The first day of school

Yesterday was the first day of school in the large, urban district I work for. I spent the day organizing my office, cleaning out files, etc. There won't be a lot to do with kids until we get rolling with child study team meeting next week. However, I did have an experience with a child I will recount here. I sent this in an email to a couple of siblings and as I was writing it I thought, that would make a good blog post! So here ya go.

Kenny's* First Day

So, I'm sitting here having my lunch (leftover pizza) and thinking about my day so far. I'm supposed to be here by 8:40, but I always come early. Today I got here at 8:00 or so, and as I walked down the hallway, I saw a young boy sitting forlornly on the bench outside my office door. I went to my office as I had some things in my hands, then came back to sit beside him and visit. Kenny is in the 3rd grade, new to this school. He looks like he's about 8. Kids are not supposed to be at school before 8:30 (if they are eating breakfast) and if they aren't eating breakfast, they aren't to be here before 8:45 (the bell rings at 8:50), thus the reason for my conversation with him. I wanted to know why he had come so early to school.

Kenny told me that his mom and dad leave for work at 2:00am, and that he has an older brother, 17, who's supposed to be taking care of him. The brother leaves for high school at around 7:15. This means Kenny is alone from then until time for him to walk to school. Did I mention he's 8 years old? So, on this, his first day, at a NEW school, he was here at least 45 minutes early. No parent to walk him to his class, to give him a goodbye hug, to tell him to have a good day, to reassure him that things would be just fine here at his new school. That responsibility fell to me. And so, the little boy with the longer, curly brown hair and freckles, and sad eyes became my friend today. I asked Kenny to help me bring in some things from the car, and I introduced him to our counselor, who visited with him about what route to walk to school, and when he should leave in the morning. I found his teacher and told her the story, and she came to meet him and reassure him that she would make it a great day for him. After I have the last bite of pizza, I'm going to find him in the lunchroom to see how things are going with him. I don't know anything about Kenny's parents, and I'm trying so very hard not be judgmental. But they missed a special time with their son today that I had the privilege of having. I wonder if they know that.

*Not his real name

Belt Tightening

In the next couple of weeks ahead, the spouse and I are going to be taking a look at our financial situation and examining once again, our buying habits. At least for us, this is never a pleasant process, so it's not something I'm looking forward to. Because I worked only part time several years while I went back to school, we amassed some credit card debt as well as school loans. Three years ago or so, he got a second job to help pay this debt down faster, and although we are doing okay, we do not seem to making progress. I think one of the reasons is that we haven't been budgeting as carefully as we should so we're spending close to what we make, and not applying everything we could to the debt we've accrued. Also, although we aren't big credit card users, we do once in awhile-when we think we have to. We haven't, as many financial advisors insist, cut them up or closed our accounts. And, I think there's a universal principal in force here, and that is, no matter what you make, whether it's 6K, 60K, or 600K, if you aren't careful, you will tend to live at or above your means.

To this end, I've been reading and listening to a number of experts on this issue-Dave Ramsey (both on the radio and online), Suzi Orman (on cable 53 and I picked up her latest book at a thrift store (ha!), and then lately, I've been reading a book by Mary Hunt called "Debt-Proof Your Marriage", and looking at her website, www.cheapskatemonthly.com. Managing a budget and living within your means is NOT rocket science, yet, all three of these people have considerable financial wealth bestowed on them by people like me, who want to learn how to handle money better. (Ironic, isn't it...)

So, we now are asking those tough questions that you must ask when you reassess your money situation-do we need a newspaper subscription at 16.00 a month? How about cable (we have the basic package, or maybe one tier up). Internet? Bottled water? Soda pop (even if it's diet)? Going out to eat with family on Friday nights? We're fortunate in that we drive old cars, and don't have a car payment or high insurance/taxes, but one of these days, one of those old cars is going to bite the dust. Then what?

Since there are people who make 600K struggling financially, as well as those who make much less, I don't know that it's a matter of how much money you have coming in-however, there are many families who are really experiencing some economic hardship these days, battling continual price increases of both gas and food. I visited with a woman yesterday who came in to our church to place an order for Angel Food. She said she has a good job (she works at Spirit Aerosystems), but supports 5 kids and a disabled husband, who is not able to work right now. She was grateful to be ordering a couple of units of food, which was going to be helpful for her and her family. We also had some Hawker Beechcraft strikers come in to order, and we welcome them, but that's another topic for another time.

Anyhow, time to go make breakfast on this Sunday morning. I'm grateful for the ability to work, for a job to go to tomorrow morning, for family, for old cars that run, for old houses that are liveable, and for life itself. May all of you reading this have a blessed week!

Porch Update

So, we just got back from Wisconsin, having gone to retrieve our youngest son and his belongings. He spent the summer with a farm family, trying to find work in Green Bay and getting to know better a young lady that someday may join our family. He was unsuccessful in his attempts to find a job, however, the relationship he went to pursue seems to be another story. But we're glad to have him back here, and are encouraging his efforts to find work and get his own place.

We got back yesterday afternoon, and so last night we took our 3 adult children out for dinner and just enjoyed being together. After dinner we came back here and played Bananagrams, plus, I got to introduce them to a game from my childhood, ta da! "Stadium Checkers"! As you might guess, they no longer manufacture this rather odd game of strategy - this one I bought from an EBAY seller was made in 1952. It consists of several concentric plastic rings, each one larger than the last-hence, it looks like a minature sports stadium. Each ring has several "pockets". Players put 5 marbles in the "nosebleed" section of the stadium and begin taking turns moving the rings and dropping the marbles into the pockets. The goal is to get all your marbles dropped in your correct tunnel in the very center of the rings, and to thwart your opponnets efforts by causing them to drop their marble into the wrong hole down at the bottom, and thus, starting over at the top of the stadium. My techno-savvy, 21st century offspring thought this game was extraordinarily fun. I couldn't believe it.

We then sat outside on the porch in the dark and waited with our daughter for her husband to pick her up as he was attending a function at Century II. The weather was perfect- a little breeze, and temps in the lower 70's - and the talking and laughter probably disturbed the next door neighbors, although we didn't intend to. What a great evening! I wouldn't take a million dollars for that time we spent together last night. Once again, the porch became a place which created a good memory for all of us.

The power of water

One of my more ambitious projects for the summer has been to get our screened-in porch more usable. When the kids were younger it became a repository for skates, muddy shoes, bikes, and various projects in progress. As they became teens, the porch was a place where many evening and late night talks occurred. There was just something about sitting in the dark that fostered communication, and all our kids had many "opportunities" to visit with mom or dad or both about life issues out on that porch. When our kids had friends over, they gathered on the porch. Several "rat boys" (my son-in-law is not among that group!) came calling on our daughter and visited her on the porch, and who can forget Joshua and his friend Nathan hanging around out there, talking about girls, jobs, money, and whatever else.

We've always had a grill out there and used it a lot. There are no mosquitos or moths as the old man did a good job of building screens for it. In the summer, it's shaded all the time except for first thing in the morning. I've stood out there and watched torrential rain, sleet, big fat snowflakes come down, and blizzards - unless the wind is blowing hard, it's a dry porch. For that reason, it was not only a good place for our inside cat to go and hang out out (she thought she was actually outside) but it sheltered strays (remember the gray cat that had kittens?) and was a great place for a furry wet dog who was afraid of thunder to hide out on.

The old man has never had a workshop to put his tools, so, the porch became his tool shed. In recent years, the clutter on the porch has just made me sort of crazy, SO, to that end, we bought a new shed with a workbench which was installed for the man in the backyard. He has most of his things moved out there at this point, and most of my garden stuff is out there.

Last night, he installed a swing in front, and as we sat there, I told him that we need to start thinking of the porch as another room to our house, and to that end, it needs cleaning and sprucing up pretty badly. So this morning, I hauled out the garden hose and turned the nozzle to "jet". I took all the plants off the porch and with the power of pressured water, did a little cleaning. Down came the cobwebs in the corner, off came the mud, dirt, and grime from the screened in window sills, as well as PAINT. Yes, when you clean, you discover other problems you didn't know you had. The paint peeled off the sills in droves, so that's a fall project waiting to happen. I jetted the welcome mat and around the front door. I squirted the windows in the front room that look out to the east side of the porch. I tried rinsing the screens but wasn't too successful. And, I set the plants out in the front and gave them all a nice soaking shower.

Water from a nozzle-it took me only a half an hour to clean filth that had accumlated for 20 years. There ya go.