I just wanted to give my loyal readers a little farewell shout out.  I've decided to take a little break from blogging.  I'm not sure if I'll come back in a month, in six month, in a year or not at all.  I feel spread thin like butter and I'm not putting enough focus on areas of my life that should matter more than the cyber world. 

Farewell for now.

kisatrtle

An open letter to my children:

I think I have failed you. I think I have raised you with an entitlement gene that renders you incapable of actually working for things you desire.

I take full responsibly. I think that all parents want to give their kids more than what they had, but in doing so, I feel like I have handicapped you in ways that I couldn't foresee.

For example, you think that if you whine loudly enough that I will buy you anything, including a $25 personal blender. Why would a nine year old need a blender? When told no you fall completely apart and say things like "Why don't you love me?" or "I can't wait till my birthday, it's too long."

It's not even just things you WANT. It also an inability to clean up after yourself. It's like you feel entitled to make a mess and see who else can clean it. Or, worse yet, you act like you have no idea how to clean it up.

Middle and oldest told me they didn't know how to hand wash dishes because they've never done it before? Really, this is something that needs to be taught? It's not something you just know how to do?

Let's talk about the morning when the cat, dug all the liter out of her box and then peed on the floor. Did my oldest really think she could swifter that up?

The problem is so deeply rooted in our house that other than spending time on a missions trip, I'm not sure what to do.

My children think that $90 calculators should just be handed over. They think that if they rip their favorite jean shorts from Justice they should immediately be replaced. They think that expensive blenders are toys.

Maybe giving everyone a trophy even if they suck is a bad idea. Maybe rewarding everyone makes everyone believe they deserve to be rewarded. Maybe in an effort to preserve everyone's self esteem, we have created generations of children who think the world owes them something just for being in the world.

Don't get me wrong, if given enough time, my kids can figure out how to wash the dishes or clean the cat crap. They can clean the van or pick up their room. They can help paint the fence and vacuum the living.

So what's the problem, you ask? After they do it, they seem to think that because they did what needed to be done that there should be some type of reward, that there should be a trophy.

I worry that when that trophy, or that pat on the back or that "way to go" doesn't come, they will feel dismissed and unvalued.

And I blame myself.

Cotton candy grapes? Seriously? What is wrong with grape flavor? I don't think I wanna pay $6 a pound to have grapes that taste like cotton candy.

While I understand the growers motive, which he claims is to make kids want grapes instead of cotton candy, I think he is going about it all wrong.

Here's why.

Kids like grapes. If you're gonna change the flavor of something, why not focus on the cranberry? Or asparagus?

Kids need be taught from early on that this is what grapes taste like. Take it or leave it.

This whole idea sort of reminds me of the asshole of a nurse I had in the labor and deliver room when my middle daughter was born. I was having a lot of trouble latching her on. She just wasnt taking to it very well.

The uneducated woman attempting to help me said, "She just needs to get a taste of it," and preceded to dump a bottle of formula all over my chest.

Here's what I learned from that experience. Middle G still couldn't latch on and formula is sticky. If your child doesn't like grapes or won't try grapes, making them taste like cotton candy isn't the solution.

Designer grapes? This is what we are working on? How about feeding the hungry? Curing cancer? Making produce more affordable for those on a fixed income?

Cross pollinating or fruits to taste like candy? Well that should be significantly lower on the list.

Just my humble opinion.

I haven't been writing much about the pool this year. We had a slow start with a lot of rain in June, kids off at camp, and visits to grandparents houses.

It feels like we haven't been swimming much.

Where has the summer gone?

This is what I learned this week:

Bees will swoop. A bus full daycamp kids and their counselors were in the pool when a bee on steroids decided to swoop down and buzz them. That is a lot of screaming. A lot of screaming!!

Birthdays at the pool ROCK. I spent the day with great friends and family, cheese fries and sun. It doesn't get much better.

You can't predict the weather. We wanted to go to the pool in the evening to listen to a band that one of the lifeguards plays in. Sadly, it thundered and then poured and we never made it.

My sister's pool is even cooler. The kids and I are spending some time in NC with my sister and her family. It's even a better poolside perspective when it's from my sister's screened in porch and I'm watching my kids swim with their cousins.

Sprinkle in some water park fun. We hit the water slides today and it was a perfect way to spend a Friday.

What did you learn this week?

Photo credit www.washingtonpost.com

After first learning about the India school lunch poisoning that killed 23 children between the ages of 5-12, I thought please don't let this be true.

India has one of the largest free school lunch programs in the world feeding nearly 120 million children. State governments decide on menus and timings of the meals which cannot cost more than .03 cents to prepare.

Most cooks are paid no more than 40 rupees a day (.68 cents) and cannot make more than 1000 rupees a month or $17.

However, in an area where nearly HALF of all children suffer from malnutrition, the free midday meal remains one of the biggest incentives to sending children to school.

Even in light of this tragedy, the midday meal must remain.

The incident may have been an intentional act of malice perpetuated by Meena Kumari, the principal at the school. She purchased cooking oil containing large quantities of a very potent pesticide from a company operated by her husband.

Even after the cook questioned the apparence of the oil, Kumari insisted it be used. Even after the children complained that the food tasted bad, Kumari insisted that they eat.

Once the children began to vomit and loose consciousness, Kumari fled. After nine days on the run, she was arrested late last week.

She is claiming that she has been set up.

My heart breaks for the families of the children lost and for the two cooks. One tried to calm the children and reassure them that all was fine by eating the meal with them becoming violently ill as well. The other cook lost two of her three children.

She is quoted as saying "I am so horrified that I wouldn't grieve more if my only surviving child died." She also said she would never return to the school.

While much corruption remains, the good that the India midday meal provides does so much more. It is my sincere hope that the numerous branches of government can learn from this tragedy and begin to make changes to a highly mismanaged and corrupt system.

No ones says it better or with more conviction than Shweta Sharma, who is an Assistant Teacher at the Government Middle School in Deoghar City, Jharkhand.

Her entire piece can be found HERE and I urge you to read it.

Dear Anonymous

Why do you come to my blog just to bitch about it? I delete all your stupid comments. I honestly don't care what you think but let's clear a few things up.

Sarcasm is hard to convey in print so when I talk about things like the lifeguard cleaning the pool, I'm not "bitching about everything" and I certainly "wouldn't prefer the lifeguard asleep in her chair." Most of my regular readers grasp this concept.

I find it quite humerous that you read my blog only to mock it. I'm just going to throw this out there because maybe you don't know. You CAN stop coming here.

In fact, I wouldn't mind at all.

Have you nothing else to do but stop by blogs and complain about them? Perhaps you should consider employment. Most people don't consider reading blogs and watching YouTube videos employment. I realize coming up with all those witty comments feels like work but alas it truly isn't.

You are one of those people who post negative comments on Facebook pages you like. Why do you like Dove Soap if you just wanna tell people it smells like shit? I don't think you understand what "like" means.

Oddly enough, I'm sort of looking forward to your response to this. As I'm sure it's gonna be thought provoking and filled with misspellings.

Just to make it more entertaining, I think I'll read my blog and all the comments after searching for it on gizoogle which converts everything to gangsta.

At the very least, it will finally make whatever you have to say somewhat humerous cause nothing says "suck it" quite like gangsta.

Sincerely,

Kisa