After playing my daughter’s new Wii game, Smarty Pants, with her the last few days, I’ve realized I don’t feel as smart as I think I am. Where I’ve really found frustrating is the literature questions. After all, I’m an English teacher.  Every time I miss one of those blasted questions I want to scream (and I’m really glad my 7 year old is the only one to witness my ignorance). 

So my new February Resolution is to go back and reread a lot of the classics.  Many of them I have not read since I was in high school and forced to which means I did not retain much. I decided to start with one that I do remember enjoying, but I only remember the basic story line – The Scarlet Letter. I’ll come back after reading these (now by choice and for enjoyment) and let you know if I recommend them.

I went to my first political rally last night.  I conisder myself a pretty educated informed citizen. I vote in every election – local, state, and federal, but I never get into the actual political games – never really liked one candidate so much that I felt the need to actively campaign for them.  When the news spread Wednesday morning that President Bill Clinton would be arriving at several of our small East Texas towns on Friday promoting his wife, Hillary’s campaign, I couldn’t resist the thought of going.

This is probably not the point that I should admit to typically voting for Republicans, but I do. That didn’t stop me from being curious and thinking I’d like to add to the list of “things I’ve done in my life” that I’d seen a president (even if it was after his term) live and in person.

So I convinced my grandmother to go with me and my dd7 to the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin, Texas. He was scheduled to arrive at 8:45 and we arrived to an already packed house an hour early. I was amazed at the crowds. By 8:45 they were turning people away as we were packed in there like mules.

At 8:45, he still had not arrived…..At 9:15, we were still waiting (and not so paitiently)…9:45 (an hour late) we were still waiting. Finally sometime after 10:00 the man of the night arrived, and the crowd chanted for his entrance just like they do at concerts for music sensations.

I must admit his speech was great. Mr. Clinton is a very dynamic speaker, and he knew just what issues were important to East Texans and what they wanted to hear, and he delivered his message with finesse.  The crowd cheered and screamed as he was polite and even complimented all of the other Democrats who have participated in the race for President. Even my dd7 livened up from her almost fast asleep state and joined in the screaming excitement. (This I found quite entertaining as I know she had no idea what was really going on – just that he was an ex-president and we were going to listen to him speak. Oh, and if she was patient and good, she would get an ice cream after it was over….lol).  But again, overall I was quite impressed with Mr. Clinton’s campaign speech for Hillary.

However, one thing stuck with me through the entire thing…the one thing he never did say – that he was even the slightest sorry for having run close to two hours late.  I wouldn’t have expected him to go on and on with an apology, but just one short line would have been appreciated.

In the end, I guess Mr. Clinton, did not do his job as far as I’m concerned.  He did not convince me to vote for Hillary. I’m still not sure of who I will vote for come March 4.  I’m still not sure how our candidates feel on some of the matters I feel are most important. We hear a lot in the media, but how much are genuine feelings? I’m still holding out and will study the news for the next couple weeks before voting March 4.

Ok. After a week of deliberation and trying to decide how we would handle the spring (and in essence the next several years), I think I’ve found a solution. Really all it took was sitting and looking at a calendar.  If anyone else is in a similar situation, maybe my solution can help you too.

I sat down and insisted that in most cases, we must be home at least 3 afternoons a week (after school) by 5:30.  This means we’re home in time for dinner, homework, and a little family/down time. In addition, one of the weekend days must have at least 6 hours dedicated to family time.  After laying down the ground rules, we sat down with a calendar and planned.

As it turns out, the daughter’s spring events all have practice on Tuesday/Thursday  (and games on Tuesdays and Saturday (with few exceptions). I messed around with my schedule and was able to move all tutorials/extracurricular practices to Mondays and Wednesdays and will end them at 5:00 so that we are home on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays by 5:30.

So basically our new schedule has the potential for doing lots of running and being out later on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and my calendar is free so I can do the running and not ask others to take them to everything), but we will be home on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays together at a reasonable time. We’ll also be planning at least one activity (even if it’s laying around watching movies/tv) a weekend so that we take at least a few hours to slow down and enjoy each other.

Perfect solution? Most certainly not, but I think it’s a better one than what we have had previously.  I talked to the girls (in fear that I was pushing them into these various activities and causing all of this) and found that they do enjoy and want to parcipate in a wide variety of activities.  We really couldn’t pick any to remove so this is what we’ll try for now.  I’ll be sure to post how it goes.