Day +6: New Routine

Tonight, I came home from work early. We are doing teacher preparation things which end a little earlier than a usual day. It makes coming back easier because we can kind of ease into the long work days ahead.

I'm doing my best not to count the days we have left in the school year already. Lil Bit is in a new classroom at school this year and is not adjusting to her new classroom very well. I'm not sure I like her new teacher. I know that daycare teachers make minimum wage. It is unreasonable to expect that someone making minimum wage to have a college education, but I am concerned about how well she's is adjusting and how much she'll learn. I love her so much. It broke my heart when she started crying this morning when I said good-bye.

Tonight we came home to Daddy pulling into the drive right behind us. He pulled Lil Bit out of the car seat while I dragged in my purse, briefcase, coffee cup, etc. Such a little thing, but having someone to take a few seconds of hassle and work made such a difference.

Then Chad made dinner while I played with Lil Bit, changed clothes, etc. We ate as a family and then cleaned up together, prepping our side by side coffee makers. After dinner, I sat on the floor with our precious little girl, playing with her kitchen while daddy answered hunting emails about making duck call lanyards. He makes them custom and is looking at doing some for other hunters.

After he finished his emails, he sat on the couch tickling and laughing with her. Later he even sat on the floor reading to her. It was really cute watching him point out the sun and clouds in her book and how Jesus was playing with the little children.

I'm still fighting the cold he brought home, so we have some ways to go before we're normal, but I'm enjoying our new routine. Sharing the chores, taking turns watching the baby play, talking face to face - life is pretty good tonight, despite the severe congestion and cold. I could get used to having him around, but am afraid to. Life in the army is never certain. It's just the way it is, but it is really hard work trying not to let myself enjoy being happy too much, but I'm not going to let anything bring me down today. I don't need to borrow trouble. Tonight, I'm just enjoying getting into a new routine with my soldier home.

Day 156: Good advice

Today we decided to run some errands. We ran to mail some books back to the boys. We ran to Kohl's so I could pick up some spring things. We ran to Wal-mart for pool chemicals and a new Hoover Floormate because I have wanted one to help with the housework. Then we went to lunch which was nice. Since today was a school day, it kind of felt like playing hooky. Heck, it was playing hooky.

We've been talking about getting a new bed for awhile. I bought the one we have with mattress, box spring and dresser for $900 in 2003. It has held up pretty well, but the mattress is starting to sag and was not a high quality mattress in the beginning, so we decided it was time for an upgrade.

We started looking and found a great salesperson that showed us how to find a mattress that wouldn't just feel good in the store, but would be good for our bodies and sleeping styles. The mattress felt great, but we have been thinking that we might want to move up to a king. While we love each other and want to snuggle sometimes, we also want to be able to roll over and move around without irritating each other.

Problem is, we should have started this process weeks ago. Now we've got two days before he leaves and we spent hours looking at furniture, trying to convince ourselves we really like something they have in stock so we can get new furniture in 48 hours.

After two stores and significant shopping, I finally ended our waffling. I don't want to spend any more of our precious few hours looking for ways to scramble and get a new mattress and bed and dresser and I don't want to have to move in new furniture by myself and decide what to do with the old stuff.

Also, the army warns the soldiers not to make any major purchases over R&R because it is very tempting. We both felt free today, playing hooky from real life, beautiful spring day and the promise of summer imminent. But as I am reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover I am realizing that many of the principles I have been living under for years are really the best ways to live. Don't buy new because you can, buy because you have to. Don't spend money you don't have - pay in cash. When I thought about paying for our new bedroom set and mattress from our savings instead of starting a new store credit line, I realized this would take almost half our savings to do right now. I can sleep on the old mattress for another five months and we can revisit this issue when he gets back. Maybe we decide to see how life plays out once he gets home and we wait to purchase the furniture once we move to a new duty station. Maybe we wait to see how a lot of financial cards play out before spending so much on a new bed.

My back hurts a lot, my neck hurts, I could use a better night's sleep, especially with a baby and allergies, but it is good advice to use our money and not let our money use us. So we waited, we came home and watched the baby waddle up and down the sidewalk with her new walker. We organized the garage and crashed on the sofa. Sometimes good advice is just good advice and being smart is knowing when to take it, especially when its your own.

Day 288: Stuck

I am still VERY sick, so a short entry tonight. I went to a seminar today about teaching grammar. It was very interesting. Basically we have several studies over the past 40-50 years that show how we taught and/or still teach grammar is completely useless and in fact, DECREASES the knowledge the students had when they came into our classes. Of course this might explain why tenth grade students still act like no one has ever explained a noun before.

The first study was published in 1967. Four years before I was BORN??? (yeah, I know I just dated myself).  Why then was I taught grammar in a drill and kill method? Why did I still not understand grammar until college and then only because someone made it make sense to me?

I don't know. Why then do teachers still fight so hard FOR this same ineffective method? I best people sat in this seminar and will be diagramming sentences on the board tomorrow. How do we get people to change? I don't have any answers today. I know that my methods have changed since I started teaching. I know I have found things that work and moved toward newer ideas, but I still resist change myself.

My goal for this week is to try this new method of teaching grammar. I was happy that at least some of what I am doing was part of what has been shown to work. If you're curious about the seminar, the website for our speaker was www.writeguy.net

We all need to make an effort to not be so stubborn and realize that good ideas can be new ones, too, not just the oldy but goodys.