You know, I hate when my kids get sick. It’s not just because it’s yucky and I don’t get any sleep for a week. It’s mainly because I get tired of people asking me why my children are sick. One day I think I’ll create a diagram of the infection. It’ll go something like this:
J, A and M were sitting in McDonald’s playroom (they have a really great one in Stroudsburg). Unknown child 1 wiped her nose with her hand before climbing onto the sliding board while grasping the handholds. Unknown child 2 sneezed without covering his face and the spray took in a radius of up to three feet in 180 degree spread. Unfortunately, my children were caught in the spray. A rubbed her eyes and infected herself that way. J breathed in the flying germs while laughing at her sister’s antics. And M got it from his two sisters.
I mean, how the heck does anyone get sick? Uh, they are around sick people and, duh, get infected. That’s why we all still suffer from the common cold — it’s such a friendly little group of viruses and germs, don’t you think. I basically didn’t go to school until 1st grade, because I was sick most of kindergarten. Darn those germs, they can’t tell a brick and mortar kid from a homeschooled one.
But I know the real reason that they ask me this question. It’s because my kids are educated at home. What does that have to do with the spread of germs. Well, everyone knows that homeschooled children aren’t allowed to see the sun or interact with any humans outside of their parents and siblings. And we never, ever let them go outside because the boogey man might get them.
Frankly, my hats are off to the parent’s of public school children. I mean, now that J’s older we spend most of the time driving to her many classes and still doing her daily schoolwork. Where do the working parents (and children) get the energy to do this after a long day of work/school? So, if there’s a secret energy pill out there, please let me know. Actually, I did find something that I really liked and was a natural way to get revived. It’s called Zoji juice. I must remember to put that back on my internet shopping list. It’s an acquired taste, but definitely helps to get through the afternoons when my batteries get a bit low.
Well, enough of my venting. I’d better go to sleep now. The kids are almost 100% healthy again, so it’s almost time for me to get sick. Moms aren’t allowed to get sick until everyone else is well, don’t you know. And remember to keep a playbook ready so that you’ll be able to answer the question, “how did your children get sick?”
A few years ago I joined Shaklee’s as a way to make money, but the timing wasn’t right and I really wasn’t interested in marketing the products. I was very interested, however, in consuming their chocolate soy shake which helped me lose a lot of the post-pregnancy weight I’d put on after the birth of my daughter. Anyway, my sponsor’s daughter, Lori (http://www.shaklee.net/lorirussel) still keeps me in the loop and shares “food for thought” articles. I found this one to be quite thought-provoking and thought that I might share it with you.
Winner’s Circle Network with Lou Tice – 11/2/07 – “Judging Others”
Have you heard it said, that the things you see and dislike in others are things you probably dislike about yourself? When you see things about other people that you don’t like, can it teach you anything about yourself?
For instance, if you look at someone and think,”He is angry, and I don’t like that,” could it be that you don’t like it when you, yourself are angry?If you look at someone and say, “She is really scared. Why doesn’t she just do it?” could it be there is something you are scared about, something you wish you could “just do?”
Suppose you disapprove of smoking and don’t smoke yourself. You wonder howthat could be about you. Well, ask yourself, “Why do I disapprove of smoking?” Perhaps it is because smoking is unhealthy. If you look within yourself, you may find that you too, do things that are unhealthy whichtrouble you. Or, you may disapprove because you consider smoking inconsiderate, and there are ways that you too, are inconsiderate.
You see, when we judge others, if we look within we usually find a similar judgment about ourselves. Now, judgments rarely do any good, but once you understand what you are really doing, you can, if you choose, decide to stop. So, pay attention next time you disapprove of someone else, and see what you can learn about yourself.
So, I was just bragging about the latest edition to the family. Well, let me tell you a couple of things — my brand new baby doesn’t like to speak to my in home network system. So, since the main reason I purchased the laptop is so that I can be mobile, this was really a bummer. But, like all new mommies, my newest baby was so darn cute, I was prepared to go the extra mile and find out what was wrong. I was even smiling about it.
Then I tried to fix the network myself. Mistake. Big Mistake. After about an hour of trying to figure it out alone, I called Network Magic, the company that I used to setup my home network. The technician had me do a couple of diagnostics, but their software was working perfectly. So he told me I should call HP, especially since my computer had just arrived the day before. So I go to the HP website and setup a chat session with a technician.
The first technician needs some serious retraining. She was courteous enough, but totally ineffectual and annoying. I told her my problem and that I suspected my wireless modem was malfunctioning. So, to “help” me she copies the entire help section (you know the Help section contained within each Windows OS?) and won’t answer my questions until she’s done. So that takes about 45 minutes. Thank the tech gods that somehow our chat session got disconnected somehow (she probably disconnected it herself!)
So, I go back to the website and setup another chat session. Now, this guy was good. He understood English and addressed my questions immediately. And he didn’t do any cut and paste any of his information. He actually knew what he was doing and tried to do things that made sense. Unfortunately, after 4 hours (yes, 4 hours) he was unable to get the two modems to speak to each other. So, he suggested that I contact Verizon since they control my DSL.
So, off to the tech chat at Verizon. The first tech was very patient and knowledgeable, but after 3 hours, we still hadn’t fixed the problem. Someone had changed the passcode that they normally use to access the routers, and she didn’t have the experience to figure out how to work around that. She told me to reboot and when I did I didn’t have any internet connection in the whole house. And of course she couldn’t tell me how to fix it, because she was on the online chat (wonderful paradox).
So, then I call Verizon and speak to one of those dumb voiced prompts (which needs its own ranting section) and keep getting disconnected because it can’t understand what I’m saying and/or didn’t give it the answer that it wanted to hear. So, finally I get in touch with a real live person (whoo hoo!). Her name was Gladys.
Well, she called herself Gladys, but we all know that customer service comes from India, so who am I fooling. Anyway, I love Gladys. She fixed my internet connection, secured my home network (something I hadn’t figured out how to do in 2 years) and made my life wonderful. And to think it only took 4 people and 8 hours to do it. So, now I am happy to report that I am working wirelessly from my laptop. Now, if I can get the laptop to access the files on the main computer I’ll be tickled pink. But that’s a job for another week!
It’s wonderful to be back on the internet again. Two weeks ago my faithful laptop booted up for the last time. I guess all the homeschooling and typing assignments finally got to it. It was four years old. Now, I guess I shouldn’t be too sad since it did last four years and only over the past two months did I have to hook it up to my television because the screen died. And, yes pressing the right arrow key would take me to the save menu. But it was my buddy.
It kept me busy during my sojourn of bedrest during my last pregnancy. It played videos on our two hour treks to civilization to visit the family. It told us many stories (I subscribe to Audible) and recently it began to play movies for me as I tune into Netflix for my entertainment needs.
So, with a heavy heart (and mourning pocketbook) I purchased my new laptop from Walmart. It’s a beauty. I’m still a little afraid of the thing. For one thing, it runs Windows Vista, which is a beautiful looking system, but I can’t find a darn thing on it. So I guess this weekend I’m going to be studying the basic mechanics of the thing.
It has a webcam (I didn’t know how much I hated looking at myself until I started playing with this thing — my children look much better), microphone, DVD Burner and all the bells and whistles. You can check it out at www.hp.com. It’s the HP Pavilion dv9627cl Notebook PC. When my 7-year-old first saw it outside of the box, all she could say was “Whoa!” Even Mr. Danger who’ll be a year old in a couple of weeks hasn’t tried to touch it yet.
I'm a homeschooling mom with seven children: 3 human, 2 feline and 2 canine. I'm also the wife of one very patient husband who seems to like the role of ringmaster to our circus. I am a virtual assistant who enjoys writing, crafts, music and laughter. I hope you'll visit often. Please be aware that this blog is supported by affiliate links, although every link isn't necessarily an affiliate program.
