Spudlets

Post-Holiday Ramblins

Yes, the holidays are officially over … well, for kids around here in public schools, there will be three days off for some kind of winter break/MLK holiday.  These youngsters just got a few weeks off, and now they get three more days.  Any wonder how they can keep their focus on school work? 

Josh is upset that his homeschooling schedule has him working through it, as it’s obviously not fair that other kids get off but he has school.  His school schedule is so easy yet he does not really appreciate how good he has it.  Joey does very well in school work but would just as soon not go to school (play on the computer or video games instead).  Sandy seems to like it unless she’s frustrated or bored, and then it will sometimes devolve into clash of wills where she ends up in her room crying.  I think she’s getting better but when you’re in the middle of it daily it can be difficult to have a good perspective on it.

She turns 6 in a few days, and we’re scheduled for a party at one of those “bounce around” places on Saturday.  She does not have any friends outside of church since she started homeschooling.  We have not pushed her on sports for now, as the one time she was in soccer she did not take too well to coaching.  Kristal is still (and probably always will be) hurting from the dance class recital/disaster last summer.  She takes Sandy’s misbehavior when out in public too personally, as if it’s a reflection of her “bad parenting”, so she tends to look at the other “good” kids and beats herself up over things out of her control.  We’ll give her a little more time before trying sports again (maybe cheerleading?).

We will kid each other and say that God gave us Josh to prepare us for Sandy, though Josh is still his own handful as he enters the surly preteen phase.  He wants to be treated like an older teenager yet can act like a kid, complete with mouthy replies and selfish perspective.  I worry about Sandy’s development, as she does not seem to be maturing where I’d hope she’d be.  Part of it could be “baby of the family”, but there’s this nagging doubt about her birth mother using drugs and if that has influenced Sandy’s development. 

Just yesterday she brought up her “other” mother and father and talked about wanting to see them.  It has to be difficult for her to come to grips with this situation.  I’m tempted to tell her the real reason why her birth parents are out, but all she has are memories and the Christmas gifts they still send.  It has been at least a year and a half since her last visit with birth mother, but it’s still on her mind.  I will praise God that she has finally told me that she loves me after I tell her that I love her before she goes to bed.  Joey is still a work in progress.

Anywhozitz, they all got fairly spoiled for Christmas.  My in-laws drove in for Christmas day so I made pizza for them.  With them driving we did not have to travel at all for the holidays.  They were nice enough to give us some holiday green.  I got some headphones from an FYE at the mall going out of business.   They were 50% off, but it turned out to be the same price as on Amazon (without the shipping, though).  I used the rest of the money to upgrade a cordless drill Kristal snuck in under the tree.  I thought we had said we weren’t getting each other anything, though she claims she did not “hear” that.

I tried to spoil her for her 50th b-day on the 5th with a gold-diamond necklace/pendant, though on our budget the diamonds were fairly tiny.  She said she did not want a big party, so we kept it low-key with just family and two cakes:  one on the 5th and one on the following Saturday.  A birthday girl has got to have her priorities …

With the headphones I’ve been enjoying Lala and reminiscing over music I have not heard in years.  Most of my old stuff is on vinyl in the closet, and I have not had the space/money/strong desire to set up a turntable.  With Lala, you can hear songs or whole albums for free the first time.  After that you only get a thirty second preview of a song, unless you pay.  You can pay for an MP_3 download, or you can pay about a tenth as much for a “streaming” right to a song or album.  I’ll be putting some money in the Lala bank soon (I hope!).  There’s some Steely Dan that keeps running through my head.  The only groups that do not have music on the site (that I’ve found for now) are Led Zepplin and the Who.

If you read this and think you would want to register, please let me know and I can help you – as well as get a few free songs myself for registering you (HA!).  Most albums are under a dollar for streaming.  They do have a vast library, from contemporary Christian to comedy to jazz (175 Duke Ellington albums) to Hank Williams to Raffi to Bach (though classical on MP_3 stream is questionable for some audiophiles).  If you have your computer hooked up with decent speakers, this is as good a way as any to hear music you want for cheap AND legal.

Prayers go out to those in Haiti picking up their lives.  I may just have a post and/or letter to the editor about that situation.