Odds & Ends

Busy week. Intermittant internet connection. Here’s the latest:

• l’s third swim lesson was even better than the last one! He went right off with the instructor and got in the pool with no hanging on me at all. When I came to pick him up, the instructor told me he swam half the length of the pool with no flotation device. Yippee! I knew he was ready to swim on his own, but he wouldn’t take off that floaty for me. At home, he got right in the pool and swam around yelling “Look at me, I’m swimming!” Yesterday he hugged me in the pool and said “I love you Mom for getting me swimming lessons.” Can I say again that this has been a HUGE learning experience for both of us.
• I think I’m finally getting a clue about this parenting thing. I’m a wonderful Mom, but I’ve been too permissive. The past couple weeks I’ve been saying something ONCE. If it’s not done, I set the timer in the kitchen. End of conversation. If it’s not done when the timer goes off, there are consequences. And guess what? IT WORKS! I don’t need to beg, bargain and talk till I’m blue in the face to get my child to behave in an acceptable manner. If you have a child that constantly tests you and pushes your buttons, I highly recommend the book Setting Limits with Your Strong-Willed Child, by Robert J. MacKenzie Ed.D. It’s been very helpful for me.
• Our satellite internet service has been blacking out every day for ten to twelve hours. Very annoying. Causing much stress to PHAT Daddy (who works from home). Really cramping my blogging time. We called DirecWay to correct the situation and when the service man got on the roof to check the dish, he saw a bee’s nest on the back of the dish. A nest the size of a basketball. {Shudder} I hate bees. In fact, I hate all bugs. Pest control came out and blasted that little situation. The nest belonged to a particularly nasty type of hornet. Ick. Now we just have to get DirecWay (extremely poor service!) over here again to get our internet service back on track.
• I’m tired. I’m really sick of being tired. Both my kids wake me up at night, but I’ve gotten used to interrupted sleep and I’m not even sure that is the main cause of my being so tired. It’s more likely a combination of poor diet, lack of exercise and a generally pessimistic disposition. Sounds easy to fix. Heh Heh.