Smart Mommy Solutions» rambling

No sense arguing when people won’t listen

Tonya — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:28:17 +0000

I had a frustrating appointment yesterday where the grandmother was not going to implement any of my therapy suggestions. She doesn’t speak English very well, but I can tell that if I had told her the suggestions in her primary language, she would not have implemented them either. She is going to do what she thinks is best, which I guess is her prerogative.

It is definitely not worth arguing about either. I tried that last week, and I only felt badly after I left that I had argued with her. I didn’t actually succeed in getting her to do what I want her to do for therapy. This week I just kept my mouth shut and listened to her old wives tales that have no basis in truth.

New animal Quest: Bats in a cave

Tonya — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:00:00 +0000

I have decided on a new animal quest for this year, since I achieved my last quest. My new quest is to see bats in their cave. I have seen wild bats flying around in the evening before, but I have not been to a cave where bats congregate. I have seen one bat in a tiny cave, but I want to see a full congregation of bats. I might be satisfied by seeing them flying out in the evening in a large mass.

I will keep you posted when my quest is achieved.

Update on spelling bee

Tonya — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:57:35 +0000

I mentioned in my last post that my daughter would have to go to the county spelling bee during spring break. She successfully bailed on that. The other contestant from her school wasn’t able to go, and my daughter’s teacher asked if she was going, and my daughter said that she didn’t want to. The teacher said OK, and that was it. Done.

On another note, it is crazy busy here. I work at a school district, and right before the end of the school year is a seriously busy time of year. Looking forward to summer break.

Busy Busy Busy with Therapy

Tonya — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:06:40 +0000

I have been ignoring this blog because I have been excessively busy building up and working on my therapy site. It is called Therapy Fun Zone, which is where I post therapy activities. It is very time consuming to create these activities. Specially my pencil adventures. It takes me hours of work on the computer to make one pencil adventure. I love doing it though, and I am a bit obsessed with it at the moment. I see myself compiling a book of these and publishing it. Considering that it takes me so long to make one of these, (and the fact that I have to work at my real job), it will be a while before my book is completed. That’s ok, because I am a turtle. Slow and steady wins the race. I keep working at things until I get them done.

On another note, my daughter came in second in her Junior High spelling bee, and now has to go to the county spelling bee. What is funny about that is that she has a history (meaning she has done it before) of throwing the spelling bee. When she is up there, she just decides that she is done, so she misses a word on purpose. This time, the only reason she even entered is because it was extra credit for english class. Then, a good friend made her promise not to lose on purpose. Well she didn’t lose on purpose, and now she has to take a day during her spring break to go to the county spelling bee. She is not thrilled about that. She is also not thrilled that she has to study spelling words during lunch with the english teacher. Oh well. I am proud of her for her success.

Photo Cards=Good, vs Bad Christmas Letter Contest

Tonya — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:09:07 +0000

Have you sent out your holiday cards yet? I haven’t. In fact I was debating whether I would send any out at all. I would like to, but life is so busy, and money is tight. I am still considering it, and was perusing Shutterfly’s Christmas photo card templates. It still isn’t too late. I have actually been known to send cards out after new years. Why not, a card is a card, right? It is a way to keep in touch and let friends and family know what you have been up to over the past year. Here are some basic holiday photo cards, and here are just Christmas cards.

Who do you send your cards to? Everyone you know? Or do you pick and choose who gets a card.

We have a secret family tradition (I guess not so secret now) where there is a contest for the worst Christmas letter. The people entered into the competition have no idea that they are competing for a special honor. Sorry, if your Christmas letter is good, entertaining, and exactly what a Christmas letter should do, then you do not get to compete. Only the terrible letters are eligible. The winner always has certain traits, which I will list below in case you would like to try to compete for the top honor.

Necessary components to winning the Bad Christmas letter contest:

Brag about your expensive vacations.

Tell us all about the surgeries and illnesses you have had.

Tell us in detail about everyone that you know who has died this year (only wins if it is many people)

Go into detail about your child prodigy and how advanced they are compared to other children.

Go into detail about disgusting things you enjoy eating.

Anyone whose letter is 4 pages long.

Talk about what you are doing at the moment you are writing the letter.

Have every paragraph include a scripture from the Bible.

Please share your own ideas of what to include in order to enter the contest. I am a little sad that I am ineligible to enter my own contest, because it might be fun to come up with the worst letter in history. I do enjoy getting good Christmas letters as well. I also like to get pictures with the letter. I haven’t sent a card for the past 2 years, and I wonder if people think that things are so bad that we can’t send a card. The year before last, I just didn’t want to do it. Then last year, my husband was in Iraq, and we had a flood in our house and had to move out for the three weeks around Christmas. Cards were just not a priority at that time. I feel like I need to send one this year because we haven’t sent any in a while.

If you get a bad Christmas letter and card from me this year, feel free to enter me into your own contest. Don’t tell me if I won though because that is just rude.

Shutterfly is having a blog promotion. If you are a blogger, you can get 50 free photo cards.

unscheduled weekend

Tonya — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 03:28:00 +0000

I am having an unscheduled weekend. I just love those. Like, I’m passionate about them. We have been gone the last two weekends in a row, so it feels soooo good to just putz around the house and get stuff done. I worked on organizing the office/guest room because we are having guests in a couple of weeks. There are still no books in the book cases since our water disaster, so it wasn’t too hard to straighten up. Then the kids and I watched Avatar. The man is on his drill weekend, so the house is quieter and there is a lot more organizing going on. When he is here, we have a tendency to do fun stuff, but when he isn’t, I make the kids clean their rooms. That’s just how it works.

Things that make me happy

Tonya — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:22:00 +0000

I decided to make it my mission on Thursday to take pictures of things that are beautiful and that make me happy. It was weird carrying my camera around to the different schools, but I have some pretty things. The first one is not one that I saw that day, but it was a really nice rainbow after a storm.

Next I have some lovely flowers that are blooming, and they made me happy to see the beauty.

The beauty in everyday things part is that some of those flowers were at a school that I go to, and some of them were in a parking lot at Costco where I got gas.

I also really love books and reading, and the school I was at that day was having a scholastic book fair and it was all I could do not to buy a book. I love books.

I appreciate beauty in the little things.

Tonya — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:19:00 +0000

I find that I am now appreciating beauty in the little things again. When my husband was gone, I had a very tough time, and for a bit I was just barely surviving, not really enjoying. Now that he is back, things are easier, and I am happier in general, and I am all of a sudden seeing beauty. The other day, walking through one of the schools that I work at, I saw flowers on a tree and wished that I had my camera. Today I was walking around another school and looked up and saw a beautiful landscaped yard of a house next to the school. I have been walking that route for months and did not even realize that there were houses and yards there. I am starting to really enjoy things again, and care about the hobbies that I didn’t care about at all for months. It feels good to care. I wish that I had some pictures to share of the little beauties, but I don’t carry my camera around with me from school to school. I have too much other stuff that I am carrying around with me. You will just have to take my word for it that there is beauty all around us.

worst 6 months ever

Tonya — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:14:00 +0000

This deployment has been horrible. One bad thing happening after another. I have just been hunkering down and riding it out. We are finally settling down, and my husband will be home in less than 2 weeks. Man it has been a long ordeal. Things are going better, and I am looking forward to getting... [Continue Reading]

What my husband will be driving when done with training.

Tonya — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:50:00 +0000

I saw this on I wish Wednesday on blah, blah, blah, blog, and it is funny. This is what my husband will have to be driving when he is done with training and his knees give out, and his back gives out. (I’m just kidding, he may have to wait till he is actually old.)