Filed Under: “Definition of Insanity”
Good ol’ Ben (Franklin) said it best: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” And by that definition, I am clearly insane. Because I get up every day and proceed to make every bed, put away every random item around the house, and wash down every counter in the belief that today will be different - today someone will come and look at our house. Even though no one has come in nearly 2 weeks. But! Our realtor called yesterday to say everything is slow and there are few showings at all (meaning it’s not just our sad little house) which somehow pathetically made me feel better. Also she said our house is being advertised in two small local papers and the big house for sale magazine thing starting yesterday. So, um, today really could be different!! (go along with me, I’ve heard crazy people get dangerous when you challenge their beliefs…)

Filed Under: “I am Mikkos“
We’re going to Virginia this weekend, for a quick house-shopping trip. We were rather excited about this because aside from the prospect of knowing where exactly we’re moving TO, we also like the thought of seeing the sun. Because here it is cold and rainy and apparently Washington has not gotten the memo that it is MAY for cripes sake. And last I checked it was in the 80’s in Virginia. But! Not this weekend. Oh no, this weekend, the world plays Switcharoo and it will be in the 80’s here while it is RAINING and/or CLOUDY and in the 60’s in Virginia. No joke. What’s worse is, I’m hardly surprised. Because this happens every. single. time. we travel. Remember February’s Great Disney Disaster? Seriously, People of Virginia consider yourselves warned: We are moving there. And we are bringing the clouds with us. Kiss that sunshine good-bye and prepare for the moss.

Filed Under: “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”
So I’ve been meaning for a couple years now to write to our school board to say how great I think the G/T program at the elementary level is. Because it really is very good. There’s only 3 elementary schools in our tiny district but they’ve made one a GT magnet where they have two multi-age self-contained classes. And the two teachers are amazing, because even though all the kids are “gifted” they have a wide range of abilities across all the subjects and these women do an incredible job of adjusting the curriculum to fit each child’s needs. My kids just flourished in these classes. So anyway, last week being teacher appreciation week, I figured it was time to get off my duff and write the letter already. I wrote a long letter of praise, specifically saying how great a self-contained class is and how wonderful the teachers are… and then at the end I said my only disappointment with the program is that it isn’t continued into the middle school. You know I had to, I mean that middle school has the lamest most pathetic “gifted” programs EVER. They say they use the “cluster” approach. Well, the true Cluster approach is to have 5-8 gifted kids in one regular class with a teacher who has been trained in gifted education and works to adjust the curriculum such that the gifted kids do not spend hours doing worksheets that repetitively teach them things they already know. Our middle school’s approach was to randomly have 3-4 kids in a class with a teacher who hasn’t a clue what it means to be gifted and does absolutely nothing to differentiate the curriculum. And their definition of “Enrichment” is to give the gifted kids an extra project to do on their own with no help from a teacher or even from their gifted peers and then present it to a large group of important adults. (Because see, then the school can brag about their wonderful gifted kids and the wonderful work they do, even though the school did absolutely nothing to facilitate their learning whatsoever.) Now if our local school had a clue about gifted kids they would know that many gifted people are introverts. In fact, it appears that introversion increases with intelligence so that more than 75% of people with an IQ above 160 are introverted. What does that mean? Well for starters it means that presenting a project to a large group of important adults would be akin to torture for these kids. Which is precisely why my daughter refused to do the so-called enrichment in 6th grade and was so relieved when I pulled her out to home school this year. Anyway, there was a point to all of this, I swear. And I’m getting there. Soon, I promise. So, I sent the letter to the Superintendent of our district, the School Board president and CC’d the Assistant Superintendent, aka the Guy In Charge of the Honors Committee for the middle school and also the elementary school principal and the G/T teachers. Well imagine my surprise when the very next day I get an email from the Middle School principal. Apparently the Asst. Super forwarded my mail to her and suggested she contact me because clearly I don’t know about the gifted options at the middle school. Hello? Can you say MORON? I have had multiple email conversations with the guy about the suckiness of the middle school and now he thinks I’m just a clueless new mom? Did he miss the part of my letter where I said my 7th grade daughter told me 4th/5th grades were the best years of her school life? And what about the principal? Does she not realize my daughter was at her school until I pulled her out?! Seriously, the woman sent me the cheesy brochure ( aka “pack of lies”) that uses glowing terms to describe their ridiculous G/T program and suggested I look into it. To say I was mad would be something of an understatement. In a rage might be a little closer. I started to reply, holding very little back because what have I got to lose now? But then I remembered: I need my daughter’s records from that school. And I need them not to say “Mother is a crazy psycho woman.” So um, here’s the plan. First, I’ll get K~’s records. And then? Oh baby will they find out what I think of that joke of a school and their lame-a&% gifted programming. All this, just because I wanted to praise my kids teachers!

Filed Under: “Enough Already!”
Zeeb has another cold. And I think I’m getting it. Also the other three kids seem to be fighting something off. I’ve been passing it off as allergies but I think it’s the real thing. Dang it. Aren’t we supposed to done with colds by now? It’s May! And… and, I’m tired…and I’m all done wiping noses and… did I mention, it’s May?!

Your response: