many kids like that.

Shopping for Paint

One of the hardest things about being a mother is how difficult simple tasks become!  Today, I took my offspring to the local Benjamin Moore paint store, knowing it would be a challenge.  They are only open until five o’clock, so leaving them with my husband and going in the evening doesn’t work.  Sophie and I had a nice chat in the car about not touching, not running, and not yelling.  All that was quickly forgotten.  She immediately starts pulling out the sample cards, and then spent the rest of the time running around the store yelling.  Kate was drawn to the display of little sample paint jars, and removed them faster than I could put them back on.  She is just too heavy and strong-willed for me to hold for very long.  In the midst of this, I am trying to choose between countless shades of cream and ask the clerk (who kept answering her phone) for advice.  It was crazy.  I settled on “calming cream” in large part because I thought the name might be good omen.  I mentioned that to the clerk, but she either didn’t get it, or didn’t think it was funny.  Considering the havoc the girls were wreaking, it was probably the latter.

Then we went to Lowe’s to buy all the paraphernalia we’ll need to repaint the family room.  Of course, this will be a major challenge too.  It’s so difficult and slow to do these kinds of projects with small children around.  We have to paint at night or on the weekends, or get their grandparents to watch them.  Blocking off the family room for the week that this will most likely take isn’t going to be very popular with the little tyrants either.  I try to remind myself that this won’t last forever, and someday I will be able to do things again.

Boy critical after dog mauling

Stories like this one make me so upset. Why do people feel the need to have such vicious pets? I can only think of two reasons - for protection, or because they are somewhat vicious persons themselves and take delight in teaching a dog to be cruel. I don't think killer dogs are necessary for protection. Most burgulars, upon hearing a dog bark on the premises, will steer clear, even if the dog is just a collie or retriever. As far as vicious people go, well, there's no making them be nice, so let's have some significant punishment for owner negligence.

Burned CDs

I'm distressed to learn that burned CDs have a life span of only 2 to 5 years! I had planned on storing most of my photos on CDs to avoid having to print them. Plus, I have such a hard time deleting photos, even when I have five almost identical shots of baby smiling. There's plenty of space on a CD, so I can just save them all! Printing them isn't cheap either; those ink cartridges don't last long. So this info makes me sad.