Letters from a Grounded 7-year-old

Hard to believe I even have a 7 year old. Hard to believe it's been more than a year since I've written here! But I have to share these laughs with you today.

Kaylin was grounded to her room today until it was clean. The half hour project turned into hours of despair and agony for this just-turned-7-years-old girl. She sent down notes to us via her brother or cousin Chaya:

To Dad: I love you! Please help me clean up!

To Mom: You hate me. You don't love me. You don't help me.

I wrote back: Kaylin - I love you more than you'll ever know. That's why I need to help you be responsible. I can't wait until your room is picked up so I can be with you while we put your laundry away. Love, Mom

She returned the note: (she crossed out the "love" in Love, Mom) You do not love me. You do not help me in my room.

Another note on another topic: Dad Kai hit me with a book and called me do-de-dutt. BE NISE KAI BE NISE

Dream Job

I am contemplating this idea that so many women have that working from home is the ultimate dream job. Having the best of both worlds, not having to choose between career and family, somehow preventing the pull in so many directions felt by today’s moms.

I got up at 4 to work. I saw no other option with needing to cancel child care today again with a new hacking cough piercing the air, and my inability to stay awake anymore at 11 p.m. where I was erroneously trying to process paperwork – registration forms, liability releases, payments and updating class lists from a pool of 51 registrants.

I have been working almost full-time getting this class up and going since January. This makes no sense to me. I had to take time to write. Who really works at this time anyway. Perhaps on paper I can sort it out.

It is the multifaceted roles and responsibilities that makes owning your own business so time consuming I believe. I have just as many departments as any corporation but there is just me. Just me for:

CEO - Executive Decision-making and oversight
VP, Administration – (yes the VP and CEO in me have disagreements about what programs to offer when)
Office Administration
Customer Service
Marketing
Media Communications
Shipping and Receiving
Inventory Management
Purchasing
Market Analyst
Research and Development
Program Design and Implementation
Accounting
Records
Secretarial
Graphic Design
Web Design and upkeep
Supervisor of any contractors actually hired to help with any of those things…

And EMAIL! Shall we call this Client Communications? Instead of complaining should I admit I’d be on the phone 24/7 if it didn’t exist?! Each time I show up at the coffee shop for one of two-hour stints of child-free work I have such grand plans. “I’m going to update my website today.” “I’m going to update the interval training program with the new industry guidelines.” “I’m going to get a client newsletter out.” But my inbox has a different agenda. Yes occasionally the need to accomplish something is desperate enough I keep the internet off – but the fact remains that timely client communication is one of my most important tasks. 2 hours of answering emails, and my time’s up. I long for the chance to get proactive instead of reactive.

Recently with my running class registrations I suffered this to an extreme. There would always be a point where I was almost caught up with the most important emails halfway through my coffee shop time. I was almost giddy when I hit send on that last email response… when my inbox greeted me with another. And another. Again I have to attempt to make sense of this. How many emails went back and forth between myself and each participant? Participation level, class preference, submitting registration form, asking questions about the program, asking more questions about the program, arranging payment, setting body comp appointments, getting shirt sizes/preferences, taking RSVPS for our charity night, requests to switch classes, considering requests for discount services (a new element of business in today’s economy?), arranging barters with those who can’t pay…(I heard govt. will tax on this soon)…

Yes, I believe there were more than 20 emails in/out for each participant. I need to count not only the “out” with the work of gathering info, finding attachments, etc., but the “in” since each involved updating paperwork – class lists, business records, shirt requests… So with 51 participants and a few more that ended up not joining… this was well over 1000 emails. This does not include hundreds more between myself and the media, logo apparel companies to find a shirt, and web designers because I’ve been finally ready to give up this responsibility and acquire a more professional site. I would bet there were no less than 1500 emails involved in getting this class going. And people have asked me “what do these women pay for.” I am pulling in thousands. But I don’t even make minimum wage.

So Why? It is my passion. I love what I do. I don't like not being able to "leave work at work"... but watch for my "work hours" blog coming soon. I have good intentions to make major changes here to be more available to my family - the original goal.

Let HIM tell you!

I didn't expect him to learn this tonight!

My baby is 2!

Today I drive around with hubcaps in the van. Kav wants to know why I took the tires off. I'm just proud I managed to get them off and air in the flat tires by myself, and wasn't about to try to put them back on. I had caused enough of a traffic jam at the gas station being in the way of the car wash line.

Today I take time out to write. My baby's 2nd birthday just doesn't seem to lend itself to workaholism. We thought maybe when he turned two he would no longer be called "baby Kai." But I think that will have to wait until 3.

Despite the many facets of Kai that make him still so much a baby he is also very much a 2 year old! He loves to do the opposite he is told while flashing a devious grin, running away and giggling. He loves to be the "house clown" and just looks for ways to make us all laugh. He has some unique facial expressions that are just priceless and I have yet to capture them on film (I mean on megapixels.) His latest feat and source of worry is climbing up onto the tall kitchen table via the tall chairs! I watch kids older than him that can't get up them.

Kai has a 3-word sentence "I want down," and the average vocabulary of a 2-year-old. He probably has 50 words he just doesn't pronounce them the best, choosing to fore go any consonants after the first letter. Today when we left Kari's house after she watched the boys he did better when he said "bye Henry" (He-ree) and it was so cute.

Yesterday was the 2 year well-check where we discovered Kai is anemic. I'm actually wondering if he wasn't last time he was tested and wonder if this got missed a whole year ago. We start iron drops now and I personally believe iron deficiency is not a common cause of anemia as iron is so easily absorbed from foods. Therefore I am once again convicted I have to try a gluten-free diet soon as I have suspected a possible wheat intolerance before and this can also be an underlying cause of the low Hemoglobin. Iron for now, please!

Kai will also have the growth hormone stim test next week, now that the state will pay for it. And it's a good thing we have that funding - if he needs growth hormone it costs over a thousand dollars a month!!!!! Why can't I just give him factory milk from commercial cows? Ha.

You can be in prayers for our misery as we hang out with Kai in a hospital for 5 hours after he has fasted overnight and cannot have any food or drink other than water before noon. This is Thurs the 29th starting at 7 a.m. I think.

Kavan is having quite the moody spell. We are very concerned that the child who was the easiest for so long is suddenly lashing out at the past lack of attention. He'll seek it out any way he can get it now. I wish I had more positive things to share about Kav. Check back soon. Actually, what is positive is our decision to add one full day of day care for the boys. I need to finally be SURE I have enough child care to reduce my stress level and the recent overwhelm. I want to be fully present in the time I am with my kids; lately I haven't been there for them in the way I had planned as a stay-at-home mom.

Kaylin is just full of the most random thoughts and conversations.

"When fog comes out of our mouth that means our words are freezing."

After explaining that not everywhere we drive is Forest Lake, and in a one mile stretch we were driving from Centerville, to Lino Lakes, to Hugo. "Is Disneyland in Hugo?"
I hated to disappoint her but she didn't seem surprised. "Oh! I know, Disneyland is in the world."

As she looks in her closet trying to figure out what to wear: "(sigh) I am just so stressed out."
(hence the reason something needs to change around here with child care.)

When asked if she knows who Barack Obama is? "I voted for him once."

Christmas come and gone...

It sure felt uneventful this year just lying around with sick kids. I'm so thankful that it was nothing major... and I have to admit I enjoy Kaylin's fevers - no fighting kids!

Just a few holiday highlights since I haven't written in forever.

~Kaylin telling me on Christmas Eve she wasn't asking Santa for anything besides the kitty because we already had too many presents under the tree.
~Santa getting nervous when Kaylin asked for the "kitty" until she explained it was a stuffed animal in a cage (kennel) and I nodded at him and smiled. Her #1 Christmas wish was a $10 clearance item she passed at Target. Score! But "Santa doesn't shop at Target, Mom." Kaylin stated as she worried about whether she would really get the cat.
~Kavan making his Christmas wish list to Santa only as specific as "presents."
~Kavan saying Merry Christmas to everyone everywhere we go.
~Kaylin understanding the REAL Christmas story better than ever before.
~Kavan saying after we visited a LIVE nativity scene where he was afraid to pet the "lambies" - "I want to go to another one!" Didn't know of too many other live nativities so we took them to "lights in the park," a huge charity display in Maplewood - only to find they had a power outage. At least we got to see the musical light show again, The kids loved that. (www.mnlightshow.com)
~Kai saying "whoah tree!" to every lit up tree in downtown St. Paul after first saying it to the Rice Park tree, which is bigger than the one in Rockefeller Center and caused Ben to become upset that they killed a tree so old. I was just happy to experience the Christmas magic of the location where Shayna and Matt just got engaged!

oh no!

Kaylin just informed me she voted for Barack Obama at school today.
When asked why - because more people voted for him. Only 3 people voted for McCain.

So it will be today - people will vote to be cool, just like my little 5 year old.

And the Winner is... the Media?

I really do fear the media will have their way in this election. I loved that the reinstatement of Bush in 04 shocked the world. Hadn't we been hearing abot how disliked he was all along? What were we thinking voting him in again?! What we are thinking is that the values of Hollywood and the mainstream media do not represent ours - the majority - those of us who live in the real world.

I can hope for a miracle this election too - in this case that the media bias this time around has been so OBVIOUS that people are angry and want to prove a point.

Yet they've been relentless. My personal choice has been to mostly tune out all radio & TV this election season. But most people are bombarded with the view from the left.

When I have had the news on in the background on a few occasions I've heard the name Obama about 10 times for every 1 mention of McCain. I see one candidate being presented as a rock star and the other as a... ? Well he's just not really presented much at all. I see attractive happy photos of one candidate and condescending photos of the other.

I've passed newspaper stands to see many front page articles about the campaigning process in general and many pics of volunteers going door to door - from only one party. And the ridiculous fascination with and reliance on polls just blows my mind when for every past election they've been shown to innacurately favor the left. Especially in MN - even though we've remained a blue state recently the difference between the parties presented ahead of time turned out to be much less on election day. And the sad thing is they've shown these polls influence people's vote, or in some cases make them less likely to vote, feeling their vote doesn't matter.

I've seen commercials for the left operating on an assumption that the majority of Americans dislike Bush. The dark background and eerie music plays as this statistic shows up on the screen "voted with Bush 90% of the time." Yes media, you've been successful in turning many, many away from Bush. Mostly due to misrepresenting the Iraq war and refusing to showcase the many, many positive things that have happened in that country. And managing to blame a presidency for economic downturn - as if one man has that kind of power. The last few years we've had a "stuck " government unable to accomplish anything with the liberal balance of power on the congressional side. But many experts agree that we got into this mess due to lessening credit restrictions and lending to unqualified buyers - a policy that was pushed by the Clinton administration.

Today is scary. There are huge personal freedoms at stake here. The right to defend yourself in your own home. The right to freedom of speech (there is an act democrats want that would successfully ban conservative talk radio). The rights of the states to govern their own people (the freedom of choice act would suddenly eliminate all state rulings limiting abortion)... and the right to live itself. Obama has the most liberal voting record of the entire senate. In his own state he even voted not to protect the lives of babies born alive after a failed abortion. And, he voted against the partial birth abortion ban. Under the excuse they all used - no health exception for the mother. What a completely unacceptable tag line. If the baby is halfway out why do you have to kill it first to save the life of the mother?!!!!

Come on people, your choices are a liberal or a moderate. I really don't understand the concept of undecided voters. Just like I don't understand how raising taxes on business owners would create jobs or how taxing the wealthy even more (the only ones with expendable income enough to spur the economy) than the already insane percentage of their income they already pay out is acceptable in a democracy. Or that "spreading the wealth" is a cause worth fighting for.