That Old Thing?

A few weeks ago we went to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois. We'd studied the Civil War and Lincoln this past year and it seemed like a perfect end of year field trip. We stayed two nights in downtown Springfield and loved it. We also did the Lincoln home, law office and the Illinois State Museum.

One of my favorite things on the trip, the thing I talk about most, was a coffee urn in the treasures section of the Lincoln Museum. The sign said that they had acquired it a few years ago and up until about 10 years ago, it was still being used by the owners to serve coffee. President and Mary Lincoln's coffee urn, still being used to serve coffee at family holiday parties and funerals nearly 150 years later! That's exactly what would happen in my family if we had an antique with a great historical connection.

"What, that old thing? We always use it. Just put the creamer and sugar bowl next to it. It'll be fine."

The 7th Grade Plan

It is done. Most of it is ordered or here. It took several meetings of the curriculum committee and administrative approval, but the plan for 7th grade is complete!

Here it is (keep in mind that not all items listed in each subject will be done at the same time, many will be more like quarter subjects or one semester):

Math:
Key to Algebra
Key to Geometry

Science:
Story of Science (second half of book 2)
Botany Adventure

Language Arts:
Word Roots
Sequential Spelling (maybe, we might discontinue formal spelling because I'm just not positive it is helping enough to keep at it, we may just incorporate it into writing assignments in other subjects)
Editor in Chief
Punctuation Puzzlers Run-Ons
Punctuation Puzzlers Commas and More
Reading Detective
Jabberwocky Poetry Studies for Junior High
Shakespeare's Stories for Young Readers
Miscellaneous classics read aloud and independently

History:
A History of US
A Pioneer Sampler

Logic/Critical Thinking:
Building Thinking Skills
Balance Benders
James Madison Critical Thinking Course

Government:
You Decide!
Various library books on Federal and State government

P.E.:
Open Swim

Art/Music:
School day theater performances
Arts and crafts
Various art shows, music concerts, movies, etc.

I think that will keep us plenty busy. It is likely some subjects will flow into 8th grade, which is perfectly fine. Some may be dropped and others picked up. It is a more challenging curriculum than we've ever had, but it is time that we pick up a little bit. I'll have to come up with a schedule and have some curriculum committee meetings to see what Violet wants to do first, etc. We'll probably alternate some every few weeks just to mix things up.

So, with a plan like this, how do I call us unschoolers? Because Violet prefers using curriculum and has a very big say in what we use. I usually find samples and suggestions, but she gets the final decision on whether or not we try it.

Now the only question is, how do I wait until fall when we get to start all the fun!

Well, what do you know

You might remember about a year and a half ago, I was pursuing being promoted to manager at work. Here's where I wrote about it. Then a few months later I found out that they had too many expectations for managers that just don't mesh with a good family life. In my head at least, I withdrew my intentions of being promoted ever. And was pretty much told by them that I couldn't fulfill the duties as they expected them. I couldn't find a post about the rejection part, I might not have blogged about it. I was pretty disgruntled at the time.

And in the last few months I've been trying really hard to take a slacker approach to work. Get my job done, do it well, but not let it interfere with home life as much. (Yeah, I know that isn't really slacker, but it is as slacker as my type A personality will allow.) I've been slower to respond to e-mail, not letting myself be on call 24-7, speaking up when I am at my limits and asking for assistance.

Well, guess what phone call I got last night. My boss calling to tell me they've decided to promote me to manager. The job I didn't think I could ever get and didn't think I really wanted. At least not on their terms. It gets announced on June 30th and I think becomes effective July 1st.

I did tell her I hope I can meet their expectations. She assured me, I just have to keep doing what I've been doing. (I didn't ask if she meant the slacking off part or the part before that.) She said in the HR meeting the realized I've really been doing the work of a manager for a long time now and it is about time they give me the title and the authority. Well, duh, that's what I told them a year and a half ago.

I'm not sure what I think about this yet. If it is true that I've been doing the job for a while now and nothing will change except my title, then great. I'm happy about that. If however, what they told me before is true, then I'm not. One example they gave me of expectations for managers was that they could get a call at 6 am and be told someone was sick and they'd have to fill in at a client meeting or something else, that day, 2 hours away. Yeah, that isn't going to happen. I'd be happy to call the client and reschedule or help over the phone, but same day travel two hours on no notice doesn't work. We'll see.

Hopefully, if this doesn't work out they'll just demote me back to my current position. I'm going to be pretty pissed if I get fired because I couldn't handle I job I was promoted to that I no longer wanted.

I don't think this is the reaction you are supposed to have to a promotion.

Who knew, quit trying, do your mediocre instead of your best, slack off, quit caring and get rewarded. Now I know what I've been doing wrong this whole time.

Parade

This morning we went to Mr. Incredible's new office. I hadn't seen it yet. It is really nice, the rooms are much bigger than I'd been picturing. It is going to work out well for him.

Anyway, we went there because there was a Memorial Day parade through the town square on which his office is located. We thought about watching from the window, but when we saw all the excitement down on the square we went down too. Violet had never been to a town parade. She really enjoyed it.

We were home in the afternoon. I didn't get a thing done. Just like a holiday is supposed to be!

Almost Summertime!

The trip went fine. It was business. The presentations were well received. We had a lot of people talk to us at the trade show. The bed was comfy in the hotel room. It wasn't a great trip. But it was work.

Yesterday we went to a family reunion/birthday party. It was quite fun. We saw our nephew, he's 21. He was trying to get into the Coast Guard. He wasn't accepted due to a vision problem. But in the meantime he got a great job that he likes, he's able to save money, and he's going back to college at least part-time in the fall. That was his goal all along, to get a degree in engineering. He's so much happier and optimistic than when we saw him in January. He's such a good kid, I am so glad things are going his way.

I am vowing to get my life together. Not let work push me around as much. Get organized and relaxed. Live again. You guys have to stay on me. Step one is to stop using my personal computer for work. I have a work computer. I don't like it. But if I don't work on my personal computer, I'll control my work hours a lot more. Here's the plan:

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. My first paid holiday in 12 years. I'm not working.

Tuesday, I'll finish up some stuff for work and start moving all my files into one spot.

Wednesday through Friday I am taking vacation days, my first paid vacation days in 12 years! We are going to Springfield, IL to see the Lincoln sites. I'm not taking any computer with (but I'll borrow Mr. Incredible's to check personal e-mail).

Saturday/Sunday: I'll start getting the desk cleared off where I can keep my work computer set up and transfer files and notes to the work computer (which I should have been doing all along). Then no more work on my easy to access, I'm on all the time personal computer. I'll have to make a conscious effort to "go to work" and that should stop me from this practically on-call 24-7 nonsense I've let myself get into.

I know, I should have done it years ago. But when I was paid hourly and could get overtime, the more I worked the better. Now I'm salary. No more overtime. I'm supposed to be able to work shorter weeks all summer to make up for the extra hours I put in all winter/spring. We'll see. I think this is a huge step for me towards taking back my life.

In other news, I still haven't read most of your blogs yet, but as they are in my reader on my easy to access, I'm on all the time computer, I expect that will change within the next week!

We've had a rainy, stormy long weekend so far. It looks like that is changing too and we are in for sunny skies tomorrow. We are getting up early and going to Mr. I's new office (which I still haven't seen) to watch the town parade from his windows. I am looking forward to it!

Catch up with you soon

I'm leaving in 2 hours for an out of state business trip. I'll be back Wednesday night. I've spent this past week glued to my computer working. I miss my ability to get overtime pay. Stupid salary.

Needless to say I didn't work out at all. The "last week" of school was a complete bust. We didn't have any school work planned but I would have liked to do fun stuff with Violet. We did have 3 Girl Scout related outings, which were fun. But just Mama-Violet stuff, you know?

I'm hoping to have my work caught up enough to take Memorial Day weekend off. But May 31st is another huge deadline for my department. If everyone else has to work on that Saturday, I should too. It will help my relations with my immediate coworkers immensely. The big wigs (outside our department) will be off. But honestly, it is the ones you work with day in and day out with that matter for a peaceful existence. We'll see, it is a week away.

Hope everyone has a good week. I'm so far behind in all your blogs, but they are all saved in my Google Reader. When I get a chance I can't wait to catch up with you all!

Saturday Roundup

I started out this week exercising everyday, but fell off at the end of the week. I have so much I have to do for work, I'm not sure if I'm going to exercise tomorrow morning or go straight into working.

We are pretty much done with school for the year. And Girl Scouts will finish up this week. I'm so glad to be coming to a break for both.

I am totally blank on anything else to report. I didn't sleep well last night and was up early and at the office all day, so I'm a bit brain dead. I'll post more when I can think straight.

Hope everyone had a good week!