Bloggy Moms

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Monday Err...Wednesday Morning Chaos

Two days ago my husband started a new teaching job. In a city 50 miles away. That means that he has to leave the house by 6 a.m. to make it to work on time. I worry that he'll get stuck in traffic and be late. As I was worrying about this in the wee hours this morning, I decided to pray instead for a clear path for him. Then I drifted off back to sleep. I was awoken by what I though was my alarm. It was in fact my husband wanting to know if our daughter had made it to school OK. My eyes jolted awake as I realized her school van would be arriving any minute. Yikes!
I quickly sprang into action. I found my daughter playing in our family room and watching T.V. I mean if no one is going to make you get up and get dressed why not have a little fun? Thankfully, we had picked out her clothes for the day last night. I grabbed them and told her to get dressed spit spot. Then I grabbed her morning meds along with her favorite drink of choice, apple juice. While I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, she was still in turtle mode, slow. I may or may not have gracefully encouraged her to speed the pace up. Then I ran over to see what was on the lunch menu for the day. It was Nachos and Cheese. Nope not a meal that my child would eat. I made my daughter's lunch in under three minutes. At that moment my daughter emerged from the rest room fully clothed with all but her shoes and socks on. I looked out the kitchen window and saw that the school van had just pulled up. I told my daughter to tell the driver that she'd be right out. She instead asked me to do that while she got her jacket. I had her look down at what I was wearing- my pajamas. She tiptoed out to the waiting car and explained that she was running a few minutes behind. Her jacket was no where to be found. Just as I was about to give up I spotted it. My daughter was still taking her own sweet time with her shoes and socks. Her socks have to be lined up just so otherwise they don't feel right on her feet.  I should be so happy though because there was a time when she wouldn't even wear socks. After what seemed like an agonizingly long time, my child had her shoes on and was out the door. Just as she was going out, she noticed a few sprinkles. She asked for an umbrella, but I assured her she'd be alright. I thought we were in the clear when all of a sudden she remembered that we had been charging her iPod overnight. I would have told her to get in the van, however, I was still in my PJ's. As luck would have it the iPod and headphones were not in the same place. I located both in under a minute and handed them to my girl. 
I gave my daughter a kiss and reminded her to make good choices as she left the house for the final time this morning.
I think that all of the above was accomplished in under 10 minutes. Like lightening! Whew!
I was going to call the school or email them to request that my daughter not receive a pink slip for keeping the van waiting. After all, wasn't it my fault? Wasn't I the one who overslept? Then I remembered a few things. My bedroom door was closed so I wouldn't hear my child at play. Additionally, my alarm clock had been unplugged. When I woke up in a start,  my child was happily playing even though she knew it was a school day. In my mind she did nothing to help herself. In fact she contributed to her delay this morning. I'm going to just leave this one alone today. Usually, although I hate to admit it, I would have tried to rescue her. Nope today she will have to take the natural consequences of her actions.
This afternoon, we'll have a chat about better choices for tomorrow.
In case you're wondering I'm still in my jammies as I type this.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

An Announcement From Google

Hello,
I'm passing on the following note from Google. Thanks so much for following our journey.

"An update on Google Friend Connect

3 weeks ago by A Googler
In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.


As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.


We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer"
 
 
Love and Hugs,
Cate