Month: October 2015

Dear Daughter needed to find some shoes to wear to a debate thing last week, and in her frantic looking, I tried to help her. I brought a few pairs of black shoes for her to choose from. She didn’t like any of them, and found her own grey shoes. (Maybe that was my evil plan all along–Find your OWN shoes, kid.)

Well, then I remembered that she needs black shoes for work, and thought I would try to find some good shoes on sale.

These came yesterday, and I showed them to her. “Look at these cute shoes! You could wear them for work.”

Um, no. and she would find her own shoes, thank you very much.

WEll, how about these ones?

So cute, and comfy!

I could wear either of these shoes for bells, I thought.

Her response was basically a no thanks. More specifically, a no thanks with an eye roll. “Mom, those are old lady shoes.”

“Old Lady shoes? I do NOT wear old lady shoes!” I said, as I looked down at my Birkenstocks sandals I was wearing with socks. Ok, bad example. But then as I was looking through my shoes, I realized that I don’t wear anything with a heel more than about twice a year. I spend most of my time in my pink Birkenstocks or running shoes with heel inserts in them. Plantar Faciitis, dude.
Comfort!
When I get dressed for Wednesday night bells practice, I think, What’s the most comfortable shoe I can wear and still have it look ok with a skirt? And those black shoes? I’ll probably use those for concert shoes. In the 10 years I have been in bells, I’ve probably bought 10 pairs of black shoes.

On Sunday, I do wear cute shoes, but that’s only because I know I will be sitting most of the three hours that we are at church.

So, I guess I’m an old lady and I wear old lady shoes.

Darn.

It’s a slippery slope.

I’m such a slacker.

Blog, what blog?

Anyhoo, how’s everyone doing? Me? I’m a little busy. Yesterday I was setting up the PTA dinner for the teachers, and my favorite kindergarten teacher said, “Are you SURE you aren’t subbing this year?” I had another teacher ask me that just the other day. Yes, I’m sure. I want to be thinking about my sisters in Relief Society and my family, not using all that’s left of my brain to figure out how to manage a squirly bunch of kids. And $65 dollars a day? Please. So, no, I won’t be subbing for a while.

I am super pleased with my chime choir, though. I have 25 kids in my two groups, and they are progressing so quickly (most of them). Because I have several returning kids, it makes it so much faster for the group to progress. John is in 6th grade, and I’ve been thinking about what to do next year. Should I quit teaching at the elementary school? But I’ve finally “built” a program. It’s my 4th year teaching there, and I feel like I’ve finally established the choir. And where would I go? I tried to break into the Jr High charter school, but it didn’t really take. Maybe I didn’t do all I could to promote the choir, but maybe this isn’t the year for that.

Change of subject.

This morning we had a little drama. Natalie has a debate tournament that is tonight and tomorrow. She thought she asked for Saturday off, but maybe she didn’t do it in time, because she is scheduled to work 3-10, and she hasn’t been able to get anyone to cover for her. So, we’re down to the wire, and she doesn’t know what to do. Add to that, she’s late, and doesn’t have shoes.

Which problem to work on first?

I went upstairs and brought down an armload of shoes from my closet that she could choose while she called her manager at work. She’s trying to keep it together while her manager tells her that she HAS to work her assigned shift, or get someone to cover it, or else she’ll get written up (or something like that), while stuffing her feet into my shoes.

After she got off the phone, she was even worse.

Mom takes over. Yes, I will drive you to school (text the neighbor to let her know).
Give me the numbers of everyone you can call or text and I’ll see if I can get someone to work even an extra hour.
Worse case, we come pick you up at the U of U and get you home in time to work at 3:00.
After I dropped her off at school, and put lunch money in her account, I sent a text to all her work people, begging them to please help us. I’ve already gotten one response, and I think if we break it up into small bites, we can get this shift covered.

I’m trying to help her understand that this is a SCHEDULING issue, not a catastrophe. No one is in the hospital. No one is in jail. It’s just a problem that we can solve.

Hopefully she can calm down and enjoy her debate event without super stressing about work, but she does need to realize that we keep our commitments, even if that means missing out on something else (which is also a commitment. Catch 22 there).

I’m hoping I can work my mom magic and I’m happy that I can be there to help her with these things. I only wish I could step back and be this calm when it’s MY problems that I’m stressed about.