a few quick things

Quick takes?  Not sure it's within my capabilities.  But I'll give it a whirl...

Kittens.... Hubby called me at work on Tuesday to tell me that we had a little kitten family at our house.  Mom is a stray that showed up during the summer - pregnant as a whale.  Those babies didn't survive.  Now we had three of a new litter. 

They had tail issues.  One of the orange ones had no tail and the calico had a short tail.

By Wednesday evening there was no sign of the calico or the no-tail kitty.  Not sure what got 'em, but apparently it's one of those "circle of life" things.  We snatched up the remaining kitten before he became a tasty snack, and "Pumpkin" is now living with my niece. 

Prayers.  On Monday, my SIL found out that her BFF had just been diagnosed with breast cancer.  We pray the "Seven Sorrows Rosary" on some Tuesdays.  We weren't planning on meeting this Tuesday, but SIL scheduled an "Emergency Rosary".  There was just stuff to pray for.  Cancer patients.  My BFF's flight to Bolivia.  My mom's test results.

Then, more bad news on Tuesday.  BIL is the head football coach of a  very competitive HS team.  It was almost a given that they would be in the running for the state championship again this year.  If you look up integrity, you will see his picture next to the definition.  But during a check of records, they discovered that a transfer student had falsified his records and was actually ineligible.  He was a third string player - only played in the games that they won by a mile.  But now those four games would be forfeited.  Along with the high seed in the state play-off brackets.   Now they MUST win their last two games.  At last report, they were winning 49-0 at half-time.

We prayed on Tuesday evening.  We said the Seven Sorrows Rosary again tonight before the game.  Some of the meditations were SO just what was needed.  Nothing you can do...except put it in God's hands.  Forgive others.  Accept suffering inflicted upon us by others.  Offer it.

Prayer is about changing those who pray rather than trying to convince God to do things our way.

School.  Our teachers are being killed with paperwork.  Almost literally.  One already has her sabbatical scheduled.   One went to the hospital yesterday with chest pains. The doctor of another, told her she needed to remove stress from her life.  Another has not been able to keep food down for weeks.  Another threatens almost daily to leave - with increasing desperation.  They are drowning.  But no one is throwing out any life preservers.  There is the sense that no one cares.

I have a solution:  The central office is filled with over-priced people who create more paperwork for us to do, but do little to help improve the education of the little people in our classrooms.  Take those people and all their knowledge and send them to the "academically unacceptable" schools in our system.  Put all that experience to work!  Then take the money saved and hire teacher assistants to give some support to those who are hanging on by a thread.  It could be a win-win-win-win situation.  The kids would win.  The failing schools would win.  The teachers could breathe again.  Jobs would be created.  Paperwork would be reduced.

IEP blues.  On Monday, my supervisor came buzzing in all in a tizzy.  We haven't seen her for almost a month.  Something about "the codes have to match"...."the codes have to match" (by Wednesday).  I hated to ask the stupid question - "what codes?"   I hope they matched.  They don't even pretend anymore that we're supposed to educate kids.  Just as long as the paperwork is all in order and the freakin' codes match!  It's all about money.  It should be about kids.

Oh yeah - IEPs.  I have three meetings scheduled for parent-teacher conference day.  I tried desperately Wednesday to get a head start on them.  They take a while to type.  I tried to create a new one and failed.  After I had all kinds of demographic info entered, it gave me some kind of error message.  I figured out what I was doing wrong.  I did it right.  Saved.  Another message saying that it had timed out.  It shouldn't have.  I called the program a "Stupid Piece of Trash". 

Thursday I tried again.  I told Jesus we were going to have to do this together.  I enlisted St. Michael's help against the evil IEP program.  My kids went to an assembly about being drug free, and I sat down to write an IEP.  It went so smoothly, it was unbelievable.  Jesus is with us even when we are writing IEPs.  I (we) finished one and started another.

Nope, can't do "quick takes".  Have a great weekend!