The Plan

Today I'm going to work on achievement.
Some time in the morning:  I read about the achievement gap here. 
11:54 - have returned from the farmer's market with 3 bouquets of flowers:  irises and snapdragons.
12:57 - folding laundry.  Listening to TED talks.
1:23 - Alternating between laundry and dishes.  I find this motivating.  Took a time out to watch this amazing video. 
1:49 - Ramen for lunch.  Nice chat with #1 son, back from his sound check.  His band's playing at prom tonight.  I asked  him if was going to stay after the gig and dance.  He said, "I could, but I probably won't."
2:05:  Read a review of Herzog's new movie about the cave paintings.  (While eating ramen)
3:02  Cleaned up 20 something's daughter room.  Yellow irises. Counting down to arrival.
3:21 Removing 2 bags of garbage.  Still disconcerted about the grain moth situation.  Going to have to google this.
4:07  Have learned more about killing grain moths, also called pantry moths.
4:57  Picked up Husbandman from his jobsite.  Going to fill bird feeders.  Very frightened that a plethora of grain moths may be in the seed can.

The Nutville

I have that Fleetwood Mac song in my head...Don't stop thinking about tomorrow.  Don't stop.  It'll soon be here.  It'll be here better than before.  Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.

I really wish I did not have this song in my head.  The last thing I want to think about is tomorrow.

On a good note, I saw #1 son in his final jazz combo concert of his junior year.  The guy is just darned good with that big upright bass of his.  All these high school kids sit on that stage, playing their hearts out.  They could be defacing buildings with graffiti, or stealing hubcaps, but no, they're up there playing songs that they practiced for a long time.  They're jazzing together and giving a bunch of people some fun entertainment.  That's why I love this generation of young people  They're creative.

My fave song was Nutville.

The Corn Dog

 commercial  corn  corn

I had a post about a corn dog Tums commercial, but #1 son and Husbandman felt it wasn't my best work.  I'm keeping the links tho.  Those took me awhile to find.
The teacher work sessions went well today.
Tomorrow we celebrate Poem In Your Pocket Day.  The kids seem pretty hyped.  I'm thankful to all the teachers who have gotten them pumped up.    I found a little poem by Michael Rosen for my pocket.  It goes like this:

Come in, come in, wherever you've been....
This is the poem in which you're a part.
This is the poem that knows you by heart.

The Teeth

You know how I do car duty every day right?  Well there's a mom who talks to me every once in awhile.  She's usually late to pick up her 2 cute girls so I've gotten to know her better than most this year.  She has a lot of troubles it seems to me.  Her miniature van is so cruddy it doesn't even deserve the name of miniature van.  And her clothes are kind of a wreck.  And they've had to move several times this year.  I really could go on and on.
Well yesterday she came up to me and she had hardly any teeth left.  I wasn't sure what to say, so I said nothing.  Her teeth were in pretty horrid shape, so I wasn't super surprised to see them gone, ttytt.  After some chit chat about the girls, she said, "I got almost all my teeth pulled out today."  I kind of nodded and winced.  Then she told me that she had 3 more that needed to come out but she had to wait til January for the insurance to pay for those 3 to get yanked!

This girl is TOUGH STUFF!

Geezlouise, I thought, I've got to stop kvetching about stuff.  Case in point.
But if I totally stop, my blog will cease to exist, I thought next.
So there you have it.  We're neither here nor there.

The Office

I'm cleaning my office.  It's looking better and I'm feeling better with a less cluttered space.

I had to read this book called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success as part of
my literacy partner job.  It's a pretty good book.  It's about having a growth mindset versus
a fixed mindset.  Part of having a growth mindset is learning from problems, rather than being
stymied by them.  When problems occur, a growth mindset person thinks, "What can I learn from this?
What does this situation teach me about what I want and don't want in my life?"
The author claims that some people naturally have the growth mindset and some of us have to work at it. If you want to read it, you should.

The Definition

I was at homework table with 3 sassy fifth graders.  2 of them I've known for several years now.  They were chatting away and not homeworking, when I said, "Let's put the kabosh on all the talking."  They asked me what kabosh meant.  I told them, and because I had my laptop I googled the term to give them the exact definition.  Then one little sassy asked me to look up the term hob-knocker.  I asked where she had heard it.  They all answered that they heard it on I Carly, but they didn't know what it meant.  I looked it up and slammed my computer screen down when I read that hob knocker is a guy who hits another guy in the face with his penis.  This really piqued their interest.  I told them that I highly doubted the term was on I Carly.  They insisted it was and asked me repeatedly to tell them what it meant.  So I did and we all laughed for a really long time after that.  Come to find out, the term has other definitions, but none of the definitions are appropriate school conversation.

I had a good time with the 5thsters at homework table today.  After the whole hob knocker incident, we watched some you tube videos about rides at King's Island and found out how much the tickets cost.  The girls really want to go to King's Island this summer.  I hope they get to go.  They're great gals.

The Marigolds

Helped the firsties plant some marigolds today.  Then I watched them play on the playground.  This was the first time I'd been on the new playground ever.  As expected, our playground equipment represents a virtual death trap, a suicide rap.  The bars are dangerously high and there are odd turny things that the teachers don't want the kids to hang on to for obvious reasons.  Kids have already broken bones out there.

We wouldn't have it any other way.

The #1Son

#1 son had a big project about global warming for Physics.  We've been encouraging #1 Son to really focus on the research aspect of this project.  As usual, #1 Son went his own way.

The AP Massacre

#1 son is studying for AP tests.  When I asked him what I should call my blog entry today, #1 son said, "The AP Massacre."  This isn't the type of confidence I like to see in #1 before his AP tests.  Maybe he means that he's going to massacre the tests, but that's not the feeling I got from his tone and demeanor.  Good luck, #1.  Do your best, forget the rest.  (And by doing your best, I mean continuing to study for the AP's this week).

The Death

I really hate that feeling when someone kills someone else and I feel a glimmer of glee about it.  Sure when I'm watching TAKEN with the incomparable Liam Neeson, that's appropriate.  That's what the action genre is all about. But in real life, I find the feeling so disturbing.  I remember when I heard Jeffrey Dahmer got murdered, I thought, OH GOOD! But then I just felt gross after that.  I don't want anyone to be killed, no matter how horrid they are.  And when I'm happy about someone being murdered, I wonder, Am I losing my human-ness?  Of course, I'm pleased I don't have to watch anymore of Bin Laden's home movies, but I wish we hadn't murdered him.  I wish we could have been better than that.

The Movie

Saw Rabbit Hole last night.  It gets a 5 on the fist of 5 scale of great movies.  It's sad of course, but beautifully written and the acting is top notch.  If you want to see it, you should.

On another note, I've learned more about those critters I photographed.  They're webworms or they might be tent caterpillars and they are taking over the world.