WE NEED STRUCTURE!!!!! (pre-k first 9 weeks)

Being able to take Reagan to work with me each day is a huge blessing. I can't imagine a life where I wake up, drop her off with someone else, and go to my daily chores. That being said, we have begun to experience our "2% days" more often than its  allotted 2% ( you know, 98% of the time she's an angel and the other 2% I question why any sane person would take a 2 yr old to their workplace.)  WE NEEDED SOME STRUCTURE!!! She was bored to tears every second I wasn't reading or playing with her. We were already learning letters,  the connected sounds, colors, shapes, etc. So we decided to start a 4 days a week 3 hour Pre-K program and it has been GREAT for both of us! The following are the highlights of the first 9 weeks.

 

 

The 2 weeks were a big adjustment and the first day was the hardest on Reagan.

We start every morning with a prayer for the day, the pledge of allegiance and a Bible story.

We memorize a different verse each week. Unless it's a difficult one and we work on it for two weeks.

We have craft time but really we just love to paint about everything we learn

We read so many books, sometimes during crafts we have to make book marks.

within just 3 weeks of saying the pledge with mommy every morning she had it memorized and starts saying it almost every time we see a flag.

 

Mrs. Melanie gave Rea some art stuff so she could paint everyone beautiful pictures while they workout.

 

The structure is great.

After 3 hours of lessons Reagan and usually ready to play while Mom gets back to work. If we are ever mid-lesson when mom's work must be done usually Reagan is able to read or play sweetly until class can resume.

By lunch time we are both ready for a break and then naptime:)

I'm not taking it too seriously and most certainly haven't forgotten my angel is just two. (Don't get me started one how mid leading "just two" is. Two an amazing age full of wonder, learning, and amazement) If class time becomes a stressor and no longer serves as a solution to our need for structure we will reassess. Until Rea and I are both loving it:)

 

Bad news travels fast

I just read an interesting article stating that through much research over the span of a year or more the 50% divorce rate can't be proven as fact but instead as a educated prediction that didn't happen. Due to the rate at which the divorce rate was growing in the 1970s and 1980s and with all the "no fault divorce" laws popping up everywhere researchers projected that by now over 50% of marriages would be ending in divorce. However, according to accurate research conducted in the U.S. over the past few years we are  actually only between 20-25%. I still think that's way to high but that means there is a whole other 25% of marriages that are still out there.

 

The article also stated a sad but true fact. Most people who resort to divorce due so because they feel completely hopeless. Thinking that less than half the marriages make it would only add to that hopeless feeling. Well played Satan!

The unwed and the childless

Why hasn't it occurred to the masses that unwed is not synonymous with lonely and isn't always the result of a choice but that of the absence of one?

 Recently the topic of adult women being ostracized for their singleness seems to be a hot one. Social media is a buzz, the single female lashing out against the rudeness most people display concerning their un-husbanded-ness.  There are, of course, single men also. However people don't feel the same freedom to questions men as they do with women. it's It's as if an unwed woman is somehow a rebel, a slap in the face, bucking the rules of society. Why does it make people so uncomfortable to see a woman mid twenties or beyond without a husband?

 God doesn't call all  women to marriage? And his timing is different for each of us.

The same can be said for those, wed or otherwise, without children. All couples are NOT called to parenthood. In addition, many times lack of children doesn't reflect lack of desire but the is the constant, painful reminder of a prayer unanswered. In an age where more than half of marriage end in divorce, instead of death as God intended, and children are being born to unloving, unsafe, and neglectful lives do we have things a bit backwards? I feel like applause in the place of probing questions should be issued for those who are waiting on God's timing.

 (Since none of us know who is waiting on God's will and who isn't we should all assume the best in others and mind our own business)

Help me, Help me, help me, help me!

Because one day Reagan will be a teenager this story didn't make it to Facebook and no pictures were taken but this story has to be documented somewhere because of the joy/laughter that finding it later will cause.

 

The Abercrombie house is minus our leading man again while he works in Belle Chase La for the next 6 weeks. When Brad is on a job I don't sleep well. So, two nights ago while Reagan was sleeping I was really getting after some deep spring cleaning when over the monitor I hear

 

"Help me, Help me, Help me, Help me!"

 

Her tone was not panicked so neither was I when I opened her door and was greeted by a sweet little bare booty gleaming in the moon light. I started laughing "Angel! what in the world?" I chuckled and Reagans matter of fact response was " I am stuck, I need help."

For reasons only the 2 yr old knows she had taken her pull up off and when she decided to put it back on she ended up with both legs in one hole. Once she tried to fix that she managed to get her arms stuck along side her lets. As she wrestled to get three limbs too many out of a single leg hole she fell over, face down. At this point she decided it was worth notifying mom for help. I laughed the whole time I was changing her into a new pull up (can you imagine she shape that poor guy was in).

 I guess Reagan doesn't sleep well when dads gone either.

The passing of politics

I can't recall at what age I worked my first political campaign but I do distinctly remember sitting on my dads shoulders as we waved Dutch Dabbs signs on election day with my entire family and most of our closest friends. That was in the early 90s and Dabbs lost that race as well as the following one but as the years have passed I look back on that time as a huge victory for my siblings and I. Since the Dabbs campaign we've worked on many more. Some won, some lost, some ran again another day and some went home. I have never regretted the decision to help with an election or the time spent on one no matter what the votes said at the end of the day.

Reagan may never have a personal interested in politics or continue her involvement in the process once she leaves our home but I was proud to take her on the campaign trail with me this morning for the first time. I hope our candidate, Chris McDaniels, wins the elected for U.S. Senate. Our state needs him as well as the party. However, what happens in June and November aside, today was a success in my book.

 

Weighing in on the weight issue

Some of you may not be aware, but there is a very upsetting weight issue going on in our generation and that of our children. 

Woman have no clue how to be healthy, look healthy, or eat healthy.

 The media is flooded with  skin and bones models and ways to drop pounds regardless of health. I'm sure its not exclusive to the feminine gender but working at a gym specially designed for woman I can only speak from experience, so for the purposes of this of this blog I am only referencing woman. 

Who said skinny is better then healthy?

 Why is it that a healthy body is less desirable then a low number on a dress tag. Day after day I meet women, at my work, who come in for help in their fight against weight issues. 9 times out of 10 when I ask them what it is that they hope to achieve at Curves they say  they want to " look better and feel better." (I get this answer so often, in fact, I don't even accept it as a suitable answer anymore. Regardless, this is still the robot answer I get from nearly every woman that walks in my door.) HOWEVER, when it comes working towards these goals day in and day out ,(and that is exactly what it takes) more often then not the truth comes out. They are not actually interested in feeling better and looking better, goals that can be achieved by a healthy lifestyle. They are more interested in the scale saying 115lb or being able to wear a size 2 pair of pants. 

 THE WORST PART IS THEY HAVE NO CLUE THIS IS NOT HEALTHY!!!

Very few woman can hit either of those goals and still be considered healthy, and if your over 5 feet tall you shouldn't even think of those as a realistic or desirable goals. When you see numbers on a scale or pair of pants as the ultimate goal what happens (and I've seen it many many times in the 9 years I have had the job) woman starve themselves, causing long term issues that usually lead to a lesser quality of life, shorter life expectancy, and OBESITY. Isn't that ironic?

The number one factor in your metabolic rate( how fast your body turns food into fuel and burns fat) is MUSCLE and that the more muscle you have the more you will weight on a scale? 

Obesity is serious and dangerous, but not more so than  being under weight.

You will never have abs and be toned  like the diet-pill ad's models, if you simple take a diet pill in place of a healthy meal plan and working out. As with everything good in the world there is no way to "luck" into health. Yes, you can be born with genes that make it easier (You have been Blessed it's still not luck) but unless you eat healthy and get some sort of exercise you will still not be healthy

Did you know when a woman's body fat percentage reaches numbers low enough she will stop having a monthly cycle rendering her unable to bear children which is exactly what God created our bodies to do? 

Why is that desirable? 

Dressing up a plate of cookie

You know what fits perfectly in a Pringles tube? One pack of frozen cookie dough (if you can control yourself better then I did). If you're careful enough with the size of each cookie one pack with fill that tube with just enough room for the lid. Then wrap one piece of scrapbook paper , something else that fits perfect with one tube of Pringles. Sharpie a sweet note on the lid or slap a bow on it and you just turned a $2.50 pack of frozen cookies into a respectable gift cute enough for a hostess gift, thinking of you happy, or in the case a traveling gift for our church's missions team.