I stayed home from work today because these kids I’m watching had a cold, and guess what, they shared it with me. I’m learning more about nanny jobs with every temporary job and job interview. Questions I now know to ask about a job:
1 Roughly how many hours of TV a day do you allow the kids to watch?
I now have a STRONG loathing for children’s TV stations. I HATE Barney, and Sprout, and PBS Kids. A very STRONG LOATHING! People let their kids watch TV all day because they don’t make the kids take naps, so the kids get tired and crabby. Plus, the parents don’t know how to control the kids because they don’t discipline them, so they just turn on the TV.
2 Do you have pets indoors?
One family I interviewed with had three inside dogs. One was as big as me, and one was “a little old and crabby”, so he had to wear a muzzle sometimes. Um, I’m not comfortable with that! He would bite me for sure. And I don’t like having dog hair all over the house.
3 Are your children healthy now and when they are sick, will you take time off to take care of them so I won’t catch it too and take it home so my entire family will get it?
So far, in both of my temporary jobs, the kids were sick and they got me sick. I think the parents don’t think much of the whole "contagious" thing because their kids get sick a lot, probably because they are living on a processed, dead food junk diet. They let the kids have candy whenever they like.
So here I am at home catching up on everything from artwork to kissing the boys to finally eating home made food. I can’t understand how people can live on frozen, instant, and fast foods. UGH!
This post seems a bit complainy, so I should probably say the family I’m working for is really nice- good boss, good money, good situation, fairly good kids. I just don’t think I could do it long term because I am required to attempt to control the kids by manipulation. There’s no discipline, no naps(unless they happen to fall asleep), no rules, just keep the kids happy. We wouldn’t want them to (gasp) cry!
Have I ever mentioned how much I love my family?
Absence makes the heart grow MUCH fonder!
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Who are you going to vote for?
Mercy sakes, Election Day is coming up, and I get to vote for the second time in my life. Can you believe I’m that OLD?!?! We are very busy right now with political activities- Mom volunteered to host a “meet the candidates” night in our area for the local mayoral and school board candidates etc. I already have a good idea who I’m going to vote for as far as Governor, Senator, and Representative, but no one knows much about the county representatives and the judges. Also, there are six amendments, one referendum, and two initiatives to vote on that we hope to address that night as well. I’ve got most of those figured out, too, but goodness those politicians don’t speak English! I need a translator.
I also got another temporary two week job. Besides working for those two weeks, Jen and I will be traveling out of state the week of the election with our Generation Joshua club to help with another campaign. So don’t expect too many posts until after the election.
I am hoping to post about the movie coming out soon- “Flags of our Fathers”. If it is really good we might go see it, since we didn’t get to see “Facing the Giants”.
P.S. Did you all notice that I finally got a blogroll set up? It took me more than a year to get to that.
I also got another temporary two week job. Besides working for those two weeks, Jen and I will be traveling out of state the week of the election with our Generation Joshua club to help with another campaign. So don’t expect too many posts until after the election.
I am hoping to post about the movie coming out soon- “Flags of our Fathers”. If it is really good we might go see it, since we didn’t get to see “Facing the Giants”.
P.S. Did you all notice that I finally got a blogroll set up? It took me more than a year to get to that.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Tuesday October 17th
A normal day at the business. The weather here has cleared up nicely; I had cold leftover lasagna for lunch along with two pieces of bread (I blew a fuse trying to toast them) and several (I’m not telling how many) pieces of chocolate left from the local chamber of commerce lunch, which is always very good. Here are two poems for you to ponder.
Ash Wednesday
My God, my God, have mercy on my sin,
For it is great; and if I should begin
To tell it all, the day would be too small
To tell it in.
My God, Thou wilt have mercy on my sin
For Thy Love’s sake: yea, if I should begin
To tell This all, the day would be too small
To tell it in.
Good Lord, today
I scarce find breath to say:
Scourge, but receive me.
For stripes are hard to bear, but worse
Thy intolerable curse;
So do not leave me.
Good Lord, lean down
In pity, tho’ Thou frown;
Smite, but retrieve me:For so
Thou hold me up to stand
And kiss Thy smiting hand,
It less will grieve me.
– Christina Rossetti
Plurals
The plural of mouse is mice.
The plural of louse is lice.
So then shouldn’t the plural of moose be meese?
Shouldn’t the plural of caboose be cabeese?
After all, the true plural of goose is geese.
The plural of hippopotamus is hippopotami.
Then shouldn’t two elephants be elephanti?
The plural of sneeze is sneezes.
The plural of cheese is cheeses.
So then shouldn’t the plural of knee be kneezes?
And shouldn’t the plural of bee be beezes?
After all, the plural of wheeze is wheezes.
-Dean Koontz
Ash Wednesday
My God, my God, have mercy on my sin,
For it is great; and if I should begin
To tell it all, the day would be too small
To tell it in.
My God, Thou wilt have mercy on my sin
For Thy Love’s sake: yea, if I should begin
To tell This all, the day would be too small
To tell it in.
Good Lord, today
I scarce find breath to say:
Scourge, but receive me.
For stripes are hard to bear, but worse
Thy intolerable curse;
So do not leave me.
Good Lord, lean down
In pity, tho’ Thou frown;
Smite, but retrieve me:For so
Thou hold me up to stand
And kiss Thy smiting hand,
It less will grieve me.
– Christina Rossetti
Plurals
The plural of mouse is mice.
The plural of louse is lice.
So then shouldn’t the plural of moose be meese?
Shouldn’t the plural of caboose be cabeese?
After all, the true plural of goose is geese.
The plural of hippopotamus is hippopotami.
Then shouldn’t two elephants be elephanti?
The plural of sneeze is sneezes.
The plural of cheese is cheeses.
So then shouldn’t the plural of knee be kneezes?
And shouldn’t the plural of bee be beezes?
After all, the plural of wheeze is wheezes.
-Dean Koontz
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Something to laugh at
I started a pencil drawing today of our family with Jason at the Air Force Academy. So far, Jason looks like an elf, Jeremy looks very fat, and Caleb appears to be as skinny as a beanpole. I myself look shorter and more round-shouldered than ever. The mountains look like the Nebraska sand hills. Hopefully I can fix all that. If not- I’ll keep this picture hidden and bring it out to laugh at when I’m down. It’s making me laugh now, so I thought I’d share the mental picture with you.
Boy post
Caleb recently joined Civil Air Patrol; here he is in his blues, which, despite all his skinny length, are to big for him.
He just might be growing up. I hesitate to use the term “Growing up” because it seems that most boys do not grow up until their mid twenties. Let’s just say that he’s “changing”. He is by turns silly and childish, awkward and gawky, pious and sanctimonious. Who says girls are the only ones who get emotional in their teens? That’s about as silly as the myth that girls talk more than boys. His feet get bigger every day and he talks seriously about when he will have to start shaving. The silly and childish stage is what we’re used to, the one where he won’t stop yelling and jumping up and down. Just when we think he really is maturing, he falls back into this attitude. When he’s awkward and gawky, there isn’t an object he can’t trip over, it isn’t possible for him to find anything under any circumstances, and he never hears us even if we are talking into his ear. But the pious and sanctimonious period is the one where we have to grin and bear it. He informs all of us exactly how much time we are wasting watching TV when we could be doing Bible study and moans over the lack of serious boys his age. Don’t you dare laugh at him when he is in this hellfire and brimstone mood! What a blessing to be able to watch my four younger brothers go through life and grow. It’s like having a front seat to a drama, a comedy, and a moral story all squished into one.
He just might be growing up. I hesitate to use the term “Growing up” because it seems that most boys do not grow up until their mid twenties. Let’s just say that he’s “changing”. He is by turns silly and childish, awkward and gawky, pious and sanctimonious. Who says girls are the only ones who get emotional in their teens? That’s about as silly as the myth that girls talk more than boys. His feet get bigger every day and he talks seriously about when he will have to start shaving. The silly and childish stage is what we’re used to, the one where he won’t stop yelling and jumping up and down. Just when we think he really is maturing, he falls back into this attitude. When he’s awkward and gawky, there isn’t an object he can’t trip over, it isn’t possible for him to find anything under any circumstances, and he never hears us even if we are talking into his ear. But the pious and sanctimonious period is the one where we have to grin and bear it. He informs all of us exactly how much time we are wasting watching TV when we could be doing Bible study and moans over the lack of serious boys his age. Don’t you dare laugh at him when he is in this hellfire and brimstone mood! What a blessing to be able to watch my four younger brothers go through life and grow. It’s like having a front seat to a drama, a comedy, and a moral story all squished into one.
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Artwork on a large scale
Obviously I don't have much time to post. Yesterday Caleb and I painted the first coat of paint on one of our very ugly rooms upstairs that hasn't been redecorated since the 1970s. I've never painted on such a large scale and I am learning by trial and error.
Today I tried to plan out my lessons for the next four weeks of art class- yes, I said the next four weeks. I was asked to keep teaching, and to more kids too. I expect I will have to be very firm with some of them.
Today I tried to plan out my lessons for the next four weeks of art class- yes, I said the next four weeks. I was asked to keep teaching, and to more kids too. I expect I will have to be very firm with some of them.
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Why I go to book club
I know I’ve kind of groused about this in the past; that the book club ladies only want to read for fun and pleasure, which certainly has it’s place; but I’d rather read a fun book that has a good moral and exemplary main characters; in short, an old-fashioned book. So after my previous posts, you may wonder, why do I still go? I’ll tell you why.
1 I should be involved in my community
This is my community and I need to be involved in it. I should be responsible for the growth and health of this community along with all the other business owners and residents. One way I can be socially involved in the community is book club.
2 I can learn from it and get to know the townspeople
I should get to know the townspeople- not just the kids or middle aged parents, but the elderly too. The elderly especially, because there are many of them in our town and they have lived through history we would do well to learn about, and though many teenagers, and I’m sorry to admit myself included, fail to realize the knowledge people accumulate when they have lived for sixty or more years. Teenagers think they know everything already!
3 I can be a missionary
I can introduce the local people to the ideas of home schooling by my behaviour and manners. Our town often tends to center around the public school, and only in the last five years have people begun to learn about home schooling and to dismiss the myths and prejudices the often surround it. I will always be a representative of my family, my schooling, and my faith, no matter where I go.
4 and finally, it really is fun.
1 I should be involved in my community
This is my community and I need to be involved in it. I should be responsible for the growth and health of this community along with all the other business owners and residents. One way I can be socially involved in the community is book club.
2 I can learn from it and get to know the townspeople
I should get to know the townspeople- not just the kids or middle aged parents, but the elderly too. The elderly especially, because there are many of them in our town and they have lived through history we would do well to learn about, and though many teenagers, and I’m sorry to admit myself included, fail to realize the knowledge people accumulate when they have lived for sixty or more years. Teenagers think they know everything already!
3 I can be a missionary
I can introduce the local people to the ideas of home schooling by my behaviour and manners. Our town often tends to center around the public school, and only in the last five years have people begun to learn about home schooling and to dismiss the myths and prejudices the often surround it. I will always be a representative of my family, my schooling, and my faith, no matter where I go.
4 and finally, it really is fun.
Holy Sonnets
XIV.
Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
-John Donne, 1572-1631
Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
-John Donne, 1572-1631
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