Jake's New Thing

I was raised in a football family. My dad watched the Dallas Cowboys. I remember him and my brothers watching, hooting, and cheering. The thrill, I must say, passed me by. When I was a rebellious teenager, my most defiant act was to root for the Pittsburg Steelers, avowed enemy of the Cowboys.

Honey was raised in a sports home. Not as passionate, perhaps, but still, sports were followed. But Honey never really got into it. He's a musician. (We like to say that we really lucked out: I found the one man on the planet who didn't care about sports, and he found the one woman who wasn't into shopping.)

The Soccer Mom phenomena passed right by this family. Jake did a short season of T-Ball, once. Addie and Tom each did one season of soccer. Each of these things was community: you pay $40 to the city Rec center, and your kid gets a t shirt with a business logo, a participation "trophy," and a brief concept that this game usually has some rules, but we aren't worried about those right now.

So imagine my surprise when Jake announces that his all-time favorite sports team is the Denver Broncos; that his favorite athlete is Champ Bailey; and that is fondest ambition is to be a wide receiver for the Broncos. He was watching a football game on television (probably the first one ever to be watched in this house), and he was telling me about plays, and downs, fumbles and other such things. I felt betrayed when Honey came in, watched for a moment, and said, "Watch, now they'll argle gargle google goo" and when the team did, Honey and Jake cheered and high-fived. (Apparently, it's an XY chromosomal link thing. Not caring isn't the same as not knowing. Who knew?)

Now Jake is signed up for football. It comes with pads, helmet, uniform, coaches, games, practices, rules, tackles and the whole sweaty nine yards. It cost $200 to sign him up, and that was just the beginning of the shake down. (Remind me to someday complain about the "touchdown bucket.") Jake's season started today, with an exhibition game against Bingham.

Jake is a second stringer. At Bingham, he'd probably be a first stringer, but our team is absolutely loaded with Polynesians, and Jake probably weighs less than the team's single girl athlete. Apparently, though, it's all paid off. He came home from his first game completely jazzed: the Kearns Bantams won 27-13, Jake had 6 plays, and his coach said that he's learned faster and better than any other first year they've seen (most of his team has been playing for 4 years).

I can't say I ever pictured myself as the mother of an athlete, but the smile on Jakes face makes the flies buzzing around the corpse of the family wallet all worth while!

Talking to myself: the new semester

I write so rarely, this is like talking to myself. I don't know if anyone looks anymore, which makes it hard to want to write, which means people don't look. . . it isn't a cycle as vicious as familial abuse, certainly, but it does cycle just as much.

A new semester has begun: new classes and new things to learn. This semester is adult care -commonly called medical-surgery or med-surg- and I'll be spending two days each week for the next 15 weeks at the hospital. I'll be on different surgical floors, and spend time in the ICU, the ER, and PCU (the step down between ICU and home) and even one day in surgery.

Did you know that while the majority of nurses go to work in the hospital, it's (only) just over 50%? There are so many choices available! I could be a certified nurse midwife and deliver babies (my original ambition); I could be a family practice nurse, and have a clinic with patients; I could be a prison nurse (although I likely won't); I could do research and have little to do with patients at all.

More than just a nurse, I feel like I want to make changes. There is a professional hostility between certified nurse midwives and direct entry midwives (who commonly attend home births). Part of it is a territorial dispute, part of it is an educational snobbery, and I think part of it is based on envy: CNMs have really high malpractice insurance (although I can't imagine that DEMs have it too much better). But it bugs me, because in school the big theme repeated endlessly is the role of the nurse: patient advocate.

Another place that fascinates me is community nursing. People go on medical missions to foreign countries and feel righteous and holy (and certainly they are doing good work). Why not a medical mission to urban areas in the US? "There are free clinics here already."

So if there is already some mechanism in place to provide medical care to people who live on the fringes of society, why is there this mad rush to socialize medicine? Where are the flaws and gaps? Why are the free clinics not doing the job? What obstacles do they have? What are the limitations?

I'm not poised to become a bleeding heart liberal; I am excited about the power of the individual to make a difference. I hope that I can make a difference for the better, where ever I finally land professionally.

I must be living right

Education does not come without sacrifice.

People at school will say to me "Don't your kids get underfoot? Don't they bug you when you try to study?"

And I can honestly say, No, they don't. Because Addie and Jake are glued to the computer (on line or video game hooked) and Tom is playing with the Wii. Liz goes to play with a friend, mostly. The hilarity begins when Liz comes home and wants a turn on the Wii.

"Moooo-oooom. I want a turn on the Wiiiiii." (I'm convinced it was a diabolical Japanese linguistic plot that made that word so easy to whine.)

"Did you tell Tom about it?" (and off Liz goes, giving me a 30 second respite).

"Moooo-ooom. He says he's in the middle of something and he can't quit."

(Sigh. Eye roll.) "Tell Tom I want to talk to him." I realize using a fellow child as a messenger is probably bad parenting, but it gives me about another 60 seconds of study time before Tom plods sullenly up the stairs to hear the same. stupid. lecture I gave him yesterday.

"Haven't you been doing this since you got home? Isn't it true that Liz hasn't done it at all today? Why should she wait while you finish this level/battle this bad guy/find this save station?"

The lecture and rebuttals go on, but it's depressing enough to have shared this much of it.

In the past, I have told my classmates that I am willing to let their little minds fry while I'm in school if it means I can study unmolested. It hasn't played that way, plus their little minds are frying.

So today I declared a freedom from electronics day. They've been bored, they've wished I could be swallowed by the earth, but 3 of them are at a park with friends, and the fourth is out front with a buddy. None of them are plugged into anything (and I'm spending valuable study time writing a blog).

Electronic freedom day is about to become a weekly event!

A Beautiful Mother Moment

See this? Notice that the picture corners are peeling up? Notice that there are things scratched off and misspelled on both posters? And yet, if you look at this picture on the left, a dark arrow is pointing to a faintly circled A+. Why does such arguably shoddy work merit such a high grade?

Because, unusually in elementary school, this project was done exclusively by the second grader to whom it was assigned. Liz came home and said "I have to do an Africa report." and I said "Okay."

Then I did nothing. It wasn't due for a while, I was sure (they always give parents generous deadlines). And then I never heard anything more about it.

The next opportunity I had to remember it was the day I went to her class to volunteer. There on the wall, for all to see, were these two posters. Liz had gone on line, printed pictures, and found information all on her own. She'd cut out pictures, glued them on the poster, and taken them to school, all without any kind of parental supervision.

I mentioned that to her teacher, and I think that was why she got the A+. Not because I told him, but because it was so obviously all her own work.

List 7: Things I will be giving up

School starts. . .well, today, actually, even though classes don't technically begin until next week. I had orientation today, and it was packed full of things I still have to do.

First, some relevant mathematics:

(32-38 hours of class/week) x (3 hours of prep/hour of class) = No. Life.

I may be able to shave a little off the recommended study time, but given the hours that I'll be in class and clinicals, even if I do only 2 hours per hour of lecture, that doesn't leave a lot of free time.

So I hereby offer my sacrifices to academic excellece (or at least adequacy):

1. Television. I don't watch that much, but I will have to shave it down to the absolute minimum. That may mean I tape my two favorite shows, and watch them obsessively during the semester breaks.

2. Choir. Okay, so it was only 1 hour per week, but the practice is at 8 pm. That is the last hour of daylight on many days, and it is an hour when most of my kids are outside, or electronically entertained. It may be my only quiet hour of home study during the week.

3. Snacks. I'll be spending a significant amount of time on campus, or in a hospital, away from my refrigerator and pantry. If I also fail to take cash, and given the brutal sprawl of the campus and minimal student parking, I might actually lose weight.

4. Snooze. When the alarm goes off, I'll just have to get up. Every 9 minutes I can study without kids talking to me is worth 20 minutes with kids talking to me.

5. Leisure reading. This is a killer. I love to read. I love to roll the words in my mind, to laugh when it is witty and cry when it is sad. I love to ponder when it is thought provoking and snort when it is contemptible. I'll miss it. But it's only for 16 months, minus semester breaks.

There may be other sacrifices waiting in the wings, but right now they have the sense to keep their heads down while I still imagine this might be doable. If they were to make demands now, I'd probably come unglued. And Honey doesn't know quite enough anatomy to put all of the pieces back together.

List #6: Covering all the Bases

When you go to the library, they will print out a list of everything that you have checked out for the day. This list is one belonging to someone else, left in a book that I later checked out. I am fascinated by the list's diversity!

Games to Play with Toddlers

Kid's Book to Welcome a new baby

Games to play with two year olds

Sing a song activity and idea book

Sunday fun activities and ideas

Little hands fingerplays and actions

CTR A gospel games

Family Home Evening games galore (3 separate volumes)

Family home evening favorites

Sacred Path of Reiki: healing as a spiritual discipline

Ronald Reagan: fate, freedom and the making of history

His Excellency: George Washington

Liberal Fascism: the secret history of the American left, from Moussolini to the politics of meaning

General George Washington: a military life

In the footsteps of Churchill

The Mormon way of doing buiness: leadership and success through faith and family

American Fascists: the Christian Right and the war on America

I wonder if this is person is a homeschooler?

Let the stress fest begin

I've ordered all of my textbooks for the first semester on-line. Seemed brilliant; I saved anywhere from $100 to $150 dollars over just buying used at the U bookstore. Today, the first 3 arrived. One of them weighs about 6 pounds, all by itself. So:

I've always mentally sneered at those people who dragged their air-line luggage style backpacks around campus in the past. I have 3 classes on campus, on Thursdays and Fridays. All three classes, both days. Of the other two, one is on line, and the other is clinicals. Those three that meet twice a week comprise 6 of the total 9 textbooks I've had to purchase. I may well become one of those I've sneered at.

Also, ordering on line is cool to save money. Not so cool is watching the time til class starts tick down, and still be waiting for confirmation that the order that you placed 2 weeks ago is being processed. (According to the relevant web site, my books are "on order.") Maybe there is a reason that the books were so cheap.

Next time, I'll spend a little more and go with one of the other sites that has gotten me my books already.