Its about me and my family. Mainly me and the girls. I may twitter or tweet alot but its mostly thoughts and going ons here at home and thoughts about what we might be doing on weekend or our adventures. Sit down and Enjoy what you are reading.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Tired.. Wore Down..

Hi all.I know I just started working about six weeks ago but I feel wore down and just tired. I am getting plenty of sleep and rest but I just feel wore down. Working at home and work. I am not complaining. Just stating how I feel. I know its part of being a grown up.. But sometimes I hate being grown up... LOL..

Thursday a manager and her boyfriend cook called in sick and then Friday we were two people short and it was busier than fuck.. Then Saturday we were on person short. Thankfully it wasnt as busy. I had yesterday off and then work tonight and then have tomorrow off.

I got most of my cleaning done yesterday but have laundry to do yet. But going down in a bit to do that. Snowie is home from her spaying and doing well. She is still a little sore but recoverying nicely. All I feel like doing today is laying around and watching tv. I dont even feel like doing laundry but the girls and Jeff both need clean clothes.. LOL..

We are looking at starting school next week and Kora cant even tell me what 7+4 is right off the top of her head. We have been working with her and she is so stubborn. She would never make it in a public school setting. I know what the answer is of course but want her to know. Like Jeff said if she cant do simple addition she wont be able to do long addition and subtraction. We are strongly considering repeating first grade with Kora with Math at least. We bought her some cool books for school. I dont know how it is for you Tshsmom and Grizzly Mama but here if you bring in the pink slip for home schooling to Barnes and Noble you get a discount on books.

Anyway that nosy old neighbor of mine has taken it to herself to clean out that hole where our tree was and then fill it today. She came over after she cleaned out the whole and then told me she is paying some one to put dirt back in the hole and then she is planting grass there. I just stood there and told her it was ok. I was to tired to argue with her and it was to late to tell her we wanted to keep the wood chips there since she already had them hauled away.. People.. I give up.

I know I am slightly complainging today. I just dont know what to do with Kora or life sometimes. I am trying though that is the difference. I am working with Kora as much as I can and so is Jeff but I just hate when she is stubborn and you ask her the simplest question and she cant or wont answer us.

Anyway we are doing good. The girls are adjusting to me working and I am adjusting to being away so much compared to being at home. Bri has asked when I work and she has said she misses me more and more lately. Its harder on her than it is Kora. Bri is a mommy's girl and Kora has always been more of a daddy's girl.

Well ok I am going to go catch up on my laundry. I will make rounds later tonigth maybe or if i get done with laundry earlier enough. Talk to you all soon and hope all is well. N...

15 comments:

Candy Minx said...

Sounds like you have every reason to deserve to blow off some steam. What a set of weeks and what an incredibly nosy neighbour. I don't know if I could live in a house with neighbours when I hear stuff like this...I am suddenly glad to be in an urban apartment where people ignore each other ha ha!!!

Hope you get a chance to put your feet up and watch a nice movie or something. I am getting a couple jig saw puzzles by the way! You inspired me!

none said...

The work you are in is really high turnover, you will see lots of people come and go and not show up.

Hope your kids adjust ok. Homeschooling was frustrating for me as well and IO had to teach math using stack of fun objects that kept my kid's attention.

by Danie said...

You are working night shifts and it is hard.
You are home schooling your girls and it is even harder.
No wonder you are tired, but you are also doing a very good job out of your life.

Gardenia said...

If Kora is a bit ADD - she might not be stubborn - just needing a lot of "refreshers" - sounds similar to what we go through here.

What a rude neighbor - !!! Probably thought they were doing you a favor though - - our neighbor comes over and edges our lawn - sometimes talks "H" into doing weird (I think) things with our plants - I keep reminding "H" he's married to me not neighbor, but I weighed the pros and cons and decided neighbor was more of an asset rather than a pest - actually he's a blessing.

Now, the ones next to us are like something out of inner city dope daze.

tshsmom said...

It's a BUGGER having to work short-handed!

I was going to say the same thing Gardenia said. That's a classic ADD trait. Z still has days when basic facts escape him. It's very frustrating for the kids.

You AND Jeff need to go to the internet and read everything you can find on ADD. It will help you a LOT with Kora's schooling!

Jeannie said...

I feel for you - working nights, homeschooling and having your regular chores to do. And then Kora being a little more difficult to teach. But hang in there. It will be worth it. I don't know anything about teaching so I can't give any advice whatsoever. I'd last about half an hour and then send the kids to school. I think you're amazing.

Grizzly Mama said...

I can't believe that neighbor of yours - ha! I'm speechless about it.

Work sucks - it wears me down too and the kids. My little one is mommy's girl and my working has been hardest on her. One thing that I think it good - is that she has been getting good practice at relying on daddy for stuff. She is not used to that but she is getting used to it. And it's good for girls to be able to rely on a trustworthy daddy.

Schooling. Dang. We had many, many, many moments especially in math. She is where she is and it's okay. Let her be where she is. I would get caught up in pushing to force the curriculum to be done by the end of the year and stuff - and just have to realize over and over again that they just are where they are and that's the beauty of homeschooling. You go at THEIR pace. Slow down and do the lesson again - it's fine. Really. Maybe try a different approach with counters, or pictures or something. Of course, they pulled shit on me, too. Like dawdling over work til I wanted to pull my hair out - but then racing through it and getting everything right if they knew they had to finish before they could go out and play.

Both of my kids (and me, too - with certain facts...) still count on once in awhile - you know - when the brain just farts. 7+4 will have to be counted starting at 7, then 8,9,10,11. It's 11. I always thought it was okay as long as they get the answer right and don't take forever getting there. They will only memorize them working with the numbers over a few years - I hate flash cards so we don't do them. I have used a system called 'Addition the Fun Way' - they also have it for Multiplication facts. Both girls love it as it uses little stories and visuals to illustrate the facts. The way I look at it, and this is my personal opinion and having had to do mental math in several occupations, flaking out on the addition facts once in awhile is no biggie because counting on is an easy and fast way to resolve it. I put way more emphasis on multiplication fact memorization (which that system that I mentioned has been a godsend because I hate flash cards...) because resolving an unknown there can be quite time consuming. For instance, I at 45 years of age, still have trouble with my 8 times tables. I always had a strange mental block with the 8's - I don't know why. There are a few 8's that are there for me but many are lost in the murk. I have to go through all kinds of gyrations figuring the murky ones out. Actually - that system that I used for the girls has helped on several of them because I just visualize the picture from the story and voila! Don't forget, too, the tricks with doubles and tens. Memorizing doubles (1+1, 2+2 etc..) and memorizing the facts for 10 can help with other addition facts. Have her look for 'near doubles' or 'near tens'. If you know that 3+3=6 - then it is easy to figure 3+4. It is a 'near double' and would be just one more than 3+3. If she knows that 6+4=10, then it is easy to figure 7+4 - it will be just one more than 10. We did whole sheets on doubles and near doubles for days. Then we did whole sheets of 10s and near 10s for days.

Sorry I went on so long - I hope that I didn't bore you to death. Take care, get as much rest as you can - nights are a bugger. I tell my husband, 'I'll sleep when I'm dead.' lol. Of course I wouldn't recommend that really...

zydeco fish said...

Maybe Jeff could do the laundry ...

ortho said...

Good luck with your laundry, Tweetey. I hope you regain your strength!

Gayle said...

Hi Tweety.

Sorry to hear you are so tired but I do understand that because I've been there and done that. It's not easy, and that's an understatement.

What do you do when Kora gets stubborn and doesn't answer you? I hope you put her on time out, or at least deprive her of something she enjoys. I think it's a way of getting attention because kids that age really don't tell the difference between good attention and bad attention. As long as they're getting attention they're happy. My granddaughter who we raised tried that routine on us. We took away her favorite things and she quickly changed her toon. One of the favorite things was her favorite tv program. If she pulled a stubborn act, then she wasn't allowed to watch it on that day. If the stubborn act was pulled after she'd already watched it, then she lost it for the next day. It didn't take long for her to understand that she wasn't getting anywhere. That was so long ago I don't even remember what the program was, but I do remember she was seven at the time.

Gayle said...

LOL! I wrote "she quickly changed her 'toon'. Of course I meant "tune". It was probably a cartoon that she enjoyed watching.

tweetey30 said...

Thanks Everyone. I appreciate the comments and I take them all very seriously when it comes to Kora. And also on how to have Jeff help with stuff. To be honest he is willing to learn. He just learned how to use my dryer. He hasnt had to use it since we met because I have been here to do so. Also he asked me to show him how to use the washer. So it makes it nice for us all.

Grizzly Mama said...

God bless you for having a husband who is willing to help! Troll helps, too, but his idea of clean is not quite up to my standard of cleanliness. Still - he will help and I just lower my standards a bit..

The Griper said...

flash cards are good but you need to make it interesting to the kids. my teacher made a game out of it. but it required the whole class. she'd divide the class up into two groups and made it into a competition as to who could give the correct answer first. we looked forward to these times as if we were allowed to play instead of working.

grizzly ma ma,
8's are easy. just look at the answer.
8 x1= 8, 8+0=8
8x2=16, 1+6= 7
8x3=24, 2+4= 6
8x4=32, 3+2=5
8x5=40, 4+0=4
8x6=48, 4+8=12, 1+2 =3
8x7=56, 5+6=11, 1+1=2
8x8=64, 6+4=10, 1+0=1
8x9=72, 7+2=9 then start over again
8x10=80, 8+0=8
8x11=88, 8+8=16, 1+6=7
8x12=96, 9+6=15, 1+5=6

now how do you tell what the end number is? you subtract the multipler of the previous formula from 8.

as to the answe itself, if you look the answer in the one's column is always 2 less than the previous number. then just put the number in the ten's column that gives you the end number.
no real multiplication needed to get the answer.

Suzy said...

Tweetey -- If you would like, I could send you some of the materials I use for teaching math in my classroom. Email me. I will say that I took a workshop a while back on teaching primary math, where the instructor explicitly said, "These are the 3 things that get in the way of kids' math learning: language, memory, and making connections." In other words, some kids need extra time to learn vocabulary, or to memorize things. And some kids need their teachers to be very explicit -- I used to find myself making a lot of wrong assumptions about what kids already knew.

Games are a fantastic way to become fluent in math skills. Once again, email me if you're interested, and I can send you some materials.