The View from Here

Not Quite Ready...

I’m not quite ready to go back to work this morning. Still things I wish I had accomplished this weekend. Oh, well, as my neighbor used to say “If you didn’t leave something else to do, there wouldn’t be a reason to get up tomorrow!” LOL

I’m not in a “topic” mood this morning so I’ll just offer up a potpourri of random thoughts.

First of all, I was at WalMart yesterday when I looked up and a boy at least ten years old was running down the aisle toward me. It was obvious that he was NOT going to stop, so I stepped aside. He just kept running! No “excuse me”, no nothing. Apparently little brats in public grow up to be even bigger brats!

Someone on FB made the comment yesterday that I have a “beautiful garden”. I don’t. At least not yet. It is still in its infancy and is struggling. It has weeds and grass. It is lacking in trees and shrubs. It is years away from the charm and character of my old (13 years) garden. However, it does have some gorgeous flowers! And that is a lesson. Despite my neglect this year, the flowers have done what they do. And anyone can have a few beautiful flowers to cheer up their daily life.

Karen called last night to tell me about Taylor’s playdate with a friend. The friend is one of those modern kids who has a television in her room and her own movie collection. She has a computer and games. Probably has a cell phone and an iPod, although we didn’t discuss those. What we did discuss is that the child had never played marbles, painted a picture at home, or baked cookies, all of which she did at Taylor’s house yesterday. Reminded me of a couple of years ago when I took jacks to my classroom. My students didn’t know what they were! I’ve had the same experience with checkers and other table games. I frequently encounter children who don’t paint, cook, garden, or even play outside much. They can tell you the plot of every Disney movie, but it “isn’t safe to play outside”.

Along that same thought train…Sunday night we watched a report about children in NY participating in a garden project that is supposed to help them experience growing and eating fresh vegetables. What I also thought as I watched it is that it lets children get dirty!! Our children are too clean. I think that is one of the reasons they are sick so much. I’ve thought that for decades and I’ve mentioned it here before. Yes, I have “the gel” in my room just like everyone else and in light of the dire flu warnings we are all using it. But I think our generation was tougher because we were outside more- digging in the dirt, playing in the grass, picking vegetables, playing with the dog and with the neighbors. We had encountered so many germs by the time we were five that our little immune systems were like Godzilla!

And speaking of five year olds. Another kindergarten teacher has a blog ranting about the problems she has encountered with children who are not ready for kindergarten, either because they barely squeaked by the birth date deadline, or because they are immature. While I sympathize with her and agree with most of what she says, I think we have to “get over it” because we are going to have more and more of those children in our classes. First of all, parents want their child on the “fast track” to success and don’t want to keep them at home or in pre-K for another year just because their birth date is one day after the limit. So what if they are eating their crayons while the others are coloring with them? It’s only kindergarten. Right? They’ll catch up!  Second, more and more of our students are “immature” because they are raised that way- the center of someone’s universe with every whim granted and very little actual responsibility. When they get to kindergarten they are baffled by even carrying their own lunch tray. They can’t follow more than one instruction at a time. Can’t tie their own shoes. Can’t button their own shirt. Someone has always been there to do it for them. However, I do know that their hands work because they can move a mouse and click a button!! lol  I have three children in my class who probably shouldn’t be with us, but we will do the best we can to bridge the gap between them and their classmates. After all, Bush said I can do it…no problem.

Ok, ready or not, it’s time to get up and get dressed for the day ahead. I have “car duty” this morning. Meet and greet. That will get me in the mood!

P.S. Are you all excited about the President’s speech? It’s like he doesn’t realize he’s been elected and he doesn’t know how to stop campaigning.

A morning stroll through the garden...

I'm disgusted with the vegetable garden. The tomatoes are being very uncooperative- one or two ripe ones per day. The critters have finished off the watermelons and cantelopes. The cucumbers are finished for the season. I pulled up the peppers and eggplant weeks ago.

However, the flowers are being very sweet and showy, and for that I am thankful. You would think that the flowers would protest the fact that I've done very little weeding lately. In fact, some areas of my garden have so much Bermuda grass that I have given up the fight. I'll just wait for the first freeze to help me.

So, I took a walk this morning and took a few photos. I'll put some more in an album. Enjoy!

P. S. Yes, that fat cat on the fence is Buddy, formerly known as "that scrawny UGLY thing". He is becoming calmer, but still scares me. He sat on my feet while I took the cleome photos. I finally had to get the rake and carry it with me in order to make him stay away from my feet.

Brats in Public

My daughter encountered a brat last night. He was shopping with his grandmother and demanding her constant attention. He kicked, yelled, argued, made faces, and topped off his performance by calling her a bitch. The grandmother kept shopping. Karen said she was as shocked by the grandmother’s failure to react as she was by the child’s behavior and language. My response was that the grandmother might have just been weary. I’ve met many grandparents, especially during the past six years, who are completely baffled and overwhelmed by their grandchild’s behavior. They have very little experience with such selfish, rude, demanding children. They were raised in a totally different world and they seem bewildered by this one. What I hear time and again is “I didn’t raise my child that way- why is their child such a brat?”

I have a theory. We started the ball rolling, but no one knows how to make it stop.

I grew up at the end of the “children should be seen and not heard” era. We were typical children and got into plenty of trouble at home, but were strictly admonished to be polite and well-behaved in public, thereby making a good impression for our parents. We could eat at a table in a restaurant, or shop with our parents, or attend church without being an embarrassment, because we knew the consequences of doing otherwise would be swift and harsh. I remember standing and waiting for an eternity once while Dad talked to someone in the store. I was trying to tell him that Mom was getting hot waiting for him in the car, but I was afraid to interrupt him.

Even the children on television were polite and well-behaved. Some of them were more like little adults than actual children. I measured my own behavior by what I saw on television and found it lacking!

Those of us who came from such a background were more lenient with our children. We actually talked to them and asked their opinion and gave them some choices. I remember teaching Karen to place her own order at McDonald's. She would march up to the counter, at two years of age, and proudly say, “cheesebuger, fenchfies, coke”. The woman behind the counter thought she was adorable, and she was!

McDonald’s was the beginning of the end of polite children.

Think about it.

McDonald’s developed the “Speedee service system” that created the fast food industry. At first they touted this speed and service as their claim to fame. Then other chains developed and McDonald’s began catering to children. Suddenly there was a place where children could make noise, run around, and even play on the playground in between bites of their burger and fries, and no one cared! Parents also discovered that children could eat McDonald’s food in the car on the way to other errands. A few years ago I actually encountered a four-year-old whose mom admitted had never eaten at a real table! He ate every meal in the car or at the coffee table in front of the television.

Once you give children public voices and allow them public freedom, it’s difficult to draw a line and say stop here. Our children were given just enough freedom to feel natural and comfortable in an adult world. What some of them have done now is given control of the world to their children. Life revolves around their children.

Just take a few moments to think of how many aspects of our current society are geared to the wants and needs of children. Number one complaint of parents with school-age children? They spend the majority of their time chauffeuring children to sports/dance/____.  Number two complaint: they spend every evening begging, bribing, and threatening their child to do homework 3. Their child demands name-brand everything, from school folders to jeans to shoes. 4. Their child wants every phone, game, and gadget invented and expects to get most of it. 5. Their child says whatever they feel like saying, whenever they feel like saying it.

If there is one thing I’ve learned in thirty years of working with other people’s children, it is this: A child will do whatever WORKS for them. If they try something, and they are successful, they will do it again, and again, and again, until it is no longer successful. Unfortunately that applies across the board to everything, good and bad. If a child begs for candy in the checkout line and Mom gives in: “yes, just this once”, the child does NOT hear the last part of that statement. The next time those little eyes see the checkout counter you know what will pop out of that little mouth.  

Even television children have changed. Dennis the Menace misbehaved and we laughed. Then more sit-com children misbehaved and we laughed. Then they started lying and cheating and cursing and we still laughed! The children on a couple of current shows are BRATS, and our grandchildren are watching them and laughing.

Look around. Children are bombarded with television shows, movies, music, games, and advertising that tells them whatever they do is okay, maybe even cute! Look at the Bounty ads! You can even make a mess, on purpose, and no one cares because it’s easy to clean it up.  It’s hard not to let that kind of power go to your head!

A Well-Made Bed

My friend Patty gave me the idea for this post. She talked in her blog about making up the bed and doing a morning “gratitude meditation” as she performed the task. I applaud her spirit, but my mind just went crazy with memories about making the bed. J

When I was a young girl I was a fanatic about keeping my room clean. I attribute this to the fact that I had four brothers, and we were poor. My brothers were slobs, so of course I wanted to be the opposite, and therefore the “good child”. We didn’t have much, so I wanted to take care of what little I did have. Mom was great about buying pretty linens at yard sales and swap meets. My diary from my tween years has lots of entries about mopping the floor, or cleaning my room, and you can just feel the satisfaction leaping off the pages.

My grandmother and her mother both had gorgeous beds. Gran’s was an old four-poster with a colorful chenille peacock bedspread- always made, always presentable. Bigg’s was a very high bed with a bright flowered comforter. I don’t recall EVER seeing her bed unmade.

One of my first real jobs was EKG technician in a major hospital in CA. One day I was in the room when an orderly was making up the bed and I was fascinated by the precise way he did it, especially the efficiency with which he put on the pillow case. I’ve used his pillow method ever since!

For about three years I worked as a housekeeper while I went to school and worked a couple of other part-time jobs. I learned to make beds the way clients wanted them. Some wanted military precision and tight corners. Others wanted the top sheet loose so their feet could move. Some made their own bed and didn’t want me to touch it. One had a round queen-sized bed! That was a challenge, even with custom sheets.

Over the years I have always made my bed in the morning- not because I’m a fanatic anymore, but because I’ve always had a cat. I hate, hate, hate to have a cat snuggle in my sheets! Sleeping on top of the comforter is okay, but touch my sheets and I’m not happy. Sleep on my pillow and I have to wash it! So even on rushed mornings everything at least gets pulled up over the top of the pillows.

And just a word about sheets. I didn’t realize until I was an adult that my smart Gran bought expensive sheets. She didn’t own many, but they felt oh-so-much-better than ours and I could never figure out why.  When I was a kid I thought she just had a better washing machine! Well, she was smart enough to know the restorative power of a good night’s sleep!! And soft, smooth, clean sheets on a well-made bed is the best way to start the night! So she bought the best she could afford.

I think another reason Gran bought expensive sheets was because we all hung them on the line. They flapped in the breeze all day and smelled wonderful, but the cheaper ones never dried “soft”.

I remember seeing an ad for satin sheets once. I thought that sounded pretty sexy (I was twenty-two) so I bought a pillow case to give them a trial. I had such a miserable night!! Lol My head kept slipping off the pillow and the pillow ended up on my face. I could just imagine slipping off the bed and onto the floor! I never bought the sheets.

Gary’s grandmother must have loved sheets because when she died we discovered that she had stacks and stacks of them. She could have changed her sheets each week for a year and never used the same set!  

Oh, one more story just popped into my head. When we lived in Highway City, we had a German neighbor who had been in a prison camp as a child. As a result, she was absolutely fanatical about germs. She washed her walls, and mopped her floors every week. And she ironed EVERYTHING- including socks, underwear, and yes, sheets, in order to kill germs. I’d almost forgotten that. I don’t think the poor woman ever got any rest.

Well, my bed is made, so I think I’ll go fix some breakfast.

School Pictures

I have some horrible school photos in my files. No, I’m not sharing them. Did you not read the word “horrible”? Those awkward, toothless grin, bad hair days are best forgotten. J I posted my favorite good picture!

Yesterday was picture day at school and it was a very pleasant surprise for me. I wish now I had paid attention to the photographer’s name. We switched companies this year, because of some terrible photos and order mix-ups last year. The new company made a very good impression yesterday. They were friendly and polite. They were concerned with the children- actually fixed hair and washed faces! There were three people shooting photos and the one we got actually asked my opinion about three photos to make sure the smiles looked natural. He also re-shot one when he noticed jelly on the kid’s cheek. He made five shots of one student before he was pleased with the results. Yes, a very pleasant surprise.

Of course my students were horrible yesterday. It is a fact of kindergarten life that any major deviation from routine results in chaos. Believe me, picture day is a MAJOR deviation from routine.  We were in the gym with three other classes. We were standing in line waiting for our turn, and then as the students finished with their photos they were given a piece of candy and placed in another line, sitting down. Of course there is no “sitting” on a gym floor! One must spin and scoot and roll. Why waste all that polish?? My best students were wiggle worms and my worst students went wild. Of course I’m at the photographer’s side giving him names, because most of mine either won’t talk to him, or can’t remember their last name. So I’m giving out names, looking at photos, monitoring the standing line, and yelling behavior reminders to the sitting line ten feet away. Thirty minutes or more of that and it was definitely time for a recess break!! We survived, and I’m sure the photos will be great.

Today is the last day of the week. It’s all good. We have county teacher’s meeting tomorrow and Monday is a holiday. Enjoy!

Wishes and Dreams

The first Christmas catalog of the season arrived yesterday! I was excited to see it, but JC Penney disappointed me a bit because their catalog has only 175 pages. I remember when it was twice that big. But with online shopping and lots of competition and the price of paper, I guess I can’t blame them. It still has plenty of gadgets and electronics and sparkly jewelry and clever toys.  I even found a couple of things I might order. And I had to send a message to my friend- another elephant collector- that there are two elephant rings, a bracelet, and a necklace in the catalog. I don’t wear half the elephant jewelry I own now, but its fun to see.

When I was a kid I used to spend hours looking at the Christmas catalogs. We usually got Sears and Penney’s and a few specialty ones. I’d make a list of everything I wanted to buy for Mom or other family members. Then a list of everything I wanted. Then a list of everything I’d buy if I had $1,000. I could play endless “what if” games.

It occurred to me last night that I don’t need lists anymore.  I could buy anything in the catalog, including the $1,299 50” Samsung plasma TV, if that’s what I truly wanted. Not because I’m rich- far from it- but because our society operates on greed. I could put that television on a credit card or borrow the money from any of a dozen sources and be watching football tomorrow. I could spend the rest of my life paying for that television if I wanted to and no one would think I was crazy. Many people seem to feel that if they want it, they deserve to have it now.  

I think I’ll pass. I like to have a little “wiggle room” in my budget and a little money in savings.  I have the ability to prioritize my spending and, sorry Gary, I don’t see a 50” television anywhere in our future. Peace of mind gives me far more pleasure than having “things”.

Then there is the other side of Christmas- that “giving” part. The front of the JCP catalog says “joy of giving”, Christmas ’09. I like to give presents as much as anyone. I especially like to surprise people with gifts that aren’t for any designated or official holiday. But I don’t “buy love” or try to influence anyone’s behavior or attitude by buying them elaborate gifts. I don’t overindulge my grandchildren. I won’t go into debt for the remainder of the year in order to celebrate Christmas. If I’m going to spend too much, then let me spend it on those who are living in the same conditions I lived in as a child. Let me spend it on little children who are still making lists of things they would buy if only Mom and Dad had a job.

Last year we had a glorious Christmas because we all contributed to “angel” trees in our communities. I asked my children to buy something for a child instead of something for me. I just don’t need that much and shipping costs are outrageous. It was so much fun to hear my granddaughter talk about what she bought for “her child”. That was a gift! I bought a food basket for a family. I’m not telling you that to brag, but to give you another idea for your giving. There are so many ways all of us can help others. There are so many worthy programs that are suffering budget cuts this year. There are so many children who are suffering the consequences of our greed.

So, as the catalogs start piling up in your mailbox, please give some thought to the wishes and dreams of children in your community who won’t have much for Christmas. Let’s all do our part to make those wishes and dreams come true!

Monday

Okay, not exactly my best day lately. Two sick students= interruptions, cleanup by custodian, getting everyone settled down again and back on task. Then one of my students knocked over a shelf and the playdough cans went rolling everywhere. More cleanup. Two other students went home early. Three other minor irritations.

Went to WalMart to get an “L” bracket for the playdough shelf to prevent future accidents and encountered two people engaged in my PET PEEVE #405!! What is it with people lately??? Lines and rows folks!! That’s why they paint the parking lot, so there will be lines and rows to guide drivers. Do NOT irritate me by driving diagonally across the parking lot, between parked cars, while talking on the cell phone!! Especially if there are two of you going in different directions. BTW there was so much cursing and arm waving exchanged between the two of them over their close encounter, they weren’t even aware I was nearly part of it.

Thank goodness I came home to peace and joy. Did a little online research, cooked dinner, cut out a number game for my students, watched “House” with Gary, answered my email, did the dishes, took a shower, and went to bed.  My exciting life. J

Up at 4:30 am to begin again. Tuesday is going to be great. Tuesday is going…