Classic case of Sundaynitis

I must admit that over the years I have many times developed a very bad case of Sundaynitis. Sundaynitis is no laughing matter. It causes severe body aches, fatigue, sometimes nausea, headaches, and just an overall feeling of yuck. For those of you who have never experienced Sundaynitis...my hat is off to you, Good job! For those of you who have, I think we should start a support group to ease the guilt associated with this sickness.
Last night I told my husband that I was too sick to go to church. Of course he asked what was wrong with me, (I obviously wasn't pulling off the flushed, fevered look very well) To be truthful it is most embarrassing why I don't want to attend my church meetings today. So here is my Sundaynitis story...
Last weekend for Easter, my family went camping. We had a most wonderful time, the weather almost cooperated several times and before I knew it the fair skin on my face and neck had been sunburned. When my lips get sunburned I tend to develop a fever blisters on them. By Wednesday, my lip started to tingle and I knew it was happening. Fever blisters are kinda like zits...everyone can see them but only the most tactless people mention them in polite conversation. I say this to defend my own feelings about what happened next. On Thursday I went to school with my entire lip swelled up with a painful blister. It was a monstrosity. I approached a group of co-workers who were in the middle of a conversation during lunch, and one of the ladies turned to me, stopped talking to the others in mid sentence and said "Oh, you have a cold sore on your lip." I'm sure the shocked look I gave her and my reply of "Do I?" made it seem to them that I honestly did not know that my bottom lip was one huge massive blister...like seriously how could I have missed this. Have you ever had a zit that seemed like it was so big it almost had a personality of its' own? The kind where you look in the mirror and it is sneering and laughing at you? The kind where you are with a group of people and you just know that they are all staring at the ginormous blemish on your face? The kind you name because well it has taken up permanent residence on your face? This is how I felt about my lip. I came to school with a blister and suddenly it became my worst enemy, I named it Henrietta. The rest of the day I had the unnerving feeling that everyone was looking at Henrietta, although no one else spoke of it. My paranoia was obvious as I tried everything to cover my lip while speaking to others..casually putting a paper in front of my face, covering my mouth with my hand, even tucking it in my mouth so that I looked as if I had a massive overbite. All this in an effort to diminish the embarrassment I felt about having a sore on my lip.
So I am now on day 4 with a fever blister, and if you have ever had one you know they don't look any better with time...my lip is one big scab. Fredonia is a very small town, and this lovely woman happens to be in my ward...so to prevent further embarrassment I am choosing to classify a fever blistered lip under Sundaynitis.
But wait...what is that I hear, a child is sick and throwing up. Is it the flu or too many brownies? I don't know and truthfully don't really care for this is a genuine real excuse to stay home from church!! A real excuse to use when this wonderful woman says to me tomorrow, "Oh you still have a cold sore! I missed you at church" I can reply calmly by saying, "Jax was sick" instead of "Henrietta the fever blister wasn't feeling well."

Ponderings

Often when I feel a little knocked down and overwhelmed by the world, I reflect on my life and how I'm doing. I ask myself this series of questions and pretty soon I remember what is important in life. Bills, money, school, and stress take a back seat to the wonderful blessings I have in my life.

I wonder if when I leave a place do people think fondly on the time we spent together or are they glad to see me go?
Am I being the kind of friend that people seek out and cherish, or am I just an aquaintance, someone they once knew?
I wonder if in my daily activites whether I am touching lives or just annoying the hell out of people?
Will my kids think back and remember me for the fun crazy times, or the times I screamed and yelled and lost my patience?
Have I loved my husband deeply enough that there would be an ache in his heart if I were gone?
Does my mom know how much she means to me? Does she know how scared I am of ever losing her?
Do my sisters know how much I love them and how much I cherish their friendship?

So for all of you important people in my life, I want you to know you are amazing, you are wonderful, and I love you! You make my life worth living, it is you who make everything else irrelevant!

Missing you already

This post is for my dear friends Erin and Buffie...I will miss you dearly at stamp camp!!

Education

This week has been an intersting one to say the least. Normally my posts are boring or light hearted, however today I feel the need to write about a subject that is bothering me. I know I am opening myself up for critisim, so if you feel the need...be gentle.
As most of you know, I work at the school. I am a tutor/aid and I really love my job. I am attending college classes so that one day I may join the ranks of underappreciated, overworked, underpaid teachers. Why would I want to do this you may ask, my reply is simple...I love the look of understanding that enters into a childs eyes when they are being taught. As an employee of the school, I suppose you might say I have to say that we have amazing teachers..but as a parent I am not obligated to think so...and yet I do. I think that Fredonia has an amazing school system. We have caring teachers who bend over backward to make sure that kids do well. We don't have alot of money, and our playground equipment is old, but it works. However, like any school system anywhere, you have to have parent participation. When did it become the schools job to make sure a student does their homework...it is called HOME work for a reason. And if a student is failing, when did it become the schools job to gather their homework and hold their hand, while the parent is otherwise occuppied getting their nails done, working, or just flat sitting at home? I am a working mother...but my first responsibility is to my children. It is my job to make sure my kids do their homework...if they don't, well then we don't watch TV, we don't play outside, we don't do gymnastics or basketball, or baseball, we don't listen to I-pods, play video games or any other extra curricular activity that even remotely seems like fun...NO, if my kids don't do their homework, they know that life as they know it will be severely altered. Am I a harsh parent? Are they missing out on their childhood?....Uh, no because I can honestly tell you that there are very few times when I have to exert this kind of punishment. They know the consequences and they do their homework. Am I mother of the year...absolutely not, but education is important in our house and every one of my kids from my oldest to my baby who isn't in school knows it.
And what about behavior issues? When I was a student, my parents NEVER took my side over a teachers. Were the teachers always right...heavens no! I know there were times when I was completely in the right, but it didn't matter because it was a matter of respect. My own parents taught me not to back talk my teachers (I still did, but the punishment was not pretty) they taught me to be responsible for my grades and to talk with the teacher if I had a problem. Now, everything is the teachers fault. If Bobby is getting an F because he just plain didn't do any work, well then it is the teachers fault. If Susie acts disrespectfully and disrupts the class to the point that the other 30 kids can't learn, it isn't her fault it is the teachers fault.
There is no glory in being a teacher...if a student does well, it is because they have good parents, if a student does poorly it is the teachers fault. Where is the logic? Ultimately, whether or not a student suceeds or fails it entirely up to the parents. It is our job to make it matter, to make school important and if we as parents fail to do that, then a teacher can't be held responsible for our child's failure.
I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there
The clay they used was a young child's mind
And they fashioned it with care.
One was a teacher - the tools she used Were books, music and art,
The other, a parent, worked with a guiding hand and a gentle loving heart.
Day after day, the teacher toiled with touch that was deft and sure.
While the parent labored by her side and polished and smoothed it o'er.
And when at last their task was done, They were proud of what they had wrought.
For the things they had molded into the child Could neither be sold nor bought.
And each agreed they would have failed if each had worked alone,
For behind the teacher stood the school and behind the parent, the home.
Ray A. Lingenfelter
It is my own hope and prayer, that I will continue to raise my own kids with a love for education and a desire to learn and grow. It is also my hope that when I do finally become a teacher, that my students will have parents who are supportive of me in my task to teach their children. We should appreciate our childrens teachers daily rather than once a year...they deserve it!!

Walk...

I decided last night that I needed to go for a walk today. I have been trying to get back in the habit of daily exercise, however my body just doesn't want to cooperate. In fact, two weeks ago I told my body we were going to exercise and it staged a severe revolt. I ended up hurting my hip and knee in a very serious ice dance that ended in a less than graceful fall. Last night after I told Bayden my intentions of walking to the top of the hill, I hurtled myself into a chair in a panicked rush to save banana bread from burning. The result was a massive bruise on my shin bone. I did however force myself to go on that walk...(well technically, I forced myself to get on the horse and go for a ride, but the horse had a sore foot so I ended up walking the horse back home.) Anyway, long story short...I didn't make it to the top of the hill, then again I didn't ever specify which hill so I suppose the ant hill I climbed would count...so I am ever hopeful that this cursed lack of balance issue has been resolved with my short 2 block walk. Here's hoping!!