"Keep Calm and Carry On" April 2020 W.I.S.H. Challenge

[PollyannaMom]

...a good cry when its just needed - sometimes you don't even you know you need it and end up really crying in a movie or tv show - I did that this week (i can't even remember the show now) but I just gave into it and then I felt better.

So true! It's like you just need some little thing to cry over, so the bottled up tears from the big stuff can come out. I've always been an "after the crisis" crier myself. I'll look like a cold hard rock when the emergency is happening, and then I'll burst into tears at a McDonald's commercial 3 days later.

There is a psychologist I like who likes to really involve the kids in problem solving - he gets you to ask specific questions like "I have noticed you are having trouble getting started on your book report for english, whats up with that?" then give space for the child to answer - don't throw out any of your 'thoughts about why yet' sometimes you need to let some silence sit while they think and then respond - the key here is that we are giving space for the kids to tell us their perspective and often the problem may not be what we thought it was. Repeat it back to them to make sure you have understood - and it helps them feel like they were heard - they may have several reasons - make sure you get them all out. Then we clarify our concern e.g. "I am concerned you won't get your book report done by the due date and you might lose marks if its late" - now that you have heard what the kids see as the roadblock and clarified that with them - now invite them to problem solve with you "I wonder if there is a way to help you get the report started..." - again they may need some thinking space - or you might need to model some ideas if they really don't have any ideas- but don't let all the ideas be yours - one of their ideas may even be to ask you for help When I have used this approach with kids I am so impressed even with quite young children e.g. grade 2 as to their personal insight and ability to help problem solve. We ask the specific questions rather than the big "why aren't you doing all of your school work at the moment - as it is too big for the kids to think about and respond to - so by breaking it down specifically we have more of a chance for them to interact with it.

Love this!!


WooHoo Wednesday - I think I've made some progress in getting us all into a routine here. Predictability is my friend, and even a lose plan helps.

No new weight loss, but at least I'm maintaining the initial drop.

 

[MickeyMom76]

Woohoo!

 

[piglet1979]

@4Mickeys This is one thing that I do with Elizabeth. I usually ask "this assignment is showing that it is missing, can you tell me why". She is really good at explaining to me why and what is going on. Right now she has been really good with reaching out to her teachers herself. She is getting herself in a grove and on a schedule. Nick I can't ask these questions. As his answer is always I didn't know I had to do it or they didn't tell me to turn it in. I am certain he has a bit of ADHD. I need to be a bit more direct with him.

I have given them both the opportunity to make there own schedule because the are old enough to do it on there own. I wish the teachers still had class but there is a decent amount of families in the district that don't have computers or WiFi. The district gave 1 computer to each family that needed one to share so they not a way to have everyone in a class meeting for these families. So I get it but I wish they were able to. Nicks teachers are not really doing any meetings but Elizabeth's teachers are each meeting 1 day a week for about an hour. Nick just needs more guidance then what he is getting. Though the funny part is that Nick has done horrible in English all year. Never turns in assignments and I am always on him about this class. This is the only lass that he has everything turned in on time. He told me he likes how she is doing everything. With Nick I think it will help to sit down once or twice a week to just go over everything. That seemed to really help him. Also we need to turn off his access to the XBox for him to focus on school work. We will see how it works with sitting down with him each week first. They get their assignments on Monday for the week. So I think Wednesday and Friday are good days to do this.

Work today is crazy again and I don't see it getting better until September. This is our busy time. So my woohoo for today is that I still have a job and that they are being very flexible. I am still working my normal hours because I can but a co-working has her day split up because she has young kids and her husband is a preacher so when he has to go into work she can't and sometimes the kids join in on a meeting too to say hi. And this is all ok with my work. As long as we get our work done they are happy. They even don't mind when I leave for 2-3 hours in the middle of the day to do our grocery shopping every other week. I love my job and the people I work with.

 

[Summer2018]

Woo Hoo #2

My grade level meeting went very well. I'm so blessed to have a great principal. She is taking off some of the burden that the superintendent is adding. In order to do what he wants will be stressful for teachers, so she is taking some things off our plate one day a week which frees up the time we will need. I love her.

 

[Oneanne]

THANKFUL THURSDAY... but let's mix it up a bit.



Instead of listing our thankfuls, let's chat about what sparks joy for us... and not necessarily the sort-thru-your-stuff and fold-it-properly kind of joy (unless that really makes you giddy).

Describe a couple things that you love and that really make you deeply happy. Try to be specific and detailed to the point where writing about them brings the same level of joy as experiencing them first hand.

Examples:
Non-specific - I love spending time with my family.
Specific - I love baking chocolate chip cookies with my daughter. She is so careful and precise when organizing and measuring the ingredients and I just love watching her concentrate and figure things out.

 

[sjrec]

I love having my grandson spend the night with us. Even though he’s almost 10, he will still snuggle up while I read aloud to him-right now we’re reading Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes. I love how he isn’t afraid to ask us about things he doesn’t understand and the conversations that come from those questions. I am so thankful he lives close by and we are a big part of his life. That he brings me joy is a perfect way to describe what he means to me.

 

[MickeyMom76]

I love when my daughter gets a case of the giggles so hard that she can’t talk. And it’s contagious. Then my son starts laughing. Then I start laughing. My husband isn’t one to start really laughing, but he’ll join in by saying something that makes us all start to laugh harder. It has been happening quite often at the dinner table during our “stay at home” time. This case of the giggles is something the my brother, sister and I sometimes get during holiday meals as adults.

Another thing that brings me joy is I much my youngest nephew loves music. He’s one and a half now. I love singing songs with him like “We Are The Dinosaurs” and stomp around and roar like dinosaurs with him. There’s also a song he likes where you hop, skip, twirl and freeze in between each. It’s so fun to watch him while he’s watching me be all goofy. Then he smiles and tries to do it too. And of course there’s the Baby Shark song and all the Disney songs he loves, especially Un Poco Loco. At my parents, he will even run over to the table where their Amazon Echo is and start babbling at it to try to get music on.

 

[Oneanne]

I love walking up to Spaceship Earth, when you get underneath it and it's breezy and cool and you smell that special smell and hear the music, and then moving up the walkway past the mural with Space Jesus and in to the entry. Before my very first trip I got Birnbaum's WDW tour book, and it recommended doing EPCOT first because it was the least "Disney" and the most spread out, so you could get into the groove without being overwhelmed. For the next 15 years/trips I toured that way and Spaceship Earth was always the first thing done on the first day... it still brings on shivers of happiness, that "I'm really here" tingle.

I love urban art. It's like an Easter egg hunt, when you unexpectedly come across something. At either end of the new waterfront tunnel they have glass buildings that encase the smoke stacks that handle air extraction. The stacks are painted bright yellow and have colored lights aimed at them that slowly change their color. At the southern one you can catch several color changes sitting at the intersection that is right there, so pretty and dramatic particularly when it's still dark in the morning. Also there are a couple artists actively working in my greater neighborhood. One has been commissioned to paint the utility boxes with music artists and another one has recently done several mural commissions. And there are 10 historical murals scattered around that were done back in the early 1990's which are such a part of the neighborhood's persona. Oh, I miss it all, not being able to freely get out and about.

Dang, this was supposed to be a happy exercise, but now I'm feeling a little melancholy.

 

[Summer2018]

My daughter is a professional Stand-up Comedian. She is the funniest person I know. Going to her shows brings me such joy. I laugh at everything that comes out of her mouth, but hearing complete strangers laugh at her stand-up routine gives me joy that I cannot put into words. At home, funny things just naturally come out of her mouth, and I tell her, "Write that down." Watching funny movies and television with her is also great, because we will reenact what we see that is funny and get ourselves laughing so hard that we are running to the bathroom.

My great-nephew and great-niece are darling...they're basically my grandchildren. They live an hour and a half away by ferryboat, so we don't see them often enough. But when I am with them, my heart fills with great joy. We have been face-timing, and that has been a great substitute for now.

When my students learn something new; do something unusually thoughtful for one another; struggle with a task and accomplish it; say, "I love you..." all of those things give me joy.

Sunny summer weather; lounging in my pool; hearing the Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffet playing in the background; sitting on my patio, cocktail in hand, watching lightning bugs; all give me joy. (Those pesky mosquitoes do not give me joy however.)

Staying at the Polynesian; smelling those smells; hearing the Hawaiian music; not giving one thought to any responsibility beyond being on time for our dinner reservation; relaxing by the pool in a cabana holding a Spiky Pineapple; enjoying a much-needed vacation at Disney World gives me joy.

 

[MickeyMom76]

I just thought of another one. Anytime I hear the song “When You Wish Upon a Star” or even the shortened part of the song at the beginning of Disney movies! I instantly get goosebumps and go into my happy place. Sometimes it even brings on happy place. Ahhh...the power of music (at least for me).

 

[piglet1979]

Disney!!!! I love Disney. I can talk about it all day. I love reading up on all of the Disney related. I have annoyed friends and family because no matter what something Disney will come out of my mouth. I get so excite talking about Disney too.

Another thing that brings me joy is finally finding something that Nick and I have in common. She is loving Survivor. I always know when it is Wednesday because no matter what he is doing he runs out to the living room at 8:15, sits on the couch and gives me a big smile because he is ready to watch the new episode. Now he talks though the whole thing with all of his theorys and I love it and hate it too. The kids doesn't stop talking so I have to pause the show so I don't miss anything. We have started watching all the seasons in order. We are about half way through the 2nd season and we just started watching on Sunday.

I love just being with Elizabeth and the watching the love she has for people and animals. She is always trying to make everything better for her friends and some of them she just can't and she hates that.

And the last one. I love making people happy. Yesterday I sent an email to Nick's English teacher. It was a fight all year to get Nick to turn in his work for her class. When we went to distant learning I thought it was going to be really bad in the is class. Nope the complete opposite. The is the only class that he has not missed and Assignment in. I asked him why after fighting all year to turn in stuff that now he doesn't have a problem. He told me that he really likes how she is doing everything and that it is easy for him to follow. So I emailed her to let her know to hopefully give her some joy in her day. She emailed me back and said she really needed that yesterday and it made her day. I love being able to do little stuff like this. it was nothing big just something to make someone else smile.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Describe a couple things that you love and that really make you deeply happy. Try to be specific and detailed to the point where writing about them brings the same level of joy as experiencing them first hand.

Road Trips
I just love the time with my family in car - no distractions, talking about everything, especially if it's a sunny day! Early mornings are the best, and I even love secretly planning special snacks and them pulling them out during the trip to surprise DS and DH. "Back in the day" I used to make mixed cassette tapes specific to the trips. - I had a great mellow sing-along playlist (Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, Billy Joel...) for the the drive to my folks' place in New York.

Putting Up the Christmas Tree
I love tree-decorating time! I do the lights (because I'm the most patient) then the boys join me to do the ornaments. DH unpacks and unwraps them, and we talk about our favorites - the trips we got them on, the people who gave them to us... DS and I put them on the tree, and then we laugh over trying to get all the empty boxes back into the storage tubs.

 

[Oneanne]

Thank you everyone for sharing your joys today, it was a real treat to read thru them!

 

[Oneanne]

Friday Free-for-all!

 

[PollyannaMom]

My Friday thoughts are about time, and how slowly or quickly it moves.

At the beginning of all this, it seems like it was about filling the time, and already lately I’ve found myself trying to find the time to do everything I’d like. I’m not sure if it’s the old “work expands to fill the time available” saying or what, but it surprised me how relatively quickly it seemed to happen.

 

[MickeyMom76]

My Friday thoughts are about time, and how slowly or quickly it moves.

At the beginning of all this, it seems like it was about filling the time, and already lately I’ve found myself trying to find the time to do everything I’d like. I’m not sure if it’s the old “work expands to fill the time available” saying or what, but it surprised me how relatively quickly it seemed to happen.

I was just talking about this with my husband yesterday. The first week home felt like the longest week ever. But now I find myself getting frustrated with everything that is trying to fill up the time. Lacrosse team started a running challenge. Baseball & field hockey team sends a workout every day that’s at least an hour long. Not to mention the workouts from their PE teacher. Plus the Zoom and Google Meets for each class and team. And before the schooling started we decided to alternate family game and movie nights. Not to mention the house projects and regular chores. Plus helping care for my parents, my son cuts their grass and daughter is helping with trimming bushes and caring for flower & vegetable garden. Our online schooling is all optional for the students. But my kids know it’s not optional in our house. And that’s how I feel about the workouts from their teams. However, I’m going back to the “permission slip” from sjrec and using it to cut myself and them some slack because now it almost seems impossible to get it all done! They have to do schoolwork and chores. But the team workouts I’m more flexible with. As long as they do something active. For example, mulching the yard was lifting and cardio.

 

[piglet1979]

Time is finally slowing down for me. At the start of this everything was going so fast. So many things changing at one time. Now I am getting bored on the weekends. During the week nothing has changed much other then we are now in our busy time at work so during the day I have been a crazy to the point Jeff makes me go for a walk to just get away. Weekends I am missing the kids activities and I just don't want to clean anymore. But we are slowly getting stuff done and cleaned out.

 

[Summer2018]

Time is finally slowing down for me. At the start of this everything was going so fast. So many things changing at one time. Now I am getting bored on the weekends. During the week nothing has changed much other then we are now in our busy time at work so during the day I have been a crazy to the point Jeff makes me go for a walk to just get away. Weekends I am missing the kids activities and I just don't want to clean anymore. But we are slowly getting stuff done and cleaned out.

I should be cleaning more, but I am being lazy with that since nobody is coming over. I'm disinfecting like a wild woman, but things like vacuuming are not happening. Laundry is a high priority though.

 

[Summer2018]

For me at work, it is "Flexible Friday." Supposedly I don't have to be involved with students because we are having professional development webinars and meetings on "Flexible Fridays" now. However, we are required to respond to students and parents. So far, today I have called a student at home and sung "Happy Birthday" to her and spoke with her for 15 minutes. I have sent out a couple of necessary emails to the class and answered several questions. I have sent a student participation report to my principal. I have not had a chance to start a webinar yet. I have questions in my TEAMs queue that I need to answer still. So...I don't know about "Flexible Friday" right now. If the students are reaching out to me, it will be hard not to respond so that I can do my professional development. I'm also having a hard time keeping them to following the school day schedule. I'm supposed to be done by 3pm, but they are contacting me as late as 9pm. I ignore most of it, but sometimes I will get multiple texts from my assistant...last night it was 15 texts at 8:08pm. I don't want to discourage her by telling her not to text me. She is helping a lot, but there need to be some healthy boundaries. Ugh.

 

[Oneanne]

Time is strange... without working, my days are totally my own to fill or not fill. Right now I feel like I'm doing very little, and the time is flying by. There are household things I do need to get done today, since I am still trying to make weekends time "off", so I'll see if that stretches the day out more. Someone I follow on IG posted about feeling like she wasn't getting anything "done", but when she listed out what she had done during the day it was actually quite a lot, so it's like we value certain things and if they get done we're good, but things we don't value as much don't register that same way.

I'm kind of frustrated with Noom, or with myself and how I'm doing things, not really sure which one it is. My caloric intake is right on point, even tho my red foods are consistently high. I'm having a hard time getting out of the "good food" "bad food" mindset, because for me there are bad foods, based on my allergies. I did my weekly grocery shopping this morning and noticed I had no attraction to straight up sugar - candy, pastries etc, but I have been craving fruit so I got some berries.

I'm seriously thinking of moving my September WDW trip out to early next year, I just don't think I'll be comfortable going this fall. Plus I'm signed up for a week long retreat/workshop in Port Townsend in October and it seems like a lot to be taking two vacations so close together. Argggg... I think I'll start poking around today and see what it looks like to change again.