A Short Post on Race

I'm annoyed that I got scolded as a college freshman by a professor because "there's no such thing as different races," yet sending my daughters through Girl Scouts I always had to declare their race (I usually put: human.) Now because of No Child Left Behind and a student teacher cooperative thingy that the Musician is doing with the local community college, I not only have to say whether or not she is Hispanic, but also then go ahead and list her race. The whole mess is estupido.

I Felt So Alone

Yesterday Wildchild and her Brownie troop celebrated Thinking Day, with the rest of the Girl Scout troops in our town. Thinking Day is an event when Girl Scouts learn about another countries, as there are Girl Scouts, or Guides, all around the world. Each troop had a table featuring posters and so forth about their country. However, one older troop had a "Rights of Children Around the World" table that made me feel sick inside. Now, I'm not against children having food and shelter and clean drinking water and all that. It's just the phrasing, as in this country a "right" has started to mean "something someone else pays for." Like how many in this country say that everyone has a "right" to healthcare and so we should start a government bureaucracy so everyone can get it for "free." I was also disturbed by the sign that said that the United Nations as central for dealing with problems of humanity. I, on the other hand, see the UN as a corrupt and bloated agency where the top officials take kickbacks and paybacks and whatever else they can skim off, UN soldiers can be rapists of women and children, and they are generally uneffective and overfunded. I also wondered about a sign that said children have a right to love. This reminds me too much of the pro-abortion mantra that every child should be wanted. Like if you don't think you are going to "love" a child, you'd better get rid of it. Sigh. It just seemed to be that this display was long on feel-goodism and short on anything real. One sign even said, "Think of the children." Isn't that what every slimy politician says when they want to take more of our money?

Also, this Girl Scout event took place at the local public school, and I couldn't turn around without seeing a sign about honesty or taking responsibility or conflict resolution. Nothing promoted was bad in and of itself, but it started feeling barf-worthy when it was everywhere in sight. I felt so alone, so lost in a sea of "feelings" and political correctness and mantras. Like there was no one out there who thought like me.

ETA: Oh, and since Senator Obama is the co-sponsor of a Senate bill to spend at least $845 billion over the next five years to fight *global* poverty, I'm a little worried about a laundry list of things that children around the world have a "right" to have.

Home Doings

Well, most of the cookies are out of the house, hooray! I knew how big a job being a cookie mom was going to be, so it wasn't surprising, but I'm still glad it's pretty much over with. I do have to collect the money, and there's a little bit of paperwork still to do, but at least the heavy lifting is over. The Scientist was kind enough to come to Wildchild's Brownie meeting with me yesterday and truck boxes out to people's cars with our dolly. I'm sure she'll do something in 4-H that Wildchild can help her with.

Doesn't it seem like cats always jump up on your lap just when you're about to get up?

Cookie Craze

As cookie mom, it was my responsibility to pick up 43 cases of Girl Scout cookies this morning. Good thing we own a minivan! Then my two girls carried them into our home and helped me sort them out so the right cookies can go to each girl. What a job! And the girls used math skills! :)

The cookies were picked up at a warehouse in a rather shabby neighborhood. I especially realized this when I drove past the Park-n-Pawn. Yes, really, there was a pawn shop called Park-n-Pawn. Never seen one of those before.

Juggling Act

All too quickly, we've gotten back into the busy routine of the school year. Wildchild started ballet today. I don't have a picture yet, but that's okay. She wanted a skirt to wear with her leotard, but I told her to wait and see if any of the other girls had them. They do, so next week she will have her skirt too, plus a bag to carry her shoes and clothes in. At the moment, she is taking the class in the morning. There are mostly children a few years younger, as the children her age are largely in "regular school," but there is another homeschooled girl in there for now. This may change later as this girl has four older siblings at home who are also involved in activities, and the mom juggles the schedule around! We may change Wildchild's classtime then too, although I love having it in the morning and getting it done with, not to mention avoiding the heavier traffic later in the day! Plus working dinner around, say, an activity that starts before 5 or ends after 6.

The Scientist started gymnastics on Saturday. I hate having a Saturday class, but she is in the beginner's level class, and that was the only time there were several other girls her age, and not just a bunch of much younger children (the Scientist is ten.) At least classes at this gym run on something like an eight-week schedule, so we may be able to get a different class next time. I like to leave Saturday completely open for family fun and relaxation.

Then the Scientist has Latin once a week, and Wildchild goes to Brownies twice a month. This isn't really a lot, and I think these activities are useful for the girls, but sometimes it all seems like too much! Of course, part of that is my personality, I suppose. I do need to get out, but mostly I like being at home. I hate it when my time is regulated outside of my own control as well. Yeah, I'm just a control freak. :) There are also some other places we need to go this week in addition to the regular set, which adds to my feeling that we'll be living in the car! :) I'm glad gas prices have gone down, at least!

Moving Forward

About time I updated you on the exciting doings around here! :) It must be Girl Scout hike week. My youngest daughter is going on a hike tonight with her Brownie troop. My eldest daughter is going on a hike this Saturday with her Junior troop to learn about geocaching. I had thought last fall that it would be fun to have one of our closest friends help us with this. He was an ardent geocacher, with over a thousand caches found. Sadly, that friend passed on suddenly later that same fall. My thoughts about him are in my blog archives. BTW, his "geocacher name" was SherwoodForest.

More car troubles: the one car we have running has a broken power steering belt. My husband is working on it; it's not hard but 'tis time consuming. Also it prevents me from driving the car until it is fixed. And yet despite the fact that we haven't gone anywhere since Saturday, my eldest daughter has managed to pick up a cold! Caught it from a neighbor kid somehow, I suppose.

It helps me to rant to ya'll about the car. Everyone has these problems, of course, but it's a release to share it with you when it's my problem. What else is a blog for but to dump your frustrations? Oh yeah, and share cute pictures of your pets/children/house plants.

I found at least one place where my daughter can take ballet this summer, so I think she'll do that. My other daughter will probably take theater again this summer. She took classes last summer and fall. I'm impressed with her ability to perform in front of others; she was also involved in a couple of piano recitals when she studied piano. Now my younger daughter, the wild rambunctious one, is much more nervous about doing things in public! We're working on it though. I explained to her that it is good for her. Most everybody has to perform or present in public at some point or another. I wish I had gotten better at it younger.

Wrapping Things Up

We have some end-of-school-year stuff to take care of. I'm re-registering my youngest daughter with Brownies and I'm doing it differently this year. They have an "optional" section at the bottom for ethnicity, and in the case of adult registrants (leaders and such) highest education received as well. I left it blank last year, since it says it is optional and I object to ethnic "quotas." Well, being the leader of my other daughter's troop, I was very irked when I got copies of our registration forms back for troop records and found that the area registrar had filled that section out for us! Hmmm. Not very optional then, is it? So this year I'm writing across the whole box in big letters "I Choose Not to Fill Out This Section." I can't see how checking a box stops discrimination, which I presume is the reasoning behind this. And I would like to know how someone who doesn't know me from Adam can ascertain my ethnic background and education level.

As far as my older daughter's troop, of which I am the leader, I have no idea how that is going to go. It was a difficult year for me. I became a leader by default, in mid-September or so, because what was supposed to happen troop-wise fell through and if my daughter was going to be in a troop, I was going to have to lead it. This year we had few girls and little money. I also had to deal at times with some modern girl attitude, which basically seems to be "It's all about me." I'm sure a lot of you have seen these shirts in stores with slogans like "It's funny how you think I'm listening." Uh-huh, that makes me real enthusiastic to share and teach things. Not that I didn't honestly try my best. It just made it discouraging at times, wondering if it made a difference.

My youngest daughter is also in gymnastics, and this year for the first time, she's learned simple "routines" and will participate in end-of-year "competitions" with other girls her level. No judging yet, just award certificates. She's only seven. I'll post some pictures after the events. She enjoys gymnastics, and I'm glad she's getting the opportunity to take classes. She's very active and she'd rather be climbing and jumping and moving around than anything else. I'd like to try to get her into ballet also, if not this summer than next fall.

Ironically, whilst I was complaining above about people filling things out for me that I don't want filled out, my husband IM'd me a personality test: Machiavelli personality test. I scored as a high Machiavelli, not surprising for an Evil Genius, although I was not overwhelmingly high. It was interesting how a Christian worldview slants the test both ways. On the one hand, we know we are not to lie and cut corners to get ahead. On the other hand, we know that people are not naturally good and kind!