Catching My Breath

One month of school left! "Ready" for those summer days does not even cover how anticipated those days are.

• Sleeping in until the sun is up!
• Cooking dishes that take more than 15 minutes
• Going to the gym without guilt
• Ice cream/BBQ!
• Finishing all those nagging projects from the school year
• Starting new projects - like a job board for the kids; new curtains for the living room; building some sort of outdoor storage, gardening.
• Hiking/beach trips with the kids.
  

Maybe the weather will stay nice enough to do the local water park!  Or, I'm thinking about taking a short trip near my hometown area to experience some heat and sun. I cannot wait for days over 50 degrees!

Choosing A School

As a teacher, I feel pretty strongly about education in general. As a mother, well, let's just say I am more than a little concerned about the state of public education. And even more so as the registration for Kindergarten looms. I will admit to having a lot of concerns that stem from the fact that neither of my children had what you would call a healthy introduction into the world. Will that affect their learning? Social skills? Growth? Who knows? Statistically, they're already behind the eight ball and I want to make sure they have every advantage I can give them. Most parents do, right?

Next year, the cuddler will be old enough for Pre-K. There are limited Pre-K programs in my area. Most lean heavily on the "let's play a lot and hope to get something out of it" programming. He'll be attending the same one that Lala has attended this year. It's somewhat academic, but with a lot of flexibility based on the class mentality. This year, they focused on art because the kids loved it. The pictures they are drawing now are pretty advanced for four year olds.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to pay for Lala to continue at that school. Kindergarten is a full day program and four times the cost of this year. (also, the cost of Lala's program has doubled this year). She's off to a local public school. A public school that as always faces draconian cuts again. Her class will probably have over 25 students. I'm hoping that there will be at least one aid with the teacher who isn't constantly working with children in need of support, but it's unlikely. I'm hoping that she is assigned to a teacher who is able to keep her interested and focused, while supporting the student who don't speak English, who don't recognize letters, who can't yet count... and have a bladder the size of Texas, because no teacher actually gets a break  during the day as music, art and PE have already been cut.

I worry what will happen next year when the cuddler goes into the Kindergarten. He's a boy's boy. He doesn't sit. When he was first placed with me, I was told he may have developmental issues because he wouldn't sit up for them. I brought him home, set him down on the floor and watched him start crawling around. He didn't sit, because he wanted to explore. What is going to happen to him? In a crowded classroom (weren't designed for large groups of kids) with one teacher and a lot of high need kiddies.

Combine all that anxiety with the conversation I had with a teacher today about how there is NO science education at the elementary level any more because they're so focused on improving reading and math scores... I seriously have to wonder what the hell is going on with education today! And I'm part of it! It feels like someone (the gov't? the vastly weathly? uber-lords of the universe?) wants to be pushing kids with parents who care/have $$ into private schools and leave everyone else to fend for themselves/fight for survival. It's like a reality tv competition... only for the lives of kids. Scary no?

I've know I've written dozens of time about the hate/loath relationship I have with my kitchen. It's mostly original to when the house was built in 1956, with a few changes made here and there over the years. It's small, with little room to move around. I can't use the sink and have the dishwasher door open. The range sits in the middle of the room. The refrigerator feels enormous, but probably is a normal size - it hulks on the edge of the counter. There is little storage. Seriously, I could go on for days about how much I dislike the kitchen.

I do like the windows. I like the openness with the living room. Literally, I can stand in the front yard and see through the house to the back yard. In an area where it rains for 9 months solid during the year, light is important. It has good bones. Also, I love my new pantry. It still makes me smile.

For the last six years, I've been trying to decide what to do with this kitchen. Did I mention it's small? Yah... where to put appliances and still have counter space has been the biggest conundrum. Multiple designs have come and gone. I even tried to sit down with a kitchen designer at a local big box store, but they apparently couldn't be bother with selling anything. I've stalked HGTV, despite the incomparable slowness of their site, and when it came along Pinterest, Houzz, etc.

Then I found it!

traditional kitchen design by los angeles interior designer The Old Painted Cottage

 Is it not gorgeous? Light, bright, begging you whip out a loaf of bread. It's the configuration that hopefully will work in my own kitchen (I'm not sure I have that much space - for real). Now that I've found this perfect inspiration, everything else is falling into place. Picked a sink. Chose the flooring, decided what to do with the pass through. It's just all come together in the last two days! After six years of waffling.

Now, I'm just waiting for the contractor to call me back to get started. Yipee!

Spring Break

Last week we were on Spring Break :)  Here's a few highlights:

• our town once again has a place to purchase craft/sewing supplies beyond quilting! It's been so long since I haven't had to hire a babysitter and drive over an hour to shop that I haven't really done anything in a while... that may change soon!
• both children learned how to use the camera on my cell phone. I now have 10 billion photos of the couch and various arms or legs.
• I also have multiple kid games on my phone.
  
• I finished the pantry!!! I now have space to store the extra blankets in an actual linen closet (woot!) instead of Lala's room and see that I went a little overboard buying powdered sugar last Christmas when it was on sale. Also, I don't need pasta for a while.
  

• Two days later, the Cuddler nearly impaled himself when he pulled a bracket out and dropped a shelf on himself.
• Work is still crazy, but in a much more positive way.
• We were gifted with a new-to-us swing set during break and the weather was actually nice enough so the kids could use it! Everyone is so grateful!