Rambling

I have wanted to update this blog all day. But I haven't been able to think about just ONE THING to blog about. Too many thoughts are running around in my head. So here we go:

1. I was pretty irritated over a newspaper story I read this week. Apparently, a couple in a neighboring city are suing Deere and Co. for being "negligent" after a mower ended up mutilating their daughter, who was 2 at the time of the accident (she is now 6). I remember reading this story when it happened. I was shocked! The little girl was behind her dad when he was mowing the yard. He didn't know she was there, backed up over her, and she lost a leg. At the time, it was tragic. But now I'm angry they are suing the Deere people. I mean, EXCUSE ME?? They are not supposed to be the ones WATCHING your kids while someone's mowing your yard! Wasn't anybody watching that little girl?? It was not Deere's fault. it was the PARENT'S fault for NOT keeping an eye on her child! OK, I know I'm probably getting too huffy over this. It just REALLY bugs me when people don't watch their kids when they're supposed to, and they want to blame somebody else when tragedy strikes. I wonder if the mother who's son drowned in the pool after he crawled out through the pet door is suing whoever made those pet doors?? Or the mom suing the manufacturer of a mattress that suffocated her child to death after another child sat on the mattress and buried his face? Or the mom whose child was killed after being ran over by a car driven by her older sister after standing behind the car as the sister backed out is going to sue the car maker?? Grr!! Parents, WATCH YOUR CHILDREN! Even if it means the pot of water will boil over or something will fall and break. A child's life and safety is more important than that!

2. On a lesser emotional note, Jennifer has a spelling test tomorrow. She has been having trouble with one word in particular. I have been working with her all week on spelling her words correctly and especially with that word: "excited." She kept spelling it with an "s" instead of "c" and I kept telling her, "There is no 's' in 'excited.'" Today, she has finally mastered how to spell that word! Hooray! She kept spelling it over and over, getting it right every time. I didn't grow tired of that! We'll see how she does on her test tomorrow.

3. This week, I read the short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. I was reading it as a reference for the RGT book (since Sleepy Hollow IS in it!) but, I tell you, it was very, very hard to read that story. Ugh! The writing was not exactly the best. Well, it was okay, but...not exactly the way a story should be written. It is the perfect example of a story that is being told and not shown (remember the "show, don't tell" rule!). If I was an editor at a magazine and Mr. Irving submitted his story to me, I would strongly suggest he revise it. I would not reject it, because it is a good story and there's potential there, but I would ask for a revision. Anyway, it took a few days to FORCE myself to read through the story. I'm glad I did but it was certainly not what I remembered reading of that story in high school. Maybe what I read in school was an adaptation of this story. And I must say, the movie is good, too!

4. My hip has REALLY been hurting a lot this week. Maybe that's good because it means I can sit down to write more, but it's not so good when I gotta chase after kids or clean the house. I really need to get it looked at ASAP. It's on the left side and when it hurts really bad, I end up limping a little.

5. Jennifer has missed karate again this week. Sigh. She's missed so many classes, I am beginning to wonder if we should even continue to pay for it.

6. This week, Jesse said grace with us for the first time. Woot! It was really neat. I guess he saw us folding our hands together over our plates so much that he figured that was the thing to do. One evening, as I was serving the children their dinners, I noticed that Jesse folded his hands together in prayer. I told Jennifer and we decided to grab that moment and say grace. After we were done, he unfolded his hands. Jennifer looked at me and said, "Jesse prayed!" Well, probably not...but it's a neat idea to think about.

7. I have lost motivation to do my morning aerobic workouts. Even after losing weight on my diet and a pair of my pants getting too big for me to wear anymore. I am not thrilled by this; I WANT to continue the workouts because they are a huge mood-booster and they help me get into shape. I've grown weary of being out of shape. Hopefully, I will find some way to get that motivation to work out again. Honestly, I have been contemplating professional competition as an athlete, with running. I would like to do that someday. Run in races. And I know I need to keep that motivation to work out and start running again in order to make that happen. First, I have to figure out how to make room for that is my disorganized life!