Merry Christmas!
Dec. 26th, 2014 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carriebLong time, no post. Sorry about that! Thank you for the nudge, 3beards. Things are ok here. We had a delightful Christmas Eve in the Swedish style. Sort of. We had Swedish meatballs and boiled potatoes, but skipped the zillions of kinds of pickled herring. Our good friends that we celebrate holidays with don't eat pork, so we skipped sharing in Christmas Eve festivities with them. I am so very glad I've come to terms with never being with family at Christmas. I used to feel such guilt, but it is sooooooooo nice to have a drama free Christmas. I really enjoy my little family and the traditions we've created.
Christmas was also really nice. Santa delivered gifts, then we went over to our friends' for a big Christmas dinner and our traditional "dice game" Christmas swap. Not too many tears were shed.
The only problem was that Elsa started coughing yesterday. I am sensitive to sound and it is driving me insane.
Today was a lovely day, weather wise (no coats needed!), so we met the friends at a park for awhile, but then the kids started melting down. I should have known something was up when Elsa said she wanted to go take a nap in the van.
We ended up back at our friends' house, eating cheese and letting the kids run wild. Except Elsa crawled in her friend's bed and the friend played "nurse."
Finally got home and Elsa had a 103 degree fever. I win mother of the year!
Mike told me just now that he is starting to cough, so I told him I'm going to a hotel for the night. I can't take the noise. I know it is not the cougher's fault, but it seriously makes me insane. Guess I won't really go to a hotel, though.
Got through another grad school class. Whoo-hooo! There was no group work, so I was quite happy and I did learn a lot. I don't think I really said that this program is through a Christian college, the one I did my undergrad at. I was very, very, very Christian from age 2-24. Now I'm an atheist and believe me, I have my reasons. I probably should not have done this program because the Christian aspect irritates me, but I chose this and I can't complain about it. I choose this program b/c it was basically a complete fluke. I asked Mike what he thought and was sure he'd say it wouldn't work financially, but it did work. It is very low-priced compared to other programs that are out there. Plus, the admissions process was super easy since I am an alumni from the school. It's just really tough to answer some of the weekly spiritual life questions. I may not be a Christian, but I have read the Bible cover to cover. I can always find a verse to support my premise. This last week we had to write about the role money should play in a Christian's life and a couple of the people were soooooooo confused about Christians and money, saying that God would bless the truly Christian and make them wealthy. Christians deserve an "exquisite" lifestyle. I tore those posts apart. I was very curious what the actual pastors would say about the remarks (we have two pastors in our program), but neither of them chimed in. The funny thing is, the two people who believe this wealth non-sense are both struggling to make ends meet. I don't understand their thought process. I guess it is something like magical thinking and believing that eventually they'll be good enough Christians to be rich? Not saying all Christians should live in poverty, but the Bible makes it pretty clear that wealth is a stumbling block when it comes to getting into heaven.
In other news, I hope things will be better with Erik at school after the new year. The principal seems to understand him and believes he's a really smart kid and a typical male. He hasn't said this in so many words, but he has implied that he understand Erik doesn't respond well to someone yammering at him and being on his case constantly. The principal is going to have the reading/writing specialist work with Erik once a week to get his writing up to speed.
The counselor really irritates me, so I was glad to have a meeting with the principal. I met with the counselor one on one and couldn't get a word in edgewise. The principal is excellent at managing a meeting and didn't let her dominate. She really irritated me when she told me she was concerned about Erik's empathy. The kid may be stubborn and disagreeable, but he is very compassionate and generous. She had him in a group with some other kids and had them all go around and role play. The scenario was that her cat had just died and they were supposed to say something. Erik said "don't worry, cats have nine lives." She took that as mean, but after I talked to him he honestly believed that cats have nine lives, so he thinks if a cat dies it comes back a few days later. So his response was very nice! Just not to an adult who lives in reality. I don't want to be one of those parents who believes her kid can do no wrong, but in this case I really don't see what the problem is.
Anyway, guess it is time to go get Erik in bed. I am luxuriating in my two weeks off from school. Let's clean all the bathrooms! And purge all the toys! And read all the books! And paint all the rooms! And maybe lose all the pounds! Oh god, do I need to lose all the pounds. I don't even want to think about the extreme diet I'm planning on going on in Jan.
Christmas was also really nice. Santa delivered gifts, then we went over to our friends' for a big Christmas dinner and our traditional "dice game" Christmas swap. Not too many tears were shed.
The only problem was that Elsa started coughing yesterday. I am sensitive to sound and it is driving me insane.
Today was a lovely day, weather wise (no coats needed!), so we met the friends at a park for awhile, but then the kids started melting down. I should have known something was up when Elsa said she wanted to go take a nap in the van.
We ended up back at our friends' house, eating cheese and letting the kids run wild. Except Elsa crawled in her friend's bed and the friend played "nurse."
Finally got home and Elsa had a 103 degree fever. I win mother of the year!
Mike told me just now that he is starting to cough, so I told him I'm going to a hotel for the night. I can't take the noise. I know it is not the cougher's fault, but it seriously makes me insane. Guess I won't really go to a hotel, though.
Got through another grad school class. Whoo-hooo! There was no group work, so I was quite happy and I did learn a lot. I don't think I really said that this program is through a Christian college, the one I did my undergrad at. I was very, very, very Christian from age 2-24. Now I'm an atheist and believe me, I have my reasons. I probably should not have done this program because the Christian aspect irritates me, but I chose this and I can't complain about it. I choose this program b/c it was basically a complete fluke. I asked Mike what he thought and was sure he'd say it wouldn't work financially, but it did work. It is very low-priced compared to other programs that are out there. Plus, the admissions process was super easy since I am an alumni from the school. It's just really tough to answer some of the weekly spiritual life questions. I may not be a Christian, but I have read the Bible cover to cover. I can always find a verse to support my premise. This last week we had to write about the role money should play in a Christian's life and a couple of the people were soooooooo confused about Christians and money, saying that God would bless the truly Christian and make them wealthy. Christians deserve an "exquisite" lifestyle. I tore those posts apart. I was very curious what the actual pastors would say about the remarks (we have two pastors in our program), but neither of them chimed in. The funny thing is, the two people who believe this wealth non-sense are both struggling to make ends meet. I don't understand their thought process. I guess it is something like magical thinking and believing that eventually they'll be good enough Christians to be rich? Not saying all Christians should live in poverty, but the Bible makes it pretty clear that wealth is a stumbling block when it comes to getting into heaven.
In other news, I hope things will be better with Erik at school after the new year. The principal seems to understand him and believes he's a really smart kid and a typical male. He hasn't said this in so many words, but he has implied that he understand Erik doesn't respond well to someone yammering at him and being on his case constantly. The principal is going to have the reading/writing specialist work with Erik once a week to get his writing up to speed.
The counselor really irritates me, so I was glad to have a meeting with the principal. I met with the counselor one on one and couldn't get a word in edgewise. The principal is excellent at managing a meeting and didn't let her dominate. She really irritated me when she told me she was concerned about Erik's empathy. The kid may be stubborn and disagreeable, but he is very compassionate and generous. She had him in a group with some other kids and had them all go around and role play. The scenario was that her cat had just died and they were supposed to say something. Erik said "don't worry, cats have nine lives." She took that as mean, but after I talked to him he honestly believed that cats have nine lives, so he thinks if a cat dies it comes back a few days later. So his response was very nice! Just not to an adult who lives in reality. I don't want to be one of those parents who believes her kid can do no wrong, but in this case I really don't see what the problem is.
Anyway, guess it is time to go get Erik in bed. I am luxuriating in my two weeks off from school. Let's clean all the bathrooms! And purge all the toys! And read all the books! And paint all the rooms! And maybe lose all the pounds! Oh god, do I need to lose all the pounds. I don't even want to think about the extreme diet I'm planning on going on in Jan.
