Scheduling and Children

Things are different now than when I grew up in the 1980's. I remember walking to school in elementary, and it was a bit of a walk. I remember playing outside all day in the summertime. I do remember a lot of days playing on the original NES too, but electronics weren't a prevalent back then. One thing that seems to be overdone these days is extracurricular activities.

Kids are often scheduled with scouts, and sports, and other things to the point that it can make both kids and parents crazy. Add in more kids, and the crazy goes up for the parents. Back in the day, I did play soccer and softball. It wasn't my choice to do those things, because I suck horribly at sports. I also was a Campfire Girl, but that was an activity I loved. But it wasn't too much that I didn't have any free time.

I knew when I had Emily that I wasn't going to over schedule her. She's ten and in the 4th grade. She's in Girl Scouts, chorus at school and involved with choir and youth group at church. All of these activities are things she really enjoys doing. I've asked her if she wants to do a sport, gymnastics or karate and she has said no every time.

With school chorus, I did make her join because she was on the fence. I knew she would love it and she does. Beyond that, I give her the option continue with all of them, and she wants to.

I suppose some would say that I'm not making her well-rounded by not making her do a sport, but I can understand why she doesn't want to. She's just not a sporty girl, and tends to be more interested in the arts - just like I was as a kid.

Even with this little amount of groups she is involved in, it seems like we are constantly on the go during the school year - especially in December and May. I can't imagine if we added more to it.

Last night at Girl Scouts, several other parents and I had a discussion about activities. One said that she is fine with her daughter joining activities but even if she doesn't like it, she has to stick it out for the season. I think this is a good rule to have, especially with sports. Yeah, rec leagues aren't super serious but you could still put your team at a disadvantage if you quit in the middle of the season.

And then another one was talking about being on traveling teams. Apparently there are some teams you can get your kid on and they travel all over. From what they said, it can eat up all of your weekends with traveling to meets. That sounds like a nightmare to me, and completely not doable for our family since both Todd and I work on the weekends.

For now, I think we have a good home-school-activity balance going on for Emily. This summer, she'll have VBS at church and then she'll be going to Girl Scout camp twice. Once for the week and one overnight with me that she earned selling cookies.

Do you think your kids are over-scheduled?

Skills I Use Learned in College

I was in college for seven years. It was mostly be being wishy washy what I wanted to with my life. I spent one year as music major. I quit that one because I realized that I wasn't not great at music so my only option would be to become a teacher. I knew I did not want to be a teacher.

For three years I was a computer science major. I wasn't great at that either. Computer science was a lot more math than I had anticipated. I struggled and struggled. But I did get a C in Calculus II, which was impressive to me. I don't have a good brain for numbers in advanced forms.

I finally gave up on that and switched to Broadcasting. I loved Broadcasting so much and I was pretty good at it. The writing, doing news on screen, video editing. It was a ton of fun and I wish I had realized that many years earlier.

My last start in Broadcasting and my dying mom who wanted to see me graduate meant that I had to hurry up and finish my degree. So I didn't get to explore it as fully as I would have liked and I didn't get a chance to even try for an internship.

But there are two things that I use on a regular basis that I learned in college. Kind of sad for seven years of college especially since they are kind of random.

Even though I left music as a major beyond after my first year, I stayed in the women's choir as long as my schedule would allow it. I love to sing and it was such a fun class to be able to take. One of the things I learned in there was to memorized the music as you go. We never used our music in performances so this was a must.

These days, I am a part the women's choir at church. Though because of my health issues, I'm sadly taking some time off from that. But I have noticed that as we practice, I am still in the habit of memorizing the music and the words as we go along. Kind of a funny skill to have but I still have it.

The other comes from my days as a Broadcasting major. One of the first classes I took was an intro class and one of the first things we learned was the 'broadcast voice." Even tone but pleasant but also firm and clear. This is a skill I use nearly every day at work. Keeping my voice even and pleasant is very important while dealing with hordes of unhappy customers.

I use a few other skills I'm sure but these two are the ones I use most. College was an interesting experience and I had a lot of fun. Someday maybe I'll use more the skills I gained!

The State of Mandy

I may do these posts from time to time - in part so I can see how my recovery is progressing.

It has been a little over two weeks since I was let out of the hospital. Since then, I'm back to work full time. I'm very thankful that my job let me ease back into working by letting me do half days the first week back. And I'm thankful my job didn't try to fire me. I know there are jobs out there that would have - I've heard the horror stories. But I have a super boss who's been great throughout all of this.

The depression is getting better since I'm bad on my antidepressants. I have up days and down days but it's not the black cloud of doom I felt before. If I didn't have Todd and Emily, I may have been suicidal before - that's how bad I felt. But thankfully the pills are helping. Now the depression I feel is situational, because this situation sucks. But it's not as deep and black which is good.

I'm still pretty tired. Not as bad as the first week in December. Even working half days would wipe me right out. I did way over do it on Sunday. We went to church and went early because the choir I'm in was singing. After choir was Sunday School. I go to the Blessed and Stressed class and now that Todd has to come, he goes too. We are blessed but certainly stressed. It's a class kind of geared towards parents trying to juggle everything.

We went home and just vegged for a bit before Todd dropped Emily and I off at the Mountain Play Lodge for a birthday party. Todd had mixed up the dates and had volunteered to work on a friend of a friend's car. So I had to go with Emily while Todd worked on the car.

I mostly sat in the nice chairs they have but Emily would want me to come see what she was doing. I would also do my normal thing of take some pictures of Emily. Todd did come just before pizza and cake time. It was just brakes and he's really good at that.

Things were starting to get spinny at that point. I ate some pizza, and then some pie and ice cream. Not because I was hungry but because I was hoping it will help stop me from feeling so weak. It didn't. After the party, we went to the grocery store, and got some food. I had to hold onto the cart and Todd had to steer to. But we made it through and I ended back in bed.

I've been feeling a little better since then but still majorly tired. I have a bit of a cold which is not helping but trying to get over that too. It's winter and I have a kid so that's going to happen.

The memory issues are still plaguing me. Not much change there. Memory lapses like passwords still happen and I'm still glad I'm not allowed to drive. Around the house, I don't have issues but out and about I still have flashes of 'where the heck am I?'

Sadly I realized the last few days that I don't remember hardly anything from the Browncoat Ball, Emily's Birthday or Halloween. Makes me sad but not trying to push it. I'm staying away from pictures of all three because I don't want to overload myself.

Christmas is fast approaching and I'm feeling better about it - at least more than when the dark cloud of depression was handing over me. But honestly I'm ready for it to be over and for it to be 2015. I'm ready for a new start.

But I'm very thankful for all the family and friends who has been so supportive of us. I really, really appreciate it

Palm Sunday and Family Time

 After our busy day on Saturday, it would have been nice just to relax on Sunday. But that didn't happen since I was up early on Sunday to get ready for church.

We are Lutheran and Holy Week is a big deal in our church. Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter. This past Sunday was Palm Sunday and my choir was singing at the early service.

Everyone got to process in with their palms at the beginning of the service - Emily was very excited to wave her palm. Because Todd came to church, I got to sit with the choir which was nice.

After church, we left right away. Todd's Aunt Denise lives outside of Charlotte. Todd's cousin Mandy, her husband and daughter were down visiting. Since it's only a couple of hours drive, we wanted to make sure to see them while they were in NC.

It was great to spend time with family and to meet Kenzie who is now a toddler. Living in NC is great but we don't see a lot of our family because we haven't been able to get to Michigan for a couple of years now.

Emily and Kenzie played great together despite the age difference. While Kenzie was napping, I took Emily to the neighborhood park was only a few blocks away. They have the standard playground equipment including a merry go round, which none of the parks we frequent have. So Emily loves the merry go round.

I made the mistake of letting Emily push me on the merry go round. I hadn't bee on one in years and once I got off I had a migraine. Beyond that, we had a great time.

I ended up in bed as soon as we got home. With as full as our weekend was, I really over did it. But it was worth it to see family and have family time with just me, Todd and Emily.

Christmas 2013

I hope that everyone celebrates Christmas had a good one. Ours was pretty low key but fun! Like I mentioned in my previous post, Christmas Eve is my favorite part of the holiday, so that’s where I’ll start.

We got to church early since Emily had to get her costume and practice with the other kids. Her age groups, being the smallest kids, were stars. They sang a Christmas version of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” which was adorable. After they sang, she came to sit with us.

Five is a great age – she was singing along with the Christmas carols she knew and dancing around. It was a lovely service! The highlight for me was near the end when it was time to sing “Silent Night”. Todd had his arm around me while holding Emily and we were all singing. It was so magical!

After church we went home and Emily got to open her Christmas pjs, which is a tradition from when I was a kid. She got into her pjs and we watched some TV until it was time for her to go to bed.

 Todd and I waited a bit before Santa came to make sure she was asleep. She didn’t hear us at all because at 3:30 am, I heard her door open. She excitedly told me that Santa had come! I sleepily told her it was 3:30 in the morning and she had to go back to sleep. Thankfully she didn’t fuss too much and went back to bed.

At about 7 am, we got up and Emily started unwrapping her presents. She was delighted by everything she got and kept saying “Thank You Santa!” We got everything opened; the toys out of their packages and then got the wrapping paper cleaned up. We let Emily play for a little bit before we got dressed and go on the road.

Todd’s grandmother is down in visiting Todd’s aunt who only lives two hours away so we went to spend Christmas Day with them. There were more presents, lots of food and family time. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

We got home at a reasonable hour and Todd went to the movies. I got Emily to bed and I settled in to watch Doctor Who. Todd got home just in time to see 11 regenerate into 12. I didn’t really care for the episode but I’m excited to see the new episodes with 12 next year. Since I had to work this morning, I went to bed once Doctor Who was over.

It was a lovely Christmas! Emily declared it to be The Best Christmas ever – but she does that every year!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Emily's Christmas program

Christmas Eve has always been a magical night to me. When I was a kid, the anticipation was high for Santa to arrive. As I got older, I found the magic in the Christmas Eve church service, especially the years I was in various choirs.

Since Emily was born, we always go to the child friendly service at church. Last year she was a little sad that she didn’t get to sing during the service. This year, she does get to sing since she’s part of the Sunday School choir. She and I are both excited for the service tonight.

Tomorrow will be fun with the presents, family and food, but for tonight we get to bask in the magic of this special night. Even though I know Jesus wasn’t born on this night all those years ago but somehow God always seems closer as we sing carols and learn about our Savior’s birth.

I hope all of you who celebrate have a very Merry Christmas and to everyone else Happy Holidays (or happy Tuesday)!