Friday, October 30, 2015

Taste of Thanksgiving: supporting local schools

If we've ever had a conversation about school fundraisers, you'll probably know I'm not a big fan of most. Tiny packages of gummy worms for $12, a roll of wrapping paper for $10, a candy bar I could buy at the grocery store for under a dollar somehow costs me $5. And the incentive prizes? Unless I can manage to help my son make 20 separate sales, he's coming home with the same prizes he might bring home from Wunderland Arcade. School fundraisers are a pet peeve for me.

I love things like old school jog-a-thon's that cost next to nothing to put on. You know there's little to no overhead, no skeevey company trying to profit off the under-funding of a child's education, using my kids as fun-size sales people. I also love school activities that bring in a revenue - the book fair (because I love books, and I love my kids to have books, and if the school gets a bit of profit, that's a bonus), school carnivals, silent auctions, spaghetti dinners, pancake feeds. You get the idea.
Jog-a-thons and Thanksgiving dinners to support local schools

But with all the good (and the not so good) fundraisers that the kids, the teachers, the PTA, or the PTO are working on, there always seems to be more need. At my son's Parent/Teacher conference today, I asked his teacher what it is she needs for the classroom right now. Of course, this was something I could reasonably purchase out of my own pocket. She told me baby wipes. Baby wipes. She buys them out of her own pocket for the kids in her class to use to clean the classroom (she uses disinfectant wipes at the end of the day to go back over everything). And she's out. If she's needing to buy cleaning supplies, and that's what they are in her classroom, with funds from her personal budget, just imagine what else she could use. And think about what else the school could use. Mini chalkboards for teaching handwriting in the kindergarten. Updated computer software and hardware in the computer labs. Tablets for the classrooms. Tissues. Pencils. Pencil sharpeners that don't overheat before you've finished sharpening half a box of pencils for your son's class.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Back on the Wagon, and setting new goals

I stepped on the scale for the first time in several months. I knew things had gotten out of control by the way my clothes were fitting, and just how I've been feeling overall these days. I needed something... definitive to let me know just where things stand. 
Back on the Fitness Wagon and setting new goals

180.5lbs

I was surprised, but part of me wasn't. I haven't been exercising regularly, and I've been eating a lot - a lot of not great for me things. But this is even more than I weighed when I started the Shaklee Blogger program. It's a little bit depressing for me, to be honest. And for reference, for those who've forgotten, I'm 5'4" over here. 

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Mom's Sick Day

Almost immediately upon returning home from ENMNCON15 I got sick. Since then, one or more members of my family have been sick. One. At. A. Time. And E is cutting molars.

It's true you really don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. This summer, we finally moved out of my parents' house. I love having a space just for my family again. I do, however, miss having backup when I'm sick.

A Cloth Life: Mom's Sick Day We joke that mom's don't get sick days, but sometimes we really deserve it.

I remembered how difficult it was having one sick child. I remembered what it was like having two sick children. I've never been on my own with three sick kids, or on my own sick with three kids before.

And G was actually out of school for a full week. This has never happened.

This was physically and emotionally draining. One of the kids, or me, or my husband were coughing, or sniffling, or even crying every night.