Le plan fou (the crazy schedule)

Recently, I've felt a little more crazy than usual. I thought that getting someone to come to the house to take care of lil' Monkey would do the trick. So I went through the effort of doing all of this research on hiring child care -- the taxes, the payroll, the background checks, etc. (in my "spare time" mind you). Then once DH and I agreed that this was a good idea and that I should pull the trigger, I signed up for a "sitter search" service and posted a job.

Within one week, we received 5 applicants, 2 of which I thought were really promising (one was previously an Au Pair, therefore, obviously had references). As I was talking to DH about it, he said that he didn't realize that I was planning on leaving lil' Monkey with this person to go to meetings. I said, "Yes, but only after a month or how ever long it takes for us to feel comfortable doing that." He then said we should scrap the whole idea because using one of these services would be the best way to snatch a kid, especially if the person in question wasn't a U.S. citizen whereby we could do a thorough background check and have a SS# should they take off with Monkey. Good point. But something I wish he would have expressed BEFORE I posted the job.

So now I'm in child care purgatory, not sure of how to proceed. In desperation for some immediate plan, I came up with a new schedule for Monkey and I. If we BOTH can stick to it, this might just work out. The hard part is getting him to stick to it (although I've been just as much a culprit in not implementing and sticking to a solid schedule). Pictured is my Excel spreadsheet of our new schedule.

Pretty crazy, huh? ON PAPER (gotta love that saying), I can get 36 hours of work done. HA. IN THEORY (again, gotta love it), this should motivate me. But in actuality, I'll probably only get 20 hours of work done, just like I have for the past 2 months (even though I've promised my employer 24 hours, I just can't seem to squeeze in that extra 4). We'll see. If I can get Monkey to nap 2-4 hours a day, this might just work. But I'll never promise anyone that 36 hours.

Therefore, a future post will be about schedules -- making one, getting your child to adhere to it, sticking to it yourself and the different theories about them.

Wish me luck, so far today, we're not too far off! Of course, instead of working I'm blogging. Go figure, mommy would be the first to blow it. :)

Reading list, question for hardcore readers

Inspired by CaraMama and KZ, I'm going to try to fit in some reading. I've started several books, one of which I can't seem to find in my house anymore and I'm wondering if I left it somewhere. But I'd really like to start speaking like an educated adult again and I'm thinking by increasing my reading, it's gotta happen, right? I mean, er, it must happen, correct? ;)

Here's the short list:

Sippy cups are not for chardonnay (started, not finished)
Reading Lolita in Tehran (started ages ago, still haven't finished, may never since I never remember where I left off, which brings up a good point)

These two could be categorized as reference books but I still want to read them:

Raising a Son (started, LOST)
Toddler

I regularly watch the Colbert Report and he has recently interviewed the writers of some books I think I may be interested in as well. Here's what I plan to add to the list eventually (maybe in between the others -- if that is possible).

The Purpose Driven Life
Red Letter Christians
You're Wearing That?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation (CaraMama introduced me to this author ages ago and I've been meaning to read this one but was reminded of it by Colbert)

AND POSSIBLY,
The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture

But that might be asking too much for this year. Am I pathetic or what?

Question to the hardcore readers

What if the book just doesn't grab you? For instance, I've started Reading Lolita in Tehran several times and I just can't seem to finish it. It's interesting to find out pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary Iran but it's really hard to follow -- or maybe that's just me. So when do you give up and why? I feel as though I should finish this book because of it's significance to what our country is dealing with now in regard to Iran. However, for whatever reason, it just doesn't grip me like other books have in the past.

Politics Wed -- The Issues: Environment

Yes, I'm a little late. Sorry! First, let's take a look at the different options we have for alternative or renewable energy sources. NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all quotes are from Wikipedia.

Solar Energy
Use of this energy resource has existed since the time of the "early Greeks, Native Americans and Chinese" who positioned their housing to effectively use the sun to warm the interior.

Uses of Solar Energy

Solar Lighting
Light from the sun is collected via specific window types, sizes and orientation to provide lighting within residential or commercial buildings. This is called daylighting. Hybrid Solar Lighting (HSL) collects sunlight using mirrors "that track the sun. The collected light is transmitted via optical fibers into a building's interior to supplement conventional lighting".

Solar Thermal
"Solar thermal applications make up the most widely used category of solar energy technology. These technologies use heat from the sun for water and space heating, ventilation, industrial process heat, cooking, water distillation and disinfection, and many other applications."

Electricity
Electricity is generated in many ways but most commonly using Photovoltaics. This fancy term applies to that solar cell on your calculator as well as those solar panels used at a large plant.

Sunshine to Petrol
From Sandia.gov: "... intended to chemically reenergize carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, which ultimately could become the building block to synthesize a liquid combustible fuel”. Is that enough to make your brain hurt? Try reading the rest of the article. :)

Wind Energy
The most common use of wind to create power are the wind turbines I'm sure everyone has seen at some point or not either in photos, on television or in movies. If not, this link has some examples. This type of energy is used widely in Europe and believe it or not the United States appears to be a large supporter of investing in this technology.

Uses of Wind Energy
Wind power can be used to "crush grain or to pump water" or be "connected to electrical grids, as well as in individual turbines for providing electricity to isolated locations."

Negative Effects
Those who are against using Wind Energy cite the other negative environmental effects it causes. To install a wind farm, you must have a large piece of land due the size of them and the required spacing between them. Apparently, there is some argument as to the number of birds and bats killed by the turbines that lie within their migratory path. In Ireland, the pollution caused construction of a wind farm is attributed to the massive amounts of fish dying in a nearby river. The noise caused by offshore turbines might cause harm to sea mammals especially larger creatures such as whales.

Water Power (Hydropower)
This type of energy resource has also been used for a very long time. Think of one of those old mills where the big wheel outside of the building that used the river next to it. Effective, clean power.

Uses of Hydropower

Hydroelectric
Hydroelectric power is generated from dams, think Hoover Dam. This type of power source is widely used across the globe.

Tidal Power
Using water harnessed from tides, this type of power uses turbines sort of like the wind turbines do to generate energy.

Wave Power
Wave Power is more theory right now than actuality. This theory is being put to test in Australia at Port Kembla. This type of power uses generators to harness energy from surface ocean waves.

BioFuel
I’m simply going to put a link to Wikipedia for this one. There’s a lot for it and I’m running short on time.

Nuclear
I’m simply going to put a link to Wikipedia for this one. There’s a lot for it and I’m running short on time.

CANDIDATES’ VIEW ON THIS TOPIC

This has all been paraphrased from the individual candidate's web site. To find out more, click on their name and it will take you to their Environment or Energy page.

Hillary Clinton
Agenda includes reducing carbon emissions, enacting standards which will reduce electricity consumption by businesses, invest in green industries, and increase appliance efficiency standards. Improve emissions standards for federal buildings. Introduce “Connie Mae” program so low to middle income families can invest and purchase “green” housing.

Barack Obama
Agenda includes reducing carbon emissions, rewarding forest owners/farmers, invest in clean energy industry, and support next generation biofuel such as Ethanol and increase fuel economy standards. Make U.S. at the forefront of clean energy investment and technology and of course, reduce dependence on foreign oil.

John McCain
Agenda includes limiting carbon emissions, investing in nuclear energy, reduce dependence on foreign oil. He didn’t really have that much on his site. There seems to be more for him within the site I mention below (The League of Conservation Voters) that they’ve gathered from speeches and press releases and such.

Mike Huckabee
Agenda includes energy independence, pursuing all venues of alternative energy.

Ron Paul
Agenda includes no subsidizing logging in National Forests, encourage development of sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind power, ending government funded projects that harm the environment.

I didn’t get to read through all of the candidate’s material on this and tried to pick out the highlights of their positions on this issue. However, you can go to each of their sites by clicking on their name or use this really good link which sums up each candidate’s Environmental position: http://www.lcv.org/voterguide/

No soapbox on this one people. I’m still exhausted. Take care!

YAY, Yoga!

I finally made it back to my yoga. Today I went for the first time since lil' Monkey was born. It felt really good to go back and I SURVIVED my first class. I was really scared that I wouldn't. For those who don't know (I'm guessing everyone that reads this blog already knows this), I practice Bikram Yoga. It's the crazy hot yoga where the room is 100 degrees that most people think is completely, well, crazy. But it fits my personality perfectly. I am, afterall, the crazy mama. ;)

You see, I can't stand doing the "gym thing". You know, walk on a treadmill for a half-hour, then do some weight training, yada, yada. It bores me to tears. I've tried watching the televisions to make the time pass or bringing a magazine to keep me going. But in the end, I'm just not satisfied and never ready to go back. I've also tried what I call "incense yoga" and what Bikram calls "frou frou" or "furniture" yoga (or so said one of the teachers who had met him personally). Those types of yoga classes are just too ostentatious for me. Maybe I just don't think singing Kum Ba Yah with a bunch of strangers and burning incense is going make me feel better or to put me in touch with anything except the need to run out of there screaming.

Also, I guess you could say I've never been very sporty. I was on a bowling league when I was really young (6 until I was 9, maybe 10?) and that was okay. My cousin got involved in softball and my mom thought it might be a good thing for me to do as well. I hated the pressure of being at bat or trying to catch the ball in the outfield. I prayed at each game that they'd sit me. Then the nail in the coffin for softball -- while at bat, I hit the ball very far and was so excited that I threw the bat straight into the catcher's stomach. She was on the ground for a very long time but recovered. I felt horrible. I begged my parents to take me out of the league. It was close to the end of the season so they convinced me to finish it. I guessed they were hoping I'd get over it. I still haven't really. Then I went to ONE team sport try-out in high school (field hockey) and immediately decided that I wasn't fond of doing sit-ups in the mud at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. So that was that for team sports.

However, I am somewhat competitive. Inwardly competitive. Usually, I'm just competing with myself and thinking I should be as good as someone else. I couldn't see myself talking smack or trying to compete for team position or ranking. I'd just fester inside. Therefore, Bikram Yoga is that perfect balance between of being challenging enough to keep me interested and not so competitive that I just implode due to the pressure of being good enough. I have only me to answer to and I'm learning not to be so hard on myself.

So today was a good day. And it's true what the instructors say about muscle memory! I've done this type of yoga off and on since 2001 but thought because I took 15 months off from it, I might not be able to do it any longer. However, I did pretty well. I couldn't get to the same point in the poses that I could prior to taking my hiatus but overall, I'm satisfied with myself. AND I didn't sit half of the class out due to the heat (this had happened previously when returning from a couple months break)! Now I just need to figure out a way to fit this into my schedule.

YAY, yoga!

Politics Wed -- Postponed

Due to work obligations and lil' Monkey coming down with a cold (Where is this kid getting all of these germs?! At least, it's just a head cold and no diarrhea this time!), Politics Wednesday will be postponed until next week.

In the meantime, I said last week that I was going to cover Education this week. However, from our poll, it looks like I'm the only one that voted for it. So should I cover the Environment or Tax Reform next week, or keep on with the Education?

Strange Bedfellows

We just recently started the lovey concept with lil' Monkey, just prior to him getting sick as a matter of fact. We allowed one soft rattle shaped like a monkey (go figure) to be in his crib starting around Christmastime. But his monkey rattle was one of the first causalties during his illness. It along with a few other toys were quarantined in the to-be-washed bag which took me a long time to go through! He's been endowed with so many toys!

So Monkey has replaced his monkey with a new lovey or shall I say loveys (is that the plural form of lovey?). And they're kinda strange really. He's decided that his toy hammer is a source of comfort as well as the rubber ducky we usually have in the bathtub. Seems like two very strange bedfellows, if you ask me. But whatever works, right?

I was wondering, how many parents out there let their child take a lovey with them to sleep? And if so, what kind of lovey do they prefer? And for those with older children, did the lovey become an issue later?

Miss Pissy Pants, would you like some more whine?

Lately, as anyone who has read this blog has probably noticed, I've been more than a little whiny. I've been whiny, needy, tired, angry, pissy and not just on this blog, at home and in life in general. Needless to say, DH hasn't been a happy camper either living with Miss Pissy Pants 24-7.

I think I've gone into a mental and emotional downward spiral and I've been trying to figure out what to do.

The year didn't get off to a great start with Monkey's illness, then my semi-vacation to my cousin's wedding was good but getting there was a nightmare (I missed my flight) and then this latest resolve that we're hunkering down to wait out the housing market didn't help.

Plus, we've come to the conclusion that in order to use what space we have to its maximum potential we'll need to get rid of some cats (we have 4, contemplating dwindling that number to 1). The cats, or the "Girls" as I used to so affectionately call them, were my babies prior to my son's birth but with lil' Monkey in the picture, I haven't been a very good cat mommy. With that in mind and the fact that we're just not comfortable with Monkey crawling around in the massive amounts of hair deposited in our basement by the Girls, we're going to have to make the hard decision to give some of them up. I dread this decision but I understand it's necessary. I'm just going to have to DO IT and never give another thought to where they might be or what happened to them. Or else I'll just drive myself insane.

So I feel somewhat justified in my pissy demeanor. But I've GOT to get out of this somehow. I think I'll have some wine with my whine tonight and go to bed early.